{"id":53589,"date":"2025-11-04T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53589"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:49:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T06:49:28","slug":"atelier-lulua-the-scion-of-arland-box-art-got-heavily-cropped-because-of-overly-distracting-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/atelier-lulua-the-scion-of-arland-box-art-got-heavily-cropped-because-of-overly-distracting-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland box art got heavily cropped because of \u201coverly distracting horse\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mel Kishida, the Japanese illustrator who provided character designs for\u00a0several titles in Koei Tecmo\u2019s Atelier series (specifically the Arland subseries), recently revealed why his elaborate cover illustration for 2019\u2019s <strong>Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland<\/strong> ended up being heavily cropped on the final product. According to the artist, the horse carrying Elmerulia Frixell\u2019s carriage looked so detailed it was distracting viewers from the main characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you compare Kishida&#8217;s full illustration and Atelier Lulua&#8217;s final box art, you&#8217;ll notice the horse got almost entirely cut out of view, with the remaining visible parts of it faded and blurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30ad\u30e3\u30e9\u3088\u308a\u99ac\u306b\u76ee\u304c\u884c\u304f\u3068\u8a00\u308f\u308c\u99ac\u304c\u307b\u3068\u3093\u3069\u30ab\u30c3\u30c8\u3055\u308c\u305f\u7d75\u3067\u3059 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gV3XpXUHaE\">pic.twitter.com\/gV3XpXUHaE<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u5cb8\u7530\u30e1\u30eb (@mellco) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mellco\/status\/1984560573179445598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 1, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>For this illustration, I was told that the horse was overpowering the characters, and it ended up almost entirely cut. <\/em>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When put side by side, the horse in the early box art really does stand out. Not only does it take up the same amount of space as protagonist Elmerulia in the picture, but it\u2019s also rendered with an almost equal attention to detail.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1027\" height=\"701\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1027px) 100vw, 1027px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53594\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-001.jpg 1027w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-001-380x259.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-001-768x524.jpg 768w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Atelier Lulua&#8217;s early, provisional box art, horse intact<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"847\" height=\"854\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53596\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-002.jpg 847w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-002-377x380.jpg 377w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-002-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-002-768x774.jpg 768w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Atelier Lulua&#8217;s final box art, featuring a distinct lack of horses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Although it\u2019s a shame the artist\u2019s efforts in portraying the horse got scrapped from the final product, it\u2019s likely that whoever designed the box art decided it was a necessary sacrifice in order to convey the game\u2019s main draws &#8211; which aren&#8217;t horse related. Meanwhile, Kishida\u2019s comment has prompted much amusement and parodies on X, one of which shifts the box art\u2019s focus entirely to the horse and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/shibu235711\/status\/1984770320742694940\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">slaps the Uma Musume: Pretty Derby logo<\/a> on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland is available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1045620\/Atelier_Lulua_The_Scion_of_Arland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related articles:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-atelier-team-admits-its-mistakes-and-they-want-all-the-feedback-they-can-get-series-producer-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Atelier team admits its mistakes, and they want all the feedback they can get, series producer says<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/as-the-atelier-franchise-goes-global-the-dev-team-is-torn-about-how-to-reconcile-western-and-japanese-players-vastly-differing-demands\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">As the Atelier franchise goes global, the dev team is torn about how to reconcile Western and Japanese players\u2019 vastly differing demands<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atelier Lulua character designer Mel Kishida shares an amusing piece of trivia about changes made to the game&#8217;s box art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":53592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-53589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland box art got heavily cropped because of \u201coverly distracting horse\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Atelier Lulua character designer Mel Kishida shares an amusing piece of trivia about changes made to the game&#039;s box art.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/atelier-lulua-the-scion-of-arland-box-art-got-heavily-cropped-because-of-overly-distracting-horse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland box art got heavily cropped because of \u201coverly distracting horse\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Atelier Lulua character designer Mel Kishida shares an amusing piece of trivia about changes made to the game&#039;s box art.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/atelier-lulua-the-scion-of-arland-box-art-got-heavily-cropped-because-of-overly-distracting-horse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-04T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-53589-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"759\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland box art got heavily cropped because of \u201coverly distracting horse\u201d\u00a0 - 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