Are there any examples of good American box art?

[Stabinbac]

Some of these japanese covers are really bad. They take concept art from the characters, and paste them on top of each other. It's not creative. It's Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v. The original artwork for the characters might be nice, but the cover is freakin' laaazy.

 

[RadioactiveMicrobe]

Subtle, but I prefer the NA boxart for Shadow of the Colossus.

NA

EUR

The NA one has a more cinematic feel to it, and gives the Colossus a larger size through perspective.

 

[TheFinalFantasyWolf]

So is the cast of every Final Fantasy. BOOM!

Actually, pretty much all Final Fantasy characters are made to look Asian. It can be hard to tell, just as it's hard to tell in anime, but in truth they are simply idealized Asians.

Oh, no doubt.

However I've always personally thought that Final Fantasy characters have always been a mix of both asian and caucasian to SOME degree.

For example Yuna from FFX, is much more on the asian side if not completely "idealised asian".

Her nose doesn't protrude too far out and her eyes have that almould asian shape. Plus her face is much less defined and much more rounded.

Compare her with someone like Cloud from FFVII

The nose is much more defined, protruding and straight. The eyes are much more deep set, (as are caucasian eyes). The jawline is slightly more squared off, (though I'll grant you that could be a difference in gender or design for the two characters.

I'm not claiming that this is the aim of square, that they want a mixture between two races, but it almost always turns out that way.

 

[Lilani]

I'm not claiming that this is the aim of square, that they want a mixture between two races, but it almost always turns out that way.

Hm, good points. Fair enough :3 And I'm glad you didn't list Cloud's hair color as a reason, because then I'd have to point out that in anime it is also a common practice to have hair colors not typical of asians. Because while giving all of the characters black/dark brown hair would be more realistic, it would become very hard to tell all of the characters apart. There's an anime called Toradora that I absolutely adore, and in one episode a boy who is expected to become the next student council president of his high school has a bit of a breakdown and rebels by dying his hair blonde. His hair throughout the rest of the show appears to be green, and the bottle of the dye they use to dye his hair back specifically says "jet black," but when it shows his "normal" hair again it's still green. So while his hair is for all intents and purposes "black," it is stylistically green in the show simply so that his character stands out better.