For her 25th birthday, Lara Croft continues to be spoiled. Among the gifts received by the heroine born from the imagination of Toby Gard, a passage under the pencil of one of the artists forever associated with the name of Final Fantasy.
2021 will have been the year of all birthdays: Zelda’s 35th, Sonic’s 30th, his twenties for Halo… So many sagas registered in the video game pantheon and which continue, even today, to thrill players around the world. There is another, just as cult, which celebrates its quarter of a century this year: Tomb Raider. The series indeed gives birth to its first episode in October 1996 in Europe, first on Sega Saturn it should be remembered, before landing on Sony’s PlayStation where it will meet the success that we know. Since then, the famous archaeologist has had ups and downs before being infused with a second youth thanks to the excellent reboot of 2013.
To fall steep
It is precisely this episode that we will be discussing here since after having posted several making-of videos online going back to the beginnings of the game’s development, Square-Enix called on the famous artist and illustrator Yoshitaka Amano to offers us his vision of reboot.
Those who are familiar with Amano’s style will have recognized the artist’s singular touch. Recall that the latter distinguished himself as being the character designer of most of the Final Fantasy opuses until the ninth and that he also worked on the illustrations of the novels. Vampire Hunter D or on the Sandman by Neil Gaiman.
Cherry Blossom Girl
Yoshitaka Amano also split a message to accompany his work:
Congratulations on 25 years of Tomb Raider. While working on this world famous character that is Lara Croft, I wondered about how I should express her features, as a Japanese artist. I decided to create an atmosphere inspired by sumi-e (ink painting), representing a worthy Lara. I also added a background made up of cherry blossom petals. Hope the game development teams and fans will enjoy it.
When we know that our adventurer’s ship had run aground on a Japanese island in this famous reboot of 2013 and that Japanese folklore held an important place there, we can say that the buckle (of the strap) is closed.
