Kirby Star Allies: The Original Art Book
Kirby Star Allies: The Original Art Book is a book filled with art related to Kirby Star Allies. It was planned and supervised by HAL Laboratory and published by ambit on March 16th, 2021. It consists of 200 pages divided into three chapters. The book includes art directly from the game, concept art, and unused designs. Also included are designer's notes and director's notes, small descriptions of many characters, and interviews with the programmers and the director. The book has only been released in Japan.
Overview[edit]
The book is an art book with almost every page having at least five separate artworks, if rough sketches are counted. Being released in 2021, it features content from not just the initial release of Kirby Star Allies, but artworks for every update up until the final one (Version 4.0.0) which was released on November 30th, 2018. The book also has many notes from the designers on things such as UI design, stage concepts, and even trivia such as which Kirby game a character first appeared in.
Contents[edit]
Chapter.1 Artworks (pages 4 - 8)[edit]
The first chapter is also the shortest, with only five pages. It features art such as the Japanese box art of Kirby Star Allies, the Heroes in Another Dimension concept art, and art used in the Kirby Star Allies Channel.
The Japanese box art and art showing Power Effects.
Art depicting Heroes in Another Dimension.
Chapter.2 Making (pages 10 - 146)[edit]
This is the main part of the book, divided into four sections having art for all the new copy abilities introduced in Kirby Star Allies, Friend Actions, every Dream Friend, and every main story level and bosses.
Kirby/Copy Ability (pages 10 - 23)[edit]
The first two pages are about normal Kirby. After that is artwork of Kirby's copy abilities, starting with the abilities added in Kirby Star Allies, Festival, Artist, Spider, and Staff, It also features many screenshots of attacks Kirby can use with that copy ability. After those four, Yo-Yo, Cleaning, and Cook are given their own pages, with the final page having art of every ability Kirby can have in the game.
Pages for Artist Kirby's many concept designs.
Friends Actions (pages 24 - 35)[edit]
As the name suggests, it is a collection of art related to the five Friend Actions used in the game.
Dream Friends (pages 36 - 61)[edit]
Includes art for every Dream Friend in order of release, starting with Bandana Waddle Dee and ending with The Three Mage-Sisters. It shows Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go! title screens, pause descriptions, and game over screens for every Dream Friend. It also has screenshots of many attacks the Dream Friends can use, along with their names.
World/Character (pages 62 - 146)[edit]
This section is further split into five subsections, with each having art for one main area of the main story. Each subsection has art for every stage in main story order, then all enemies appearing for the first time in that area in Kirby Star Allies, and finally all bosses fought in that area.
Chapter.3 Extra (pages 148 - 200)[edit]
The final chapter of this book includes various concept art and artwork for the game in general, including all of the postgame modes, the Jukebox, menus, the Celebration Pictures added in updates beyond the base game, and soundtrack artwork. It concludes with two interviews.
- The first is a "programmer interview" conducted in September 2020 with Shinya Kumazaki (General Director), Hiroshi Ohnishi (Programming Director), Katsuyoshi Sumitomo (Lead Action Programming), and Takashi Nozue (Programming), including discussions on "the largest number of player characters in the Kirby series", the implementation of simultaneous four-player gameplay, the creation of the bosses and free updates, and the importance of "Kirby-ness" from the programming side.
- The second is a "director interview" with Kumazaki alone, including his thoughts on the game's development, story, the Three Mage-Sisters and Hyness, new gameplay elements, the Guest Star ???? mode, and Morpho Knight. The book as a whole concludes with a message from Kumazaki to Kirby fans looking back on Star Allies and to the future.
Staff[edit]
The following staff are credited at the end of the book. Many of these names can also be found in the credits for Kirby Star Allies, as well as for other Kirby merchandise like The Sound of Kirby Café 2, or for other Nintendo tie-in books such as the so-called Goddess Collection trilogy of Zelda books.
