One of my favorite fantasy worlds since I was a kid has always been The Legend of Zelda. Ask any fan of the series and they’ll likely agree that the gameplay, stories, music and atmosphere all come together to create a truly immersive experience.

The book is huge, a solid hardback (measuring 12 inches x 9 inches and weighing 4 pounds) which is super high quality and bound beautifully with extra thick pages. This is definitely one of the nicest quality books I’ve seen. The gold text on the cover is also reflective, which is difficult to show in the above picture, but impressive when holding the actual book.

The feature I was most excited about is the timeline, which puts every Zelda release up to that point in order, laid out nicely, and makes the multiple timelines easy to understand. After playing the series for so many years it was really cool to see everything put into a chronological order. This of course excludes Breath of the Wild, which wasn’t released yet.

The newest game at the time of release was Skyward Sword, so there’s a pretty big section devoted to it. I’ve gotten mixed feelings on the game itself when talking to people at it at conventions, but regardless of how you like the game, the content for it in Hyrule Historia is pretty impressive. The art style is beautiful, and there are tons of character and monster profiles, concept art, and so on.

The other games get some love as well, with sections for each of them featuring art and detailed story summaries. (Just beware spoilers on any you haven’t played.) The nostalgia is wonderful. Seeing all the different versions of Link over the years was one of my favorite features.

I’m really glad I picked up a copy, even though it was pretty late. If you’re a Zelda fan and like to collect anything from the series, this book is a must!

-Clint