Gust shared a first look at one of Atelier Lulua’s key characters, Christophe Aurel Arland, who simply goes by “Aurel,” and an older Piana who happens to be Lulua’s teacher in the game.
Here are some more images and info from this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine:
Christophe Aurel Arland (Spelling subject to change)
The above is a look at Christophe Aurel Arland, with his illustrated form on the left and 3D model to the right. In the interview, Famitsu asked character designer Mel Kishida if he had “that person” in mind while designing Aurel, to which he responded “I did think about it a little for the hair color and such, but it wasn’t a strong inspiration or anything.”
Mel Kishida describes him as a cool and young man with confidence, and if he were a characters in a shojo manga, he’d be the fated character at the end who may not have seemed that way at the start. He’s considered a prodigy swordsman, and while he might have a cool personality, but he tends to go out of his way to help those in need.
Here’s a little tidbit about Aurel from the interview:
Famitsu: Please tell us more about Aurel. Just by seeing his name alone, I have a feeling that fans might think ‘I wonder if he’s related to that person.’
Junzo Hosoi, Producer: Ah yes, please look forward to that. Aurel’s designs were decided on pretty quickly.
Mel Kishida, Character Designer: For Aurel, I really didn’t do much [laughs]. I basically got the first draft that I turned in and made his face a little younger.
Junzo Hosoi: Kishida-san drew too many girls for Blue Reflection, so now he’s much quicker at designing male characters.
Mel Kishida: It’s not that I don’t want to draw female characters or anything [laughs], but I guess the more designs I do the more my ideas get depleted.
Piana
The above is a look at the grown up Piana, with her illustration on the left and 3D model on the right. Mel Kishida felt that Piana didn’t get much of an appearance in Atelier Totori, and those in charge of the scenario liked his design for PIana so much that they decided to give her more spotlight in the game. Gust asked Mel Kishida to design her with a mix of Celtic and Nordic looks and he added a touch of an alchemist’s look to get what you see now as a result.
Piana is a caring teacher, but she likes to occasionally tease her disciples with tricky questions.
Piana will also participate in battle as well.
Lastly, we got a silhouette of three characters we can expect to see revealed in the next news updates:
Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland releases in Japan in 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It’ll release in the West in Spring 2019 for PS4, Switch, and PC.
