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Artbooks - The Best And The Worst

Ikkarus

Member
Easily my favorite artbook to date is the Eorzea Encyclopaedia.

Not only does it contain beautiful artwork but it also provides a massive lore information on FFXIV.

CvOkmqDW8AAPB6d.jpg

 

Auctopus

Member
Very true. I got the DS2 artbook recently and reading the interview made me a lot more respectful for the 'B-team'. I was never all that harsh on the game anyway, but it made me appreciate the challenges they were facing and how, all in all, they did a good job to overcome them.

That's exaclty what it did to me, too. I didn't think it was a bad game but I thought (and partially still do) it was a bad Souls game. However, the interview put many segments of the game in a different perspective which just allows me to see the game as this bump in the road in the franchise.

Anyway, unlike the others, the Bloodborne artbook doesn't have an interview at the end (unfortunately), so that's not really a problem if one wants to purchase it in Japanese. Besides, as I said above, everything's in English too.

Ah, I didn't know that. Thanks for the heads up.
 
I have that Valkyria Chronicles book and it's fantastic.

Any big artbook by Akihiko Yoshida is good too. Art of Eorzea, Art of Ishgard, Bravely Default/Second Design Works, Tactics Ogre Wheel of Fate, all fantastic.

The worst: Any 8-15 page booklet included with a "collector's edition" of a game. Stahp.

Easily my favorite artbook to date is the Eorzea Encyclopaedia.

Not only does it contain beautiful artwork but it also provides a massive lore information on FFXIV.

I need this in my bones.
 

Garlador

Member
Easily my favorite artbook to date is the Eorzea Encyclopaedia.

Not only does it contain beautiful artwork but it also provides a massive lore information on FFXIV.

I wish this was offered at Amazon. Square Enix's shipping kills me every time and it's the only reason I don't already have this.
 

Firebrand

Member
Easily my favorite artbook to date is the Eorzea Encyclopaedia.

Not only does it contain beautiful artwork but it also provides a massive lore information on FFXIV.

That was mainly the one I was looking at on the S-E store, looks beautiful, but that shipping cost lol. :( Maybe if I could find some more books on there.

Didn't realize how massive the book was until I saw a youtube video of it.
 

Jisgsaw

Member
Does anybody have any impressions of the Kaneko Works?

The last Japanese artbook I bought was the disappointing Sugimori Works so I'm hesitant to drop $300 on Kaneko works sight unseen even though he's one of my favorite artists.

That depends on what you expect from the Artbook.

Kaneko Works have one demon / design per page, in high quality, and nothing else, no text or anything (well, aside the compendium entry at the end).
So if you're interested for the designs only, it's incredible; if you want some design explanation, rough drafs and sketches from demons from during development, or sceneries, avoid it.
If you want the latter, I think Digital Devil apocalypse would be the right choice, though I can't comment as Amazon lost my package -_-
On a related note: anyone know if Kaneko Woirks Vol. 4 came out? And where to get it from before the prices skyrocket like for Vol. 1-3?
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
The FFXV super ultra limited three hundred dollar edition artbook is
criminally overpriced and unfairly rare
amazing.

 

Necron

Member
May have been posted but for those who want a translated Bloodborne artbook, there appears to be a date now:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1772940364/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I need this when it comes out.

I just recently bought the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided art book. I found it quite lovely:
51jRX3qheZL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Just a really great book on visual design. Similar to BioShock, the amount of detail put into how the environments and characters look like is just so much higher than other games. Similar to that game, it's incredibly distinct and unique on a purely visual level.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1783290986/
 

prophecy0

Member
I always loved the Final Fantasy IX one. I loved the art for this game in general so I immediately bought this book and tried to draw stuff from it myself.

gHOxUkw.jpg

I have this one as well and I love it. It helps that FFIX may be my overall favorite Final Fantasy.

I'll also second the Valkyria Chronicles artbook. It's fantastic.
 

Ikkarus

Member
That was mainly the one I was looking at on the S-E store, looks beautiful, but that shipping cost lol. :( Maybe if I could find some more books on there.

Didn't realize how massive the book was until I saw a youtube video of it.
I consider myself lucky as the shipping where I live (UK) isn't that bad. It's a beautiful book and for anyone who owns / plays FFXIV it's a must have in my opinion.
 

1upsuper

Member
If you like early SMT (SMT1, 2 and ...if) this is a treat. If you like his work on Devil Summoner as well like the original and Soul Hackers. Lots of both his demon designs and his character designs. There's also lots of Maken X work in there too which is one of my favourites because of just how wacky/insane it is. It's basically all of his work up until Maken X (SMT1, SMT2, ...if, Devil Summoner, Soul Hackers, Persona, Persona 2: Innocent Sin, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Maken X), so it's missing his PS2 era stuff. If you understand any Japanese there's lots of interviews as well. I think it's a great art book at a great price (if you get it imported from Japan), get it.

I'm gonna have to pick this up. I love his pre-PS2 stuff.
 
The DOOM artbook was a disappointment, but I don't know if that's just because the only other artbooks I own are Raising the Bar and World of The Witcher (more of a lore guidebook).

Not too upset over the DOOM book though because I got it for like 8 bucks.
 
Recently bought Deus Ex Universe Artbook for Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. It's pretty dope. Love the commentary and design evolution of characters... But it still feels a bit shallow considering the incredible amount of interior and object design they put in the game from guns to furnitures to bike, or even posters. Would still recommend it. It's an amazing read
 

YaBish

Member
I bought The Art of Rocksteady's Batman last year. Fantastic and deep retrospective.
51ldxoJ3YKL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

rocksteady-batman-04.jpg

rocksteady-batman-02.jpg


Great if you're a fan of the series.
 

