finalfantasyxv:

New info on FFXV monsters from Paris Games Week 2015

• Catoblepas is a massive and creepy creature. Art Designer Chihiro Hashi states that “more than anything the monster is just really, really large, so we dedicated a lot of effort to getting the design on the highly visible face and leg sections not to look too goofy and ridiculous.”
  
• Art Director Tomohiro Hasegawa shares an early stage Mesmerize design. He states that the design really captures a good balance between fantasy and realism. Upon brainstorming various ideas as a team, they felt that an idea to give it a kind of protuberance like a seahorse was intriguing, although it was hard work to try to get that idea looking like a plausible, real animal. 
  
• The art team’s Hiromitsu Kawashima shares the Goblin. This monster doesn’t have any specific concept art and was created in an interesting and unusual way, with the character modeler producing the model directly from Yoshitaka Amano’s pictures. This monster is the result of trying to insert the art created by Mr. Amano for FF2 into FFXV in a realistic way. It was very difficult finding the right balance to align on in order to capture both zoological realism and the unique character of Mr. Amano’s art.
  
• Chihiro Hashi the Art Designer shares the art of the chocobo. The chocobo was designed to be a sweet, much loved partner on the player’s journey through FFXV. One of the most difficult points in perfecting the design was getting the right level of stylization to give a realistic avian appearance but also have those loveable touches that stop it from just being a big bird.
  
• The design of the Numb Blade by Chihiro Hashi has a Japanese touch as this character is modeled after samurai. For instance, look at the tied knot of the waist string – this particular way of tying a knot called a “ronin (masterless samurai) knot” is a representation of his social status as a poor ronin. As kimono and swords are not imaginary but rather they are traditional elements of the Japanese culture, the team took great pains to create assets that are true to traditional structures by researching specialized books and carefully observing real swords.
  
• The Naga resides in the dark – a contrast to the wildlife monsters – and it is an FFXV-quality, realistic representation of Amano-san’s original artwork. Art Director Tomohiro Hasegawa states that the most challenging thing in creating this asset was to make it look real while maintaining the coquettishly scary feel of Amano-san’s original artwork. One wrong step could have turned being scary into being very comical, we painstakingly worked to find the right balance. (source)