EP4 Materials Collection Images (Art + Interview)

[Altiea]

Decided to just make a whole new thread instead of using the old EP4 story thread for this cause I'm probably going to be image dumping quite a bit. Could also use a translator for the interview that I'll post later on.

Weapons/Units

Ray Twin Machineguns (As the book reveals, Ray weapons are literally just upscale models of common gear; this is marked by their artwork, which identifies them as "Super Common Series")
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/jCb4Lr8.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Valkyrie R25S (Note the usage of Gratuitous German, which cannot be seen on the weapon in-game)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/OPilzuZ.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Quna's TMGs
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/493E5jS.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Gix Double Saber (The Gix series weapons are the most curious in the book; they're noted in the concept art as "Dark Hero Series" weapons, and every single Gix weapon is emblazoned with the words "Dark Weapon" and a unique phrase; for example, the Double Saber is marked with the words "BRUTAL TWO HEARTS", while the Bullet Bow has "THE LOOMING HOLLOW".)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/TPa2Sys.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Jupiter Tullus
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/Jm6EEUv.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Gix TMG/Quelle Windea
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/z8XxSng.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Battle Rifle (The Battle Rifle is emblazoned with a number of stickers, which have print in text too small to read)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/YSe8dZR.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Rear/Weila Board
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/tQ04CFr.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Badge Shop Units/Izane Units (The Badge Shop Units are emblazoned with the Sympathy logo seen on the Pet Sympathy Skill and on the Pets themselves, and have a matching color scheme with the Summoner outfit)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/xFkKRkK.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Maron
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/uL5FOBl.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Rideroid
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/yI9zq7L.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Enemies

Empe Rappy
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/y5LfErr.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Devil's Trailer (Trailer attack)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/XGLAwT7.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Mothership (The thing from Riding Quest)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/oBSADn2.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Dullahan Rider
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/YZegb3J.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Sir Ardem Sacred (All of his attacks are accompanied by glyphs, which have actual writing in them)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/V1Exuh7.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Deus ESC-A Zephyros
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/jbzatPw.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2baTJwy.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ga4MJYX.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

ESC-A Falz Mother/Mother
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/JLNhvn2.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PV1cILr.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2NTmZS1.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

[Kondibon]

"As the book reveals, Ray weapons are literally just upscale models of common gear"

Did people not know this? = w=

[sonisei]

oversized toy weapons :wacko:

[Sirius-91]

"As the book reveals, Ray weapons are literally just upscale models of common gear"

Did people not know this? = w=

I guess not ._.

[Altiea]

I guess not ._.

Apparently, I didn't. Anyways...

Characters

Quna
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/XeUGe1R.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Kohri (Brainwashed)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/pbQG6nD.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Hagito Phemut
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/qUwUETL.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Matoi (EP4)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/iEMWis3.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Mother
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/jCXFfFe.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

ETC.

Quna's Stage
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/RbG4R9h.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Cosmic twinkle star Setpieces
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/YZw8ljb.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Shampoo Style (PSNova)
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/uj6Thwh.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Bethor's Weapon
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/q0wlvc1.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Moon Base
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/mg05epc.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

PSO2: The Animation Endslates
[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/80q0L2J.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tdy5zAM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GMksoDO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/K35WFLb.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

[loafhero]

Ray weapons definitely look like toy guys.

[Golgotha]

You only get this feeling because of the orange trigger and contrast colors.
Ray critique always looks adorable in the light of people endlessly demanding "simple and futuristic looking" 1-6 star series to be perpetuated further.

[Tymek]

Did you find anything Story?

[Altiea]

Did you find anything Story?

There is an updated timeline that also puts the Earth AD timeline in parallel to the PSO2 timeline to give you an idea of the timeframes involved, but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of it. I'm also kinda slacking off on the interview since Dragon, but from what I can tell, they talk about the anime and stuff.

[Altiea]

Hey look, story content! Time to use my MASTER GOOGLE-FU SKILLS to translate a bunch of stuff!

The Earth & The Moon

[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/9B2xr3l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jY4ZLlT.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

ESC-A Towers

ESC-A Towers are large towers on Earth, seen in the Tokyo, Las Vegas, and London fields, whose purpose is to disperse Ether to sustain the Ether infrastructure. While ESC-A Towers are most prominently seen in major cities, ESC-A Towers were also built in local cities. As the result of rapid construction 12 years ago, many problems arose concerning land acquisition. One particular incident involved the collapse of a major department store, a tragedy which was the result of overzealous Mother Cluster members prioritizing the creation of the Ether infrastructure over the well-being of civilians. Mother and Aratron were injured as a result, and thus forbade Mother Cluster from the unnecessary destruction of property going forward; the truth of the incident was hidden from the public eye, but the victims were handsomely compensated. Mother Cluster even helped pay off Hitsugi and Enga's entrance into a private school.

