Book Review: Art & Design of Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy games usually don't have artbooks so it's always great to see one, and this one in particular is enormous and gorgeous.

Art & Design of Final Fantasy XV is a collaboration between Square Enix and Cook & Becker. The Japanese publisher and studio invited Cook & Becker to Japan to talk about the art and production that went behind the creation of the game. Tomochiro Hasegawa, art director for monsters and summons, helped with the selection for artworks included in this book.

This artbook comes in standard and limited edition. The 1000-copy limited edition comes with a yellow hardback and a box, numbered giclee art prints that are signed by the Final Fantasy XV artists. The standard edition is the one I have. Both editions are huge. This book measures 40cm by 22.5cm. That's about the size of a 19-inch widescreen monitor.

The production quality of this book is top notch. The binding looks good. Artworks are printed on low gloss paper. Colour reproduction is fantastic.

The concept art painted in this book is a mixture of artworks in painterly style, high resolution 3D renders and a couple of pencil sketches. The character art is amazing. Many of those 3D character renders almost look like real people. The only giveaway is they look too good. The amount of detail is astonishing but probably not surprising coming from Square Enix. The textures in the costumes and the skin tones are all spot on.

There are also plenty of awesome looking creature designs. They actually kinda remind me of Monster Hunter monsters.

The environment art included are great too. There are lots of beautiful settings, scenes and just awesome imagination.

It's very satisfying to look at all the huge images. Many of the artworks are never seen before and can't be found online.

This is a fantastic companion artbook for the game. Highly recommended to all Final Fantasy fans.

The standard edition is selling for US $55 and the limited edition at US $195. Prices do not include shipping and depending on where you are, shipping can be quite expensive.

You can find the books at
https://www.candb.com/en/artwork/2364/the-art-and-design-of-final-fanta…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9082457679?tag=parblo-20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9082457660?tag=parblo-20

Check out more details at https://www.candb.com/en/artwork/2364/the-art-and-design-of-final-fanta…