Monster Hunter Illustrations
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Other Media
Monster Hunter Illustrations Details
Hardcover Edition! Beloved by fans the world over, the Monster Hunter series takes players on an epic quest to hunt or capture the most dangerous and fantastic monsters imaginable. Monster Hunter Illustrations collects the unparalleled artwork behind the first two generations of games in this landmark series. Inside you'll find hundreds of designs for characters, monsters, armor, weapons, and more, plus tons of rough drawings and sketch work.
Reviews
If you are expecting to see monsters like Zinogre or Seregios, you will not see them here. This book only has details from the first two generations, and most illustrations are of developmental. Something buyers need to keep in mind.-----------------------------------------------------To get the negative out of the way first, there are some flaws with this book. The most obvious is that it is clear the translator has not play the game before, resulting in some canonical inconsistencies. For example, Rathalos was referred as "Wyvern" in one caption, but on another, he was referred by his proper english name. The most noticable ones are Steel Dragon (Kushala Daora) and Blaze King Draong (Teostra). Technically, the translation is not wrong as they correspond with their japanese name. Bu it can be misleading to people who purchase this book for the appreciation of the game's aethetic and have not played the game before. In addition, there are too few name labels on the monsters. Readers will have to flip to the index to check monsters' name, even thought there are enough room for just a short text box. This is just a minor inconvenience, but something worth bringing up. And finally, some monsters' picture entries are a bit lacking. I do not recall there being a single image of Rathian at all, neither are there Fatalis (even though it's emblem is on the front cover!). Instead of having in depth sketches of monster that appear in the game, this book focuses more on behind the scene development. Almost 45% of monster images are prototypes that did not make it into the final game. So if you are expecting to see detail break downs of you favorite monsters, you may be dissapointed.To the positives, there are plenty praises for this book. It is jampacked with detailed development notes from the creators. There are so many awesome illustrations to enjoy that I might even consider the pages of costume designs overshine the monsters. Ranging from prototype armors, to weapons, NPCs, and items! One thing that is especially interesting is that Capcom seems to put a surprisingly amount of effort on designing Shakalaka goblins; consider how they do not make often appearance in most games.In overall, this is a good art book documenting what is behind the development of Monster Hunter games. I almost want to say it is awesome, if it were not for how unorganized some of the pages are and the lack of monster rosters. The index mentioned Rathian and Yian Garuga's weapons were shown in the weapon page, but there were not a single image of them! Regardless, this is still an art book that I recommend. Especially when it's listed retail price is 44.99 USD!! Amazon is selling it for 20 USD!? You are getting it for a steal!!!