Video Game "Companion Books"

[aozgolo]

While art books have been around quite awhile, a more recent trend I've noticed, particularly for RPGs is the release of Companion Books for them. Personally I find these to be quite awesome as they not only contain artwork but content pertaining to the lore, history, locations, and characters of a game. It's a great way I think of really expanding out the content for those wanting more from it. Of course art-books themselves are a kind of companion book as well, pretty much anything but strategy guides, although in a few cases even these are starting to qualify.

I'm just curious about what companion books/art books you own and what you think about them or about companion books in general?

Spoiler: My Books

Hyrule Historia - While a ridiculous amount of this book is more concept art showing off Skyward Sword, a short manga comic, and loads of concept art, a good portion is dedicated towards the history of Hyrule and showcasing art and info about the journey of Link through all the main canon games released to that point.

The World of the Witcher - I love this book, it's got so much background lore about the world, history about events and places, and details about the lives and secrets of witchers, monsters, and sorcerers (and sorceresses) complete with loads of awesome art!

The Skyrim Library - These come in three volumes, the last of which isn't yet released. Instead of NEW content, these books are instead a collection of in-game books from the game Skyrim compiled together in a hardcover, with additional art (probably Skyrim concept art). It's a great way to sit down and soak in Tamriel Lore outside of the game where reading it's vast library is rarely what you go in playing to do.

Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Encyclopedia of Adventure - Every Dragon Quest Game up to 2011, complete with screenshots, artwork, character bios, background info, story... all wonderfully written in... Japanese which I can't read... curse you Square Enix, curse you!

Minecraft The Complete Handbook Collection - So Minecraft doesn't really have a story, or lore, or concept art, but it does have fascinating gameplay, and while these handbooks are more akin to strategy guides in a sense, they really come across more as a showcase of what is great about the game and show off it's potential both as a sandbox builder, and an adventure. The Handbooks are divided into 4 volumes (which you can buy in one set) for Essentials (basic gameplay and info), Combat, Construction, and Redstone.

Dragon's Crown Artbook - Because sometimes you just need to admire every single frame of the Sorceress' walk animation...

Talk about your favorite companion books, or just about them in general!

 

[aozgolo]

I also have the World of the Witcher book, and it's a pretty nice item to compliment the games, considering there is so much lore from the novels as well. Other than that I have mostly a few collector's guides and art books. Future Press is outstanding for guides, but occasionally Prima does well too. Their Dark Souls 3 Collector's guide is pretty tidy; it even comes with a journal and metal sword bookmarker -

 

[kilenem]

The Borderlands series has some comics that alright. They're not bad but probably hindered because they can't mess with the borderlands continuity

 

[Recusant]

I'm very glad to hear this sort of thing is making a comeback. Digital distribution killed "feelies", and shifting demographics targeting a younger generation that, as old and get-off-my-lawnish as it makes me feel to say it, there is something wrong with, insofar as it prefers slow-paced, unsearchable, badly organized "tutorial videos" to proper manuals killed said manuals; so it's surprising, but pleasantly. Find yourself a copy of an old Microprose game; most of them had dozens or hundreds of pages devoted to technical details and background lore. Hunt down a copy of Starsiege (the game in the series that came before Tribes), and you'll find a "history of the conflict" book that's as long as the actual manual.

It's good to see.

 

[Dragonbums]

I'm a sucker for art books even from games I don't own and never will own.

My current collection so far is Hyrule Historia, The Art of Mass Effect (the ME3 art book that compiles art from all 3 games.), Monster Hunter Artbook 2nd Edition, The Art of 5th Cell Studios, Art of Okami, and I plan on getting my hands on Bayonetta1 and 2 art books.

Art books I sorely want to have in my hands but are a pipe dream at this point is the Skyrim Art books, and the art book that came with the Xenoblade Chronicles Limited Edition set.
I also can't wait to get my hands on the third edition Monster Hunter Art Book.

OH, I also have the Fire Emblem Awakening art book on pre order too.

 

[Hawki]

There seems to be different views of what constitutes "companion" books. Some are listing comics, some are listing art books, some are listing source books. I'll start by listing actual sourcebooks. If you want a list of comics/art books I have based on games, I can do that as well.

So, actual sourcebooks:

Diablo: Book of Cain

Probably the best of the bunch I have. It didn't really cover any history I was unfamiliar with, but it does cover the history of the setting ranging from its origins to the end of Lord of Destruction, and delves into the geography of Sanctuary as well, along with the Angiris Council and Great Evils. That alone would be good, but what makes it great is the art style. There's a hand-drawn feel across the entire book, and it really captures the essence of the Diablo setting in its manner of presentation.

Diablo: Book of Tyrael

The "book like Book of Cain, but not as good." That's pretty much how I regard Book of Tyrael. It's still good, and it has a tough act to follow, but there's two key differences. One, it's written by Tyrael, so while the style of presentation fits an angel, it doesn't have the same 'rawness' as Book of Cain in regards to its art style. Not to mention the old style is gone completely, as the book is an in-universe collection of notes from various sources, but the two styles remain distinct, for better or worse. Secondly, there's the feeling of it covering extra stuff in Book of Cain's wake. Book of Cain has a clear goal - establish the setting for newcomers, refine it for veterans. Book of Tyrael is divided into sections pertaining to various apsects, beginning with Kulle, Adria, and the Black Soulstone, moving onto the history of Westmarch and the crusaders, and ending with miscellanea such as a timeline and blurbs on various organizations within Sanctuary. It's good, but not as good.

Now where's my "Books of Kalan" Blizz?

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas: Volume 1

Never played Dragon Age, though I have read some of the novels, browsed the wiki extensively, and read this book. This very, VERY large book. The book is pretty much a wiki in of itself, covering lands, history, the Veil, the darkspawn, etc. Great read.

