Ever Oasis shares details about the characters, new screenshots and art
This week, Ever Oasis director and producer Koichi Ishii put up a new blog post on Nintendo’s website. Various characters were introduced, and we also have new screenshots and art.
Ishii started out by saying how he was glad to receive many positive comments about the characters when Ever Oasis was shown during the latest Nintendo Direct. People were mentioning things like Tethu and Esna looking cute as well as some wanting a Penkrow plushie.
In this developer blog, Ishii introduced these characters. They are designed by famed illustrator Yoshinori Shizuma. The post covers what things the team were thinking of when making the characters, and how they ultimately ended up.
The Protagonist
Ever Oasis is a story about important partners supporting each other, so Ishii doesn’t want characters that can do everything by themselves. While the protagonist has a special power to blow powerful wind, his attack may be ineffective on some enemies. There are many more gimmicks that require cooperation with partners. The active skills for battles that are learned when characters level up are also more geared towards support skills that strengthen partners rather than offensive skills.
The protagonist is from the Seedmen race, and the idea came from plants. The desert has no water, which makes it a harsh environment for plants. However, Ishii is impressed that a seed would still grow to a plant, blooming flowers and giving smiles. When he thought to personify those plants, the Seedmen were born.
When creating the protagonist Tethu, player can also set the gender, eye color and skin color.
Esna the Water Spirit
Ishii likes to draw a correlation between spirits and the world; spirits are inseparable beings in his story-making.
Ever Oasis takes place in a desert world named Vistrada. Some people may wonder about having a water spirit in that world, but Ishii said that because it’s precisely a desert world, water becomes a very important asset, and a place with lots of water would become a power spot.
The Water Spirit is larger than tiny fairies with faint light. She can only be seen by certain people, however.
Isuna can be considered an additional protagonist that supports the main protagonist in the same standpoint, and will share happiness and sadness together. She’s your partner for raising the oasis, and will celebrate together when you have accomplished your deeds. Ishii put much attention on Esna so that she’s someone players can sympathize with.
Finally, Ishii hopes that Esna will become a good partner not only for the protagonist, but also for the players themselves.
Penkrow the Mysterious Visitor
Penkrow (Newt / Neut in English based on last year’s E3 Treehouse stream) is like the mascot of Ever Oasis that temporarily visits the oasis to buy things at the Flower Shop.
His design is a mix of a penguin and owl. The reason why the design is such a mixture is because of Ishii’s intuition. Each time he thinks about a mascot character, it always ends up looking like that. When he told Shizuma to design that, he was given a rough sketch so perfect for him, so he instantly approved it.
Penkrows cannot speak, but they can communicate with each other. They can either act alone like an owl, or move in a flock like penguins. They are also very greedy and will buy things impulsively. Once the player can make a big oasis, plenty of Penkrows can be seen lining up for the Flower Shop.
Penkrows live in the desert, but nobody can locate their nests. During lunar eclipses, they would come out to surface from a hidden entrance and wander around to hide the existence of the nest.
There are some rumors from travelers about a blessing from God when they collapsed on the desert but woke up healthy in the next morning. But in actuality, it were the Penkrows who brought them to their nest for medical care and put them on another safe place to sleep on afterwards.
