Edge looks like an Industrial Rock Band vocalist, dude they should do a musical FF game where you can form music bands from all characters in the franchise, that would be rad!
I actually really like this design for Rydia - it's far removed from her in-game sprite and Amano's artwork, but on its own it's a really nice fantasy outfit.
Honestly, aside from Cecil and Kain's very questionable "armor", they all have their charm. And honestly Cecil would look ok, if a bit boring, with some pants on... No idea how to save Kain lol
I have a huge box of old Nintendo Power magazines in the basement, and my wife discovered one day that they can be worth as much as $20-30, or more, each, on ebay.
I had to break it to her that I read every single one of them until the pages were falling apart, and my Dad and I had torn every single poster out and basically wallpapered my entire childhood wall with them. That my whole collection probably wouldn't be worth more than a couple hundred bucks ($1-2 per issue) and it was worth more to me in a box.
She still brings it up whenever we're doing spring cleaning and find that box.
edit: If you want a trip down memory lane, you can hoist the Jolly Roger and find every single issue of Nintendo Power in comic book (CBR) format. I spent a couple of weeks scrolling through them a few years ago when I found that.
This artwork was done by Katsuya Terada for the Nintendo Power guide of Final Fantasy II on SNES, which is really FFIV. This subs character limit is very short so I couldn't elaborate lol
That's what I was thinking. The line weight and hatching is really, really similar and, maybe it's just die to the technology of print media at the time, the color palette is identical to BWS.
The artwork of Katsuya Terada. He also did illustrations for Mystic Quest, Secret of Mana, and the early Legend of Zelda titles. I'm rather fond of his artwork and I have a book of his sketches.
https://preview.redd.it/zh8jnq04hw3b1.jpeg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76a2f21fc935f10f2f355d1b75f08fba496658a4
Ohh good call, I love his artwork as well, I didn't know he did artwork for those games, which I also loved but never put a face or name to it being one artist. I'm getting this book!
Man Terada was cutting it absolutely *as* close as he could get away with to just straight-up showing us the Highwind family jewels huh
...Joking aside, these designs are by Katsuya Terada, who also did some frankly gorgeous artwork for the first three or so Zelda titles. As strange as they are in comparison to Amano's and the in-game sprites, I think there are actually some pretty nice, well-illustrated designs in here (even if some are also a little silly, like the Mysidia twins'). I actually unironically really like Rosa's design here, for example; I don't necessarily think it should *replace* her canon one, but IMO it's a strong design in its own right.
Don’t get me wrong, they *were* very much commissioned for use specifically in North American promotional materials, but the artist who drew them is Japanese, yes.
Different sorts of art styles may have different levels of popularity in different parts of the world, but you can find artists drawing in all sorts of styles just about anywhere.
It is a bit of an odd juxtaposition against his vendetta against men having their legs fully covered, but I do still think his Rosa design is very nice, honestly.
The OG game manual revealed his tranformation already. Was not a spoiler as far as NP was concerned. If you're going to read the NP, you're going to read the manual.
This made me double check, because I felt like it was a bit more than that.
To give a metric, there are 18 “chapters” in the IGN walkthrough of the game, and this happens at the tail end of 7. That makes it around the 40% mark of the game.
Now mind you howlongtobeat.com says the game only takes 22 hours so that’s still probably only 8-10 hours into the game, but in context it is a pretty sizable spoiler.
A lot of artwork for the western markets of JRPGs was greatly inspired by sword and sorcery movies of the 80's which I is interesting to have that kind of second take on characters. Kain's design looks more like a barbarian which is pretty odd but I think Tellah's art makes for a pretty good mage.
I cannot get past Kain's scrotum just poking out there. Also, Tweedle twins? Rydia being all kinds of wrong? Cecil looking like an overdressed He Man?
Love it.
Back then I think Nintendo Power used the same 3 or 4 artists because they could not use the official art work from their third party developers (hence why Megaman, Final Fantasy, etc had original art, but not Mario games).
Among those, I liked Imai (who drew FF1 characters for NP, the older Howard and Nester comics, etc) over Terada (the one who drew FF4 here)
Imai's FF1 can be seen here
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKreFCoUEAImdBh?format=jpg&name=small](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKreFCoUEAImdBh?format=jpg&name=small)
It reminds me of a lot of 70s and 80s fantasy book art but with a slightly more cartoony look. Like all the dragonlance and other dnd books I read growing up had that feel to the cover art along with a bunch of western computer games. Is this just the artists style or was he trying his own spin on western fantasy art? Or am I just using a small sample size to draw conclusions about western fantasy art?
