Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Artisan quality Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Dark Souls books hit Kickstarter

Jayce Wagner
By

Third Editions Video Game Books
Image used with permission by copyright holder
French publisher Third Editions is something of an oddity. They produce high-quality full-length books chronicling the lore, development and history of popular game series. They’re lovingly crafted, artisan-quality books which take great care to evoke the worlds they explore in rich detail.

Until now, founders Nicolas Courcier and Mehdi El Kanafi have produced and printed the books exclusively in their native French, but thanks to a positive reaction to their work on Reddit, they’ve opted to take a shot at Kickstarting English translations of some of their 40 book collection.

Recommended Videos

They’re asking for $111,988, but they fully explain where each dollar will go. It’s refreshing to see such a detailed breakdown of the costs involved in producing these high quality books, Third Editions lays it out in plain English on their Kickstarter page. Faithful translations are expensive, and so is expanding their logistics network to the US. The publisher goes on to describe how they anticipate demand for the books to be much higher in English than in French – owing in part to the larger US and UK markets.

Related

We do have a lot of books to please the Final Fantasy fans out there. Let's make it happen! https://t.co/2g3oKgm9eW pic.twitter.com/xCBSUpIex9

— Third Editions EN (@ThirdEditionsEN) August 30, 2016

Just four days in, they’re nearly halfway to their goal, and it’s no surprise. The books are truly unique, and they’re more than just grown up strategy guides. Third Editions takes great pains to analyze the genesis of a game series, the role that each game plays in the overarching lore, and how gameplay matured over time.

These are scholarly explorations of video games that have shaped the industry, like the Legend of Zelda, or Final Fantasy VII. They also take a crack at more recent series like Dark Souls, with its rich lore and deep, enigmatic gameplay design.

.

Third Editions has tackled Half-Life, Bioshock, Metal Gear, Silent hill, and the most iconic entries in the Final Fantasy series (including Final Fantasy VI), but their Kickstarter aims to bring the three most popular entries – Final Fantasy VII, Zelda, and Dark Souls – to English-speaking audiences first.

The rest of the catalogue, Third Editions says, could come later depending on how well the Kickstarter does – they might even add some as stretch goals.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jayce Wagner
Jayce Wagner
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A staff writer for the Computing section, Jayce covers a little bit of everything -- hardware, gaming, and occasionally VR.
The best armor in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
Cloud from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Just like in Remake, you only have one valuable armor slot per character in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Deciding on what you want to put there is more complicated than you think, since each piece of armor has multiple factors that determine how effective it will be, and you may want to prioritize different things for different characters. New armor will become available as you go deeper into the world of Gaia, and you can even make some yourself with the new Transmutation system, so comparing and contrasting them all can be a major chore. We get it, you're just a merc looking to get the job done, so let us worry about figuring out the best armors so you can just put them on and get back to the action.
The best armor in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Armor in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth have three major factors to consider when you're equipping some: the physical defense rating, magic defense rating, and Materia slots. The best armor will either focus heavily on one of these or have a strong balance of them all. Here are our picks.
Garm Bangle

The Garm Bangle is an amazing piece of physical-focused armor that becomes available once you hit the Nibel region. It has a fantastic 59 rating for regular defense, aplus a decent 28 for magic defense to keep you from being totally vulnerable to spells. Offensively, it has two pairs of linked Materia slots plus a spare, so you can still make plenty of killer magic combos for your mages.
Hades Armlet

Read more
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth isn’t on Xbox, so play these RPGs on Game Pass
Iron Mask and Shionne attack in Tales of Arise.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is out now, but it's only available on PlayStation 5.

As is the case with Helldivers 2, Xbox players might be feeling left out of the fun as one of the year's most critically acclaimed games isn't on their platform. Although the original Final Fantasy VII is no longer on Xbox Game Pass, quite a few other fantastic RPGs from or inspired by Japanese developers are. If you're looking for a great RPG on Game Pass that'll fill the void, try these titles, listed in no particular order, this weekend. They won't fully replace the Rebirth-sized hole in your heart, but they're all killer games in their own right.
Tales of Arise

Read more
What’s new in February: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and more upcoming games
Cait Sith dances in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

This year kicked off with some gaming heavy hitters, and that momentum looks like it’ll carry over into February. This month is shaping up to be one full of long-awaited remakes, ambitious multiplayer games, experimental indies, and more. As this may end up being one of the most packed months of the year when it comes to game launches, you’re probably wondering which of the games are worth checking out the most.

Out of all of next month’s game launches that we currently know about, we’ve highlighted seven upcoming games that are worth keeping an eye on. If you’re a fan of RPGs or games with multiplayer elements, you certainly have a lot to look forward to in February.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink (February 1)

Read more