The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia Hardcover – January 29, 2013

I could start out this review by professing my love for the Legend of Zelda franchise and reflecting on how long it's been a part of my gaming history, but who couldn't say the same? Anyone whose gaming ambition extends beyond a few rounds of Wii Sports Tennis has likely sampled at least one of the games in the franchise. The games cater to an innate love of exploration and adventure that all humans share. Everybody loves the Legend of Zelda. It's an empirical fact. But for all the massive and enduring popularity the games enjoy, Nintendo has rarely made an effort to peel back the curtain and allow gamers a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes process and development that produces them. They tend to prefer to play everything pretty close to the vest. That's what makes the Hyrule Historia such a treat. This handsome hardcover tome is devoted entirely towards exploring and celebrating the long history of the franchise, with hundreds of images of concept designs, character art, screen captures, and other artwork from every major game in the series. The book was originally released in Japan to coincide with the release of Skyward Sword, and Dark Horse Comics and a team of English translators have finally brought it to our shores.Hyrule Historia is divided into four distinct sections. The first, "The Legend Begins: The World of Skyward Sword," is devoted exclusively to reproducing artwork from and commentary about that particular Zelda game. It may seem strange to devote so much of the hardcover to one entry in the franchise, but as mentioned, the Japanese release was timed more to coincide with that of the game. These pages reproduce countless images from the game, mainly character designs and sketches and renderings for the various environments. These pages include various snippets of general commentary and even comments from various members of the development team. It's easy to admire the effort the translation team put in here, as even the various scribbles and hand-written notes on the individual images have been converted from Japanese to English.The second section, "The History of Hyrule: A Chronology," is the material that may be of most immediate interest to hardcore Zelda fans. This section tackles the entire series and finally establishes the Nintendo-approved timeline of all the games. Beginning with Skyward Sword (which is chronologically the first Zelda game), these pages progress through the series, showcasing the many characters and trappings of the games. This section is a bit more text-heavy as it summarizes the games and examines certain shared elements and ties between the games. The writers do a reasonable job of making all the information clear and concise despite the fact that the timeline splinters into three once Ocarina of Time rolls around.I'm of the mindset that the Zelda mythology is more fun without Nintendo setting everything in stone. But even so, the approach here is just open-ended enough to leave some semblance of mystery and accommodate the various other games that will eventually crop up down the road. And even if you don't care one lick about where A Link to the Past and The Minish Cap fit in relation to one another, these pages are filled with various interesting tidbits. For example, one segment explains how to translate the various Hylian runes and signs in the games.The third section, "Creative Footprints: Documenting 25 Years of Artwork," is far more visually-oriented. Rather than the chronological approach of the previous section, this one moves through the games more in order of release. The focus is on character and creature designs -- both rough early sketches and final promotional artwork fans will likely be familiar with. The final few pages even offer a neat collage of the evolution of the character designs for Link, Princess Zelda, and Ganondorf over the decades.The early pages focused on older games like the original Legend of Zelda and A Link to the Past are easily the most fascinating. Sadly, they also comprise the smallest portion of the section. Hyrule Historia is heavily weighted towards the newer games in general, and this section seems to fixate mainly on Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. To a certain extent this makes sense. There's simply more material and existing artwork for Nintendo to utilize from these newer games. But these are also the titles that have received the most prior attention and press coverage and there many facets are more familiar to gamers. One of my few real complaints with this book is that too little attention is paid to the pre-Nintendo 64 era.The fourth and final section shakes things up by providing a new manga story from artist Akira Himekawa. This manga actually has the distinction of being the "first" Zelda adventure. Most of it takes place long before Skyward Sword and directly sets the stage for that game and the saga of Link and Zelda in general. The English translation is a bit clunky at times, but in general the story is an entertaining and thought-provoking look at the early days of Hyrule. I do wish the entire comic could have been printed in color rather than the traditional manga route of coloring the first handful of pages and switching to black and white for the rest. With a hardcover of this size, simple black and white art simply doesn't do the format justice.One fun added touch is the inclusion of a foreword from Shigeru Miyamoto and an afterword from Eiji Aonuma. As the two men most closely involved with the franchise over the years, it's nice to read their thoughts on the book and their reflections on the past 25 years of Zelda gaming.On that note, the quality and construction of Hyrule Historia is very impressive, especially considering the fairly modest price tag. The book is roughly a foot tall, similar in height but not quite as wide as Dark Horse's various Library Edition graphic novels. The binding is tight, and the pages are thick and glossy. Just watch out for the occasional black pages in the table of contents and so forth, as they tend to pick up fingerprints pretty easily. Even the cover is classy, eschewing a dust jacket and presenting a green motif with gold embossing. One nitpick -- the Dark Horse logo on the spine looks a bit tacky alongside the rest of the text. Overall, the quality and construction were impressive enough that it's actually a bit surprising that Dark Horse is only charging $35 for it. Many online retailers like Amazon are barely charging $20. At that price, any complaints about the contents almost become moot.Almost, but not quite. As mentioned, the book has a perplexing fascination with the newer Zelda games at the expense of the NES, SNES, and Game Boy era. What's more, the book makes no acknowledgement of the Philips CDi games. Yes, those games are legendary for being awful, but that fact alone justifies their inclusion. It would have been interesting to see how the contemporary Zelda crew look back on those titles and whether there are any connections to be drawn between them and the Nintendo-developed games. There's a small section detailing "elusive and rare Zelda titles," but it only references the Gamecube-exclusive Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition and the two BS games that were offered on the Satellaview service. Nor does the book touch on the old animated series or any other multimedia spinoffs. The focus is very insular and devoted almost exclusively to the Nintendo-developed games. A bit wider perspective on the franchise and its impact would have been nice.One other recurring problem is that the art rarely takes full advantage of the page real estate. Hyrule Historia is more about quantity than quality in that regard. You'll rarely find a page that doesn't have at least three or four separate pieces of art on display. Many times I found myself wishing than a particularly dynamic character design or interesting concept painting could have been blown up to full size. Naturally, Nintendo has to be efficient with their page design or risk winding up with a finished product in the thousands of pages. But at the very least, the occasional full-page image or double page spread could have added some extra visual spice to the book.

