In a 1995 interview with the game's designer and illustrator Akihiro Kimura published in Dengeki Super Famicom magazine, he stated that with Emerald Dragon, he consciously tried to change up his art style up for its different incarnations. This was partly due to him thinking his drawing improved somewhat, but also that the amount of time it was taking him and his team to make the game naturally made him want to try different things out to keep himself from getting bored. The illustrations he did for the game's 1994 light novel were especially different, but for the Super Famicom version, he made sure the overall game's image remained unified, and ultimately didn't change too many things from the PC version.