I’ve been sent several Amano art pics as a contribution, but for the life of me I dunno what they’re of. 8p Anyone who does, please weigh in.
Here are my guesses:
The first one looks like Bartz and Faris
The second one looks like… a Knight from FF1 fighting a dragon?
The third one looks like … the cast from FF2. Firion at top, Leon in the dark clothes, Gus is the blue guy, and Maria at the bottom with a crossbow?
The fourth one looks like… Pandemonium from FF2?
The fifth one… I dunno… the Dark Knight from FF2?
Sixth one… Uh… Mirage Tower from FF1?
Seventh… Maybe… Firion and the Dark Knight from FF2?
Eighth looks like Krile on a Hiryuu or something.
THOSE ARE GUESSES!!! >_<
I would agree with all of those, especially considering this is art in the style of the designs from the FF-FFV era. It was used some in FFVI.
I’ve seen some of these in various instruction books and in-game galleries. I’m almost sure Hiryuu is right, for the most part.
They’re all from FF1, 2, 4, and 5. I’ve seen them all in the extras for the PSX versions of said games.
#1 is definately Bartz and Faris.
I agree that #2 is probably a knight from FF1.
#3 I know for a fact depicts the heroes of FF2.
#4 I dunno.
#5 and #6 I have no clue, but I know #6 is from FF2.
#7 my best guess is Firion and Leon.
#8 is Krile on a dragon.
4 looks like pandemonium to me.
5 is Cecil in Dark Knight form, I’m almost certain,
It’s used in all of them.
I haven’t seen in character designs of that style after FFVI, and I’ve only seen a couple FFVI characters in the style, so I assumed that’s when it ended.
That’s because they replaced Amano with that other guy. And I know I will get clobbed to death for this, but I never really liked Amano’s work.
I didn’t really either. I thought they were trying too hard for some kind of style, although I’m not sure which one. Whatever it was, they didn’t really do it.
I appreciated them, but they’re definately not in my taste. However, my artistic senses tingle everytime I see his work.
Actually Arac, all of the main character art was present in the FF6 handbook, that gets released in the game. My guess is there were different versions of it…?
Amano was the character designer for FF1-6 and 9, but he was the “Image Illustrator” for the remaining ones (where Tetsuya Nomura took over). He’s done artwork for every single FF game, even if it wasn’t the art that the characters were based on.
Actually, I lost my FFVI manual, so there’s probably just one version.
I knew he wasn’t the offical character designer of VII, VIII or X, and thus assumed he wasn’t on IX, although I never payed attention to it.
I still really don’t like the way they’re drawn, but can’t put my finger on why. I guess I just don’t think it represents the characters, but I don’t really know.
It’s funny that he was the designer of IX, because the finished characters are pretty different from his drawings.
#4 looks a lot like the Alexandria summon to me.
#5 could be Crusader. If you look closely you’ll see three separate heads, all of them armored.
#7 looks like Paladin Cecil and Dark Knight Cecil together.
The EGM issue where they were previewing FFX was released in two separate “editions”; the more common one had the FFX case art with Tidus in the ocean as the magazine cover, but the rarer one had an Amano sketch of Tidus. If I had a pic, I’d show you.
Yeah, on further examination, 7 is DEFINITELY Cecil. RPGLamer has that picture labeled as “Cecil and Golbez”, but I think it looks more like Dark Knight Cecil, like PanamaJack said.
I stand by my other guesses (for now).
4 and 5 are of the Tower of Babel from FFIV. That’s what it says in the book, anyway.
I was thinking about that one too. I’ve never seen Pandemonium but it does look a lot like the FFVI Alexander.