Hyrule Historia

So earlier on this week, I was on my way to work and randomly looked in the display window of Waterstones, and there it was. The Hyrule Historia. Open before my eyes. Sadly I didn't have enough time because time was getting on and I had to be at work as soon as possible. Those of you who don't know what this is, you're not worthy of reading on. I was thinking about how glorious it was to see this beast of an encyclopedia throughout the day, and if only I could buy it, sigh. Very excited, I saw it again the next day on my way to work! Very briefly however, but this did not change my mood. I got into work and notified my colleagues as soon as i could! But this was yet another day of wanting to get my hands on it, to feel it's glory and feel the light of the triforce empower me. Enough of the worshipping.

I got paid Thursday. Guess what I was going to do as soon as I got out from work? But something changed my mind. While I was running upstairs to the stock room getting something for a customer, Laura was at work sorting out the delivery, and there it was again.

"LOOK AT DIS!" She said. My heart was racing with that feeling again. I was like "OHMYGODIWANTDAT, I've seen it in Waterstones twice now and I wealllyy want it!!". So being the very nice person she is, she put one in the boss' office with a big note on it stating that "Lloyd is going to buy dis at de end of his shift." <--something like that.

It looks awesome, everything about it. The intricate gold triforce and crests of the goddesses centring the front, the four corners bordering it with an ocarina and a harp, and no other colour than the complimentary green of Links tunic, you just want to stroke it. With just under 300 pages, it feels a lot heavier than you would've thought.

As you open the first page it has has a well detailed Hyrule shield crossed with the master sword, followed by credits, title page and a nice 2 page spread with a message from Shigeru Miyamoto (General producer of The Legend of Zelda). Just after the contents page that's where everything starts.

It contains 4 Thick chapters:

• The Legend Begins: The World of Skyward Sword - 60 pages about the creation of Skyward Sword. This section really goes in deep showing everything they've done to create this game,  such as colours and variants of Loftwing, explaining that only Link's and Zelda's bird has a longer tail and feathers. All of the artwork put into this game is so beautiful, clean and flawless that you can see all the effort from thumbnails to final designs. One part I love about this section is the attention to detail in every room created, making sure about size and scale so when it comes to making the game, all the proportions are exact and link can actually climb up walls etc.

• The History of Hyrule: Chronology - Explaining with a timeline how each game comes into history. This tree splitting in two directions just after Ocarina of Time, depicting the events that follow Link's triumph over Ganon, and the other his defeat. The Era where Link is triumphant, then splits into another two branches of child and adult Link. After this timeline, it then explains every event and era happening after the creation of the land with generally 4-5 pages each.

• Creative Footprints: Documenting 25 Years of Artwork - I loved this section, purely because there is so much to it and I love production art. There is seriously a never ending list to what follows this chapter, including; characters action stances, facial expressions, outfits, tools, weapons, storyboarding, dungeon layouts, general design sketches, fine detail of Zelda's hair variants, Gannon's many forms in trial and error, "Who is tingle?", stained glass artwork, experimenting with Link in different ages and changing in character design throughout the games.

• Comic - If all of the above isn't enough, they've also created a 32 page A4 comic (Manga, because it was drawn in Japan) called The Legend is Born. The first third is in full colour which is awesome. This comic shows link as a knight protecting his land, with his fellow warriors at the beginning of time fighting the demon king. With Zelda as a goddess, it explains how she became the mortal she is today, and how Link is the hero we all know and love with a great destiny to come.

This was worth every penny. I have been a fan of The Legend of Zelda since Ocarina of Time and have savoured every one of them but Skyward Sword (Which I seriously need to play). Dark Horse have done an amazing job putting this together with Nintendo for Zelda's 25th Anniversary, so all of you fans better make sure you get one too! Before they vanish like the limited edition Zelda 3DS.

Blog... review, whatever you want to call this, this book isn't missing a single thing that I want to know or see. 10/10