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Artbooks - The Best And The Worst
- Thread starter hampig
- Start date
Grim Patron
Member
Recently: FE: Awakening is superb.
The Ys artbook is great as well. Here's a good resource if you're interested in artbooks - http://www.parkablogs.com
The Ys artbook is great as well. Here's a good resource if you're interested in artbooks - http://www.parkablogs.com
Jim_Cacher
Member
This one. Damn good.
Hyrule Historia was disapointing ... lots of games have just one or two pages and lots of focus on text and timeline and stuff.
Okami and SF20/SF25 are the best ones. LOTS of drawings, small text ... awesome.
I kinda want the drasktalkers one .... i heard it is awesome too.
SKY (the amano FF one) is good but the full page drawings means lots of things were left out.
Okami and SF20/SF25 are the best ones. LOTS of drawings, small text ... awesome.
I kinda want the drasktalkers one .... i heard it is awesome too.
SKY (the amano FF one) is good but the full page drawings means lots of things were left out.
Brian_FETO
Banned
The Bloodborne artbook that came with the steelbook edition didn't have any of the bosses
Like....how? So disappointing.
Like....how? So disappointing.
CielTynave
Member
For worst I'd say any number of those "art books" that tend to come with collectors editions of a lot of games. 20-30 pages at most, they're more like art pamphlets than books.
TangerineCloud
Banned
None of the video game artbooks I have compare to the of fantastic set of artbooks that was produced for Legend of Korra animated series, but I'll give some credit to the Dead Space artbook. It's pretty great. And I haven't played Alien: Isolation, but I was gifted the artbook by another gaffer. That's also a nice one.
valkillmore
Member
Does Mario Mania count?
Capcom Design Works was my first and is still my favorite. Great cross-section of art from Capcom's golden age.
Udon's Tribute (Street Fighter Tribute, Darkstalkers Tribute, Megaman Tribute, etc.) line is really nice. Tons of amazing, professional-looking fanart that gives you a lot more variety of interpretations of the characters than you'd see in official art.
Atlus was putting out some pretty nice artbooks for preorders for a bit there, but they seem to have fallen off. I have the Persona 4, Knights in the Knightmare, and Etrian Oddysey 3 ones, nice magazine-size format with a good 50-some pages full of art. The EO3 one is especially great, with a classy cardstock cover.
On the flipside, the 'artbook' portion of the SMTIV artbook/guidebook was seriously lacking.
Udon's Tribute (Street Fighter Tribute, Darkstalkers Tribute, Megaman Tribute, etc.) line is really nice. Tons of amazing, professional-looking fanart that gives you a lot more variety of interpretations of the characters than you'd see in official art.
Atlus was putting out some pretty nice artbooks for preorders for a bit there, but they seem to have fallen off. I have the Persona 4, Knights in the Knightmare, and Etrian Oddysey 3 ones, nice magazine-size format with a good 50-some pages full of art. The EO3 one is especially great, with a classy cardstock cover.
On the flipside, the 'artbook' portion of the SMTIV artbook/guidebook was seriously lacking.
Yabberwocky
Member
The Eyes of Bayonetta artbook is my favorite, with a ton of art and lot of developer notes that are sadly quite rare in a lot of artbooks. The Office-esque behind the scenes DVD on the development of the game makes it even better.
The Persona 3/4 artbooks have some really great insight into the characters from Soejima. Recently, FFXIV: A Realm Reborn artbooks are just gorgeous. I hope Square releases a decent one for FFXV, they've always been a bit half-assed with their artbooks outside of FFXIV, Bravely Default, and Tactics Ogre. Even the 25th Memorial Ultimanias are quite sparse considering the amount of content that would have been made for each game.
The Persona 3/4 artbooks have some really great insight into the characters from Soejima. Recently, FFXIV: A Realm Reborn artbooks are just gorgeous. I hope Square releases a decent one for FFXV, they've always been a bit half-assed with their artbooks outside of FFXIV, Bravely Default, and Tactics Ogre. Even the 25th Memorial Ultimanias are quite sparse considering the amount of content that would have been made for each game.
First of all, Parka Blogs is legit. Second of all, half of the FE: Awakening book was character dialogue. Pages and pages and pages of it. So while the art section was good, as an art book on the whole it was a bit of a disappointment lol.
Crunch2600
Neo Member
This came out recently. Best art.
Monster Hunter Illustrations is amazing. It's got tons of gallery pages with lots of commentary from the artists along with interview sections about the origins of the main designs. There are also a lot of concept designs from when it was originally going to be more fantasy oriented.
NipplesAndToes23
Member
I have an amano one, but I'm not sure if it's this one.
