Theatrhythm Final Bar Line Character Designer Explained Final Fantasy XV’s Ardyn Design

In Theatrhythm Final Bar Line various Final Fantasy characters appear, and one of the newly created ones for this installment is FFXV‘s Ardyn. To explain how he was recreated to fit with the spin-offs designs, Character Designer Monster Octopus went over the process. This also involved a look at some design documents to show the art for Ardyn and how Indieszero based the in-game look on the concept art.

Here’s what Monster Octopus said about making a more diminutive, yet still recognizable, version of Final Fantasy XV character Ardyn for Theatrhythm Final Bar Line.

Of all the enemy characters that I designed for this game, the one I have the fondest memories of working on was Ardyn.

When I started working on him, it was hard to figure out how his complex clothing was constructed. I really wondered how indieszero would split the design up to move freely. The other thing was the sheer number of weapons he used with his Armiger power! It was quite a headache and I spent time mulling over how to approach these.

If I added too much detail in how the weapons were drawn then it would overload the player with too much visual information and also get in the way of Ardyn himself, but at the same time I didn’t want to make them too simplistic. I also had to make subtle tweaks to work out how best to express Ardyn’s mysterious side.

To compare, this is how Ardyn looked in Final Fantasy XV.

And here is how Ardyn looks in the Theatrhythm Final Bar Line design documents Square Enix shared.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is available for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch.