The first persona game's Japanese cover. It's not fully minimal, yet it leaves you curious. It gives that striking look of deep thought. Making you thinking about the demons inside this black hair kid. Only to make you realize it's real depth when you actually play the game.
My favourite box art so far is Bloodborne, it is simplistic by showing the silhuette of a bloodied hunter walking down the eerie streets of Yahrnam with a giant cleaver in one hand and a massive blunderbuss in the other With it’s gothic title in the middle
In my opinion: it shows that it’s horror, has violent combat (with the brutal saw cleaver), gothic/Victorian, atmospheric and the mysterious appearance of the hunter shows that he/she is dangerous and going to do a sinister deed. It Also shows that this is YOUR character, where AS you choose their look and all
Yooo i remember god hand! Though in my country the box art was just the word "god hand" in a white background, i really didn't like it, that letter font reminded me of a terrible candy brand that disgusts me so i didn't got to play it that much
EU almost always got it right because they usually went with the Japanese ones and only slightly touched up the stuff that didn't quite jive. The only times they overwrote them were when the JPN one was just completely inconsistent with the theming or if Americans sold the game so much that they had to go with it.
To be fair with the phantom pain box art when I picked it up originally back in 2015 the store was giving out free steelbooks and I got one so my mgsv copy is in a steel book with yoji shinkawa’s artwork of venom, pretty happy with it.
The US boxart for REmake is honestly one of my favorite game boxes of all time. It always stood out to me as a kid, long before I had ever even played a Resident Evil game. It's just rad.
And I always kinda liked the MGS4 box over here, aged as it is, but that JP cover is straight-up incredible and now I feel cheated.
I'm surprised to say that I prefer Japanese SONIC box art in a lot of cases. The original Mega Drive trilogy of games have eye-catching popart styles on their Japanese covers, which captures the surreal aspect of Sonic quite well. Sonic Spinball and Sonic Jam especially have no business having the cool boxarts they do in Japan. Even later games like Sonic Riders have cool as hell boxarts in Japan that I envy with how RAD it looks, because everyone else gets CG boredom. But now boxarts are the same across all regions, and it sucks.
I remember when I first played Ground Zeroes I got surprised that there was a reversible cover for it that had Shinkawa's art and was hoping The Phantom Pain would have it as well. But nope, it literally was just showing off the controls for the game.
Nice — I wish there were more videos like this… As a trained graphic designer, I really appreciate it!
When I first graduated university, I originally wanted to design music CD covers since I enjoyed doing that so much as a class project, which is clearly quite similar to designing video game box art, so it tickles me pink to see others critique this kind of stuff (I ended up going into web design though, which is very different obviously). You have good taste! Most untrained people don’t have an eye for what denotes good from bad in commercial art, but you do.
Great video, mate — I really enjoyed it, and I hope you do more like it!
One of my favorites has to be Wonderful 101. All the playable heroes bunched together with their unique weapon leaping up from a city toward the viewer with a rising fist perfectly captures the spirit and gameplay it has to offer.
One thing I'm grateful to Steam for is that when you look at your library they have what's essentially a videogame box art cover for each game as long as it's been bought on Steam, even then if you add a non-Steam game to Steam you can add a custom one!
I want to point out that tekken 7 had one of the best Japanese box arts while the American one is just 2 guys faces blended. Meanwhile in Japan it showcases Heihachi and yakuza fighting with aura's surrounding them while Heihachi's back is in the background with 1 eye showing almost like he's watching the 2 battle and that's literally what happens at the end of the game as well
As a graphic designer. Agree
I'm a little offended the Japanese box art for Final Fantasy 6 wasn't even mentioned here
My favorite boxart was Shrek 2 on PS 2
What is the song at 0:45
the okami wii port cover has the IGN logo on it from the shitty proganontist's png art. its sooo sad.
kiryu really did go from desmond miles to japanese jesus didnt he
The first persona game's Japanese cover. It's not fully minimal, yet it leaves you curious. It gives that striking look of deep thought. Making you thinking about the demons inside this black hair kid. Only to make you realize it's real depth when you actually play the game.
My favourite box art so far is Bloodborne, it is simplistic by showing the silhuette of a bloodied hunter walking down the eerie streets of Yahrnam with a giant cleaver in one hand and a massive blunderbuss in the other
With it’s gothic title in the middle
In my opinion: it shows that it’s horror, has violent combat (with the brutal saw cleaver), gothic/Victorian, atmospheric and the mysterious appearance of the hunter shows that he/she is dangerous and going to do a sinister deed.
It Also shows that this is YOUR character, where AS you choose their look and all
Yooo i remember god hand! Though in my country the box art was just the word "god hand" in a white background, i really didn't like it, that letter font reminded me of a terrible candy brand that disgusts me so i didn't got to play it that much
I always thought the Sleeping Dogs box art was really cool
At least yakuza kiwami 2 has a revamped version of the originals japanese cover.