GoldandBlue
Member
The worst is any pamphlet sized art "book" with a few official pieces you've seen all over the internet.
cryptosporidium
Member
SFV's is Garbage Tier
KOF XIV's is really nice
If you count Zelda Historia, that was really good!
KOF XIV's is really nice
If you count Zelda Historia, that was really good!
cj_iwakura
Member
Because there's a real one that's incredible on every level.
DiamondDog74
Banned
The art book detailing a map to wades kitchen in Rugrats search for reptar
TangerineCloud
Banned
I'm amazed that devs and pubs still try to pass these things off as "collector's items". They're so dinky and unsatisfying.
3 books .. it is huge ... but since pretty much every art is full page, lots of art were left out, specialy from the later FF that had fewer amano art
Ninja Scooter
Member
Castlevania Lords of Shadow one is great. Though those games are very divisive (especially 2) the art is fantastic. Also Brutal Legend. It's fucking HUGE (shaped like a record sleeve) too.
Okay, okay, I'm going to put down the truth
1. Valkyria design archives 1=2>3 for how thick, informative and overall faithfully beautiful to the source matrrual they are. They're slightly above
2. Monster Hunter Artbooks (because of how it's oriented to open, the book is kind of a weird shelf pick. Beautiful, but worrying for preservation purposes)
3. Tactics Ogre LUCT is phenomenal for the price and I'd say Fire Emblem Iris is just as beautiful, even more since the US edition is Hardcover over the JP softcover
4. SF (There are a lot, rummage through them, I have about 5, 3 are trash but the other two are great. It's only low on my list because I'm not a big SF fan
5. The works of Takehito Harada (famously known for the Disgaea series. I know, I know, this is a very niche spot, it's honestly my #1 but I can understand others not quite liking it. If I wanted to say it has a mass of content, it doesn't, if I wanted to say it had a lot of unique art, it doesn't, if I could even say it makes up for the 4 other Disgaea artbooks in terms of miscellaneous triva, I'd be a liar. But it's so clean and beautiful you won't regret having this on your shelf.
6. Atelier Dusk series artbook. Great stuff, if a bit pandering and I implore you to check it out as it's reasonably cheap these days. Paper quality is great, size is hefty, not too much leftover white space (...yeah) and there are interesting asides in it.
7. Ace Attorney artbooks (Hooo boy, where to start. First, you can't really go wrong with any of them except AA4 works which is eh, but I'll warn you that the first three data books are incredibly bare boned, some weren't even translated into english, so if you know JP, great, if not...pretty pictures!
8. Legend of Heroes Artbook 1+2 are legendary...if you've played the games, or at least TitS. If you haven't then while they are good looking enough to put on display, you're not going to enjoy them as much as you could.
9. YS- We go through Ys1- all the released games until YS 7. Very atmospheric book, manufacture quality is great and the art is striking, in both concept and in game assets. Again, this is a must have for fans of the series, not much for others.
This is just off the top of my head, I'd have to go check out my shelf for the rest.
1. Valkyria design archives 1=2>3 for how thick, informative and overall faithfully beautiful to the source matrrual they are. They're slightly above
2. Monster Hunter Artbooks (because of how it's oriented to open, the book is kind of a weird shelf pick. Beautiful, but worrying for preservation purposes)
3. Tactics Ogre LUCT is phenomenal for the price and I'd say Fire Emblem Iris is just as beautiful, even more since the US edition is Hardcover over the JP softcover
4. SF (There are a lot, rummage through them, I have about 5, 3 are trash but the other two are great. It's only low on my list because I'm not a big SF fan
5. The works of Takehito Harada (famously known for the Disgaea series. I know, I know, this is a very niche spot, it's honestly my #1 but I can understand others not quite liking it. If I wanted to say it has a mass of content, it doesn't, if I wanted to say it had a lot of unique art, it doesn't, if I could even say it makes up for the 4 other Disgaea artbooks in terms of miscellaneous triva, I'd be a liar. But it's so clean and beautiful you won't regret having this on your shelf.
6. Atelier Dusk series artbook. Great stuff, if a bit pandering and I implore you to check it out as it's reasonably cheap these days. Paper quality is great, size is hefty, not too much leftover white space (...yeah) and there are interesting asides in it.
7. Ace Attorney artbooks (Hooo boy, where to start. First, you can't really go wrong with any of them except AA4 works which is eh, but I'll warn you that the first three data books are incredibly bare boned, some weren't even translated into english, so if you know JP, great, if not...pretty pictures!
8. Legend of Heroes Artbook 1+2 are legendary...if you've played the games, or at least TitS. If you haven't then while they are good looking enough to put on display, you're not going to enjoy them as much as you could.
9. YS- We go through Ys1- all the released games until YS 7. Very atmospheric book, manufacture quality is great and the art is striking, in both concept and in game assets. Again, this is a must have for fans of the series, not much for others.