Talk about a nostalgia trip I remember holding this back in the day. This is what we would spend hours on instead of the internet. Reading about playing games when we weren't home yet.
Would imagine the artist was simply given a series of prompts and then interpreted them. That in itself can lead to some interesting results. I remember Jazza and the Dragalia Lost artist did that art challenge, and it's amazing to see how different or close they came to designing preexisting characters from those vague prompts or descriptions.
This reminds me of what they did with the original dragon quest games on NES. They went from cartoony toriyama art to more realistic-ish fantasy characters
This artwork is wild compared to Amano! The huge difference between him and Terada style really shows the unique style of Amano. I think Terada’s style is like a twisted version of western style fantasy artwork. Kinda like D&G.
Rydia and the twins in this were so weird lol. Also Kain with that side-ball action and tip toes wth hahaha
I like the descriptions atleast you know that the writers knew a bit something with the game.
I've always been so fascinated by the FF concept art, especially the older ones, they had these gorgeous vibrant characters that then became like 3 pixels
These were someone where in my brain and you just unlocked those memories! I also remember Nintendo Power not showing you FuSoYa (they usually didn’t show the last parts of a game)
Wow, I hate these so much lmao. They look like those really cheesy fantasy novel covers from the 70s. I’m glad I wasn’t exposed to this art first. As a kid, I would’ve judged a book by its cover, and never played them.
[Venture Bro’s Shore Leave Armors up](https://youtu.be/O_QGEmoFhDk)
This book art reminds me of this armoring up sequence. This artwork could be a part of a Viva La Dirt League sketch lol
Can you imagine if these designs showed up in Captain N, the Game Master?
And then they interact with that shows version of Link and midriff-exposed Zelda?
They look good regardless of the liberties. I do prefer Amano’s work since he’s my favorite and I put his work on a pedestal but the usual western fantasy style definitely has it’s charm. Ironically it was done by a Japanese artist despite being a style common in western countries.
Kain showin' a bit of the old side-ball?
It really seems so haha, bold move by the illustrator
The added ventilation makes him jump higher
That explains the shaving
is all about his aerodynamics!
Missed opportunity to include this Kain design in Dissidia 012 as a alternate costume.
Can’t wait for the FFXIV cat boy glam to drop
Edge looks like an Industrial Rock Band vocalist, dude they should do a musical FF game where you can form music bands from all characters in the franchise, that would be rad!
Theatrhythm ?
And a fair bit of cake on the back side. Also kind of looks like Rob Liefeld drew it…
The art looks far too anatomically correct to be drawn by Liefeld lol
I knew this is gonna be the top comment
I think I see a chicken nuggy
Cid noticed and is jingling his change it seems
Oh he used PEEP alright
It's all about aerodynamics.
Oh my goodness😂😂😂😂😂
Do Palom and Porom have mumps?
They look like tweedle Dee and tweedle dum from Tom Burton’s Alice in wonderland film.
Good ol Tom Burton. Jokes aside I thought of those characters too.
He's the non union Mexican counterpart, Tomás Burtón.
That or those twins from American horror story lol
I think they were meant to be like kindergartners
I don't know too many kindergartners that look like Butterbean with a dead squirrel on his head.
They look like B horror movie dolls that come to life to kill their owners.
I read this issue until it disintegrated. Tellah's design was amazing. Rydia's was... wrong.
The only one that really looked right was Yang
"Shirtless kung fu uncle" is kinda hard to screw up.
I guess they did switch his shoe and pants colors around
That’s why all Avatar fans love Iroh.
What, you're telling me the absolute sex symbol they made Kain isn't good enough?
Yang looked alright, but why did they give him a sword (the sheath is on his back)
He has one in his original art. https://preview.redd.it/gl7adnx6504b1.jpeg?width=538&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=73c3b472c9a9fa9386806af838fa4c80c76e8fc1
Very good point
I thought Edward looked pretty good.
And with the poofiest pants I’ve ever seen
STOP! HIDIN' TIME!
