Remember what made you stop
Perhaps you remember reaching a new place and looking past the immediate route, or pausing over a character’s armour. Perhaps what remains is an enemy’s form or the weapon you kept returning to. Those are different reasons to want an Elden Ring art book. The two English UDON hardcovers divide their subjects, so beginning with Volume I simply because it comes first can miss the part you actually want to revisit.
The world and its inhabitants lead Volume I
The exact Volume I, ISBN 9781772942699, includes the opening cutscene’s art, concept art for areas and dungeons, NPCs and armour. It is the more direct candidate for someone drawn to how the Lands Between looks as a place, or how a person’s clothing belongs within that world. A remembered doorway or silhouette gives that choice a clearer purpose than wanting the larger page count.
This is a subject choice, not a promise that the book explains every design decision. The publisher describes what it collects; it does not turn every image into an annotated making lesson. If the pleasure is looking slowly at those environments and designs, that collection can be enough.
Enemies and equipment give Volume II another centre
Volume II, ISBN 9781772942705, collects foes, weapons and an item list. That is a stronger starting point when the attraction lies in creature forms or the objects used during the journey. Wanting weapons while mainly reading the first volume’s armour description would mix two categories the publisher deliberately separates.
A reader interested in both can certainly choose both. There is no need to invent a rule that the second art book only becomes worthwhile after the first has been finished. The useful sequence follows the reader’s interest, rather than borrowing the obligations of a story’s numbered instalments.
Treat the store package as its own object
UDON’s named two-volume store set also includes a metallic-foil slipcase and an 8-by-10-inch metallic print. Those are relevant if the pair and those particular extras are wanted together. They are not contents to assume with every separately listed hardcover. Choose one volume for the subject you want to keep returning to; choose the set when the relationship between both books and its documented physical extras is itself part of the appeal.
Sources & further reading
Editorial review date:
