• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Artbooks - The Best And The Worst

Fraxin

Member
I would expect that too, it seems like a silly choice since Devil Summoner already has its own book.

19-world2.jpg

Does this one you posted contains anything regarding the Raido Kuzunoha games?
 

Fraxin

Member
Nope. The closest thing to an artbook I have is the official Doublejump strategy guide. DS World Guidance is just the original Devil Summoner.

That's so unfortunate, always liked the designs in those games. I guess I will have to wait for maybe Kazuma Kaneko Artworks VI or VII. That is if the 5th volume is for Soul Hackers.
 

ScOULaris

Member
How much of the TLG book is concept art? That's what I mainly want to see. I would be a bit disappointed if it were more articles and dev photos or something like that.
There isn't a tremendous amount of concept art in the book because the team simply didn't create that much during development. If it's mainly concept art you're after, the book might not be for you. It's more about developer insight and gorgeous screenshots with concept sketches scattered throughout.
 

ubiblu

Member
Okami Complete Works is the best of the best, but Hyrule Historia and the Super Famicom Box Art Collection are superb also.
 

1upsuper

Member
Okami Complete Works is the best of the best, but Hyrule Historia and the Super Famicom Box Art Collection are superb also.

I don't agree on Hyrule Historia. I don't really consider it an art book. If I did, it'd be one of the weakest art books I have. Informative and cool though.
 
This bad boy here is great (images shamelessly stolen from google, I may get around on taking a few pics from my copy):



The way they re-wrote history through art and pop culture is amazing:

Yes it's very good ! Love the engineering details.

Has anyone got the FFXIV Encyclopedia Eorzea?

Just wondering if its worth picking up.

Friend playing tons of FF XIV, he loves the book. Its going to the very end of heavensward but it doesn't have ANYTHING about Stormblood (but it makes sens because Stormblood is not in Eorza). I could see it and its indeed beautiful and tons to read.

My Bloodborne art book was just delivered!

What ?

Mine too! Got it for 9.77

What ???
 

Mieu

Member
How did you get it for so cheap?

Yes it's very good ! Love the engineering details.



Friend playing tons of FF XIV, he loves the book. Its going to the very end of heavensward but it doesn't have ANYTHING about Stormblood (but it makes sens because Stormblood is not in Eorza). I could see it and its indeed beautiful and tons to read.



What ?



What ???

I ordered the book last december 18, 2016 when it was still 22.66. They offered me a courtesy credit and there was an ongoing book promotion at that time.

I was surprised that it is now at $40+
 
Friend playing tons of FF XIV, he loves the book. Its going to the very end of heavensward but it doesn't have ANYTHING about Stormblood (but it makes sens because Stormblood is not in Eorza). I could see it and its indeed beautiful and tons to read.

Thanks, I've just ordered myself a copy.
 
Just got my Bloodborne art book. I didn't realize that it was a softcover book and judging from the reviews on Amazon I am not alone in that.

Looking up the Japanese version, it also appears to be softcover, so I imagine Udon basically just localized that book for western release.

Despite the current asking price of $45, I purchased mine for about $20 so I am pretty comfortable with it.

Still looking through, but it is pretty nice so far.
 

1upsuper

Member
Mine arrives tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to it. It'll look out of place next to my copies of the Dark Souls art books though since it's a soft cover.
As if to say Bloodborne isn't a Souls game. :p

Dark Souls 3 art book when?
 

Servbot24

Banned
Just got my Bloodborne art book. I didn't realize that it was a softcover book and judging from the reviews on Amazon I am not alone in that.

Looking up the Japanese version, it also appears to be softcover, so I imagine Udon basically just localized that book for western release.

Despite the current asking price of $45, I purchased mine for about $20 so I am pretty comfortable with it.

Still looking through, but it is pretty nice so far.

Got mine as well. The post man folded it in half to cram it in my mailbox. :(
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I never saw this thread before. Didn't realize so many artbooks were localized and available for decent prices on Amazon.ca. Added a whole bunch to my wishlist!

Should I pre-order the Bloodborne one before it gets sold out, or should it be safe to put on my birthday wishlist (which is in August)?

