The Elder Scrolls: Arena

Article from the August 8, 1995, edition of The PlayStation showing the Japanese cover art of Arena. Illustration by Yoshitaka Tamaki.

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is an action role-playing game originally developed and published by Bethesda Softworks for MS-DOS in North America in 1994.

A canceled Japanese port produced by SoftBank for the PlayStation and Saturn tentatively titled just Arena (アリーナ, Ariina) was in development in 1995 by the studio Something Good. Shining series artist Yoshitaka Tamaki had been hired to create illustrations for this version of the game.

Interview with Yoshitaka Tamaki

Interview with Yoshitaka Tamaki on page 60 of the September 1995 edition of Sega Saturn Magazine.

The following interview with illustrator Yoshitaka Tamaki was published in the September 1995 edition of Sega Saturn Magazine.

Interview with Main Illustrator Yoshitaka Tamaki

メインイラスト担当玉木美孝氏インタビュー

[Caption] Yoshitaka Tamaki. He made a sudden leap to fame as the character designer for the Shining series of Mega Drive RPGs. His soft, fanciful designs have earned him many fans who are women.

たまき・よしたか

MDの名作RPG、シャイニングシリーズのキャラクターデザインで一躍有名に。ファンタジックて柔らかい絵柄に女性ファンも多い。

[Editor] Tamaki is the main illustrator for this game, and so far he's revealed a single illustration.

編集部（以後、編）：玉木さんは今回アリーナのメインイラストレーターということで、現時点ではイラストを１枚発表されていますね。

[Tamaki] Right. My illustration is based on the impression that I get from the game and its artwork.

玉木：ええ。この絵はイメージなんですけどね。もとのゲームと絵がありますからね。

[Editor] Japanese people consider the illustrations for overseas games like Arena to be a bit . . . too much.

編：アリーナに限らず海外のゲームは日本人にはちょっと......という絵が多いですね。

[Tamaki] There are cultural differences, but the characters are different from what Japanese people think are attractive. I think the characters we consider beautiful in Japan are skinny, but they don't end up looking strong to people outside of Japan. But there's no way that someone like Schwarzenegger would look attractive to people in Japan, for instance.

玉木：民族性の違いなどもあるでしょうけど、日本人の考えるカッコイイキャラとは違うんですよね。日本で人気のある美形キャラクターっていうのは線が細くて、あちらでは強く見えないらしいんです。いわゆるシュワルツェネッガーみたいな人達がカッコイイわけないんですよね。

[Editor] Compared to your earlier illustrations, this one feels more like a foreign game.

編：今回の絵は以前の作品と比べると、やや海外ゲームっぽい雰囲気ですが。

[Tamaki] That's right. When I had the opportunity to read the scenario, I knew I couldn't take my drawings lightly because it was such a heavy story.

玉木：そうですね。シナリオを読んでみると結構重い話だったので、あまり軽くは描けないと。

[Editor] Do you like games like that?

編：こういうゲームはお好きですか？

[Tamaki] To be honest, yeah. [Laughs.] If possible, I'd like to draw more of the game's enemy characters. That's the kind of work I want to do. I liked how instead of looking physically strong, they looked strong willed.

玉木：ええ、実は（笑）。できれば敵キャラ含めて、もっと描きたいくらい。やりたかった仕事ですね。線が太いというよりコシが強いという感じが好きだったので。

[Editor] That's surprising considering the work you've done up to this point.

編：今までの作品を考えるとちょっと意外ですね。

[Tamaki] The first game my work debuted in was Shining and the Darkness for the Mega Drive, which tried to have broad appeal and appeal to women, so those illustrations had their own sort of vibe.

玉木：ゲームのデビュー作「シャイニング・アンド・ザ・ダクネス」はメガドライブにも一般ウけするものをそして女性ユーザーをという試みもあって、あんな感じの絵になったんです。

[Editor] That's right. You definitely succeeded in that.

編：なるほど。確かにその試みは成功しましたね。

[Tamaki] Thank you.

玉木：ありがとうございます。

[Editor] Going back to Arena, it looks like a pretty hard game.

編：繰り返しますが、アリーナはかなりハードなゲームだそうですね。

[Tamaki] I played the IBM-PC version, and it's definitely not easy. It's hard! But it's a deep, fun game.

玉木：僕はIBM-PC版をプレイしたんですけど、生やさしいものじゃないですよ。きっつい！でも奥が深くておもしろいんですけどね。

[Editor] I don't know how difficult the Saturn version is going to be, but I'm sure they want some tough-looking characters.

編：サターン版でどれくらいの難易度になるかわかりませんが、やはりキャラクターもハードなもの求められそうですね。

[Tamaki] Right. I have to respect what the original creators over there want. My intention is to follow closely what they have in mind.

玉木：ええ。あちらの作者の方の意志も尊重しなければいけないですし。そういう意味でかなり気は使ったつもりなんですけどね。

But the thing is, when I first started working on this project there weren't any defined characters for me to base my drawings off of, so I just had to draw based on my impression of the game. So I found myself drawing with a sense of caution because I didn't want to give players the wrong idea. It's scary knowing the artwork is about to be published. [Laughs.]

他にも、キャラクターが企画段階ゼロから用意したものでもないですし、あくまで私の思いこみで描いたところがあって、そういう意味でユーザーとの感覚がズレなければいいなとか、今回は本当にビクビクしながら描きましたし、出る前から恐いんですよ（笑）。

[Editor] It won't be on Sega hardware for a while, so I'm excited to see how people react.

編：久々のセガハードに登場ということもあるし、非常に反応が楽しみですね。

[Tamaki] Me too. I hope everyone gives it a good reception.

玉木：そうですね。皆様よろしくお願いします。

Development History

The Elder Scrolls: Arena appears in Sega of America's fiscal year 1997 documents in a software release calendar indicating an August 1996 launch. The game is listed under the title Arena in the new software schedule of Sega Saturn Magazine starting in October 1995 and ending in December 1996.

Something Good, the studio developing the Saturn and PlayStation port of Arena, was a subsidiary of Japanese publisher SoftBank and was originally founded in 1982. The studio was acquired by ASCII in September 1996, at which point its name was changed to ASCII Something Good. The company became known as i4 (アイフォー) in January 1999. The circumstances leading to the cancellation of Something Good's Arena port are unknown, and there is little coverage of the title following its announcement.

Gallery

Sega Saturn Magazine

• Articles
• 

  1995-09-01
  p. 60

• 

  1995-10-01
  p. 142

• New Software Schedule
• 

  1995-10-01
  p. 99

• 

  1995-11-01
  p. 107

• 

  1995-12-01
  p. 105

• 

  1995-12-08
  p. 110

• 

  1995-12-22
  p. 115

• 

  1996-01-26
  p. 107

• 

  1996-02-09
  p. 139

• 

  1996-02-23
  p. 123

• 

  1996-11-22
  p. 131

• 

  1996-12-13
  p. 146

• 

  1996-12-13
  p. 147

The PlayStation

• Articles
• 

  1995-08-11
  p. 85

Sega of America Fiscal Year 1997 Documents

• Saturn Software Release Calendar FY97 - USA
• 

  1996-03-11
  p. 265