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Best video game art books?

K

Ken Masters

Banned
After recently jumping on the crazy $17 shipped deal for the Final Fantasy Sky art book, I was just blown away by the quality of it and I'm feeling like I've missed out of some great art books over the years now. I'm not even a casual FF fan (only played 3 games in the franchise), and was just impressed by everything I saw. Maybe it was the glossy pages and hard cover. What have I missed out on?
 
D

Deleted member 126221

Unconfirmed Member
The Bayonetta and Okami ones I have are incredible (especially Okami). The Zelda one is alright too.
 
B

Bessy67

Member
It's not exactly an art book (although there are a lot of sketches in it) but Halsey's journal from the Halo: Reach CE was pretty cool.
 
kingpotato

kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
I really like the one that was released with mass effect (1). The best part of that game was the universe imho.
 
S

smokeyp

Member
The Street Fighter artbooks are pretty good. The Capcom Illustrations Gamest Mook is pretty awesome as well.
 
T

TopGun

Banned
Art of Monster Hunter, Persona 3/4, Metal Gear Solid 1.5-4, Shadow of the Colossus, Hyrule Historia, Catherine, Metroid Prime Trilogy, and Last of Us are all really good artbooks. Same go for the Final Fantasy titles.
 
S

Syril

Member
I've got both the Monster Hunter ones and they're pretty great. The first one has a ton of very early designs from when it was originally going to have a more fantasy-oriented style.
 
M

MG310

Member
Most of the Udon stuff is great - Mega Man Complete Works/MM25, Bayonetta etc.

Dark Horse's Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, and Alice:Madness Returns are fantastic as well.
 
S

Seven Force

Banned
A lot of the Capcom Complete Works books (Breath of Fire, Marvel Vs. Capcom, etc.) are pretty great. My absolute favorite, though is:

FEB073817.jpg
 
A

Anura

Member
Syril said:
I've got both the Monster Hunter ones and they're pretty great. The first one has a ton of very early designs from when it was originally going to have a more fantasy-oriented style.
Click to expand...

TopGun said:
Art of Monster Hunter, Persona 3/4, Metal Gear Solid 1.5-4, Shadow of the Colossus, Hyrule Historia, Catherine, Metroid Prime Trilogy, and Last of Us are all really good artbooks. Same go for the Final Fantasy titles.
Click to expand...

Yeah book one of MH is particularly great because it has some commentary from the artist at the start of each section. Pretty interesting stuff shame vol. 2 doesn't have them. Even still they're both great,
 
L

leng jai

Member
The best one I have is definitely the one that came with the Skyrim CE both in terms of content and material quality.
 
S

SoraanTribal

Member
imo, Hyrule Historia is my favorite "art book". It's not just an art book though - it has a lot of information about the series in general. That's part of the reason why I love it. I also bought the Amano "The Sky" art book off Amazon. It is such nice quality.
 
M

Mellahan

Concerned about dinosaur erection.
Pretty much every Mega Man artbook from UDOn Entertainment. There's so much to look at! MM25 especially!
 
P

-PXG-

Member
I have a stupid huge collection of books. I would say, though being a mediocre game, the God of War Ascension book is a damn good, or at least a good book I've purchased as of late.

God damn, don't make me go through my shelf this late and start posting pics. I made a thread a while ago. My collection is waaaaaaaaaay bigger now. I got anime, movie and manga art books too, but mostly gaming related stuff.
 
T

Tzeentch

Member
The Halo art books tend to be very, very good (I particularly liked the H3 and H4 ones). The AC: Black Flag artbook is very cool. I was let down by the Titanfall book (it's meh).
 
K

Ken Masters

Banned
-PXG- said:
I have a stupid huge collection of books. I would say, though being a mediocre game, the God of War Ascension book is a damn good, or at least a good book I've purchased as of late.

God damn, don't make me go through my shelf this late and start posting pics. I made a thread a while ago. My collection is waaaaaaaaaay bigger now. I got anime, movie and manga art books too, but mostly gaming related stuff.
Click to expand...

Need those pics
 
M

mdubs

Banned
I have the all 3 Valkyria Chronicles art books. Absolutely fantastic, they have great character profiles and story info. The Persona 4 one is great too, but anything that has Soejima art is beautiful.
 
S

Syf

Banned
The Blizzard art books are always excellent. I own the collector's editions of Diablo 3, Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and Reaper of Souls and the art books are all really well done.
 
D

Dog Problems

Banned
A couple of my favorites:

Capcom Design Works

dZ9Numj.jpg


The Art of Brutal Legend

gs5suND.jpg


The Capcom book covers my favorite years by them (pre 2001, I believe) and the Brutal Legend book is nice and big. Mine came with the nice slipcover since I ordered it directly from Double Fine, not sure if they are still available that way.
 
R

Rex Griswold

Member
I haven't been disappointed by any of Blizzard's art books, even though the character art in the vanilla WoW(I finally got my hands on the vanilla CE for a not insane price, tears of joy ensued) one was a little light.

Halo art books are also quite enjoyable.
 
P

-PXG-

Member
The Darksiders art books are insane. The first one was expensive as hell when I bought it. Darksiders 2 should still be cheap and easy to get...I think.

Messofanego said:
Alice Madness Returns


Snails were in the game, but not to the level of this snail boss:
alice-madness-returns-art-2
Click to expand...

This. Fantastic book. You can really tell which books were actually planned and coordinated by actual artists or the devs themselves and which ones weren't.

Ken Masters said:
Need those pics
Click to expand...

Eh...I found photos on my phone I took for a co-worker. Sorry that my books are all out of order and such. As I said, I need a bigger shelf to store them properly. You can't tell what half of them are :/

NB4njl8.jpg


3tD7Tfl.jpg


TyniBdM.jpg
 
T

Tyrant Rave

Banned
Love the Marvel vs. Capcom artbook that Udon put out. Just about every piece from the series is in there and it's awesome.

Udon puts out a lot of great books in general, especially for Capcom stuff.
 
K

Ken Masters

Banned
-PXG- said:
Eh...I found photos on my phone I took for a co-worker. Sorry that my books are all out of order and such. As I said, I need a bigger shelf to store them properly. You can't tell what half of them are :/
Click to expand...

Very nice, do you have the AC4 book? I'm looking to pick that up next
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
MG310 said:
Most of the Udon stuff is great - Mega Man Complete Works/MM25, Bayonetta etc.

Dark Horse's Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, and Alice:Madness Returns are fantastic as well.
Click to expand...
Messofanego said:
Alice Madness Returns


Snails were in the game, but not to the level of this snail boss:
alice-madness-returns-art-2
Click to expand...

Agreed. The Art of Alice: Madness Returns is the one and only art book I have, though I would have snapped up The Art of Portal 2 instantly if Valve hadn't pulled the plug on it.
 
M

mrwilt

Member
Always loved the artwork in Dofus. I picked this book up at Siggraph back in 2005 I think. Whenever it was held in Boston.

q7FgumL.jpg
 
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