The Legend of Zelda is one of the most beloved video game franchises of all time. But for a series that is so treasured, Nintendo has been coy about giving fans an insider scoop regarding detailed plotlines, development commentary, and the behind the scenes creative process. In fact, the overarching storyline has been a topic of heated debate among gamers for years. Finally, after 25 years, Nintendo in partnership of Dark Horse Comics has peeled back the veil of this legendary video game series.Hyrule Historia is a hardcover documentary detailing everything Zelda. Originally, this book was released only in Japan as a tie-in with the release of Skyward Sword. But thanks to Dark Horse, everything has been translated to English – even handwritten captions by Japanese developers have been reworked for Western audiences.This book is basically divided into four sections.The first section is solely dedicated to Skyward Sword, the most current Zelda game but the first in the Zelda timeline. Tons of artwork is nicely displayed along with developer commentary and notes. It might seem kind of strange that such a large section of the book is dedicated to this one game but it was originally designed as a side-by-side release with the Skyward Sword game. Also, since this is the most recent game, all the game’s assets should have been the most easily accessible.The second section is going to be the most coveted as it finally explains the chronology of the entire Zelda series. All the games are canonically linked together on the opening page but then followed by brief summaries of each title on the subsequent pages. As a Zelda fan that has played and completed every Zelda title (except for the highly difficult Adventure of Link – someday I will conquer it!) this section was an eye-opener. Details explained in this section are not something that players can obtain simply by playing the games or reading the instruction manual. Even if you played every Zelda game one hundred times, there are still factoids listed here that you never knew about. Just browsing through these pages will create several “ah-ha” moments especially for hardcore fans. While the rest of the book is definitely welcomed, this section undoubtedly makes the most impact. However, although the book explains the Zelda series in more detail, it still leaves enough open-endedness to allow for readers to make their own assumptions. But at the same time, it leaves things vague enough so future Zelda games can find their place in the series history.Creative Footprints: Documenting 25 Years of Artwork is the third section. Here, viewers are treated to a highly visual representation of the entire Zelda series by game. From early rough sketches, to creature design or declined ideas, this section focuses on the craftsmanship of Zelda. Unfortunately, the earlier released games, say before Ocarina of Time, received the least amount of attention although these games are often the most interesting. Nonetheless, it is pretty to look at and well respected.Finally, artist Akria Himekawa drew an exclusive Zelda anime that basically sets up the events of Skyward Sword. This is an interesting way to experience Zelda especially since this story is basically the origins of Link and Hyrule. Unfortunately, much of this comic is in simple black and white. For a book that is so detailed, the black and white is a jarring difference and doesn’t hold up in comparison to the rest of the publication.The book itself is also well put together. The heavy green cover makes the reader feel like they are holding history in their hands while the pages are printed on high quality paper to make colors pop without unsightly finger printing. This book, in a way, almost makes me feel like I am holding the book of Mudora from A Link To the Past. Luckily, I didn’t need the Pegasus boots to knock it down from the top shelf. Instead, this piece of video game history retails for $35 but outlets like Amazon are charging under $20 it. This is a great way to absorb the most amount of Zelda with the smallest price.My complaints revolve around omitted material. Outside a brief sidebar, BS Zelda was not talked about. Also, the CD-I titles were completely absent which only ensures that Nintendo chooses to ignore this unsightly blemish. The cartoon and even the Zelda cereal were also not shown any love. For a book that is basically the encyclopedia of Zelda, omitting these pieces of Zelda history seems like a wasted opportunity. And for a book based on a game franchise that is filled with some of the most creative character and level designs in history, many of this book’s screenshots and other art assets are small. It would have been nice to see a blown up map or landscape art spread over two pages on occasion. And the Dark Horse logo on the binding of the book also looks out of place; it detracts from the aura of the publication when it sits vertically on a shelf.Hyrule Historia was created for the fans and the artistry shows. Sure there are some flaws with the final execution but the excellent quality of the cover and paper along with the intriguing content make this a book gamers will actually want to read.