Comic Review: FF DOT: The Pixel Art of Final Fantasy HC (Dark Horse Comics)

Dark Horse Comics releases another encyclopedia of Final Fantasy which this time we’ll be viewing the pixel art of the game.

From the Yoshitaka Amano’s illustrations to the miniature figure photographs, and now they release a series of pixel art of the game. So from every project that the game developers made, Square Enix gets to release some of the parts of the series that were in progress, but now we get to see it for ourselves. However, all I can think about the whole pixel art of the Final Fantasy series is from 1 through 6. But suddenly they added some extra pixels from 7 through 15. I mean I’m reviewing every book of the part of the project of Final Fantasy series, this is too grand. But what can I say, of course, it’s Square Enix, from every game that they like, they seem to be delaying the impossible longer because of the graphics that they need to develop in the future? But right now, lets focus and go back to the past, but first, let’s take at this moment, I’m reviewing the pixel art of Final Fantasy series.

The front cover shows a series of boxes and pixels on the cover, I’d imagine what mind has done this to put a tittle on this cover. And here you have your beloved pixels, a Moogle, a Chocobo, a Cactuar, and an airship. Anyway, the whole pixel artworks is made by Kazuko Shibuya, the whole series of pixel art of the game started with her, and to know about it, she actually loves to draw since childhood, until she stepped in the game industry to make pixel art for Square Enix. And the whole book has an extensive portfolio of pixel art inside that made the fans scream like girls all over. The way that she creates the sprites for the characters of the game is quite unique, even so, this is like what 8 and 16 bit in pixels looked like back then. The form and action of the pixels of the characters and monsters of Final Fantasy turned to be legendary. It’s a form of digital art that can be done in Microsoft Paint or Krita, but back then the pixel art can be drawn in a graph like what they see in their math notebooks. What I really like the most is how the pixel art is done in ½ boxes in a graph defining the color values of the pixel art like the Warrior or Firion’s sprite reddish color. The pixel art keeps growing until she redesigned the future FF pixels for 7 through 15 in 2018. But somehow, I wish Square Enix should start making the following games in a pixel form, and some action movement just like the game.

The thing about pixel art is very exciting from the start, but whenever I looked into this pixel art book, I soon realized how amazing these pixels that she can produce from the characters. But I wonder how the 3D pixel art got formed in Final Fantasy VII, including Cloud and the others? Oh, and the pixels of the PSP games Final Fantasy I, II and Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection. Well, maybe if there’s another book of graphics of the game, maybe I’ll review it. But honestly, the pixel art of Kazuko Shibuya was amazing, to begin with, most important is that the pixel art that she created is what makes the Final Fantasy games looked more real than any other classic game that you’ve played. If you rather want to experience what Pixel Art really looked like in the past, then this is for you.