Box art déjà vu

A few weeks ago, the folks at Nippon Ichi opened the proverbial floodgates related to its upcoming (it'll be released in Japan on Sept. 26) PS3-based ARPG, Arcadias no Ikusa Hime.

Shortly after it released a bunch of stunning screenshots of this Odin Sphere-esque game, in fact, it also unveiled its beautiful box art:

Call me crazy, but the first thing that came to mind after I stumbled across the box art above was the imagery that will front Japanese copies of another coming-soon-to-a-store-near-you PS3 title, Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Granted, this kind of "arrange all of the game's characters in a circle" design is hardly new--see the cover art produced for Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, among others--but I was still a bit shocked when I realized just how similar the two examples above are to one another.

See also: 'Let's Play: Which Box Art is Better? (Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn edition)'

Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn edition)

Late last week, I tweeted the following: "Assuming the PS3 gets a price drop later this year, I think I'm going to pick one up just so I can play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn."

Although the main reason I want to buy A Realm Reborn (along with a PS3, of course) is its appealing looking gameplay, I'd be lying if I said its box art didn't have a little something to do with it, too.

The question is: which piece of Final Fantasy XIV box art am I talk about--the Japanese, North American or European one?

I'll answer that at the end of this post. In the meantime, let's take a gander at box arts in question.

For starters, here's the Japanese release's cover image:

And here's the illustration that's supposed to grace covers of the North American iteration:

As for the European version of Final Fantasy XIV, here's its cover art:

Last, but not least, there's the following, which will appear on the outer packaging of the Collector's Edition of the title that'll be sold in Europe and North America:

As for which one I like best, well, I can't help but go with the Collector's Edition. It has to be said, though, that I like the (rather busy) Japanese cover art nearly as much.

Which piece of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn box art is your favorite? Assuming you like any of them, of course...

See also: previous 'Which Box Art is Better?' posts

I find this trio of recent-ish Japanese PS3 box arts to be really appealing

I may not own a PS3 (yet), but that doesn't mean I lack interest in Sony's third console. On the contrary, I have quite a bit of interest in both it and its catalog of games--especially when the latter sport the kind of delicious cover illustrations that can be seen below.

The following example is for Gust's Atelier Escha & Logy, of course. The game, which is the 15th entry in the company's long-running Atelier series, will hit store shelves in Japan on June 27.

No joke: I'd very likely pick up a copy of this game without knowing a thing about it if it were released in North America with the exact same cover art.

The box art below, on the other hand, was produced for the Japanese retail release of Capcom's Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (known there as Dungeons & Dragons: Mystara Hero Military History), which is due out on Aug. 22.

Although I don't believe I've ever played either of the arcade classics--1993's Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom and 1996's Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara--that will be included in this compilation, I'd strongly consider giving them a go if Chronicles of Mystara were given a physical release in my neck of the woods.

Last, but not least, we have the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn's slightly-cluttered-yet-still-brilliant box art. OK, so it's more than slightly cluttered. Still, I love it.

Of course, it looks as though it was created by Akihiko Yoshida--the man responsible for the amazing character art seen in (and on the covers of) games like Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light and Bravely Default: Flying Fairy--so my unflinching support shouldn't be too surprising.

See also: other blog posts about brilliant box art