Review – Hyrule Historia

Fans of The Legend of Zelda series have long speculated how the games of the series could tie together. Some came up with really solid theories, but having nothing concrete from the creators of the series left these fan-theories feeling a little empty. With the 25^th anniversary of the franchise, Shigeru Miyamoto and company sought to fill that void.

Content Guide

If you exclude talking about gods (or goddesses in this case) other than the One True God, this book shouldn’t have anything in it that would need a warning. The Bible even has Baal, Molech, and other gods in it, if even only to warn us about them. Just don’t go worshiping Din, Farore, or Nayru and you’ll be fine.

Review

Hyrule Historia does a fantastic job of taking pieces that don’t quite fit together and turning them into a masterpiece. The creators of The Legend of Zelda series have admitted on numerous occasions that the games weren’t originally intended to directly correlate. This book almost makes it appear that they were.

Presentation

The artwork in this book is fantastic. The amount of detail in the official art for the games is rivaled by few. Being able to see sketches and concept art of games from my childhood is great. The beautiful cover ties the package together nicely. Graphic placement blends well with the text, and the manga artwork in the back lives up to the high series standard.

Story

(Some of this section may contain what some people may deem spoilers.)

The hero of Hyrule has had many incarnations spanning many different eras. Link’s several different looks can be seen as an allusion to this fact. Variations have gone from having disproportionally short arms and legs, to a lean, handsome knight, to a cartoon character with a big head and oversized eyes. All of the Links are said to be the chosen hero for their respective eras in Hyrule history.

Creation of Hyrule

The history of Hyrule starts with a central creation story with the three Goddesses creating the land. They then leave behind a mystic power called the Triforce, which is used by the fabled hero in many installments of the game to overcome an otherwise unbeatable evil. The goddess Hylia protects Hyrule for ages until a massive war takes over the land. Hylia sends her people to live in the sky to be separated from the war-torn land. In Skyward Sword, she reincarnates within Zelda to guide the chosen hero to lead Demise to his… well, demise.

Through many more centuries, and a few more Zelda titles, evil is overcome many more times. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time splits the history based on the three outcomes of the final battle:

• The hero is triumphant and Ganondorf is sealed away
• The hero is triumphant and The Sacred Realm is protected from Ganondorf
• The hero is defeated

The rest of the games in the series are built off of these three branches. Many of the “cartoony” games (Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks) fall under the time after Ganondorf is sealed, some of the more mature art-driven games come after The Sacred Realm is protected, and all of the classic games come from the timeline of the hero’s defeat.

The entire book is laid out in four overlying sections, so I will give the details for each section independently.

The Legend Begins: The World of Skyward Sword

This section is supposed to give an account of the beginning of the series as laid out by the newest installment in the series, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. To me, it just ended up feeling a little bit like a big advertisement for the new game. This section is lined with artwork and details about the storyline in Skyward Sword that may have been intended to get us excited about the new game.

This section may feel a little like advertisement, but that doesn’t take away much from the reading factor. The beautiful artwork, tied with information we wouldn’t have had otherwise about the game, is enough to make anyone’s inner-fan squeal. While it would have made the book over 1,000 pages, it would have been nice to have this much detail about all of the games in the series. That being said, I’m sure that a lot of the information for older games was likely lost over the course of time.

The History of Hyrule: A Chronology

This is what I feel like is the meat of the book. We are given the official timeline of the series, directly from the creators, in this section. The chapter begins with a well-crafted timeline putting each of the games in order. The layout looks great and the well-articulated points make the timeline hard to mistake.

The rest of the section goes into the details of each game in the series, and a chronological timeline is given on the left-hand side of each page. Graphics scattered throughout this section are placed with captions that give insight into the history of the fictional world. The timeline and the linking of the eras is also explained in greater detail here.

Creative Footprints: Documenting 25 Years of Artwork

Art from the first The Legend of Zelda game, all the way to the last, is laid out in this chapter. The first few games of the series only have a page or two of artwork, while the latter games tend to have more. Again, my speculation here is that most of the artwork from older games may have been lost overtime. Regardless, it is nice to look back at how characters in the series have changed over the years.

This is also where a lot of concept art and characters that never made it into the games appear. We see designs for Link and Zelda that would have definitely made us take notice if they had made it onscreen. There is even artwork for a futuristic Zelda in some installments. Some monsters that didn’t make the cut are bizarre as well, but they aren’t outside of the scope of what longtime fans of the series have become accustomed to.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – The Legend is Born

This is the manga in the back I have been referring to. Something important to note with this comic: if you aren’t familiar with Japanese manga, they are intended to be read left to right. So you essentially start at the back of the comic when you first reach it in the back of the book. It can definitely be confusing to start reading this way, but once you are a couple of pages in you get used to it.

This comic is a great addition for fans that buy Hyrule Historia though. I don’t want to give anything away with this so I will just tell you that it is centered around the Skyward Sword game… and it is awesome! It is sort of a prelude to the game so it is fine to read it prior to playing.

Overall, I would definitely say that the book is worth the price on the sticker. Many people buying it now, though, will be able to find it cheaper in a lot online stores. If you are a Zelda fan, you have to buy this book!