Earth Guide

Earth Guide branches exist all over the globe, but are based in a basement far beneath the earth in Las Vegas. Access to the headquarters is enabled via multiple connecting elevators, although escape routes were designed in case of an emergency. When construction on the Ether infrastructure started 12 years ago, numerous paranormal phenomenon arose at roughly the same time that were difficult for the local police in each country to handle; Earth Guide was created as the solution. The Las Vegas headquarters constantly gathers and receives information all across the globe in real time, and when an outbreak occurs, a 24-hour quick response system is deployed.

Moon Base

With the Earth Guides opposing Mother Cluster on Earth, Mother Cluster sought refuge on the moon, where their moon base is located. It's explained in-game that the facilities on the Moon are designed to disperse Ether in a method similar to ESC-A Towers, but the actual number of facilities is sparse; this is because Mother's presence on the Moon constantly emits Ether, allowing them to disperse Ether across the moon without the use of ESC-A Towers. The method of Ether distribution is otherwise similar to how it is performed on Earth with ESC-A Towers. The core of the moon base is a large, glass-domed facility on the top floor of the central tower, and is home to various types of facilities, including research, residential, command and communication facilities. Ether technology based on that used by the Photoners also allows the moon base to sustain a gravitational force of 1G.

The Moon

The Moon is a copy of Xion and the shell that was given to her by the Photoners; as a result, the facility recreates that of the Oracle Mothership by using Ether, and displays similar properties and functions to that of the Mothership itself. However, unlike the Mothership, where Xion in its entirety was contained within its core, the Moon's core is one with Mother herself, as when Mother originally collided with the Earth in the distant past, fragments of the Earth combined with Mother's fractured form and came to form the nucleus of the Moon, and later the Moon itself. During the final fight with Deus Hunar, it is explained that some fragments of Mother also fused with the Earth during the impact, and it is speculated that this was the driving force for promoting the evolution of the human race.

Box 1: Train Ghidoran

The arena where Train Ghidoran is fought is based on Tokyo Station! This was designed to emphasize Train Ghidoran's immense size.

Box 3: Mother Cluster Central Tower

During the "Racing the Phantom Mother" Emergency Quest, the Mother Cluster Central Tower can be seen in the background. The domed top floor is the location of Mother's throne room, and is the setting for the scene where Hitsugi is kidnapped by Mother Cluster.

Box 4: Earth Guide Control Room

The control room is where the bulk of Earth Guide operations take place, and is kept watch by the careful eye of Ardem, who explained the Earth Guides to the player when they visited for the first time. Unlike the ARKS Ship, the control room could be replicated even with existing technology, but it's certainly impressive.

Box 5: Moon Core Gate

The gate preceding the Moon's core. Similar to Mother's costume color, the gate is similar in design to the Core Gate on the Oracle Mothership, except that the base color is light blue and it's trimmed with various fine decorations.

Box 6: Easter Island

Many were surprised when the Moai statues appeared after defeating Deus ESC-A in the "The Creator Phantom" Emergency Quest. The reason this happens is because Easter Island is (in the story, anyway) the remnant of the lost continent of Mu, which sank to the ocean floor. It can be said that this is where EP4 sets the stage on Earth.

[loafhero]

ESC-A Towers

ESC-A Towers are large towers on Earth, seen in the Tokyo, Las Vegas, and London fields, whose purpose is to disperse Ether to sustain the Ether infrastructure. While ESC-A Towers are most prominently seen in major cities, ESC-A Towers were also built in local cities. As the result of rapid construction 12 years ago, many problems arose concerning land acquisition. One particular incident involved the collapse of a major department store, a tragedy which was the result of overzealous Mother Cluster members prioritizing the creation of the Ether infrastructure over the well-being of civilians.


Wait, what? Mother Cluster is the reason why Hitsugi and Enga's parents died in a collapsed building incident? I've always found it suspicious how Mother contacted Hitsugi so soon after her parents funeral but I never thought I'd actually hit the nail. Seems like the plot could have taken an entirely different turn if Mother were to casually mention that little info during the final battle with her like in Guardians of the Galaxy 2:


https://www.youtube.com/embed/QsyHgOgpTjA?start=62



but the victims were handsomely compensated. Mother Cluster even helped pay off Hitsugi and Enga's entrance into a private school.


Yeeeeah, I'm sure that makes up for the loss of loved ones.

