RPG maker Atlus has become celebrated for the unique UI designs in its games, from the Persona series to the more recent fantasy epic Metaphor: ReFantazio.
I spoke with Metaphor’s UI designer Koji Ise at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) to discuss the creation of the game’s UI and how it conveys a sense of “cool”.
“There are various ways of interpreting cool,” said Ise. “But if we’re simply looking at the aesthetics, it should be pretty simple and easy for designers to create that. The important part is to tie [the UI] in with the tone of the game and weave that into the game narrative. Being able to tie all that together with the game itself is what I consider to be something that’s cool.
“I think a game that achieves that is a game that has designs that are just unique to that title alone, something that other titles cannot achieve,” he added. “I think that sort of design is what I would consider to be cool.”
UI is hugely important in setting the tone of a game as it appears across a game during gameplay, in menus, and more. “I think it is a powerful tool to control the overall kind of impression that the game gives off,” said Ise.
He continued: “UI has the power to become the face of a game as well as move the player’s emotions. That’s why we as a team put in so much cost, resources and passion to create all these fleshed out UIs.”
A big challenge with Metaphor in particular, though, was standing out from the shadow of the Persona games, which very much established the stylish UI designs of Atlus’s games.
“I first started out by really trying to identify what Metaphor as a game was trying to convey and what specific unique traits the game had,” said Ise. “And by really honing into those elements and being creative in how to express that through the UI, I believe we were able to pull the appeal of Metaphor to the forefront…[and] create something that was uniquely Metaphor.”
Ise added the team was “very conscious of Persona” during development. “It was an established and big presence for us and it felt like we were in its shadows. But the director at one point pulled me aside and told me ‘hey, don’t focus on that too much, focus on what you want to do on this title alone’. And that really gave me [a chance to] step back and look at Metaphor as it is and focus on what expressions we want to make for this game specifically.”
One of those elements was the use of Da Vinci’s classic Vitruvian Man for the menu of the game’s class system, known as Archetypes.
“That’s actually a representation of a formula for the ideal king,” said Ise, referencing the game’s core plot. “Because the game adopts medieval painting styles, we were looking at various artwork from that era, which is when we found the Vitruvian Man, which we thought fit that theme because it has the ideal proportions of a human being.”
At Atlus, UI is a core part of the development process from the very beginning and this allowed the design to morph and evolve from the early conceptualisation stage to its final form along with the game as a whole.
As such, Ise showed me some early UI designs to represent the winding road of its development.
The earliest design focused on the game’s fantasy setting, using parchment paper and other elements to represent the travel motif. “This was a design that was created when the theme of the journey itself with your companions was at the forefront, so that’s why that’s clearly expressed in this design,” said Ise.
The next design was more retro, with minimalist white borders around menu elements but rearranged in a modern style. This was to tie back to the roots of RPGs for a classic feel.
The third design was focused on the theme of anxiety and depicted the face of the protagonist falling downwards into his emotions. “This was created when one of the ideas of anxiety came into the picture,” said Ise. “This is an emotion that people in the fantasy world and also in the real world share, it’s mutual between those two worlds.”
To me, the blend of medieval fantasy and modern style lends the UI a timeless feel. “Yes that was very intentional and was something we were aiming for because the game is in a fantasy setting and we were referencing a lot of medieval designs,” said Ise, though he felt this alone was too old fashioned and “wouldn’t be catchy for the modern player”.
He was then inspired by a poster in an art museum promoting medieval artwork but with pop art fonts and designs. “It felt like they were talking directly to us as modern people,” he said, ultimately influencing that blend of a painterly style enveloped in modern animation and typography.
A key element of any UI, though, is balancing style with usability and clarity. “Striking that balance was, to be honest, the most difficult part of creating the UI for this game,” Ise admitted.
“If we lean too much into the visuals, then it’s difficult to use. But if we lean too much into the functional or usability side, then we start to lose the Atlus touch. So we put in a lot of effort and thought to make sure that we were taking both and making sure that it is a great balance to meet the needs of both.”
“Persona veteran Atlus flexes its expertise with a fresh take on high fantasy,” reads our Metaphor: ReFantazio review. “What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in grandeur and heart.”
