In a 1994 Hippon Super and Game-on magazines interview, the game's field graphics designer Tomoe Inazawa wanted the Serpent Trench's ocean floor less shallow-looking by making it darker and more impenetrable, realistic and alluring than how the ocean appeared in previous Final Fantasy games:

"Well, in reality, that’s how the ocean floor is: dark and impenetrable. What has been depicted in earlier games is really a shallower image of the ocean. So I was thinking about how to convey something more realistic, so I made it dark. Dark and alluring."