Square Enix and Dark Horse are teaming up to chronicle the history of the Final Fantasy video game series.
Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive is billed as “an astonishing journey through the creation of the seminal roleplaying epic, officially licensed for the first time ever.”
The three-volume set opens with the 336-page hardcover Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume 1, available June 5, 2018. You can *preorder the book now.
Described as a “holy grail of Final Fantasy fandom,” the archive contains original concept art, process pieces and notes from the original artists and esigners who worked on the timeless RPG series.
A version of the book has been available for years as a Japanese import; you can see some example pages here.
Dark Horse says the archive series “remains faithful to its original Japanese source material while simultaneously offering unparalleled accessibility for Western readers.”
A preliminary cover, similar to the Japanese version’s cover, displayed familiar and iconic character artwork from the first six games on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES, aka Japan’s Famicom and Super Famicom, indicating that the first volume would focus on those games. Later games in the series jumped to Sony’s PlayStation and other consoles starting with Final Fantasy VII, which is getting a PS4 remake.
Final Fantaxy XV came out last year for the PS4 and Xbox One.
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