30 Years & 416 Pages: The Legend of Zelda Hyrule Graphics Releases This Month

The year was 2011 and iconic series The Legend of Zelda celebrated its 25^th anniversary. Ocarina of Time 3D released on the 3DS. Skyward Sword released on the Nintendo Wii. Four Swords was reworked and a free Four Swords Anniversary Edition was available to download. There was also a range of other things down and among them, it was the year the Japanese version of the Hyrule Historia was released and now here we are 5 years later and we’re getting a new kind of special book.

That book is The Legend of Zelda Hyrule Graphics, an A4 416 pages long, book dedicated to the celebrating 30 years of an iconic series. But just what do those 416 pages consist of, well almost the entity of them consist of all official illustrations regarding the series that has been previously published over the last three decades, so from The Legend of Zelda (1986) to Twilight Princess HD (2016,) get ready to see title art, character art, items and so much more. (For example, as symposium of Nintendo’s legacy designers will be “recorded” on book’s pages as well.) And just in case you’re wondering, reason why I said Twilight Princess HD and not Breath of the Wild, well that’s because there’s Breath of the Wild art doesn’t seem to be include.

As of right now, this work is ONLY intended for Japan, but so was the Hyrule Histora in 2011, but we all saw how that turned out. In August of 2012, it was announced a localised version was in the works for an English audience and then released in 2013, where in February is topped amazon.com’s list of best-selling books in February and was only the sixth best-selling print book in the year of 2013. So I’m not saying there will be an English version of this book released sometime further down the line, but don’t rule it out, especially since the English version of the Historia came about because of fan demand. At least that is what Patrick Thorpe was reported saying and he actually worked on the translation.

With all of that in mind, you are faced with a most terrible fate indeed. Do you order the book as it is now (which releases on August the 26^th and will cost 4,300 yen,) from the likes of amazon.jp or Play-Asia, which will then cost you an additional $57.99 for international shipping, Or do you let the Japanese fans have their day and don’t buy the collection, but then hope a localised version will be announced and purchase that one when it releases. A tough decision awaits all us Zelda fans.

Source: @HMV_GAME (Twitter) & Play-Asia