Sho Sakai

Sakai, Shō 酒井奨
Sho Sakai, circa 2014
Occupation:	2D & 3D Illustrator[1]
Years active:	1993 - present

Sho Sakai (酒井奨) is an artist from Capcom who has worked in both Strider 2 and the 2014 Strider, and is the lead artist behind Hiryu's modern design^[2]. He has also been credited as "Shochan"^[3][4], "Syo Sakai"^[5] and "Nezumi Otoko" (Japanese for "Rat/Mouse Man").^[6][7][8]

Career

Sho Sakai has been working at Capcom since atleast 1993. His first known credited work is for item illustrations in the Arcade shoot-em'up Eco Fighters^[1]. Over the years he has worked in a variety of positions, but he's primarily an illustrator who produces both 2D and 3D artwork. His specialty seems to be mecha and robot designs, and he has produced such artwork for games like Cyberbots, Tech Romancer, Lost Planet 2 and Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon.

In 1999, Sakai worked as one of three graphic artist in Strider 2, alongside Harumaru and Shoei. He was in charge of enemy character designs and promotional images^[9], creating the designs for most of the secondary characters (like Solo and the Kuniang trio) and mechanical enemies such as the Emperor Dragon. Sakai commented, however, that he tended to avoid staff meetings due to all the arguing that happened during them^[9]. During a 2014 interview with magazine Retro Gamer, Sakai stated that he felt "lots of pressure" when working on the game but that he was deeply honoured for having worked on the sequel to the "legendary Strider" and that it compensated for all the pressure he felt.^[10]

Sho Sakai rejoined the series in 2014 as Art Director and Character Designer for Double Helix Games and Capcom's modern Strider retelling. Due to Sakai's "franchise experience", his involvement in the project was promoted from the very beginning^[11], although initially referred as simply the "enemy artist on Strider 2" and rarely by name.

Sakai was in charge of designing both Hiryu and the majority of enemy characters^[2]. He led the design of Hiryu's model every step of the way, from sketches to the final 3D model^[12], and created the new elements of his outfit such as the hardened armor, Climb Sickle and plasma scarf^[2]. It was said that, thanks to his first-hand knowledge of the series, he ensured a "design authenticity" for all the characters^[2]. According to Sakai himself, the key point was creating a design for Hiryu that looked like his Strider 2 incarnation from afar, but upon closer inspection was actually completely different.^[13]

Gameography

Art Gallery

Character Art

Strider 2 Solo

Strider 2 Tong Pooh

Strider 2 Kuniang sisters

Terrorist Honghuo

Hiryu's early design in the 2014 Strider

Hiryu plasma scarf sketches

Final Hiryu design

2014 Strider Solo

2014 Strider Tong Pooh

Xi Wang Mu

Promotional Artwork

3D promotional poster for Strider 2

2014 Strider promotional image

References