I bought the french version of the Bloodborne artbook. Here's a comparaison with Udon's : but my phone suck in the dark and I'm taking these in the evening and these are dark books. I'm no a very smart man, so I used HDR and pictures are shit. Sorry. I hope they still are useful enough to make my point.
First : the content is EXACTLY the same. Same pages, same layout. 100% copy pasted, but text is all in french now. (mind you, there is barely any text, only monsters, places and weapons name. Sometimes a few lines of the in game poetry / lore from runes or else)
Second : it's hardcover. Yes, it's much nice that the glossy softcover Udon made. It has a nice touch feeling to it too !
(french edition on the left, Udon's softcover edition on the right). This picture may be missleading : there is the SAME number of pages on both book. It's just that Udon used a much thinner paper.
The spine is inverted because it's a french book. Left is top. Right is bottom. I kinda liked Ludwig's sword on the spine on Udon's it was a nice touch.
Now the paper quality : Udon's was criticized because they used a super glossy, magazine like paper that doesn't look nor feel very good in hands. French edition use a much more traditional half grainy half glossy paper that is much better and on par with traditional artbooks. Of course pics are hard to make to prove this and I did this quick and dirty with my shit phone but you'll see the gloss paper vs normal paper (against strong light to illustrate extreme reflection) :
Udon :
Mana Books :
conclusion : if you are a french reader do NOT hesitate. Buy the french edition locally in your bookshop. It's cheaper, better, and you do something good for a local book shop and local publisher.
If you are not speaking french : there's really not much text. None are commentary it's only names or in game lore/ poetry. Up to you to decide what edition you want, if you have the choice.