[Altiea]

ARKS Hierarchy (EP4)

[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/yvnD8Wo.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Headquarters
Ulc/Theodore

Combat Division
Leaders: Huey/Klariskrays III
Members: Lisa, Fourier, Patty, Tiea, Io, Azanami, Hans, Revelle

General Affairs Division
Leaders: Maria/Sara
Members: Eucrita, Afin, Aki, Light, Jean, Melrondia, Reda

Mentoring Division
Leaders: Regius/Zeno
Members: Ohza, Marlu, Barbara, Josef, Echo, Katori, Saga, Lubert, Lottie

Information Division
Leaders: Casra II/Quna
Members: Aika, Klotho

[loafhero]

Ooh, I didn't know that the divisions actually had members in it.

I always thought that Klotho would make for a good info collector. His EP1 cutscenes showed that he likes collecting information just as much as Patty and Tea. Speaking of, seems odd that Patty and Tea of all people aren't part of the Information Division. Maybe they wanted to remain independent and disagree with how the Information Division tend to hide information?

The rest makes sense.

[Tymek]

"I follow my all rules, all law, and perform it. I am important. It is thought that there should be the capital punishment even if I am Christian and think when I think from these."

Google Translate.

They are using Google Translate.

[silo1991]

so when we will be seeing the promised interview , i wonder what happen for make so many awful artistic desicions: the meh enemies , the stupid story that ep had ( they didnt even knew where to go or how to take advange of what already stablish in that ep) , the anime which didnt lead anywhere ( but surprisingly called the attention of the spaintalking comunity into the game, i dont know the impact for the englishtalking or even with the japanese) , i curious and anxious to know why they took those desicions :( :-( :-x

[Altiea]

so when we will be seeing the promised interview , i wonder what happen for make so many awful artistic desicions: the meh enemies , the stupid story that ep had ( they didnt even knew where to go or how to take advange of what already stablish in that ep) , the anime which didnt lead anywhere ( but surprisingly called the attention of the spaintalking comunity into the game, i dont know the impact for the englishtalking or even with the japanese) , i curious and anxious to know why they took those desicions :( :-( :-x

Sorry, I've kinda been slacking, plus I don't know if I wanna post it and just not have a translator to work on it.

[Tyroki]

Google translated transcript would do.

[Altiea]

I'm gonna try to translate this interview to the best of my ability (using extreme GOOGLE FU), but I'll also get the images up as soon as possible just in case I mess up and anyone else wants to take a shot at translating (I'll also run it by a friend sometime just in case).

Tell me your roles in EP4.

Sakai: As usual, I'm the Phantasy Star series producer, so I supervise advertisement, broadcast-related matters, update PVs, etc. In EP4, there were also staff saying that I requested for Sachiko Kobayashi and Phantom Battleship Yamato.

KMR: I'm also still series director. My main tasks involve content distribution policy and roadmap creation, as well as direct oversight involving the main scenario, event scenes, and Scratch monetization design. In regards to the anime (PSO2:TA), I also supervised the main plot, EP4 worldview and the anime's story. After that, I was involved in overseeing Quna's concerts.

Akikazu Mizuno: I'm also the same; as an art director, I mainly do supervision over on the design side. I draw illustrations for public relations, as well as designed Itsuki and RINA's costumes for the anime. Aika's outfit was the first Layer Wear outfit, so we collaborated with Kimura over on the systems side.

Takashi Iida: I rarely appear, but my work hasn't changed either. While supporting Mizuno, I also manage the artwork team.

KMR: Since the artwork team has a lot of people, I have the role of scheduling. Iida himself also worked on the EP4 main illustration as well as the illustrations for the Sweets Paradise and Don Quixote collaborations.

Sakai: I was in charge of designing Hitsugi's costume. Since I was in charge of Dark Falz designs until EP3, I'm still working on it (bad translation).

How big is the artwork team?

KMR: About 14 people, including external relations. In EP4, it was easy to request for external relations (artists outside the Artwork Team, in other words) since there were many Earth outfits. One of the main problems of the world view of PSO2 is that few people can design "science fantasy" style outfits. In addition, due to complications involving the new Layer Wear system, I asked for Earth designs first, and after becoming more familiar with it I later requested for SF (science fantasy) outfits as well.

(Will update with the rest of the first page later, so stay tuned)

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

KMR: About 14 people, including external relations. In EP4, it was easy to request for external relations (artists outside the Artwork Team, in other words) since there were many Earth outfits. One of the main problems of the world view of PSO2 is that few people can design "science fantasy" style outfits. In addition, due to complications involving the new Layer Wear system, I asked for Earth designs first, and after becoming more familiar with it I later requested for SF (science fantasy) outfits as well.