| Staff of Kirby Star Allies: The Original Art Book | |
|---|---|
| Position | Developer(s) |
| Planning / Editing | HAL Laboratory, Inc. Shinji Okada Yuri Shiono Yumiko Sano |
| General Director | Shinya Kumazaki |
| Programming Director | Hiroshi Ohnishi |
| Lead Action Programming | Katsuyoshi Sumitomo |
| Programming | Takashi Nozue |
| Design Director | Riki Fuhrmann |
| Lead Design | Kenichiro Kita |
| Lead Technical Design | Tsuyoshi Fujita |
| Lead Motif Design | Daisuke Morishita |
| Motif Design | Tadashi Hashikura Tomomi Minami Yuki Honda Tsukasa Kirinoe |
| Technical Motif Design | Akihiro Kanno |
| Lead UI Design | Yumi Todo |
| UI Design | Haruka Itoh Shigeyuki Kawata Saori Ono |
| Artwork | Yuto Ibaraki Yukari Kemmochi Monami Matsuura Emi Imamura |
| Cooperation | Mao Yamase |
| Photography | Satoshi Ishida Chieko Obikane |
| Editorial Supervision Cooperation | Yumi Osada Akira Eguchi Takashi Dobashi |
| Executive Producer | Shigefumi Kawase |
| Editing / Production | ambit Inc. Masato Furuya Yukari Tasai |
| Direction | Hiromichi Minato |
| Cooperation | Daisaku Sato Nintendo DREAM Editorial Staff |
| Art Director | Sanae Narita Shion Saito (Freeway LTD.) |
| Design / Desktop Publishing | Freeway LTD. |
| Desktop Publishing | Witch Project Co., Ltd. |
| Printing / Binding | Kindai Art Co., Ltd. |
| Special Thanks | The entire Kirby Star Allies development team |
| Supervision | WARPSTAR, Inc. Nintendo Co., Ltd. |
| Written and Edited by | HAL Laboratory, Inc. First printing March 16, 2021 Second printing May 10, 2021 |
| Publisher | Katsutoshi Kudo |
| Published by | ambit |
| Marketed by | Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| ©2018-2020 HAL Laboratory, Inc. / Nintendo ©ambit 2021 Printed in Japan | |
Trivia[edit]
- The book's release date marks the third anniversary of Kirby Star Allies in almost all regions.
- ambit also publishes Nintendo DREAM,[1] a Japanese video game magazine often featuring Kirby series news, strategy guides, and developer interviews.[2] As with many other Japanese game tie-in books, Kirby Star Allies: The Original Art Book should be considered as an extension of such coverage.
- Pre-orders made through the Kirby Portal by October 31st, 2020 were entered into a lottery; 40 winners received Shinya Kumazaki's signature with their orders.[3]
Gallery[edit]
Promotional images[edit]
Image from the Kirby Portal announcement of the book, showing sample pages
The Channel PPP Crew showing off the preorder bonus lottery prize, Shinya Kumazaki's signature
Channel PPP preview showing designs for King Dedede's boss battle
Channel PPP preview showing designs for Meta Knight's boss battle
Channel PPP preview showing art for the intro movie and opening cutscene
Channel PPP preview showing designs for Void Termina's first form
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | 星のカービィ スターアライズ 公式設定資料集 Hoshi no Kābyi Sutā Araizu Koushiki Settei Shiryoushuu |
Kirby Star Allies Official Art Book 公式設定 essentially refers to "canon"; the literal translation of 公式設定資料集 would be something along the lines of "canon materials collection". However, in practice the translation of 公式設定資料集 varies significantly from book to book, including "Official Art Book"[4] but also "Official Design Works"[5] or "Official Visual Materials".[6] Other art books published in Japan by ambit have equally inconsistent English titles, including The Art of Super Mario Odyssey[7] and Monster Hunter: World — The Official Complete Works.[8] |
References
- ↑ ニンテンドードリーム（Nintendo DREAM） (Wayback Machine snapshot)
- ↑ 『星のカービィ』シリーズのコンテンツ - Nintendo DREAM WEB (Wayback Machine snapshot)
- ↑ ValueMall page (Wayback Machine snapshot)
- ↑ Apart from the book for Kirby Star Allies being referred to as an "Art Book" specifically, see, e.g., Bayonetta 3 Official Art Book: The Eyes of Bayonetta 3 (ベヨネッタ3 公式設定資料集; Wayback Machine snapshot of cover art), published by Kadokawa in 2023.
- ↑ See, e.g., Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold Official Design Works ( ペルソナ4 ジ・アルティマックス ウルトラスープレックスホールド 公式設定資料集; Wayback Machine snapshot of cover art), published by Kadokawa in 2014; Persona 3 Official Design Works ( ペルソナ３ 公式設定資料集; Wayback Machine snapshot of cover art), published by Kadokawa in 2006.
- ↑ See, e.g., Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: Official Visual Materials ( ペルソナＱ シャドウ オブ ザ ラビリンス 公式設定資料集; Wayback Machine snapshot of cover art), published by Kadokawa in 2014.
- ↑ スーパーマリオ オデッセイ 公式設定資料集 (Wayback Machine snapshot), published in English by Dark Horse Comics (Wayback Machine snapshot).
- ↑ DIVE TO MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD モンスターハンター:ワールド 公式設定資料集 (Wayback Machine snapshot), published in English by VIZ Media (Wayback Machine snapshot).
External links[edit]
- Kirby Portal direct sales page for the book
- Listing on HAL Laboratory’s website
- Listing on ambit's website
