Favorite cover designs

[UNIT 0918]

Not basing these on the media themselves, what are your favorite cover/poster designs for a video game, anime,manga, movie, novel, etc?


For me they're:

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-

Final Fantasy XIII

Kingdom Hearts - Gotta admit, the first time I saw this, I thought it was pretty epic seeing Donald and Goofy in a serious pose alongside Final Fantasy-like characters.

Kingdom Hearts II

Radiata Stories

Star Ocean First Departure and Second Evolution

Star Ocean The Last Hope International - I really wish the game itself was done in this anime style instead of the CG character models, which really creep me out because they look like lifeless dolls.

The World Ends with You

Namco x Capcom - Mostly because MegaMan and Roll are smack dab in the center, of course.

RockMan DASH 2 and the PSP port

Tron ni Kobun

RockMan.EXE 3: Black

MegaMan Star Force 3 Black Ace and Red Joker

Persona 3

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES

Persona 3 Portable

Persona 4

Phantasy Star Portable

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and the Essential Collection version

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and the Limited Edition cover

Metal Gear Online

Killzone 2

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Heavy Rain


and to put the first film design I like that comes to mind:

Independence Day

[in·clover]

Subtlety; always tasteful.

On the subject of movie covers, this came in through the mail awhile ago and the cover instantly struck a cord. There are cooler shots they could have used, but that half-lit gaze is kind of intense. @_@

Poster-wise, I was rather fond of this massive Cannibal Holocaust poster I had for awhile ...until I wasn't in the mood for it. It found its way into the trash recently. EDIT- Bought it from a headshop, can't seem to find a link for it. Now I miss it. T_T

Aug 4, 2010 5:30:24 GMT -5 UNIT 0918 said:

Gotta admit, the first time I saw this, I thought it was pretty epic seeing Donald and Goofy in a serious pose alongside Final Fantasy-like characters.

I never thought of game covers as art. I find most video game covers are just meant to be flashy, safe, and generally crowd pleasing. Generic commercial bullsh--. I can't say I see any of those as being notable at all.

Some more faves:

We ♥ Katamari

Ico

Really, that's all I can think of. State-side we don't really go for anything fine, we go for sort of ham-fisted in-your-face super awesome badass pose with explosions in the background stuff, or the characters essentially being camwhores. Lacking in imagination much?

This isn't a complaint, just an observation. The fact that there's a thread on it makes me wonder how many people actually think video game covers are decent works of art. It's pretty interesting to me from an artist's standpoint, especially after going over that list.

Aug 4, 2010 5:30:24 GMT -5 UNIT 0918 said:

Tron ni Kobun

I always liked that one, though.

[Blues]

IC, cover designs are meant to convey a sense of the product to the consumer; perhaps they can be judged in that aspect(i.e. how well the feel of the game comes through in the artwork)?

Going through my games, I can't say that I like any particular case for the art on the cover, but by the above criteria Nostalgia, Scribblenauts, and maybe Super Paper Mario/NSMBW are decent.

^{(Also, might want to fix that Ico link there, IC. :21: )}

[in·clover]

EDIT-

I like the Uk NiGHTS cd case, and the Jap' disk I have (I can't find a link).

Also forgot the cover for the original Katamari Damacy.

I guess I'm just used to abstract things that break the boundaries of coherency, like you'd see on a lot of music albums and the like. A lot of Shinkawa's stuff is like that, like you listed, but for the most part it's the typical character lineup. Not bad, but not terribly interesting in my opinion. :/

[Qwertman]

Too bad Dreamworks Interactive isn't around anymore. They made some pretty great stuff.

[in·clover]

Heh, I was gonna upload that one myself. I got tired of photobucketing everything that sites wouldn't allow hotlinking for, though.

That game was awesome. No one will ever know its greatness. :/

Ecco II's oil painted cover is pretty slick. Makes me wish people did game covers akin to Waterhouse's stuff. I think the closest you could get to that is Ayami Kojima.

[UNIT 0918]

One more:


Beautiful, in my opinion. Reminds me of the artwork for Ghibli films.

[Traingham]

I always found the cover artwork for Castlevania games to agree with my inner art lover. Ayami Kojima will always have a special place within my heart.

The cover art for the japanese release of Final Fantasy VI is just beautiful. Yoshitaka Amano rocks. His art in for Vampire Hunter D is just as elegant.

FFVI: blogs.gamefilia.com/files/imce/u482753/blog-amano-ffvi-tina_0.jpg

Vampire Hunter D: The Rose Princess images.darkhorse.com/covers/300/14/14162.jpg

I've got to agree with BR--um-- ICO, though. All of the cover designs we get stateside either has the character cast standing all together staring at something angrily or tearfully with explosions in the background, the characters heads floating over or beneath the logo, or just the main character looking at or away from you with a badass pose.

The American releases of Final Fantasy titles tend to be a good example of this bad trend.

FFVII: Cloud in a badass pose staring up at the Shinra building.

FFVIII: Squall, Rinoa and Seifer displaying the love triangle before you even touch the game.

FFIX: The cast (Not the entire cast) standing in front of a backdrop of Lindbulm.

FFX: Tidus standing in the water with Zankerland as the backdrop.

FFXII: Something similar to the FFIX cover. (...Suspicious...)

FFXIII: But this is just the worst offender for some reason. For some reason I just couldn't appreciate the sight of Lightning with a white backdrop. I suppose its because the game wasn't just focused on her throughout the story, so it feel like Hollywood bait. :08:

[Dragge]

I always thought that any of the Armored Core covers were wicked sweet. The best so far might be of Armored Core 5. (check wikipedia for the picture)

[in·clover]

Aug 9, 2010 10:22:50 GMT -5 Traingham said:

The cover art for the japanese release of Final Fantasy VI is just beautiful. Yoshitaka Amano rocks. His art in for Vampire Hunter D is just as elegant.

AW MAN, I miss Amano's stuff so much. I was pissed when they ditched him, his work was so much more inspiring than anything Squeenix's art department comes up with nowadays. Back before PSX I thought when 3d would come along the in-game graphics would look like his work, too. Imagine a Final Fantasy game that actually looked like it was an Amano watercolor painting, all airy and depressing. From 10 onward, all the characters look like they belong on a catwalk. :08:

I actually like that Radiata cover, even though I can't stand the game.


EDIT-
Dragon fetus ftw.

Although it's been mentioned before, Kojima pwns all of you. I was taken aback a little when I found out later that the American release had this really cheesy CGI castle on it. Wtf? xD

[Qwertman]

Aug 8, 2010 23:43:19 GMT -5 UNIT 0918 said:

One more:


Beautiful, in my opinion. Reminds me of the artwork for Ghibli films.

That's the first thing I thought as well, reminds me of Laputa (Castle in the Sky).
Just looking at the cover makes me want to play that game.