During early production, the artistic design was aimed at fans of Japanese games, with "cutesy and quite clearly Japanese-inspired" designs for characters. A combination of focus testing and requests from Microsoft resulted in more Western artistic influence being incorporated, resulting in several changes. The environments went through the same process as the character art, with real-world elements incorporated into some locations; the Anthropomorph village of Shadani-Mo drew stylistic inspiration from the Nevada desert and Native American tipis, while Transentia was designed around its "Orwellian" machinery and steampunk-inspired aesthetic. The cultures and locations of "Sudeki" were created early in production after extensive study of real-world cultures. Rather than directly copying the aesthetic of "Dungeons & Dragons" as many other RPGs did, the team wanted a unique cultural identity. The opening cinematic was directly inspired by Asian shadow plays. The team also created plants and animals with fantastical twists rather than carrying anything directly from reality.