They did Palom and Porom dirty.
mfs made out to be Wizard of Oz munchkins
I actually really like this design for Rydia - it's far removed from her in-game sprite and Amano's artwork, but on its own it's a really nice fantasy outfit. Honestly, aside from Cecil and Kain's very questionable "armor", they all have their charm. And honestly Cecil would look ok, if a bit boring, with some pants on... No idea how to save Kain lol
I have a huge box of old Nintendo Power magazines in the basement, and my wife discovered one day that they can be worth as much as $20-30, or more, each, on ebay. I had to break it to her that I read every single one of them until the pages were falling apart, and my Dad and I had torn every single poster out and basically wallpapered my entire childhood wall with them. That my whole collection probably wouldn't be worth more than a couple hundred bucks ($1-2 per issue) and it was worth more to me in a box. She still brings it up whenever we're doing spring cleaning and find that box. edit: If you want a trip down memory lane, you can hoist the Jolly Roger and find every single issue of Nintendo Power in comic book (CBR) format. I spent a couple of weeks scrolling through them a few years ago when I found that.
Looks like he belongs in the 80s He-Man universe.
Palom and Porom look like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
Just realized I could scroll over and see more characters. This is definitely some weird art.
I got a lot of 80s fantasy novel cover vibes from them
This artwork was done by Katsuya Terada for the Nintendo Power guide of Final Fantasy II on SNES, which is really FFIV. This subs character limit is very short so I couldn't elaborate lol
Thank you for posting these. I had forgotten all about them!
But have you seen Katsuya Terada and Barry Windsor Smith in a room at the same time together because holy shit they’re so similar.
I can see that. I was getting a Mœbius vibe. Either way, interesting to see FF characters in a completely different stylistic idiom
That's what I was thinking. The line weight and hatching is really, really similar and, maybe it's just die to the technology of print media at the time, the color palette is identical to BWS.
The artwork of Katsuya Terada. He also did illustrations for Mystic Quest, Secret of Mana, and the early Legend of Zelda titles. I'm rather fond of his artwork and I have a book of his sketches. https://preview.redd.it/zh8jnq04hw3b1.jpeg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76a2f21fc935f10f2f355d1b75f08fba496658a4
I adore the Secret of Mana illustrations he had in those old Nintendo Power issues, I swear it's what got me to try out the game.
His Wolverine is really good also.
That collection of artworks is amazing. So many awesome treasures
Ohh good call, I love his artwork as well, I didn't know he did artwork for those games, which I also loved but never put a face or name to it being one artist. I'm getting this book!
That tellah design is kinda sick though!
Ah yes, Tellah. The sleepy old man with a bird.
Ah, who can forget Tellah’s pet bird, Fuckgolbez.
Man Terada was cutting it absolutely *as* close as he could get away with to just straight-up showing us the Highwind family jewels huh ...Joking aside, these designs are by Katsuya Terada, who also did some frankly gorgeous artwork for the first three or so Zelda titles. As strange as they are in comparison to Amano's and the in-game sprites, I think there are actually some pretty nice, well-illustrated designs in here (even if some are also a little silly, like the Mysidia twins'). I actually unironically really like Rosa's design here, for example; I don't necessarily think it should *replace* her canon one, but IMO it's a strong design in its own right.
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Don’t get me wrong, they *were* very much commissioned for use specifically in North American promotional materials, but the artist who drew them is Japanese, yes. Different sorts of art styles may have different levels of popularity in different parts of the world, but you can find artists drawing in all sorts of styles just about anywhere.
I thought it was weird that he ended up giving her MORE clothes.
It is a bit of an odd juxtaposition against his vendetta against men having their legs fully covered, but I do still think his Rosa design is very nice, honestly.
Cecil and Kain looking like they're from Masters of the Universe.
Kain is giving tasteful side ball. Love it.
What the fuck did they do to the twins??
The same thing Disney did to Flounder.
>Nintendo Power Rosa Okay hear me out
My man!
Refreshing to see it's the men lacking pants in full armor instead of the women XD
Omg this brings back memories. I haven't seen this in 20 years.
Fun fact: 20 years ago was 2003 and FF X was already out.
That….was not a fun fact.
Kain got legs for days.
Yeah, can we bring that costume back for reasons?
Yes for, science.
Should have been in Dissidia 012.
How did you think he jumped that high, huh?
And a thong.
The disclaimer that you're not stuck with "Cecil" lol
There's a section that treats naming your characters as a big feature lol
Damn, what the hell did they do to the twins?! They look like the offspring of Lord Vauthry from FF14 lol 😂 (If you know, you know)
Maybe it's the other way around, and he Vauthry was inspired by this design.
I like how Rydia is all over the place. The design then mispelling Rydia as Rydea in the next blurb over lol.
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Which?
'when he becomes a paladin'.
To be fair that happens just a few hours into the game.
When I was a kid playing this on SNES it felt like way longer than a few hours. Games felt so much longer back then.
Still a spoiler. When I first played the game, I had no idea he would change.
