Book Review: The Art of Samurai Shodown

This is a huge 288-page hardcover artbook for Samurai Shodown (2019). This artbook is published by Dark Horse with good colour reproduction, low gloss paper and good binding. The original publisher seems to be Pix'n Love which released the book in Europe. Both editions feature the same content. Pix'n Love also has a limited slipcase edition with 2 prints.

From what I've read, there are more than 80 characters from all the series and spinoff. The only characters this book features are from the 2019 game and they are

• Haohmaru
• Nakoruru
• Hanzo Hattori
• Galford D. Weller
• Ukyo Tachibana
• Kyoshiro Senryo
• Jubei Yagyu
• Tam Tam
• Charlotte C. Colde
• Genjuro Kibagami
• Earthquake
• Shiki
• Yoshitora Tokugawa
• Yashamaru Kurama
• Darli Dagger
• Wu-Ruixing
• Shizuka Gozen

Some cancelled characters and background characters are also included. Additional characters from season 1, 2 and 3 are not included.

There are designs for the characters, costumes, weapons and epilogue storyboards. The art is good. There are sketches and huge eye catching character splash art. Graphic designs included are the battle icons, Steam icons, icons under life bar, fonts.

The last few pages are interview with director Nobuyuki Kuroki and character designer Yumi Saji. You can read about the game origins, art direction, character roster and design. I was looking forward to reading more about the characters but there isn't much text except for the short character profiles.

It's a great artbook for fans of the game.

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This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.

The Art of Samurai Shodown is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | AU | JP | CN)

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This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.