I treated myself to a treat last week...and I it got in the mail the other day.
The art book Final Fantasy the art of Eorzea.
I say five stars
*****
I haven't played any of the console editions of the Final Fantasy in years. The quality of game-play and story has gone down drastically. Square Enix games spend years in development only to really refine their eye candy and story and game-play are abysmal. FFXV was so terrible that they had to take it off the market, fix everything and try to re-ship and re-brand it into a new game....To what is should of been. Kind of like how Windows 7 was what Windows Vista was supposed to be.Even the last console game I played which was FFXII when a friend asked how it was its just basically a game about finding ancient artifacts such as swords or rocks rock rock sword. Fun to play but the two main characters didn't really needed to be in the game. I wished the game's true main characters were Fran and Baltier who should of been the real leading man of the story.
The real last installment I played and enjoyed was the DS handheld Four Heroes of Light. Very cute game with modern story writing elements.
It was hilarious that one can refuse the king's request to save the princess in the beginning of the game, and the story will still go on no matter what decision is made. And once you do meet the princess she's a bit of a brat and through the turn of some events she learns not to be so later in the game.
The "crown" system in Heroes of light gives the main characters different appearances, and abilities and fighting styles.
I like playing these types of games on a handheld now. I no longer have patience to sit in front of a tv and play RPG's on a console. On a handheld I can play anywhere even if I'm sitting on my desk taking a quick break.
Alas although the overall in my honest opinion Final Fantasy series quality has gone down, the art and design it still beams of excellence and innovative breathtaking original designs. I saw some of these books in Japan town before and I was happy to see them available online. At the time I saw them they were not. I didn't think I'd have a chance to see them again. If it is available at your local book store, buy it from them to support the business...
While looking around for reference pictures..
All three of these games I mentioned also happened to say I liked are games Akihiko Yoshida designed. Varying each design, character and style for each game.
Tetsuya Nomura I used to like in FFVII then after poking around Yoshitaka Amano did most of the foundation and groundwork for most of the visual designs in the series. When I was a teenager I thought the spiky hair thing was cool but I prefer the more slick and smooth designs from the other artists when I got older. I appreciated what they did more.
Final Fantasy the Art of Eorzea
Back on point. So the art book is a soft cover with a tough plastic cover that does not slip easily.
303 pages! of art, sketches, concepts, and promotional work.
On every page there is text both in Japanese and English. There is more art than just text. My sister used to poke fun at me because out of all the books I have I never really read them, just looked at the pictures...
One of these days I'll do a flip-through of the book like parka blogs.
I rate it ***** stars
Pros:
-The amount of art work in high quality printing is astounding.
-303 pages of art! Who can beat that? At a fairly reasonable price???? 303 pages!
-Content is designed neatly and uncluttered that optimizes the space of the page, even when multiple artworks and text is displayed. No detail looks overlooked in formatting and placement of each image. Kind of like a gallery picks the best spot for art work to be displayed.
-Never before seen artwork is plenty that is showcased in the book.
-The book is divided into 8 sections: Image Art, Characters, Enemies, Mounts & Minions, Housing, World, Sketches, Additional art.
-None of the selections seem particularly neglected in content.
Diagrams and notes are included with concept art
-Book is durable and pages won't tear easily. Printed on a high quality matte paper. Not too glossy where everything reflects back like the cover.
Cons:
-If you are not a huge collector or don't see value in a book dedicated to concept art then the price is a setback at $44.99
-Book jacket cover slips off easily,
(but that is with any book with a book sleeve, I bypass this by placing clear double-sided tape on each side, where it is un-noticeable place to keep it intact and in place.)
-Since I have worked in a print shop before, I have a bit of an extra eye when it comes to Quality Assurance in prints. Overall the prints came out slightly dark, probably because either:
-color profiles were not matched in the printing process and or
preparation for the image to be printed.
-The combination of the ink used
and the paper material makes the print
darker.
This disadvantage to this small detail to the printing, one cannot see minor detail on the designs because of this. I don't think a lot of people would notice.
In a way if it could hypothetically be purposeful the colors being dark, then it might of been a sacrifice to maintain certain richness of color in darker pieces, Like if a character was wearing a dark coat or the graphite sketches. Or it could of been worse if everything was
too light and unsaturated and this was the best balance that they could receive without messing everything up too drastically. Being a tad bit dark print is better than a lighter one where it is faded.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have, If you decide to purchase it.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have, If you decide to purchase it.
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