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Zelda Hyrule Historia Artbook


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I'm pretty sure Wind Waker makes a big deal of how that particular Link wasn't born a hero, and how he earned the Triforce of Courage himself.

 

However, in the other two timelines, Link died. He didn't disappear from existence. We can assume it is possible for him to reincarnate in those eras, thus, each new Link is a new chosen one. That "spiritual lineage" simply ceased to exist in the Adult Timeline, so chosen heros ceased to exist.

 

Unless WW!Link created a new one when the Triforce of Courage recognized him, which is always possible, and even explains the Link from Spirit Tracks, he's not a descendant, he's a reincarnation.

 

It's the way I see things, anyway.

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Because in the Japanese game, the dungeon you go into is called the Temple of Light, whereas here it is called the Temple of Time. It is why the symbol for the Light Medalion is all over the place.

 

It's still only a theory, unless this book confirms it is in fact the Temple of Light. Which is supposed to be in the Sacred Realm anyway.

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More Info:

The Temple of Time

 

The only enterance to the Temple of Light, which is in the Holy Land. In ancient times, there was a temple which had the same name; but the location in which Rauru built the temple was where the sealed temple allegedly was.

 

The Temple of Time becomes the ruins in the middle of the forest of Sacred Grove.

 

The Forbidden Forest

The outsiders called the place Kokiri Forest and Lost Forest. For the people who are lost here an adult becomes a Stalfos and a child becomes a Stalkid; and will wander the forest.

 

Ocarina of Time

 

"When you say 'Control Time,' what you remember is 'Ocarina of Time.' That ocarina is blue similar to the 'Timeshift stone.' Perhaps the ocarina is made out of the same ingredient from the 'Timeshift stone'.'"

 

History is Still Being Spun

 

This chronology is not limited to information that is currently confirmable. It also contains much that is unclear. The history of Hyrule is known to change with the times and the person telling it, and will continue to unfold. Even if none of the important points waver by much, new legends will continue to be born and history may yet be rewritten.

 

Naming the Hero Link

 

The heroes that appear in this chronology are all known as Link. It may have been their true name, but perhaps they were called something different. Some are the same person, but most were Links of their time: either different people entirely or the descendants of their heroic ancestors. Many Princess Zeldas also appear in Hyrule’s history as leaders, but this is because they, too, have taken on the legendary moniker of Zelda.

 

Nintendo Co., Ltd. Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, Software Development Group

 

Producer of “The Legend of Zelda” series

Eiji Aonuma

 

Thankfully, we’ve been able to reach the 25th year of The Legend of Zelda franchise. As tokens of our gratitude to all the fans who’ve supported the Zelda series until now, we’ve held symphonic concerts in three cities around the world, we’ve made available the “Four Swords 25th Anniversary Edition” game as DSiware for free, and we’ve had many promotional events. But I thought of preparing something in the form of a book and that’s how we decided to publish Hyrule Historia ~Everything About The Legend of Zelda~.

 

This book is organized in four big sections. The first one, “The First Story,” is an introduction to the new game Skyward Sword; the second chapter, “The Full History of Hyrule,” follows the order of events of the Zelda series chronologically; the third section, “Creative Traces,” presents artwork from past games, including some rough sketches; and the fourth part is a special manga by Akira Himekawa, the leading author in charge of creating the manga of the Zelda series.

 

In particular, part 3, “Creative Traces,” contains several documents that have never been shown to the public before. In order to include them in this book, the staff that’s worked in the Zelda series had to dig those old documents up like if they were hiding in the deepest part of a dungeon. I really appreciate that.

 

Chapter 2, “The Full History of Hyrule,” arranges the series in chronological order so it’s easier to understand, but from the very beginning, Zelda games have been developed with the top priority of focusing on the game mechanics rather than the story. For example, in Ocarina of Time, the first installment of the series I was involved in, the main theme was how to create a game with pleasant controls in a 3D world. Or in the DS game, Phantom Hourglass, the focus was having comfortable stylus controls. Finally, in the most recent game, Skyward Sword, we focused on an easy way to swing the sword using the Wii motion plus.

