Last year fans of The Legend of Zelda around the world drooled in jealous delight at the release of Hyrule Historia in Japan. This art and history book focusing on Link's many adventures supposedly contained the secrets and tales behind Nintendo's famous franchise, but the book's exclusive Japanese printing meant that those abroad had to settle for unofficial translations posted to the Internet a page or two at a time. Now comes word that an English edition of the book is coming to North America, Europe, and Australia in 2013. Here's some of the news from The Escapist:
Originally released in Japan in 2011 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the series, Hyrule Historia features "the full history of The Legend of Zelda franchise," as well as concept art and an introduction from series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. There's also "the official timeline of The Legend of Zelda series," putting to rest decades of debate over the chronological order of the Zelda games.
The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is due out on January 29, 2013, with a US retail price of $34.99. The 25th anniversary of the Zelda series will be long over by then, but better late than never, right?
Thank you, Nintendo, for working to make this happen. I've wanted to read this book since the original announcement last year, but didn't want to bother with unofficial translations and low resolution JPG scans (seriously, if you're overcompressing scans of an art book, you're missing the point). I'm happy to hand over my money next year to buy a copy and hopefully this is the first of many Nintendo art and source books to come. Wouldn't you say that Samus Aran's Metroid mythology is due for an official exploration?
