Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume 1

Fantastic product, the presentation is beautiful and a must have for Final Fantasy fans.

This is a high quality book that includes art and designers notes for the first six Final Fantasy games. Each game has content in the following areas: • Art - This includes key artworks made for the game. • Story - This is a very brief summary of the plot of the game. • Characters - This shows portraits and design artworks for the main characters and enemies in the game. • World - This displays the world map for the game. • Monsters - This shows monster designs and artworks for the game. • Extra Content - This includes developers notes and idea, character sprites and other things depending on the game. • Memories - This shows key scenes from the game. The content and artwork is easy to navigate and it feels like there is ample space for each game. Naturally the later games do have a little more content but this is owing to the fact that they generally feature more characters and content than the earlier games. If you are a fan of Final Fantasy and have an interest in the artwork and design of the games then this is a must have item for your collection!

I have been following the Ultimania's as a source for Final Fantasy information and an insight into the development of the series for a long time, with the only source being fan translations. Think of them as a magazine-sized guide documenting the making of the games. Finally, these have been translated into English as a bundle, with volume 1 including the Ultimania Guides for Final Fantasy I-VI. They are brilliant; it is really nice getting an insight into how they pushed the hardware as well as early drafts of scripts. And the artwork is excellent; if anything a testament to how close things like monster sprites were to the concept artwork. If you are a fan of the series, I am sure you will enjoy this. And I eagerly await volume 2 which will include Final Fantasy VII-IX. I also really h ope they go beyond, up to XV!

If you enjoy the FF series you need this and the remaining two other books. Gives a nice overview of the games, characters and story. Will make a nice gift for someone who appreciates the series.

I've got quite a collection of video game art books and strategy guides, it's one of my geeky guilty pleasures. This book sits right there at the top of them. It's HUGE, beautifully laid out and full of stunning artwork. I honestly wasn't expecting anything quite as good as this for the price and I'm now very excited for the second book to be released (I'm an FF8 gal). Only negative? Same as all the reviews on Amazon.com- guys, use your brain and package this in something stronger. The delivery driver handed the parcel to me and my book proceeded to drop straight out of the flimsy box. It has slight damage to the top and bottom corners because of this poor packaging. Otherwise, everything is hunky dory and if you're reading this review because you're on the fence as to whether to buy I'll help you out- buy it, you won't regret it!

Bought this as a present for my final fantasy obsessed boyfriend and we couldn’t have been more impressed. Beautiful and meticulous attention to detail throughout, even as a non-player I enjoyed reading through the whole thing and admiring all of the work that went into it. Fully recommend for any FF fans and I’ll definitely be buying the subsequent volumes for sure.

Bought this as a gift, and it was absolutely loved! The only downside was the packaging. The parcel arrived looking dishevelled, which unfortunately resulted to damage on the spine of the book.

What can I say? It's a stunning book, and something I've wanted from FF for years. Finally a concise book full of art and lots to read through too. If you are a big FF fan, this is essential, be warned though, it is a large and heavy book.

The Ultimania is a nice collection of background info and original artwork for the series, and this book details the first six entries that appeared on Nintendo systems between 1987 and 1994. For fans of the 8-bit era, you may be a bit disappointed to find their sections a bit light on content, but they do feature gorgeous artwork from Yoshitaka Amano, Akihiko Yoshida, and other artists who worked on the remakes for the Wonderswan and PSP versions. There is also some neat background info like notes and outlines from the titles early development. The real meat of the book comes from the 16-bit era entries which detail some interesting info not usually seen, such as artwork of the characters by the staff, dungeon design details, and a few minor cut content. If you're a serious fan of the franchise and can't read Japanese making the 20th and 25th anniversary Japanese Ultimania books nothing more than an art book for you, then this is a great buy for super fans.

Está increíble, la calidad de todo el producto se nota que las personas involucradas le tienen un respeto a la saga, definitivamente es un must para todo fan de FF. Me sorprendió el tamaño del libro, aún no le encuentro espacio para acomodarlo.

Das Buch ist massiv und sehr schön bearbeitet. Qualitativ top. Der Inhalt wird für Fans der Spiele sehr interessant und lehrreich sein. Die Artworks von Amano sehen unglaublich aus. Dieses Buch kann man nur weiter empfehlen

Superbe ouvrage avec illustrations et détails sur les jeux. Papier de qualité et contenu riche. Un must pour les collectionneurs.

Io ho comprato tutti e tre i volumi, la recensione è unica perché sono strutturati ovviamente in maniera uguale. Storia accennata all'inizio. Se volete sapere cose specifiche della trama non è il libro giusto. Ma se volete vedere i personaggi, i mostri da battere, le armi e tutti gli altri dettagli, questo libro è molto bello.