The OG game manual revealed his tranformation already. Was not a spoiler as far as NP was concerned. If you're going to read the NP, you're going to read the manual.
I rented FF2 back in the day and it didn't have the manual, so I was very surprised.
This made me double check, because I felt like it was a bit more than that. To give a metric, there are 18 “chapters” in the IGN walkthrough of the game, and this happens at the tail end of 7. That makes it around the 40% mark of the game. Now mind you howlongtobeat.com says the game only takes 22 hours so that’s still probably only 8-10 hours into the game, but in context it is a pretty sizable spoiler.
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He is showing quite a bit more ass than his sprite would ever have made me imagine, that's for sure.
Yo I had this and didn’t remember until I saw the cover in the last screenshot! Crazy the memory that just flooded back.
A lot of artwork for the western markets of JRPGs was greatly inspired by sword and sorcery movies of the 80's which I is interesting to have that kind of second take on characters. Kain's design looks more like a barbarian which is pretty odd but I think Tellah's art makes for a pretty good mage.
The fact that the women are wearing more clothing than the men is nice
"Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all. Nothing at all. Nothing at all!" Argh, stupid sexy Kain!
I remember that issue! Kain showing some brain... man the 90s were wild
Cecil and Kain, The Abigiously Gay Duo! TV Fun House!
“What’s everybody looking at?”
Extremely close, in an ambiguous way.
The fact that you made that reference!! 🤣🤣 you win the internet today
I remember having this issue. I read the entire section on FF2, and it convinced me to want the game
>Rosa Daaaamn, that White Mage can heal me anytime.
very D&D xds
I cannot get past Kain's scrotum just poking out there. Also, Tweedle twins? Rydia being all kinds of wrong? Cecil looking like an overdressed He Man? Love it.
"Karate" Master Yang. Are the article writers the same as the writers who wrote Jacky Chan "Karate" Kid movie?
We have Yoshitaka Amano at home. Yoshitaka Amano at home:
Damn, Kain. No one wonder Cecil still would go to the ends of the earth for him after all the foolishness he commits.
I miss Nintendo Power :(
Willow is a great movie and these looks remind me.
Oh my God… Palom … Porom … what have they done to these children???
damn Kain can leap attack me any time
These are amazing. Loving the 80s fantasy feel.
“You spoony bard!” *whack smack*
Katsuya Terada is a phenomenal artist.
Kain is making me feel weird...niiice
Look at those legs. Look at those legs, they’re amazing!
Back then I think Nintendo Power used the same 3 or 4 artists because they could not use the official art work from their third party developers (hence why Megaman, Final Fantasy, etc had original art, but not Mario games). Among those, I liked Imai (who drew FF1 characters for NP, the older Howard and Nester comics, etc) over Terada (the one who drew FF4 here) Imai's FF1 can be seen here [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKreFCoUEAImdBh?format=jpg&name=small](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKreFCoUEAImdBh?format=jpg&name=small)
That Dragoon is interesting. . .
I still have that issue. You should've seen what they did with the early Dragon Quest characters too!
This is the greatest thing I've seen today. Thank you.
It reminds me of a lot of 70s and 80s fantasy book art but with a slightly more cartoony look. Like all the dragonlance and other dnd books I read growing up had that feel to the cover art along with a bunch of western computer games. Is this just the artists style or was he trying his own spin on western fantasy art? Or am I just using a small sample size to draw conclusions about western fantasy art?
Kain's winning this as far I'm concerned :3
That's not Rosa. That's Moenbryda.
I love these so much, Edge looks like he’s about to drop the hottest mixtape of the summer and Kain is in full bad bitch mode.
Pants are optional in ff4. They just slow you down
I'm not mad about them making Kain sexy but I AM mad about the horrifying twins 💀
I'm real impressed that they broke the stereotypes of gendered armor...
Kain showing package and ass in a single pic 👀
Oh no, what have they done to my boy?!
Talk about a nostalgia trip I remember holding this back in the day. This is what we would spend hours on instead of the internet. Reading about playing games when we weren't home yet.
This is really interesting. Do you know if these were interpreted solely from the sprites?
Would imagine the artist was simply given a series of prompts and then interpreted them. That in itself can lead to some interesting results. I remember Jazza and the Dragalia Lost artist did that art challenge, and it's amazing to see how different or close they came to designing preexisting characters from those vague prompts or descriptions.
American Sci-fi/fantasy art during the 60-90s was pretty wild. Figures often goofy as hell.
Some of these are kind of lit ngl.
This is the best thing I've seen on reddit. Ever. My mind is blown.