Also, is the Castlevania: LoS artbook worth it? I didn't care for the game but I loved the art, there was one negative review that said it was mostly rough sketches and was disappointing, so I'm a little iffy... apologies if I missed a post ITT about it. Edit: oh, a review site above... thanks I'll check it out
 

Zackat

Member
Just got my Bloodborne art book. I didn't realize that it was a softcover book and judging from the reviews on Amazon I am not alone in that.

Looking up the Japanese version, it also appears to be softcover, so I imagine Udon basically just localized that book for western release.

Despite the current asking price of $45, I purchased mine for about $20 so I am pretty comfortable with it.

Still looking through, but it is pretty nice so far.

I did not expect it to be softcover. First video game artbook I have bought that was softcover.
 

sublimit

Banned
Just got my Bloodborne art book. I didn't realize that it was a softcover book and judging from the reviews on Amazon I am not alone in that.

Looking up the Japanese version, it also appears to be softcover, so I imagine Udon basically just localized that book for western release.

Despite the current asking price of $45, I purchased mine for about $20 so I am pretty comfortable with it.

Still looking through, but it is pretty nice so far.

What???Is it out?
I have had it pre-ordered a long time ago (last year?) and my amazon.uk order says it will be released on the 4th of July.

Tomorrow i will probably get The Last Guardian art book.
 

1upsuper

Member
The Bloodborne art book is great. It's funny that some of the art almost looks like it has chromatic aberration due to the weird blue/red 3D look. You can see this on the lampposts on pages 14-5 and the sewer pipe on page 23.
 

duckroll

Member
I picked up all 3 of the FFXIV artbooks recently (not the lore book) and I guess I can give a bit of a mini-review on them here since it fits with the topic so well.

I think that the first two artbooks are really, really good. They are well formatted, designs are divided into interesting sections, and there's a bit of commentary on most pieces which gives insight into either the process or some intent behind the work. I'm really impressed with the effort that went into them. 300+ pages each. Each section covers different stuff like promo artwork, character designs, monster designs, bosses, mounts, housing cosmetics, location design, weapons/armor, etc. It's a very comprehensive look at the amount of art production that goes into the game before any of it is even modeled. Printing is high quality, and each book comes with an exclusive DLC code for a special minion in FFXIV too. Cute bonus.

The latest artbook though, is a bit of a disappointment. It's not a BAD artbook by any means, because FFXIV art is all cool, but compared to the previous two, it's very clearly padded. The format of the book is different, and instead of pure sections of character designs, monster designs, etc, a chunk of the book separates designs for each trail and dungeon from the 3.x patches into individual parts, with pages wasted on large 2-page splash pages for each dungeon. On top of that, there is almost no commentary in the book at all. There are some short comments from the art team at the very end of the book, but individual art pieces no longer have any comments on them. There is also a bit of recycled character art from previous books, except presented in large blown up full page pieces for single designs, obviously to pad it more. Meh. I know it's not easy to fill 300+ pages with patch content to charge the same price for another book but yeah, I'm not impressed. I imagine the lack of commentary has to do with how the book was produced while the team was probably very busy on Stormblood?
 
Finally found the time to take some (because of the lightning still a bit disappointing) pictures of our Artbook and Game Guide collection.

We have almost every FFXIV Book including the 3 Eorzea Collection Catalogs with every item from the game inside, the collector's edition books and the Eorzea encyclopedia. The Dark Souls and Bloodborne books and the latest Zelda Books including the GIANT Breath of the Wild Mega Guide. (Serious, it's a book for Giants)
Oh and some new and very very old game guides. :D

Wish I had better pictures but we'll, it's readable. :D

MvV4uzr.jpg


ID0fqou.jpg


SRlMHMG.jpg


tRuQWSD.jpg


f7volYW.jpg


rGlgifM.jpg


YCRaYpC.jpg


tldyUcZ.jpg


MJD5leU.jpg


Oh and we have all the Zelda guides in the limited edition with gold borders and this big chest where they are in it. You can see one of them in the last picture.
 

DemWalls

Member
Dark Souls 3 art book when?

2019, considering Udon's usual timing. I'm also afraid of how much it will cost, given the Japanese edition's page count.