This is just off the top of my head, I'd have to go check out my shelf for the rest.
Yes, love this one. I like the Bioshock Infinite one as well for all the commentary and notes on all the designs and unused content throughout.
What could have been...
The ones for Wild Arms 5 and Ys Seven Premium Edition were actually quite nice.
Lord of Ostia
Member
I mean...I wanted a transcript of all the support convos, so as a fan I'm pretty happy. The book is also considerably thicker than most art books, so it's not like they cut any art for the support conversations, they just added them on at the back and printed them on cheaper paper. Not sure why you'd complain when it was clearly just a nice addition and didn't take anything away from the book overall.
That said, the FE: Awakening Artbook is wonderful. I also have The Last of Us artbook, I like that one quite a bit. I have some manga artbooks as well, like the one Katsura Hoshino did for D. Gray Man, and Miyazaki's Nausicaa Art book (which is great because of all his comments on his work. He's the quintessential grump old man, lol).
As far as recent artbooks go, the KoF XIV one was pretty solid. The Dark Souls design works books are quite nice, though the first one is disappointingly sparse.
Does anyone have the latest Dragon Quest art book? Not the 25th anniversary one, but the one that came out earlier this year? I really want to pick it up but of course I can't find any good info on it.
On a related note, I happened to finally get around to ordering the 25th anniversary Mega Man artbook. Really looking forward to it. It looks great.
Does anyone have the latest Dragon Quest art book? Not the 25th anniversary one, but the one that came out earlier this year? I really want to pick it up but of course I can't find any good info on it.
On a related note, I happened to finally get around to ordering the 25th anniversary Mega Man artbook. Really looking forward to it. It looks great.
Off the top of my head and in no particular order:
Great:
The Sky (FF Series)
Journey
Valkyria Chronicles
Okami
Shigenori Soejima Collection (Persona 3 mostly)
Persona 3/4/4A Design Works
Remember Me
The Art of Naughty Dog
Good:
Art of Rocksteady's Batman
Bioshock Infinite
Last of Us
Hyrule Historia
Dark Souls 1-3 (smaller books so I knocked them down a tier)
Not really an art book but worth checking out: Ashley Wood's MGS comic collection
Recs I've seen:
Capcom Design Works
Halo
Mass Effect
Great:
The Sky (FF Series)
Journey
Valkyria Chronicles
Okami
Shigenori Soejima Collection (Persona 3 mostly)
Persona 3/4/4A Design Works
Remember Me
The Art of Naughty Dog
Good:
Art of Rocksteady's Batman
Bioshock Infinite
Last of Us
Hyrule Historia
Dark Souls 1-3 (smaller books so I knocked them down a tier)
Not really an art book but worth checking out: Ashley Wood's MGS comic collection
Recs I've seen:
Capcom Design Works
Halo
Mass Effect
Poodlestrike
Banned
Halo 5's was fantastic. Tons of wonderful tidbits and, of course, gorgeous art. Ditto the Mythos book. They're coming out with one on the ships too, with cutaway layouts.
This is my absolute favorite artbook. Love the artstyle and it has a lot of really cool shapes, colors, and tidbits about the games/sprites.
My other favorite is this one.
Mine is actually getting extremely worn out due to how much I look at it.
My other favorite is this one.
The designs are incredible and the art that went into realizing Ishgard and the lands of Heavensward is amazing. Also, I happen to have mine signed by Yoshi-P!
Simo
Member
My favorites are the Xenogears Perfect Works and the art books for God of War 3 and God of War: Ascension:
The Ascension one is just a massive tome where the edge of the pages are gold leaf and it has a silk ribbon for a bookmark. I also really like the Halo art books and Destiny's, The Art of Final Fantasy IX, Art of Metal Gear Solid and the Skyrim art book was great too.
Worst? Probably those game case sized ones that most have mentioned already.
The Ascension one is just a massive tome where the edge of the pages are gold leaf and it has a silk ribbon for a bookmark. I also really like the Halo art books and Destiny's, The Art of Final Fantasy IX, Art of Metal Gear Solid and the Skyrim art book was great too.
Worst? Probably those game case sized ones that most have mentioned already.
The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts is the one you want if you want to see illustrations. Historia was...well, a history book of some sort.
Massive Duck. C.M.
Banned
I should pick up an FFXIV book. The ingame models are good too but the 2D art blows it away.
Mexen
Member
my man
My Mega Man 25th anniversary art book arrived yesterday. This is now my favorite art book. There is a staggering amount of content here, and it has the perfect amount of artist commentary throughout, most of which is really interesting. I'd love the pick up the Mega Man Zero art book now but it looks like it's prohibitively expensive and needs a reprint.