Here there's a custom avatar instead of a preset character (as with Shulk in Xenoblade Chronicles). How did this change the scriptwriting and narrative processes? And how did you make sure the main character and supporting cast had lots of personality?
In RPG development, the sections that cost the most are the cut scenes and events in the main story. Since this is Monolith Soft's first high-definition open world title, we decided to focus less on these and instead shift our resources into improving the quality of the gameplay - which is most important - especially the "hack and slash" combat. This is the reason that we decided to make the player's character an avatar without a real personality. In exchange, we focused on designing lots of quests, and added a lot of supporting characters related to these. Many people in the development team were involved with these supporting characters, and I think we have been able to give them all strong, distinct personalities.