 

Thinking of that way of developing the games, it may be correct to say that the story is an appendix to that. I even think that setting Skyward Sword as the “first story,” was merely a coincidence.

 

While reading over “The Full History of Hyrule,” it’s possible that some parts may look contradictory. For instance, the Mogma race or the beetle item that appear on the very first story do not appear on any other game that takes place in the future. I’d like to ask everyone just to enjoy the book and to be broad-minded, and to think that those parts are the way they are because of the way Zelda games are developed.

 

Now, allow me to include some tall talk here: I feel that developing such large scale games as those from The Legend of Zelda is very similar to what it was like to venture into the mighty ocean in ancient times. Each game of the franchise has its own theme, as I mentioned above. I think that’s a system that no one has challenged so far and at the same time it’s like looking for a “continent” no one has ever visited.

 

When leaving the port, you don’t have a single nautical chart. You only have with you very few crew members, and all the guidance is based on which direction looks good, so at first it’s like boarding and sailing a ship with an aim you don’t even know yet. Sometimes you just drift about, or you may suffer a shipwreck because of a storm. Or you may see what you think is a new continent, but when you rush towards it, you find out it actually is a tiny desolate island. And it’s then that you get lost.

 

However, as long as you don’t stand still in the same spot, you can continue to advance little by little, and that continent you aimed at will get barely within sight on the far away horizon. At that point you can add more people to your crew, and get all together to push forward ahead towards the continent.

 

That’s a very fun process, so fun you even forget the times when you encountered a storm and you were hoping to get away from it. And if you manage to get safely to that “continent,” people around the world will surely get happy... That’s the biggest pleasure of creating Zelda games.

 

The long sailing time of creating Skyward Sword, a game to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Zelda series, has just come to an end. The voices of those who’ve played it from around the world reach us. We hear their admiration comments, and their criticism too. All those voices become energy for the next voyage. Well, to tell the truth, we’ve already set sail in a new voyage.

 

Please keep supporting The Legend of Zelda games.

Edited by Dante
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More information:

 

The End of Ganondorf, Triforce in Adult timeline:

 

The Disappearance of the Old Kingdom

Then, the king of Hyrule appeared and touched the Triforce before Ganondorf. In a loud voice, the king proclaimed his wish: "I desire hope for these children! Give them a future! Wash away this ancient land of Hyrule! Let a ray of hope shine on the future of the world!"

 

The End of Ganondorf

Was it woth it wishing to the Triforce for a future at the expense of letting Hyrule disappear? Ganondorf attacked Link and Zelda, who were entrusted with that future. The last decissive battle on the land of Hyrule kept being extended.

 

Ganondorf was defeated by Princess Zelda’s light arrows and Link’s attacks with the Blade of Evil’s Bane. He turned into stone and broke into pieces.

 

As Hyrule was disappearing, The king freed Link and Princess Zelda onto the sea surface. Zelda told the king they could find a new land together, and Link reached out to the him, but the king chose to disappear along with Hyrule.

 

What Ganondorf Coveted

Ganondorf described Hyrule’s sinking in the ocean as a “destruction by the gods,” and he dwelt upon its restoration. He was born and raised in a desertic land, where he said that the wind carried death and he left behind these words, “I coveted the wind that blew across Hyrule, I suppose.” The wind he felt in his last moment, was it the desert wind or Hyrule’s...?

 

The King and the Kingdom of Hyrule

Remembering the kingdom of yore, the king of Hyrule regretted the past. However, after reflecting that clinging to Hyrule’s restoration would make him the same as Ganondorf, he decided to make it disappear. The king apologized to Zelda and Link, and left behind these words, “I have scattered the seeds of the future...”

 

Like that, a cyclic story of the battle for the Sacred Realm Hyrule and the Triforce came to an end.

 

The hero who sealed Vaati in the back story to Four Swords is not the Link from The Minish Cap, but is another hero who appeared in between The Minish Cap and Four Swords.

