Cris Tales art director reveals the inspirations behind the game's gorgeous visuals

Even if you don't know much about Cris Tales, it's easy to see that the game is a real looker. How did the team settled on the gorgeous art style they're using? Art director Sebastian Villarreal talked to DualShockers to share the inspiration behind the decision.

“The visual style of Cris Tales is the mixture of many influences such as real places, traditional costumes and the emotions that these things brings to us. As previously mentioned, in general the work of Genndy Tartakovsky on Cartoon Network, old school artists such as Mary Blair or Eyvind Earle on Disney, and even the Japanese character stylization like the Utena anime series has been a strong artistic influence on the Cris Tales art development."

In particular, Villarreal said that the 2009 animated film Secret of Kells was a major inspiration.

“...because those types of character designs had strong geometric shapes similar to the stained glass windows found in some of the Colombian Cathedrals that we originally wanted to create. The initial concept art of Crisbell had a look quite similar to the characters that can be seen in Secret of Kells, in a more religious and ‘hard edge’ tone, but we gradually took this style toward another path to match the character that we wanted to create in this world: A humble girl with pigtails, traditional clothes like the veil on her head, a bell shaped skirt similar to Disney princesses like Belle, and of course the simple kindness that characterizes the inhabitants of Narim (Crisbell’s hometown and where the game’s story begins).”