The first thing I did was the character design, because the whole scene is in the style of Cyber Neo-Chinese, and it has something to do with the name, so I called him He-Ming, which roughly means “what’s his name”. And because it’s a Chinese setting, I chose a costume reference that is long and regular. The colours are basically traditional Chinese colours like indigo and red. Because in Chinese culture, red is generally used to drive away evil spirits, corresponding to the background of eliminating monsters, so she has red hair, and yellow is generally used in very formal occasions, some of which are also used to drive away evil spirits, so I chose the image of her with red hair.

The design of He-Ming is a student who is around the age of 16 to 18, and she is wearing what could be a school-issued uniform or the protective clothing issued by the Sorcerer’s Academy that is written about in her backstory. Because it’s a standard uniform the complete symmetry can lead to a very stereotypical and dull design, but adding something of the character’s own – such as an owl doll, or special armour and glasses – will set the character apart. The character’s hairstyle also sets her apart from the rest of the characters; she doesn’t have a rigid single ponytail, but rather a characteristically tied loop at the back of her head and held in place with a bobby pin.

I incorporated a lot of neo-Chinese designs into the base design. Fusing Chinese elements into modern fashion tailoring is very popular in recent games, and it symbolises a cultural renaissance and heritage. The protagonist’s costume uses the symbols used as reference as the pattern, and her tailoring also has some fusion with the symbols, resulting in other tailoring solutions. Without altering the original cut, I selected the final cut and fused it with the symbols. The fusion is not forced, as a fusion it should not spoil the original aesthetics. And the base design lacked decoration, so I made the armour and experimented with the three selected designs one by one, finally settling on the owl.

After extending the three designs, I changed the more discordant parts of the base design to make the whole dress line smoother. The new three designs changed some of the shapes of the hem and the top, while I made some adjustments to the shoes. In the end I chose leggings and white socks for the lower half of the body, which would make the character stand out and be age-appropriate.