 

The Unsealing of Sorcerer Vaati

 

Peace returned briefly to Hyrule as Vaati was presumed killed, until he one day reappeared to terrorize the land once more. Vaati kidnapped many beautiful maidens and brought them to the Wind Palace in the sky that he had taken.

 

At this moment, a hero wielding the legendary sword appeared. Using the sword, he split his body in four to defeat Vaati and seal him away inside the Four Sword in the Elemental Sanctuary.

 

 

Hero of the Four Sword

 

Not much is known about this person. He appears to be a descendant of the Link who defeated Vaati.

 

 

The Return of Wind Sorcerer Vaati

 

For generations the seal of the Four Sword was managed by the lineage of Princess Zelda, but one day the seal begins to weaken. Zelda goes to check up on the seal, but is kidnapped by Vaati and taken away to the Palace of Winds

 

Marin and Tarin might be memories of the past.

 

Marin & Tarin

 

Inhabitants of Mabe Village on Koholint Island. Similar personages also exist in places such as the Hero of Time’s Hyrule and Holodrum. Marin and Tarin may have been created from the memories of Lon Lon Ranch’s Malon and her father, Talon.

 

Link from the original Legend of Zelda might be a descendant of Link from A Link to the Past.

 

Link

 

A young traveler. Upon visiting Hyrule, he encounters Impa. It is thought that he may be the descendant of the Link that trained to defeat Ganon during the era of Light and Shadow.

Edited by Dante
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Love that info gets scarcer and vaguer, the further we go back in the chronology :heh:

 

I recall that Marin was supposed to be made of the memories of Zelda, at first. Then, Malon and Talon were created as references to LA, and now they're retconning all of that stuff full circle :p

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It's a shame though that this seems to be not getting a UK release. Does anyone know why? It just seems sad they make that whole announcement about how much they love the fans for supporting the series, the concerts, the Four Swords game, etc. If this is the part of the 25th Anniversary Celebration, I'd really love to own it.

 

Please Nintendo? (Shall we get Zelda Williams on the case? :P)

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I'm loving this "third" timeline people have started mentioning. It basically means every Game Over screen you ever get could result in a new timeline.

 

Just because there are an infinite number of timelines possible, that doesn't mean Nintendo have to place games in them all.

 

They specifically chose 3 timelines. Yes there are more, but no one should care about those because no game that's been released so far has taken place in them, just the 3 main ones.

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Has anyone who ordered from Play Asia received or heard anything yet??

 

Apparently a second print run is now on sale at amazon.jp and it's tempting to just get that and cancel the play Asia order!

 

Still not shipped, I ordered the day it went up. Just sent them an email so I'll see what they say.

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Same here. I sent an email for them to cancel my order and just ordered off Amazon.

 

If Play Asia had some they'd have dispatched by now. And their product page says Out of Stock

 

Here's the response I got from them:

 

In regards to your concern, we are very sorry to inform you but our

suppliers were not able to provide the stock we asked for the guide book.

They said that there were only few copies that were printed out and the

stock didn't meet the need globally. We know you really wanted to get the

guide book, on our end we also would like that since we have a lot of

customers who pre-ordered however there are some circumstances that we

can't really control like to what happened now. We apologize for the

inconvenience this has caused you. We kindly ask for your patience.

 

How much was it from Amazon? I remember the postage cost more than the book.

 

Edit: Oh, looks like Amazon sold out.

Edited by Ike
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Interesting Zelda:TP concepts:

 

Impaz

7vGiz.jpg

Ashei and Shad

c2kOj.jpg

 

More information:

 

Miyamoto’s Statement

- Link was named “Link” to convey the meaning of someone who connects. The idea was of a character that would cross time and link the energy spread around the world.

- Link is meant to represent the player.

- Impa’s name came from the verb “to impart.”

- Impa, Link and Zelda were the original “three guardians of the Triforce.” The Triforce relationship nowadays is between Link, Zelda and Ganon, but that was established in Ocarina of Time; the first Ganon was a villain looking for the Triforce.

