Where Art Books Meet Strategy Guides

Strategy guide books are a tough sell in 2017, since the internet is free, but I like what Future has tried with their newish Last Guardian thing, which tries to combine tips with other stuff like interviews and concept art all in the one book.

I know this isn’t the first book to try that, as strategy guides have long offered bonus stuff to try and give you what YouTube and GameFAQs don’t, but what’s different here is that The Last Guardian: An Extraordinary Story doesn’t have a “strategy guide” section followed by a “concept art” section: it uses sketches and storyboards from the game’s actual development, along with interviews with TLG’s artists and developers, to illustrate the tips it’s describing.

Here’s an example:

I get why this isn’t a more common thing, since a publisher would need exhaustive access to a game’s art—and a decent amount of time with the developers themselves—to be able to match the necessary tips with enough detail to sell a strategy guide. So this might be an exception rather than a rule going forward.

If it is, that’d be a shame, because it’s a cool idea that has not only been executed really well, but ships with a real nice coffee table book look as well.

If you want to check it out, the book is going for around $30