This is the cover art for the Japanese and European releases of PlayStation 2 game, 'Ico'. It evokes the major themes of the game (escape, protection of and reliance on your companion, aloneness and sparseness, verticality) and presents them in an artful, inspiring manner.Below is the American cover:
Yuck. Just... Ugh.This crime seems to have committed in order to appeal more to the American audience, and if I was American I'd be extremely offended by this idea. This design eschews all the subtlety and beauty of the original cover in order to present a generic, hero-centric movie poster design communicating nothing about the game and so familiar to contemporary America as to be void of all meaning at this point.
Similar issues have occurred with Final Fantasy releases, and one wonders if perhaps Japan views the U.S as incapable of appreciating classy, more minimal images, or decoding abstract allusions to actual thematic content.
I have the Europe special edition box of Ico, it's not the normal hard plastic case that the US version seems to be, it has the lovely soft card texture. I suppose it's a cost effective process. The US is after-all huge compared to Japan and the UK.
ReplyDeleteThere's a new game by the makers of ICO and Shadow of the Collossus out next year...hope we get a nice jacket like the predecessors!