- Miyamoto fears that, with increasing production values, the most important parts of gaming will be neglected.

- He believes what matters in a videogame is the game system, the action, the sensations, the creativity, and the production values.

- He’s been watching over the Zelda series like a guard to ensure the series goes in the right direction.

- As long as players are still interested in Zelda, new games will continue to be born.

The Sorcerer’s Birth and the Tempering of the Four Swords

As this year marked the 100th year of the Picori Festival, the festival was more magnificent than ever before. The winner of the annual swordsmanship tournament was a man of unknown origin named Vaati.

Vaati was after the Bounded Chest. He broke the Picori Blade and opened the chest, but the Light Force that he was looking was nowhere to be found. Instead, a horde of monsters came gushing out of its insides.

Vaati turned Princess Zelda to stone and set out to look for the Light Force all over the human world.

 

Those chosen by the Triforce (OoT)

Although young, Princess Zelda, the princess of Hyrule, possessed the power of someone chosen by the Gods. One night, she had a premonition of Hyrule’s future in her sleep.

Ganondorf was after the Sacred Realm’s Triforce, which could lead to the world’s destruction. Princess Zelda believed in that prophecy, but his father, the king of Hyrule, did not. Princess Zelda and her nurse Impa took it upon themselves to keep an eye on Ganondorf when he visited the castle.

 

While Link gathered the three spiritual stones, Ganondorf attacked Hyrule Castle. He took that strong measure in order to take away by force the treasure protected by the royal family and that led to the Sacred Realm.

 

As Princess Zelda escaped from the castle with the help of Impa, she saw Link. Princess Zelda prayed for the Triforce to be protected and threw the ocarina to Link.

 

Ganondorf’s Repeated Revivals (WW)

After hundreds of years, Ganondorf, who had been sealed away when Hyrule sunk into the ocean, is revived again. Ganondorf attacked the temples of the Great Sea, killing the two sages who had been praying for the Master Sword.

Once he was out on the open sea. He set up a base in the Forsaken Fortress and began searching for the one granted the Triforce of Wisdom, the descendant of Princess Zelda.

 

•The Descendants of the Royal Family and the Pirate Crew.

For the sake of preventing Ganondorf, King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule is awakened from his seal by the Goddesses. Calling himself “The King of Red Lions”, he posses a red boat and sets out to search for a new hero and the descendant of the royal family.

In this era, Zelda -the descendant of the royal family- had been brought up as Tetra, the captain of a pirate crew.

 

Miyamoto’s Statement

•On Approaching the 25th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda

 

Nintendo Co., Ltd. Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development

General Producer of The Legend of Zelda Series

Shigeru Miyamoto

 

I started working on the project of the first Legend of Zelda game along with a very small staff in a corner of the development room of Nintendo, located in Kyoto. It was approximately 2 years after the release of the Famicom, around halfway through the 1980’s. Back then, I was also working on a compilation of the Famicom’s Super Mario Bros. [TN: A port of the original game for the Disk System that included several minus world levels.], but since the release of the Disk System was getting near, we had to work on a launch title too.

 

The first thing I thought about was a game that made use of the Disk System’s function of rewriting data so that two players could each create their own dungeons and make the other player solve them. We actually created such a game, and when I played it, I felt it was very fun playing in the dungeons themselves. So we put together a game with a series of dungeons underneath mountains distributed around Death Mountain for a single player to solve them. But we also wanted it to feature a world above, so we added forests and lakes, and so Hyrule Field took form gradually.

 

Now, we didn’t decide the game’s title from the very beginning either. Originally, I wanted it to be “The Legend of X,” but I couldn’t find the appropriate word for the “X.” Then, the planner to whom we assigned the PR project suggested we did a story book of the game.

 

He had the idea of doing an illustration book that would add to the princess Link rescues an eternal beauty appealing to all men. He then mentioned that there was an American writer whose wife was very famous. He said she was named “Zelda,” and suggested that name for our eternal beauty. I had no interest in such a book project, but I loved the name Zelda, so I asked him if we could only keep the name and he said it was OK. And so, the title of “The Legend of Zelda” was born.