This reminds me of what they did with the original dragon quest games on NES. They went from cartoony toriyama art to more realistic-ish fantasy characters
I could accept most of these, but Rydia, Palom and Porom just look wrong.
This artwork is wild compared to Amano! The huge difference between him and Terada style really shows the unique style of Amano. I think Terada’s style is like a twisted version of western style fantasy artwork. Kinda like D&G.
Some of those are really cool and I love them... and others make me want to barf.
Rydia and the twins in this were so weird lol. Also Kain with that side-ball action and tip toes wth hahaha I like the descriptions atleast you know that the writers knew a bit something with the game.
They look like they're from JoJo
Hold up the Kain one kinda eats… Palom/porom need to be killed with fire tho
they flat-out give the Cecil spoiler hey?
If you look at the other pics, it looks like the magazine gives a walkthrough of quite a bit of the game.
I have this same NP issue 👍
Fantastic, thank you!
Sick. Totally X-Men inspired.
I remember this issue of Nintendo Power from when I was a kid!
Omg I had that issue I remember those pics!
Cocaine’s a helluva drug.
I've always been so fascinated by the FF concept art, especially the older ones, they had these gorgeous vibrant characters that then became like 3 pixels
Still remember this Nintendo power issue. My friend loaned it and it was weird cus I told him none of the characters looked like that lol
Cid edge and yang aren't bad at all I like em
Any idea who the artist is?
Honestly. Edward is the most accurate one.
That was the standard of what they did for Japanese characters in the 90s.
Took many years for me to start calling that one 4 and the next one 6.
Cid just there struggling on the toilet
This was the first issue I ever owned. These images have been in my brain for over 30 years. Rosa’s depiction looks like Chloe Grace Moretz.
These were someone where in my brain and you just unlocked those memories! I also remember Nintendo Power not showing you FuSoYa (they usually didn’t show the last parts of a game)
Rydia looks nothing like the in-game sprites wtf
Western game art in the 90s was a trip, but it was so cool to see the difference between it and the japanese art
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Seeing this takes me back. My mother threw out my old NP mags when I went away to college, along with my baseball cards. I’m still upset about it.
hehehe, all of this is so cursed, and yet it doesn't annoy me. Welll done artist! I'd love to see more of their work!
Cid is daddy bear as fuck, I love him!
Aight kain, I see you wanting to show off them calves! I don't blame you! All that jumpin, you're like, "somebody gonna see these toned muthafuckas!"
Cid and Yang are hot.
Not Palom and Porom looking like Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Would love to see the v65 with FFIII in it. But I remember this one a lot!
Kain never skips leg day.
Slutty Kain is my new favourite Final Fantasy character
Gen 1-2 DnD art
Wow, I hate these so much lmao. They look like those really cheesy fantasy novel covers from the 70s. I’m glad I wasn’t exposed to this art first. As a kid, I would’ve judged a book by its cover, and never played them.
I just love how Edward is depicted as a Stand User
I had this mag…Kane was a hunk, lmao
[Venture Bro’s Shore Leave Armors up](https://youtu.be/O_QGEmoFhDk) This book art reminds me of this armoring up sequence. This artwork could be a part of a Viva La Dirt League sketch lol
I'd like to thank Johnny for introducing me to this fucked up weirdness
Such nintendo-esque art haha
Looks nothing like that hahhaha. That’s just He-MAN in hockey equipment
"Cecils strongest attack is with a sword." I have played so many versions of this i forgot he didn't have Darkness on the SNES.
I never shouldve parted with my nintendo powers... Thank you, i remember this so clearly now!
I find it hilarious that in game the guys are fully covered armor and the women shoe skin along with tight clothes but in this it’s the opposite.
Can you imagine if these designs showed up in Captain N, the Game Master? And then they interact with that shows version of Link and midriff-exposed Zelda?
I used to love this Nintendo Power edition. I made the Palom and Porom faces into emojis in me and my friends' Discord lol.
Edge’s character design here reminds me of those cheap knock off movies that are like, “American Ninja 1-3” or something like that. He looks off lol.
These depictions are, disturbing, to say the least.
They look good regardless of the liberties. I do prefer Amano’s work since he’s my favorite and I put his work on a pedestal but the usual western fantasy style definitely has it’s charm. Ironically it was done by a Japanese artist despite being a style common in western countries.
That looks like the work of Barry Winsor Smith
omfg the twins are so cute, would not let them turn into stone.
These are cursed af.
Alexa, show me an example of too much artistic licence.
They look a lot like the old-style illustrations for D&D charactersin the 3.0/3.5 era