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The Capcom Illustrations Gamest Mook
is a collection of one whole hell of a lot of Capcom's design bits and
bobs. Characters from loads of their 80s and early 90s arcade games,
little cartoon things. I've got one gripe in that there's only one
small page on Aliens Vs Predator, but you can't have everything, I
suppose.
One of the many interesting titles I found in Otaku's catalogue was a Virtual On Graphics book (not pictured, because the metallic print cover doesn't scan too well), containing absolutely gorgeous renderings of the mechs and their weapons from the original Virtual On and a picture of the upgraded Temjin from Oratorio Tangram. A beautiful book. Following my extremely jammy aquisition of Sakura Wars and Sakura Wars 2, I thought I'd grab the Sakura Wars Illustrations book, again from Otaku. This brilliant book contains a hell of a lot of character art, for all the characters both good and evil. It's also got interviews with the people behind the game (which I can't read, 'cos they're in Japanese) and, in a prime example of how odd the Japanese can be, patterns for making some of the clothes worn in the game! The Grandia 2 World Guidance Book sounds like one of those hint books you can get, but it's more of an artbook. The character designs, monsters, scenery and sundries presented in this book are some of the most amazing I've ever seen, and makes me all the more keen to get a Dreamcast myself, so I can play the game. As soon as I found out that Square had produced a Final Fantasy X Preview book, I ordered it. I'm not necessarily planning on getting the game (it is PS2, after all), I'm always interested in the effort that goes into the art and design of the FF games. By western standards, this book can seem a little cluttered at times, and it's layed out to be read 'backwards' (that is, the first page is at Right end of the book), but the quality of print and content shine through. Despite some incredibly detailed content, the Macross Plus Game Edition book is something of a disappointment. It is the artbook for the Macross Plus game for PS, and it only really shows any ties to the anime by incorporating millions of video captures from the movie. Having been unable to obtain it in the UK, I sent off to the States for the Capcom Design Works artbook. Since it's Capcom's own, rather than a 'sequel' to the Gamest Mook, there are a lot of common images, but the print quality, clearer layout and greater focus more than makes up for the similarities. It's difficult to decide which is better, though, because the Gamest Mook contains a wider variety of stuff, even if it does seem crowded sometimes. Since the Grandia 2 WGB turned out to be an artbook, I was hoping for something similar of the Phantasy Star Online Ver.2 Perfect Guide. No such luck. A 'Perfect Guide' is a guidebook. While this one has plenty of screenshots, it has very little in the way of artwork. Most of the book is taken up with maps and statistics. It's huge, though, and very well presented. If only I could read Japanese. Then again, I don't have PSO, so it doesn't much matter. I had more luck with the PSO 1&2 Sketchbook, though it's not just a sketchbook. It includes images of all the permutations of costume and colour for all the characters available in the game. There are some truly excellent pictures of characters, equipment, MAG units, monsters and locations. Some highly imaginative stuff! The Wild Arms 3 Sketch and Fanbook is exactly what the name suggests. I'm not very familiar with the Wild Arms series, but what I've seen of the artwork has always been interesting. All the usual Japanese fantasy RPG staples, with the addition of some fantastically retro guns. The Metal Slug X Guide Book is just that, but it also includes a decent amount of SNK's very strange, distorted Slug artwork. While it's not much use to me as a guidebook, it's quite a cool item (though only about 1/2 the size of the usual art/guide books) and the picture on the cover is just too cute. I've never heard of Genso Suikoden Gaiden (not even sure what a 'gaiden' is) but this Volume 1 Official Visual Fan Book is rather nice. There is a great selection of artwork from the game, and even (I'm guessing) some hints or spoilers for the game. The game appears to involve characters from GS2, but there are firearms involved, so I have no idea where it would appear in any timeline. A hardcover artbook is always a good thing and, although rather sparse in the artwork department, the Final Fantasy IX Visual Arts Collection is no exception. It invovlves both CG artwork from the game, and the distinctive original character designs of the awesome Amano Yoshitaka. All About StreetFighter Zero 3 certainly fulfils its promise. Low on art, but absolutely packed with information about the characters, the moves, the endings... It is quite literally ALL about SFZ3. It's volume 21 of the All About series, and I'd love to know what the others are, even if they're also less art-more info. Being full of Japanese text, it hasn't helped me understand more of the game I have on the Saturn, but it's a cool book to have nonetheless. As is the Capcom Vs SNK Millennium Fight 2000 Official Character Book. This has a fair selection of art from both Capcom and SNK, along with characters' histories and a comprehensive moves list. There's also an article at the back entitled 'The History of Fighting Battle Game, with time-lines for both Capcom and SNK. The Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle Sketch & Fanbook was one I decided to buy without any knowledge of the game - I simply liked the artwork I saw. The book didn't disappoint, with characters, machinery and locations from what looks to be quite a strange little game. This book came with a CD-ROM containing all kinds of cool extras, like screensavers, wallpapers and video. Last time I checked there had only been three Breath of Fire games, but it looks as though I missed one, because Dragon Quarter is BoF5. The curious thing is that, while the setting and level of technology is vastly different from the ones I know, the characters seem to be the same ones as have appeared in previous installments... The Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter Official Design Materials has to be one of the most impressive artbooks I've bought so far, with not just a glittery front cover, but a transparency print inside! Amazing stuff. I tried to get hold of the Policenauts Official Visual
Data Book some years ago, and failed - it's been out of print for
about ten years - so it came as a very pleasant surprise to find it
listed on Ebay when, on a whim, I did a search through all catagories
for 'Policenauts'. Despite being second hand, it's in very good
condition, and is just about everything I'd hoped it would be -
everything from in-game artwork, to character sketches, to detailed
renders of the 3D models, it's a great little book and a very welcome
addition to my collection! |
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