Caught in Surprise
[1]
Cake in Progress! by P-Taru
I’m pretty fucking amazed in this year’s top prize. Although some might have a different opinion and preference. But lets say at least, #1 was really #1, and there was no 3ds Grass and Ram as 2nd.
#1 was kinda what SE likes to see… how I see it is, can this artwork be used on a Sound-Track cover or… Game Cover? Cake in Progress definitely would be one, if you guys remember the FFXI Piano Collection.. well yea that :D closely resembles this one :D!
Although most of the art was good, but some was pretty crap. I just think SE is also skewed to Japanese players. There was um… maybe 8-10 NA winners only, and the rest was JP. The only thing I’d complain is… yea if all 30 drawings were good cool, but some were complete crap, especially the last one and those stupid cards.
Also, how does FINAL FANTASY IX (9) even be consider a valid entry [2]. It’s celebration FF9, not FFXI.. such a fail. But then SE loves JP right? XD!
I estimated the nationality of the artist by looking at their names on the JP PlayOnline [3]. NA players name were mostly in-tact, with a few in Katakana. The rest is purely JP as you can probably see due to their Hiragana names, cross-reference with the NA PlayOnline [4] to confirm.
But whatever it is, we’ll see when the rest comes out, to see if SE really already picked all the good stuff, or horrible stuff simply because they are JP. I really just wanna shoot JP’s [5].
I also liked the fact that SE don’t just pick cluster fuk art. Some doesn’t even have a focal point, but just randomly placing stuff around. So at least this year is… a little more on the style, content, foundation and overall balance of the drawing.
The result (at least the good ones), you can tell they were prepared panda. They didn’t rush it for sure :D!
Girl Power! by azjazo [6]
Anyway, here’s a few favorite of mines :D (no particular order)
- Firelight by Laifierr [7] (I like the idea, the focus being on the fire/warmth feeling of celebrating together, the lightning and it’s something I’d do to celebrate IRL)
- Sentimental Sky by Fumi [8] (JP). Such a romantic night to celebrate the 7th year of FFXI together. The people at the back just brings out the atmosphere so well! I like the pose too :D!
- A Handful of Hope by Ori [9] (JP).
- Girl Power by azjazo [10]. I love this one A LOT :3 I mean the details on that thing is just pure amazing :D. This is like such a quality piece of art :D every pixel :D.
- Like the First Morning by Buranchi [11] (JP). I can see this as being the game cover :D It’s just so well balanced. Looking at the picture draws a lot of memories about “adventuring together”.
The rest are okay, some are debatable :D but that’s it XD
It’s also on BG forum [12] :D if you want to see the discussion. Yvonne [13](the OP) got the shaft :( not even the top 30. I thought it was good material but then SE loves JP right? XD
Speaking of art, check out the hand-made arts and crafts that WoW player do [14] :D.