Lara Croft will continue to be spoiled for her 25th birthday. Among the gifts that the heroine from the fantasy received from Toby Gard, there is a passage under the pencil of one of the artists forever associated with the name Final Fantasy.
2021 will have been the year of all birthdays: Zelda’s 35th, Sonic’s 30th, his twenties for Halo … So many legends have registered in the video game pantheon and continue to delight players all over the world. Another cult that is celebrating its quarter of a century this year: Tomb Raider. The series actually spawns its first episode in Europe in October 1996, first on Sega Saturn to remember before landing on Sony’s PlayStation where it will have the success we know. Since then, the famous archaeologist has seen ups and downs before getting a second youth thanks to the excellent 2013 restart.
Fall steeply
It is precisely this episode that we are going to be discussing here, as Square-Enix, after posting several making-of videos online dating back to the very beginning of the game’s development, asked the famous artist and illustrator Yoshitaka Amano to share his vision of the restart with us to offer.
Anyone familiar with Amano’s style will have recognized the artist’s unique handwriting. Keep in mind that by the ninth, the latter excelled as the character designer of most of the Final Fantasy works, and also worked on the illustrations for the novels. Vampire Hunter D or on the Sandman by Neil Gaiman.
Cherry blossom girl
Yoshitaka Amano also shared a message accompanying his work:
Congratulations on 25 years of Tomb Raider. While working on this world famous character who is Lara Croft, I wondered how I should express her facial features as a Japanese artist. I decided to create an atmosphere that is inspired by sumi-e (Ink painting), depicting a worthy Lara. I also added a cherry blossom petal background. Hope the game development teams and fans enjoy it.
If we know that our adventure ship ran aground on this famous 2013 restart on a Japanese island and Japanese folklore took an important place there, we can say that the buckle (of the strap) is closed.