Oh, and the fact that it may end up being soft cover is definitely a bummer. Bloodborne Design Works has been quite a disappointment in this regard.


Also, is the Castlevania: LoS artbook worth it? I didn't care for the game but I loved the art, there was one negative review that said it was mostly rough sketches and was disappointing, so I'm a little iffy... apologies if I missed a post ITT about it. Edit: oh, a review site above... thanks I'll check it out

I may be late on this but, despite it objectively being a good artbook, I found it pretty disappointing. I think we can all agree that the environments were the game's strong suit, so I hoped for them to be the focus of the book. Unfortunately, that's not the case, and the environmental art selection is actually rather limited, to leave more room for some frankly not too interesting character art.
 

1upsuper

Member
Finally found the time to take some (because of the lightning still a bit disappointing) pictures of our Artbook and Game Guide collection.

We have almost every FFXIV Book including the 3 Eorzea Collection Catalogs with every item from the game inside, the collector's edition books and the Eorzea encyclopedia. The Dark Souls and Bloodborne books and the latest Zelda Books including the GIANT Breath of the Wild Mega Guide. (Serious, it's a book for Giants)
Oh and some new and very very old game guides. :D

Wish I had better pictures but we'll, it's readable. :D

Nice collection. I don't see any very old guides though.
 
Nice collection. I don't see any very old guides though.


Thanks. :)

Maybe you have an other definition of very old, but I consider Tomb Raider 2, 3, 4, 5, Vagrant Story, Metal Gear Solid, The Legend of Zelda Alttp as old guides. ^^
That's at least the time where official game guides really became a thing here in Germany.
 
Finally found the time to take some (because of the lightning still a bit disappointing) pictures of our Artbook and Game Guide collection.

We have almost every FFXIV Book including the 3 Eorzea Collection Catalogs with every item from the game inside, the collector's edition books and the Eorzea encyclopedia. The Dark Souls and Bloodborne books and the latest Zelda Books including the GIANT Breath of the Wild Mega Guide. (Serious, it's a book for Giants)
Oh and some new and very very old game guides. :D

Wish I had better pictures but we'll, it's readable. :D

[pics]
[pics]
[pics]
[pics]
[pics]
[pics]


Oh and we have all the Zelda guides in the limited edition with gold borders and this big chest where they are in it. You can see one of them in the last picture.

very nice !

You got twice Art of Ishgard, I assume JP and NA prints ?
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
Finally found the time to take some (because of the lightning still a bit disappointing) pictures of our Artbook and Game Guide collection.

We have almost every FFXIV Book including the 3 Eorzea Collection Catalogs with every item from the game inside, the collector's edition books and the Eorzea encyclopedia. The Dark Souls and Bloodborne books and the latest Zelda Books including the GIANT Breath of the Wild Mega Guide. (Serious, it's a book for Giants)
Oh and some new and very very old game guides. :D

Wish I had better pictures but we'll, it's readable. :D

MvV4uzr.jpg


ID0fqou.jpg


SRlMHMG.jpg


tRuQWSD.jpg


f7volYW.jpg


rGlgifM.jpg


YCRaYpC.jpg


tldyUcZ.jpg


MJD5leU.jpg


Oh and we have all the Zelda guides in the limited edition with gold borders and this big chest where they are in it. You can see one of them in the last picture.

Yoo how is that Dark Souls the Art of the Trilogy book? I didn't even know it existed.
 

DemWalls

Member
Yoo how is that Dark Souls the Art of the Trilogy book? I didn't even know it existed.

It was included in the Collector's Edition (only the European one, if I'm not mistaken). It's cool, but if you already have the other Design Works it's redundant.
 

4444244

Member
Anyone want to see some pics for the Street Fighter III New Gen. art book.

There were (sort of) two versions of this, a small 'mook' that has some of the art, and a larger nearly A4 sized art book, I have the latter.
 
And this morning my wife says, "Oh my package from Amazon is here! Maybe you should open it?"

Tactics Ogre Art Works.

Edit: can't seem to post pics from phone.



IMG_20170709_104910.jpg
 
Top Bottom