The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy Book 3

The Sky Book Three contains Amano's sketches and paintings for Final Fantasy VII (1997), VIII (1999), IX (2000), and X (2001), depicting characters such as Zidane Tribal, Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, Adelbert Steiner, Vivi Orunitia, Amarant Coral, Queen Brahne, and many others. Bonuses include a series of silkscreen images done for Final Fantasy VIII, unreleased pen-and-ink sketches of the Gunblade, and designs for the gemlike logo of Final Fantasy IX.

The first two books of the re-release being as wonderful as I expected, the anticipation for the third and final was certainly huge.  Not only was this because of getting to enjoy another Final Fantasy book, but it was the one including the games from the series that have stuck with me most to this day.  It was truly a delight to get another shot at viewing Book Three in the trilogy for The Sky: Art of Final Fantasy.

It should be more than obvious by now that this is a wonderful book with endless pages of amazing art.  The name Final Fantasy is one that for many people automatically produces images of beautiful visuals to go along with great stories.  For the third consecutive time, Yoshitaka Amano has provided a large collection of illustrations to support the series.  Adding another batch of art like his strengthens one of the key factors in what makes it so successful.

I cannot deny that as excellent as it was to see all the art from the first two books, this was the one I looked forward to most.  With it showing us pieces Amano did for numbers VII, VIII, IX and X, this was the best collection for me personally.  Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the art for VII in particular, but there were some specific ones for VIII that I really loved.

Now that Dark Horse has been kind enough to give folks a second chance at these books, it would be a wise choice to do so.  At some point I’ll probably try to search for copies of the originals, but having these will more than hold me until then.  The only disappointment I have now is that there’s no more of them to read, but it has been so nice checking them out and think everyone should.

For more on The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy or other Dark Horse books, check out Dark Horse Comics.

The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy Book Three will be available 11/19

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.