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What are some examples where North America got better box art than Japan for a game?

ScOULaris

ScOULaris

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,573
Japan almost always having better box art on their regional releases of games than what we tend to get in the West has been an ongoing trend for as long as I can remember, dating at least back to the 8-bit era. It's something that has been talked about to death over the years, but I don't often see counterexamples given for this phenomenon.

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ICO is a poster child for inferior North American box art (left) when compared to its JP release (right).

What are some instances where the NA release of a game actually featured the superior box art when compared to its JP version? I genuinely don't know of any, so I'm appealing to the many bright minds of ERA to oblige me.
 
KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,062
This is more EU than NA, but I do feel that the EU Box Art for Heavy Rain is the best one of the set.

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NA is the loser on this one.
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,349
Does this include all Western releases? Because PAL got the best cover of Nights Into Dreams...

NightsIntoDreamsBox.jpg


Japanese cover...

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Magnus

Magnus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,357
ScOULaris said:
Is that really happy/peppy, though?

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Looks more vacant/distant to me. Like he's just a squishy, round being with a central nervous system but no brain.
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Hahahah, fair enough. It's so funny seeing all the comparisons though. Like, the angry eyebrows being added to every box art for North America, it's hilarious.
 
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ScOULaris

ScOULaris

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,573
ghostcrew said:
Does this include all Western releases? Because PAL got the best cover of Nights Into Dreams...
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I'm specifically looking for instances where NA got the best box art. Europe tends to get art that can compete with Japan's, but NA almost always hits you with some shiny, focus-tested renders of one or more main characters in some predictable "action pose."
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,349
Japanese Halo CE kinda sucked compared to the iconic NA version

NA

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JP

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Ushojax

Ushojax

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,927
I always found it so weird how games like Final Fantasy and MGS had beautiful artwork in Japan and Europe but the US covers always had to have detailed renders of the human characters. Same as Ico. Do American players actually like those covers? Or is it just detached Japanese executives who think that Americans need to see human beings on the boxart in case they get confused or frightened.
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,349
ScOULaris said:
Okay, okay. First real example so far. I never saw that JP Halo cover art before.
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I don't think many people in Japan did either 😬

Halo 2 is just the same as the western version. I have them both! I had requests to send scans of the booklets in to some Halo wiki project at some point because basically barely anybody has complete versions of them it seems! They cost me like ¥100 each.
 
TradedHats

TradedHats

Member
Mar 8, 2018
3,661
One of the few times where just having a head on the cover actually worked:

NA:
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Japan:
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Though I don't actually mind the imagery of the save squares. Some even like the EU box art the best (I didn't even realize that that was Laura on the boxart, I always thought it was Maria):

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KhandoleezzaRice

KhandoleezzaRice

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,380
All I've gotten from this thread is that even when Japanese box arts are considered worse, they're still pretty good in most cases.
 
awake4ages

awake4ages

Neo•Geo Saver
Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,050
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This one might be a controversial one for some people but I've always loved Earthbound's vibrant, entrancing Starman art over Mother 2's plain red box. Some people love the minimalism and I get the appeal, but I absolutely adore and vastly prefer the US box and label art.
 
ClickyCal'

ClickyCal'

Member
Oct 25, 2017
59,472
They are just standing there with creepy or weird faces vs the most iconic moment of the game and series.
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Efejota

Efejota

Member
Mar 13, 2018
3,750
It's a bit unrelated, but it's a bit sad how there seems to be an erasure of PAL covers as far as the "retro movement" goes. Nintendo uses the American covers on the Switch Online for everyone, but to me Ice Climber will always be the left one:
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As an european I think I always like the PAL covers better so I can't think of any good examples where the American one was the best of the three.

Maybe Breath of the Wild? So far both games in the trilogy look better in the NTSC version. The WiiU version of Botw is a bit better since it's bigger, but that illustration feels too small on the Switch box and I think it deserves to be seen without any logos, while the logo on the rock on the left actually looks really cool to me and helps the composition.

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Hyrule-Warriors-Age-of-Calamity-Nintendo-Switch-Box-Art.jpg

The Hyrule Warriors one speaks for itself. I think the UK has a normal cover, though.
 
cakely

cakely

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,149
Chicago
perpetuallyawake said:
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This one might be a controversial one for some people but I've always loved Earthbound's vibrant, entrancing Starman art over Mother 2's plain red box. Some people love the minimalism and I get the appeal, but I absolutely adore and vastly prefer the US box and label art.
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I've never seen the Mother 2 boxart before but I love it. Sometimes less is really more.
 
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ScOULaris

ScOULaris

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,573
Rygar 8Bit said:
Most of the Konami boxart was done by the same guy (Tom duBois). They are all extremely good, if I ever made a game I know I'd pay him for some rad boxart.
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Honestly, I really wish we still got cover art like this. The film equivalents were all the elaborate, hand-painted posters for many Lucasfilms movies among others in the 80's.
 
Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,904
Ryū ga Gotoku 4 ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Yakuza 4​
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