The StarCraft Field Manual

This is probably the weakest entry for me, but for no fault of its own. Thing is, the book doesn't really cover anything I wasn't already familiar with, as it's a lowdown on the units/technology of the "big three" in the setting. Now, I can get behind this kind of book (e.g. I own the Colonial Marines Field Manual), but that, as far as I'm aware, was new information. This is mostly pre-existing information packaged into digestable form.

Still, what does make me enjoy this book is that like the Cain/Tyrael books, it's treated as an in-universe object, and in this case, the personal property of a Dominion marine. That means that the pages are host to a variety of hand-drawn notes, most of them snarky. So, that was quite enjoyable.

Edit: If you count RPG books as sourcebooks, I can pretty much include all of the Warcraft RPG books. However, can't say much specific about them, as it's been so long since I read any of them.

 

[aozgolo]

I didn't want to put a hard definition on companion books really since there's so few threads discussing them.

I was very interested in getting the Dragon Age World of Thedas volumes, along with the strategy guide for DA:I and the game, and the Library Edition collecting all the comics. I never got any of them, but still on my wishlist!

I admit I typically avoided artbooks before as most seemed to be basic concept art I wasn't that interested in. The Art of Final Fantasy for example is done mostly in a style that I'm not that fond of where all the characters seem water-colored and soft, and just not a preferred style for me. I think it was when I started seeing Visual Books and Design Works for games like Ar Tonelico, Senran Kagura, Record of Agarest War, Growlanser and the like with their beautiful vivid character drawings that I really started wanting these. I want to get the Art of the Witcher 3 at some point too.

I like to give a special nod also to the Dragon Quest Strategy Guides since they seem to contain TONS and TONS of game art I've not seen anywhere else, full vivid anime character drawings probably drawn by Akira Toriyama himself, and every town, dungeon, and item is beautifully drawn. I love these strategy guides and they are probably some of my favorites.

I also have the hardcover collector's edition strategy guide for Fallout 3, as well as the one for The Witcher 3 which deserves special mention for an awesome little companion book called A Fractured Land: Tales of the Northern Realms which is an amazing lore book detailing history of the realms, the races, biographies of many of the game's main characters divided up by faction. I love this little book as much as The World of The Witcher, and it's totally worth getting the strategy guide for it!

 

[Hawki]

Most game artbooks I have have been received as part of pre-orders, but regardless, they include:

-The Art and Design of Gears of War
-Beneath the Surface: An Inside Look at Gears of War 2
-The Art of Diablo III
-The Art of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
-The Art of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
-The Art of Warcraft
-The Art of World of Warcraft
-The Art of Halo 2: Creating a Virtual World
-The Art of Halo 3
-The Art of Alien: Isolation (abridged version)
-The Art of Mass Effect
-Mass Effect 2 Collector's Edition Art Book
-The Art of Mass Effect 3

 

[Neverhoodian]

"Recent trend?" We used to get "feelies" all the time for PC games in the 90's. Some of my favorites were the companion pieces for X-Wing and Tie Fighter (The Farlander Papers and The Stele Chronicles respectively). Not only did they provide backstory and context for the game's missions, but they were damn fine reads on their own.

Hell, even your standard manuals had more meat to them back then (97-page Daggerfall manual, anyone?). I remember borrowing Warcraft II from a friend long ago, only to spend more time reading the lore in the manual than playing the actual game. Historical flight sims like Knights of the Sky and Heroes of the 357th usually contained detailed historical accounts of air combat, and it helped kick off my interest in the subject.

 

[Hawki]

I remember borrowing Warcraft II from a friend long ago, only to spend more time reading the lore in the manual than playing the actual game.

Similar thing happened to me with StarCraft. Friend played the game first, but he leant me the manual for an extended period of time before I got the game myself.

 

[FPLOON]

There's this Tales of Symphonia Chronicles novel subtitled Successors of Hope that's [as far as I'm awae of] only available alongside of the collector's edition of Tales of Symphonia Chronicles for the PS3... It's probably one of the more "unexpected" companion books I've got since it basically starts off as an epilogue to the first Symphonia game and ends as a prologue to Dawn of the New World... Also, even thought I've never bought the game "solely" because it wasn't [like] the second game in the series, the collector's edition of Soul Calibur V was worth buying [at the time] just to read up on the lore/timeline of the series...

Other than that, since Gen 5, I've always bought the updated Pokedex just to check out all of the "subtle" changes in [base] stats, abilities, and the [occasional] type change between my favorite/soon-to-be favorite Pokemon... Also, all of the Kingdom Hearts manga series were fun to collect on just their interpretation on canon-based events in the series...

 

[stroopwafel]

The World of the Witcher - I love this book, it's got so much background lore about the world, history about events and places, and details about the lives and secrets of witchers, monsters, and sorcerers (and sorceresses) complete with loads of awesome art!

Yeah, I got that one when playing Witcher 3. Being unfamilair with the Witcher lore it increased my enjoyment quite a bit.

I'm a sucker for art books. My current favorites are probably Dark Souls Design Works, Bloodborne Offcial Artworks and the art book for Fallout 4(it's a beast).

Physical copies of games with their flimsy boxes, lack of manuals and incomplete code on disc are worth shit in this digital age. So it's cool we see more and more quality art and companion books to compensate for this.

 

[Blitsie]

This is a helluva stretch but one of the more clever ones I've seen was actually the manual of the first Saints Row where instead of having just your usual control scheme and T&C shtick you get a mini-journal giving you solid background on the Saints Row gang and most major characters, and the clever bit is that its all written by a character who you later discover is an undercover cop in the gang which really changes one's perspective on both the manual and the game.