I adore Artbooks! Really do and I'm thrilled that they're far more readily available these days.
My favourite one is a little biased but it still astounds me to this day
https://imgur.com/S0dQbtCAs I said, a bit biased considering Final Fantasy IX is my favourite game of all time! But this book is just such an oddity! It was published by BradyGames - A company who made Strategy Guides! & At a time where Video Game Artbooks weren't really published outside Japan it's wild to think how we got this near the release of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iuR1ID8UIEBut what is also amazing is the content! The wonderful thing about this books is that it doesn't jsut cove the traditional Amano Art and character Profile Art we've all seen before. Teh best way to describe this book as if some went into Square's office with a massive vaccum, sucking up all the illustration works and let it flourish on the pages of this book! It covers all sorts of designs from Location Artwork, to NCP designs, creatures, monsters, weapons - It really offers all you could ask for in an Artbook & I treasure it as one of my favourite items I own!
Digi-Cube's Visual Arts CollectionA book Series I also adore is called, the Digital Arts Collection. while thin on Pages the print quality is devine! Lovely full pages of Artwork that are so pretty to look at, they covered Final Fantasy IX, X, X-2, Kingdom Hearts, Unlimited Saga and...
THE BOUNCER! - If I haven't made it clear already I adore this game and to have an Artbook dediced to it is just wonderful!
Also, a Shout out to
Dark Horse and all there work on brining Japanese Artbooks over here, I love there Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Wolfenstien Artbooks!