The Art of Final Fantasy IX is a great full color, large format book which helps demonstrate just how much effort can go into designing a video game. We don't just have screenshots from the Final Fantasy IX game here. Rather, we get to see the original concept art for the characters, weapons, locations, vehicles, and much more. Often the images are shown side-by-side against the "final version" so readers can get a sense of just how the starting point was translated into gameplay.

The works are gorgeous as artistic creations in their own right. Sometimes the ending character looks quite similar, while in other cases there was a strong deviance between the starting position and the ending result.



It would have been cool if they'd given even a paragraph or two of information about that process. Why were changes made? What influenced them? Still, being able to see the artwork in such detail is quite stunning.



This is great not only for fans of the Final Fantasy series, but also for artists in general. You can see a variety of styles of character drawing. The details on the town images are often quite staggering, down to the tiny bricks and cobblestones. Metals gleam. Rocks have texture. These are the types of things that can be studied and learned from.

Well recommended, and suitable for all ages.

Buy The Art of Final Fantasy IX from Amazon.com

I purchased my copy of this book with my own funds because I adore the FF series :).