Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Raise your hand if you're buying Final Fantasy Type-0 because of Yoshitaka Amano's box art

My hand's up. How about yours?

Those of you who just replied to the question above in the negative either don't own a PSP or haven't seen the beautiful cover art, below, that Yoshi- taka Amano created for this portable Final Fantasy spin-off, right?

Sorry, this is the only available shot of Amano's cover art.

Unfortunately for all of us Western gamers, the folks at Square Enix have yet to reveal if Final Fantasy Type-0 will be released outside of Japan.

Even if is, though, I have a feeling Amano's cover art will be switched out for something a bit more "action-packed" (i.e., hideous) before it ever hits American and European store shelves.

(Via andriasang.com)

14 comments:

Darwin said...

You know, I would totally buy an artbook of game covers. I love that stuff.

Do you know of any site that archives them?

Oh yeah, also love your comparison box art posts!

Bryan Ochalla said...

I'd buy an artbook of game covers, too, Darwin. I wonder how it would work -- I guess each company would have to produce its own? Still, some companies could make kick-ass artbooks of their box art -- esp. Nintendo and Square Enix :)

I know of some sites that archive some box art, but all of them (the sites) focus mainly on retro games. For instance, segagagadomain.com features tons of scans of Sega box art from the Master System through the Dreamcast, while pcengine.co.uk focuses on, you guessed it, PC Engine cover art.

There's also videogameden.com, which boasts a ton of scans of Famicom, Super Famicom and PC Engine box art (and reviews) and gamengai.com, which has scans of PC Engine, Mega Drive, Super Famicom, Saturn, PlayStation and PS2 box art.

Oh, and there's also boxart.tumblr.com, which spotlights box art from pretty much every system ever made. It's kind of a free for all, though, so don't expect the scans to be organized or anything. Still, it's work checking out if you like great box art.

Finally, I'm glad you like my 'Which Box Art is Better?' posts. I'm going to be publishing another one soon, so be on the lookout for it :)

Darwin said...

I saw a book in Japan that cataloged all the Playstation and PS2 games.

Just looked it up, and here it is:
http://amzn.to/r9s072

According the comments, it does show the cover art.

Thanks for the links, going to check them out!

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, I'd love to own that book, Darwin -- the PS1 and PS2 were home to some great box art (box arts?), especially in Japan.

Darwin said...

I like the idea of including the saved data with the book.

It would be wild if near the end of a console life cycle, there was a god mode unlock for all games. I would definitely go back and replay everything that I already finished (or got stuck on and never touched again).

Bryan Ochalla said...

Wait, the book you linked to includes save data for each game? If so, that's awesome -- and weird!

As for your dream of a "god mode unlock" -- I love it! I think you should approach each console/system maker with that idea :)

Darwin said...

One of the comments says the book has save data that "open all hidden element"... but they also commented that it leans towards sports, adventure and action games. Would be amazing if it was every game!

Bryan Ochalla said...

Wow, that's pretty cool! Thanks for pointing that out :)

Unknown said...

That art is certainly beautiful! I can't believe that's the only picture available of it though, haha. Such a shame.

Are you really planning on ordering this, Bryan? And is this art a limited edition version or just the normal box art?

Bryan Ochalla said...

I'm sure better photos and even scans of it will be made available soon, Anne. For the time being, though, this one -- taken from andriasang.com -- is the only one I've been able to find.

As for whether I'm actually going to buy it -- if the folks at SE don't announce a NA release date soon, then, yes, I'm definitely going to buy it. The videos I've seen of it certainly make it seem interesting. Anyway, how about you? Are you interested in this one?

Oh, and this is the normal box art. The limited edition box art is even more stark, from what I remember. I think images of it have been around for a while now...

RetroKingSimon said...

I've never seen the cover or played the game but I do like that artwork! :)

Bryan Ochalla said...

Me, too! Obviously, I guess :P The game isn't out yet, by the way -- it'll be released in Japan in October and in the rest of the world ... hopefully sometime next year?

Frank said...

Yeah most game covers I like are either epic or very pretty and Its kinda obvious which one this is. The final fantasy cover is one of my favorite ones of the entire season.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Do you mean the PSP remake of the first Final Fantasy, Frank? If so, I like that one, too -- and the one for the PSP remake of FFII, for that matter.