Well... shit.
I guess I can't be mad when they're honest about their shortcomings.

[silo1991]

14 people as artwork team ( also the external doods) surely they had short income , if they contacted new talents , those newbies really lack of imagination ( talking about most phantom designs)

[Tyroki]

What I'd love to know is:

Why, despite ep 4 being seriously bad (so bad I was... actually kinda enjoying how funny it was), did they go from having a nice clean ending in chapter 7, to deciding OH HEY! Lets have a phantom embodiment of the Christian God of Creation!

It went from being so bad it was entertaining to... absolutely dreadful. Honestly, I could have done with Chapter 8 being the epilogue where we see everything resolved and how it turned out. Why go the extra distance in to 'really?' territory?

[loafhero]

Their decision to have freelancer artists contribute to the designs reminds me of Xenoblade Chronicles 2's similar issue.

The freelancer artists in XC2 weren't given any direction on anything specific so the result is that the majority of Pokemon Blades were overdesigned, over-endowed, half-naked girls that you'd normally see in a free/cheap mobile game.

[silo1991]

well we now know why the phantom designs were sloth and meh . now i want to know why the story was bad in most aspects : story, characters and 1/4 of that ep music was annoying , i forgot the name of the music in the LQ chaotic pranksters but i remember after 4 or 5 rounds i didn't wanted to play that mission anymore .

only good points in the history : the idea of the ether and phantoms ( but poorly executed unfortunately)

i will wait patiently for the rest of the interview

[Altiea]

well we now know why the phantom designs were sloth and meh . now i want to know why the story was bad in most aspects : story, characters and 1/4 of that ep music was annoying , i forgot the name of the music in the LQ chaotic pranksters but i remember after 4 or 5 rounds i didn't wanted to play that mission anymore .

only good points in the history : the idea of the ether and phantoms ( but poorly executed unfortunately)

i will wait patiently for the rest of the interview

I'm working on it, but Google Translate isn't cooperating and a Japanese friend I asked to help has other things going on, so she can only translate when she has extra down time. I'll try to ask her to do it so I can finish the first page faster.

[Tymek]

Altiea, would you be willing to take a close-up shot of the glyph and the text box with it's text? The one next to Ardem's magic flasks.

[Altiea]

Altiea, would you be willing to take a close-up shot of the glyph and the text box with it's text? The one next to Ardem's magic flasks.

You got it. Give me a few minutes.

[Altiea]

Done.

[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/HMAJE3q.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

[Altiea]

The rest of page 1 (translated by a close friend of mine):

For layering wear splits, how was each design decided?

Iida： With regards to the division of layering wear, we placed a great deal of importance on Mr. Kimura's judgment. Our designers would create the designs, but he had the final say when it came to what would be delivered to users.

KMR: "Here, make this part blend well with the outer. This part over here would be better as an accessory." There are aspects like that that cannot only be judged by designers, so I made requests while thinking about the demands of users.

How did you conduct checks on layering wear?

KMR: This is paired with the previous process, but there's a checklist from the debug team. For example, check whether or not the design fails when applied to some pre-determined models. Breaking down if applied to a model with all parameters set to max is allowed. The amount of players who do that is small, and if we fix modeling to work with that it generally looks so bad that you want to avert your eyes anyway. We already have rules, so we logically judge according to them.

As for the nesting and failures of models, it seems like you would have timings that would be relaxed several times.

KMR: Although we do gradually relax some constraints, for ideas that are recruited in design contests, since the ideas are very important, we allocate a larger possible time range for realization.

From the perspective of the artwork team, is such a failure something they worry about?

Mizuno: I have not recently directly supervised the costume modelling process, but the first time I had to watch my mouth. In my personal opinion, I'm rather loose about it. Even if I play other games, I don't really pay that much attention even if some polygons are showing or broken.

Sakai: If you care too much about that sort of thing, then this time the overall silhouettes all become similar, which isn't good.

KMR: For those who dress up characters to show in public, we instruct them to tell us as soon as there is an issue in the character creation gallery. Especially if the issue involves collaboration items.

Page 2 coming soon!

[Lyrise]

For anyone who cares, they finally released the settings book digitally on Bookwalker with no regional restrictions (previous ones did). The version on Kindle still remains locked (shows as not available if you're outside of Japan).

https://bookwalker.jp/dee4939099-7c37-4b2d-951a-b484dd8e0bdd/

[Tymek]

Done.

[SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgur.com/HMAJE3q.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Thank you.