Atelier Ryza 3 Character Designer Explains Making Ryza’s Thighs Even Bigger For Finale

Atelier Ryza 3 has Ryza returning with even more impressively-thick futomomo, and Atelier Ryza series character designer Toridamono explained the design process for Ryza in the finale of the trilogy in a new interview.

Toridamono mentioned that Ryza’s design for Ryza 3 was worked on in-between designing the other returning characters, as he knew that she would take the longest to design:

4Gamer: Ryza is the character that put your name out there, became a huge topic of discussion, and is a character we’ve followed for a long time since Ryza 1 and 2. With the conclusion to her story in sight, what sort of thoughts did you have when designing her in this game?

Toridamono: I wanted to make a cute design that wouldn’t betray people’s expectations, and also keep her image. That said, of course the initial rough designs were adjustments to her previous design, like making her wear a coat, and changing her silhouette.

4Gamer: So it’s not like you had a set image at the start for grown-up Ryza.

Toridamono: Not at all. But for a Ryza who’d gone through 1 & 2, at an age where she’d be graduating from university, when I thought how to show an experienced Ryza, I decided to base it off a mix of her 1 & 2 designs. From there, I did minor changes as I went along.

4Gamer: That’s a lot of minor variations.

Toridamono: Right, I was very careful.

4Gamer: Either way, you can tell just from the rough design that her thighs are really thick.

Toridamono: It’s partially my artstyle evolution, but also a way to easily tell that she’s grown older physically. However, even I don’t know anymore how thick to make Ryza’s thighs. When I look back nowadays, Ryza 1’s thighs are too thin.

4Gamer: You’ve totally grown numb to it. (laughs)

Toridamono: If you don’t show it off in excess, there are some aspects that just aren’t communicated well. I thought if I did this, she’d seem more like a mature older sister.

4Gamer: True, it feels that Ryza’s ‘older sister’ feel has really shot up. She’s really grown up compared to Ryza 1.

Toridamono: When I saw the life-size Ryza statues at TGS this year, I felt the same. Ryza 2’s design especially felt rough and a bundle of concepts that didn’t fully come together, so I made it come together for this game. You can tell when they’re side by side.

Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End and the Secret Key will practice more alchemy on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC via Steam on February 24th, 2023.