Inspirations, Influences, and Generally Interesting Things

[Goodyear]

I'm by no means an expert on graphical arts, but I've been around people who are enough to have picked up on a good number of things I find particularly interesting, that I thought I might throw out into the ether, in case it piqued anyone else's interests enough to deep dive into the real world lore:

-Gustave, Lune, Lumiere, and Renoir: A lot of the proper nouns in this game are based off famous painters, for instance the town you come from, Lumiere, is named after a famous pair of brothers. Not all the names, to my knowledge, but the real important ones, at least, are influenced by big names in painting.

-Manikins: that's right, not mannequin,like you put clothes on, but a manikin, which is a small wooden doll with joints that can be posed, typically used as reference for painting and drawing. The Gestrals are basically these Manikins, with paintbrushes for hair.

- Claire Obscur and the Flowers: If you aren't a native French speaker, or the only French you speak is Canadian French, then you likely think that must be someone's name. Claire Obscur is a French term in painting referring to the contrast between light and dark, and is most poignant in the opening moments of gameplay, when Maelle points out the dual coloured tree. Later on, this is juxtaposed against the "life" you come across later in the game.

The Music: being a non-native French speaker, I had to look up the lyrics to get a good idea of what they were singing in any of the numerous songs with vocals laid throughout at cinematic points in the game. Without spoiling anything, I suggest others do the same, you won't be disappointed.

Attack on Titan: maybe this is my own personal bias, but the pacing and atmosphere seem too closely reminiscent of Attack on Titan for it to not be one of the inspirations. I legit can't find anything online to support my theory, but I'm almost intrigued enough to ask every writer for the game about it until I get a satisfactory answer. Otherwise, take this one with a grain of salt.