Amani

Member
This thread's been extremely helpful for finding great artbooks that I missed, especially the parablogs site.

Gotta give it up to the Megaman & Megaman X Official Complete Works for the 25th Anniversary:
mm25-4.jpg


f5e3ba89.jpg


3f4af4cf.jpg


Was the first artbook I ever bought and ranks among my favorites. Plenty of art with the characters drawn in different styles and official art and design sketches for the classic and X series.
 

Mieu

Member
The FFXV super ultra limited three hundred dollar edition artbook is
criminally overpriced and unfairly rare
amazing.

I have two extra UCE's that contain the artbook.

It is the best artbook that came with a game labeled as a collector's edition. I just finished the game so I should be able to browse through it now.

What was the website used to track the prices? I regret not getting the suda51 artbook.


Also, how much is the shipping for the FF XIV artbook? I was hesitant to order it due to the store's shipping rates
 

Creepy

Member
Any paperback one I get with a pricey limited edition...
biiish I just paid through the nose for this, hardback that shit.
 
Most of Capcom's Japanese books are really, really good. Jam packed with concept art and notes. Grab the Udon translations e.g SF20, SF Eternal Challenge (rare now), Okami, Phoenix Wright and more.

I have a promo Asura's Wrath one but never opened it. It was a black cover with gold foil logo. Not thick but hardcover seemed good quality.

The Sky is good too. Got the first print edition too (brag).
 
The book that came with the Witcher 3 collectors edition is really nice and probably my favorite. Don't think I've seen it sold seperate anywhere so I assume that's the only way to get it. It really shits on a lot of the art "books" that come with most of today's special editions.

Most disappointing ones would be the art books I see that tend to be included with any recent Sony exclusive collectors edition. Just give us the complete book at a size I actually want to look at. Stop bullshiting us with this reduced garbage.
 

brinstar

Member
78fed18e52744114beff04f716e61a4b.jpg


Just got this beast the other day and I'm in love. It has art from pretty much everything including the spinoffs and even a little bit of XI.
 
The book that came with the Witcher 3 collectors edition is really nice and probably my favorite. Don't think I've seen it sold seperate anywhere so I assume that's the only way to get it. It really shits on a lot of the art "books" that come with most of today's special editions.

Most disappointing ones would be the art books I see that tend to be included with any recent Sony exclusive collectors edition. Just give us the complete book at a size I actually want to look at. Stop bullshiting us with this reduced garbage.

In Last Guardian's case, they went with an oversized but still thin yet also hardcover artbook that had one of the sketches of Trico on the cover. It made it look really classy, like an A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh book, and the actual content inside that book was quite in-depth considering the page limitation. The one included with the Japanese first-press copies, to my understanding, is more like a specialty version of the BRUTUS art magazine that just has Fumito Ueda features alongside some art assets. Even though the Japanese one is sized the same as a PS4 game case, both are good in their own ways.

I do hope that eventually we'll get a massive book that collects all three genDESIGN games' art from concept phase to execution. The mini-BRUTUS books aren't enough for me!
 

Izayoi

Banned
I sure wish we actually got the Pokemon artbooks... We did get the TCG one (only available in a BIG TCG special box thingie), and will be getting the manga artbook translated, but never these...

For ORAS and SM, if you pre-ordered both games at the Pokemon Center in Japan, these are what you would get:

Small, hardcover, but GORGEOUS!!!! I miss the days when Namco and Atlus used to just hand out separate artbooks for preorders!
Wow, I'm fucking PISSED.
 
Digital version of Witcher 2's art book was great cause they went back and updated it with artwork from the Enhanced Edition when it was released.
 
In Last Guardian's case, they went with an oversized but still thin yet also hardcover artbook that had one of the sketches of Trico on the cover. It made it look really classy, like an A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh book, and the actual content inside that book was quite in-depth considering the page limitation. The one included with the Japanese first-press copies, to my understanding, is more like a specialty version of the BRUTUS art magazine that just has Fumito Ueda features alongside some art assets. Even though the Japanese one is sized the same as a PS4 game case, both are good in their own ways.

I do hope that eventually we'll get a massive book that collects all three genDESIGN games' art from concept phase to execution. The mini-BRUTUS books aren't enough for me!
I have the last guardian art book as well and I agree that it's probably the most successful of the small art book format I've seen. Sony should model their future collectors edition included art books after it, but unfortunately it looks like they're just sticking with the same crappy format they've had for a while. Horizon's collectors edition art book only has 48 pages which is incredibly disappointing.
 

Mieu

Member
I got it from Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore in NYC. From I understand you can order it on Amazon Japan as well.


It's 51.83 at Amazon US. How much was it there?


Ill check amazon JP.

Edit: 3781 yen at amazon japan. Dont know about the shipping though.
 

Krammy

Member
I'm sure it's been discussed already, but the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimania's are astounding, not only for the usual art you come to expect, but a lot of tidbits and unseen stuff as well.

Final Fantasy I mock-up with silhouetted Dragon Quest monsters.
CYQXWbpWMAI7Cey.png:orig

Unused Terra design.
CYQXgqHWwAEcjbM.png:orig

Out of all the art books I own, these are my favourite. Shame I can't read a lick of it...
 
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