EU almost always got it right because they usually went with the Japanese ones and only slightly touched up the stuff that didn't quite jive. The only times they overwrote them were when the JPN one was just completely inconsistent with the theming or if Americans sold the game so much that they had to go with it.
To be fair with the phantom pain box art when I picked it up originally back in 2015 the store was giving out free steelbooks and I got one so my mgsv copy is in a steel book with yoji shinkawa’s artwork of venom, pretty happy with it.
my fav are the final fantasy ones
Shinobi 2002 PAL Boxart was incredibly stylish.
9:31 Dude I actually jumped out of my chair for this… I fucking love that game. It also deserves a remake so hard.
The US boxart for REmake is honestly one of my favorite game boxes of all time. It always stood out to me as a kid, long before I had ever even played a Resident Evil game. It's just rad.
And I always kinda liked the MGS4 box over here, aged as it is, but that JP cover is straight-up incredible and now I feel cheated.
"based on aesthetics I know what I'm going for" *zooms in on lightening's short skirt and legs *
Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting that one and it caught me off guard 😂
2:07 lol russian cover
kingdom hearts has some excellent boxart
I appreciate the godhand music
That Sly Collection box art physically hurts me.
Any game that has reversible box art is way cooler for it
A “real eastern vibe”
Um excuse me I didn't see any kh bix art and I'm offend 😁😁
the japanese box art of hotline miami made it over to the west through the form of the hotline miami collection thank goodness
i wish we got that persona 3 art though tbh
I'm surprised to say that I prefer Japanese SONIC box art in a lot of cases. The original Mega Drive trilogy of games have eye-catching popart styles on their Japanese covers, which captures the surreal aspect of Sonic quite well. Sonic Spinball and Sonic Jam especially have no business having the cool boxarts they do in Japan. Even later games like Sonic Riders have cool as hell boxarts in Japan that I envy with how RAD it looks, because everyone else gets CG boredom.
But now boxarts are the same across all regions, and it sucks.
I remember when I first played Ground Zeroes I got surprised that there was a reversible cover for it that had Shinkawa's art and was hoping The Phantom Pain would have it as well.
But nope, it literally was just showing off the controls for the game.
I will always love the minimalist final fantasy covers, thank god im from europe, since they always add something to them in the us
02:06 На обложке написано "Документация на русском языке" 😁
Nice — I wish there were more videos like this… As a trained graphic designer, I really appreciate it!
When I first graduated university, I originally wanted to design music CD covers since I enjoyed doing that so much as a class project, which is clearly quite similar to designing video game box art, so it tickles me pink to see others critique this kind of stuff (I ended up going into web design though, which is very different obviously). You have good taste! Most untrained people don’t have an eye for what denotes good from bad in commercial art, but you do.
Great video, mate — I really enjoyed it, and I hope you do more like it!
One of my favorites has to be Wonderful 101. All the playable heroes bunched together with their unique weapon leaping up from a city toward the viewer with a rising fist perfectly captures the spirit and gameplay it has to offer.
One thing I'm grateful to Steam for is that when you look at your library they have what's essentially a videogame box art cover for each game as long as it's been bought on Steam, even then if you add a non-Steam game to Steam you can add a custom one!
Red Ninja End of Honor, minimal and sexy
Love how you didn't even bring up yakuza 5 lmaooo
As bad of a game as Superman 64 is, one thing must be said:
Critics: Titus forgot to add the title on the boxart.
Fans: It's Superman…
The og Yakuza boxart is my favorite box art of all time
I want to point out that tekken 7 had one of the best Japanese box arts while the American one is just 2 guys faces blended. Meanwhile in Japan it showcases Heihachi and yakuza fighting with aura's surrounding them while Heihachi's back is in the background with 1 eye showing almost like he's watching the 2 battle and that's literally what happens at the end of the game as well
Surprised you didn't talk about RE4 wii's cover, it's the coolest ever. Like an actual good slasher movie or something
NakeyJakey had only over 218,000 subs in 2018. Geez Subs climb fast.
Maximo Ghosts to Glory or Red Dead Redemption box arts. Extremely eye candy covers
I liked the Mafia 2 box art. Four characters in suits looking sharp with car headlights behind and skyline in the background
I also like that God hand cover where the hand goes inside the guys mouth.
Bioshock infinite art: generic man with a gun
Yakuza 4 art: SEX
A cool follow up to this would be to talk about the best steel book cases.
I also find Yakuza 7 box better in the west imo
Good thing Kiryu never kills anyone or else he would probably be holding a gun in every box art.
JP: Bredy gud
US: ech, is bad!
EU: AY YO BRUH WUHDUHFUHHHHHHHH
Dishonored GOTY is up there for me. A really cool but obscure one also is Raze’s Hell for the Xbox, and Bangai-O for the Dreamcast
I'm actually sad that Takeshi Kitano isn't more well known here. He's such a badass.