There are a few people more synonymous with Final Fantasy than Yoshitaka Amano. Amano’s art has been part of the franchise since its inception, and now the iconic artist is bringing his designs and talent to Magic The Gathering’s Final Fantasy collaboration. Amano will supply brand-new art on some of the franchise’s most legendary characters in his trademark style.
Amano explained some of the new art he’s creating on Wizards of the Coast’s and Magic’s social media accounts. We also get to witness his surprise when seeing the art in card form for the first time.
“I’ve been drawing Final Fantasy art for a long time,” he began before jumping into explaining his compositions for the new art for Kefka, both in his original and final boss forms. “In this picture, I tried to make it as crazy as possible. So I drew it without following any rules. For this one, the situation is what is crazy. He puts himself in the fire. The best word to describe Kefka is ‘chaotic.’ I imagined the colors would be swirled and all mixed together, turning a vague idea into something tangible. I like this process of exploring the details.”
Terra, the protagonist, goes through a similar transformation in the game. She starts as an enslaved soldier whose untapped powers are finally revealed as she becomes a magical being known as an esper. Amano showed off two pieces of art showcasing both of her forms.
“In the normal version of Terra, I wanted to capture the world of Final Fantasy by drawing her holding a sword, and airships flying in the background,” he continued. “I haven’t had much opportunity to draw Terra in her esper form since I first designed it. The original design was intentionally caricatured; this time, I made it more realistic.”
Amano was then brought the art as cards, which amazed him. This is Amano’s second time collaborating with Magic as he also did art for its War of the Spark deck in 2019.
“Although it’s small in size,” he added, “it is powerful.”
The Final Fantasy collab drops June 13, with the Sephiroth card possibly being the key to an announcement on Final Fantasy Remake Part 3.
