Elden Ring: Official Art Book Volume I

by FromSoftware

Return to the Lands Between… reunite the fractured world… reforge the Elden Ring!   The two-volume Elden Official Art Book contains a plethora of artworks from the game’s ‘Lands Between’ and its inhabitants in stunning oversized hardcover editions.   Volume I features key art from the game’s opening movie, concept and development art of the large open-world and claustrophobic dungeons, and the game’s many characters and armors.   This translated English art book contains the same content found in the Japanese edition.

Genres: Art, Fantasy, Video Games, Horror

429 pages, Hardcover

Published August 29, 2023

Reviews

[Erasmios · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ordered both paperback volumes from Japan. I was disappointed to find that these books weren't actually hardcover books. Amazon had two options, digital and JP oversized, and I foolishly assumed that an "oversized" book would be a hardcover. The books are big and heavy so holding them is very inconvenient. The overall quality isn't great. There's nothing wrong with the artwork itself, except many are very dark so you need a good light to see them clearly. This leads to another issue: the paper is glossy, not matte, which is a big oversight with an art book. I thought they'd learned from the Bloodborne Official Artworks which also has very dark art and glossy paper.

Once you've found a bearable way to hold it in a way that the light doesn't reflect back from the glossy pages and make it impossible to see the art, there's another disappointing fact the reader is reminded of, page after page. A concept art book that has most of the artwork laid out horizontally across both pages should definitely be wider than it's tall. This way the panoramic art wouldn't get hidden between the spread. An example of a great concept art book would be The Art and Making of Control published by Future Press. Elden Ring artworks were already published in two volumes, so to me, it seems like a no-brainer to publish one wide volume with horizontal art and a tall volume with vertical art.

Besides the art, there really isn't anything else: no comments, no lore, nothing. Just the names of the locations and characters. It makes me sad to admit that this feels like a low-effort cash crab. The quality is so disappointing I'm seriously considering selling them.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing production and truly stunning art that manages to be both beautiful, gothic and grotesque without straying into edgelord territory, but I was really hoping for insights, influences and design commentary, of which there is none.

[May · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hang it in the Louvre

[Trike · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s weird to have a concept art book that doesn’t have any text. There’s letting the art speak for itself and then there’s low-effort publishing. This feels like the latter. As someone who hasn’t played the game, I have no context for what I’m seeing here. Even a line or two to set the scene would’ve been welcome.

The art itself is rather difficult to see because it’s so dark, and the color palette seems to be comprised entirely of “Overcast Seasonal Depression”. It’s brown, black and gray, with extremely rare pops of color. It was a relief at the halfway point to see snowscapes because at least then there was some white and blue.

There are a couple nice pictures, but those are few and far between.

[Stian Elden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helt nydelig artbook. Veldig gøy å se hvordan mye av kunsten ble gjort mer eller mindre identisk til hva kunstnere tegnet. Men nesten mer interessant er der det er små forskjeller. Prakteksempelet jeg kommer på er hvordan det er veldig tydelig at det faktisk er kroppen til Godwyn the Golden som råtner nede i Deep Root Depths. Er liksom ikke rom for tolkning engang.

Eneste jeg føler trekker denne boka ned litt er at jeg skulle ønske at det sto noe om designene og lokasjonene. Skulle veldig gjerne hørt illustratørene eller Miyazaki/GRRM sin tanker om de forskjellige delene og aspektene av the Lands Between.

4,5/5

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boyfriend is a gamer. Girlfriend is a book nerd. Worlds collide and I get to enjoy seeing his world on the beautiful pages of this art book. The art is stunning, of course. This book is of high quality and is worth every penny. The only thing I wish was different would be to have more commentary on design choices or even simple captions to describe what I am seeing in front of me, locations, or characters. There is SOME but not as many as I wish. I love a good, thick coffee table book and this is the best of both worlds for gamer/readers out there!

[Matt Kehoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concept art is usually my thing, but there's zero context to any of the early design choices in the concept art versus the final version. The artwork itself is gorgeous, and it's interesting to see where things diverged from concept to final product, or to see the full hand drawn detailing of some armour sets, but it's still a real disapppointment compared to literally every other artbook in my collection lmao.

[Víctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diseños espectaculares y buena construcción de mundos. Tampoco esperes algo que sea realmente único, sí bien el papel es de buena calidad y deja que se disfrute todo mucho, no es nada muy diferente de los otros que tienen.

[Nati Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expect quality when it comes FROMSOFT art books, no exception for this.

[Caitlyn G]

dark as hell!

[Casey Vasilis]

so much super impressive art and its only volume 1 lmao.

[Antonio Margal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arise now, ye Tarnished.

[Excelsiorbitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful artworks, but it's important to take note that this is just a concept art album with no written insights whatsoever so be aware of that

[Jakob Laub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me Elden therefore me Ring

[Bozhidar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stellar.

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible and enthralling. A testament to the supernatural talent that resides within FromSoftware. I can’t wait to start a new playthrough and fall in love with this game over and over again.

[Jorgaff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regalito de los chavales y muy bonico to’

[Oleg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Чудовий, глибокий і повен великодок. Мені було цікаво дослідити кожну сторінку, кожну сцену і її куток (як і у грі). Як наслідок - десятки нотаток та приміток, наліпок, наклейок. Рекомендую всім поціновувачам цієї гри.