 

We named the main character “Link” to convey the meaning of someone who connects. The idea was of a character that would cross time and link the energy spread around the world. There’s also a character that would pass that information on to Zelda: an old lady named “Impa.” Her name comes from the verb “to impart.” This old lady, Link and Zelda were “the three guardians of the Triforce.” The Triforce relationship nowadays is between Link, Zelda and Ganon, but that was established in Ocarina of Time; the first Ganon was a villain looking for the Triforce.

 

Twenty five years have passed since then and we’ve been able to create many Zelda games. At first, Link had a simple design of a bunch of pixels, but now he’s got a heroic fearless look and fluid movements. Ganon has become a more powerful, greatly evil being, and Zelda has turned into a beautiful lady.

 

Along with the evolution of hardware, production values get more luxurious. But I was afraid that by relying on those luxurious production values, the most important parts of playing would be neglected. What matters in a videogame are the game system, the action, the sensations, the creativity, and the production values. Production values have been evolving with time, and in order for other game elements not to lose any ground against them, I’ve been involved in the development of the series, watching it over like some sort of guard.

 

Because of that, I feel that Skyward Sword, the most recent game and which was finished for the turning point of the series’ 25th anniversary, is a very well-balanced game. Over this 25 years span, we’ve though up new items, we’ve changed the way of using some of them, or we’ve made Link’s controls more comfortable for solving puzzles, and sometimes we’ve improved all that when adapting them to a specific controller. We’ve repeatedly designed the controllers themselves assuming the movements in Zelda games. But I feel that with Skyward Sword, which is played with the Wii motion plus and the nunchuck, we’ve arrived to an answer.

 

Actually, 2011 was also the 30th anniversary of Donkey Kong. I started my career as a game developer with that title. I’ve been involved in the creation of many games during those 30 years, but the only ones in which the player can name his character are those from The legend of Zelda series.

 

I’ve already mentioned that we named Link with the intention of conveying a “connecting” meaning, but Link is the player himself. Ultimately, the series has continued because the player saves the world while struggling to solve puzzles or defeating strong enemies. As a result, I’m very thankful that players around the world and our team could “link.”

 

Even though Ganon is defeated time after time, he’s a very evil being that comes back vengefully. So, whenever signs of evil start to cover the world, a young boy and a girl will be born. As long as you continue to love this world, the adventures of you and Link will continue. We’ll keep developing new games of this series as new hardware brings new experiences. Please play those games.

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Eventually got a copy after Play Asia decided they weren't going to get enough copies for everyone ¬_¬

 

IMG_20120512_114614.jpg

 

The dusk jacket was damaged though so I might get rid of it. Normally like to keep those. Think it got damaged when they packed it because there wasn't any sign of damage on the box.

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To be honest, I don't really care about the Zelda timeline anymore. It's just the same story repeated over and over again, a bit like different religious myths. In other words, the details don't really matter... ; D

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The book itself was 3100 yen, it was about £23 when I ordered it. Shipping was 1700 Yen which is around £13. I went for the slower delivery, courier shipping was about £20+. So in total it was around £36.

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To be honest, I don't really care about the Zelda timeline anymore. It's just the same story repeated over and over again, a bit like different religious myths. In other words, the details don't really matter... ; D

 

Except they're not the same stories. Are you telling me Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Majora's Mask and Spirit Tracks all tell the same tale?

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Except they're not the same stories. Are you telling me Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Majora's Mask and Spirit Tracks all tell the same tale?

 

WW: Ganon in the end.

TP: Ganon in the end.

MM: Skullkid (!)

Spirit Tracks: A Ganon-like beast in the end xD

 

Also, it's the same kid in green going through dungeons, solving puzzles, using bombs, arrows, etc. So frankly, I do see more similarities than differences...the basic story structure is pretty much the same. Majora's Mask might be the one that differs the most, maybe that's why I like it so much.

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