Patrick Thorpe

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is can't-miss reading for all devoted Zelda fans. This compendium is a celebration of the art and worldbuilding of a cherished franchise now in its 4th decade. The most significant revelation found here is the official multi-game timeline that ties the entire Zelda universe together. Fans have debated its structure—its very existence even—for years. The timeline's current form is a clever construction of parallel universes spanning countless show more generations.

Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo have done a masterful job crafting and growing a brand that hopefully will last for decades to come. show less

For a book this big, I actually expected a bit more of it than a really, really long explanation of all the games' stories, specially because they don't vary that much. For a book with such a beautiful cover and a strong premise, I guess I expected more of a pretty artbook with more sketches and concept art. Still, Hyrule Historia is a relatively solid book with a lot of material regarding the creative process of The Legend of Zelda series. The bonus manga story in the end makes the book show more worth buying. An excellent material for fans of the game. show less

I'd like to give this book a higher rating but it wasn't as strong in the illustration and image department I had hoped. Still, it was an early gift (for what occasion, I forget) from my sister while I was in hospital and it was good to leaf through and spend time poking around the tid-bits and general histories. Not quite as in depth with lore as I would have hoped, but not a bad coffee table book.

Received a copy via the Goodreads First Reads program. Glad I did, as the book is only for artbook fans, the LoZ diehards, or fans of the later Wii games. I found the concept art interesting and it is a nice, if not excessively detailed, artbook. If you're interested in character design and art development in video games, especially in Legend of Zelda, it's a nice find. If you're interested in a more in-depth history of the people behind LoZ and their philosophies of game design, it's not here.