The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia

Did You Know?

• The book entered its second print run before release due to high pre-orders.
• The Washington Post listed it as the top national nonfiction bestseller for the week of June 24, 2018.
• The two editions sold 34,000 printed copies combined on release.

Content

The 328-page compendium documents the fictional lore of Hyrule, covering creatures, objects, and characters from the original The Legend of Zelda through Twilight Princess HD. It includes enemy and item listings, expanded lore from Hyrule Historia, concept art, screencaps, maps, and character relationships. Sketches and notes from each game's development team are featured, along with an interview with series producer Eiji Aonuma.

Development

Dark Horse series editor Patrick Thorpe noted that the book's size and detail required an intense work schedule to meet its release date. Localisation involved multiple teams handling translation, fact checking, proofreading, and design. Thorpe expressed concern about accuracy given the large amount of detail, stating that tens of thousands of items needed sourcing, including every proper name, title, and item. Problematic details included enemies that had never been named or were named only in Japan.

In cases of ambiguity or contradictory information, Thorpe consulted Nintendo to reach mutual decisions. The encyclopedia aimed to complete the fictional chronology begun in Hyrule Historia, with Thorpe describing it as the culmination of efforts to show how everything fits into the puzzle. The book was designed to be content dense and complement its predecessors: Hyrule Historia covers game production, Art & Artifacts focuses on artwork, and the encyclopedia covers in-game information for the first 30 years.

The three books have hardback covers in the colors of the Golden Goddesses, with the encyclopedia in blue for Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom. The deluxe edition, originally intended for another Hyrule Historia edition, uses gold foil and gloss laminate to resemble the gold NES cartridge of the original game, and includes a dust cover and instruction booklet.

Publication

The encyclopedia is the third book in Dark Horse's Goddess Collection trilogy, resulting from a partnership between Dark Horse and Nintendo for the art books. The series localizes Japanese art books; the Japanese edition was published in March 2017 by Tokuma Shoten. Two editions were released on June 19, 2018: a standard blue-covered edition and a deluxe edition styled as a gold NES cartridge. Originally scheduled for April, the release was pushed back to June. Like Art & Artifacts, it was released for the 30th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda series.

Reception

Seth G. Macy of IGN included the deluxe edition on a list of coolest video game art books, praising its attention to detail as amazing and full of information. Rich Meister of Destructoid responded positively to the gold cartridge design, calling it a nostalgia trip. Sara Gitkos of iMore described the encyclopedia as a beautiful hardcover book and perfect for fans wanting to read about Hyrule's world. Critics noted various typos, inaccuracies, and changes to fictional lore. The encyclopedia placed the original game geographically in Death Mountain area of A Link to the Past and made significant timeline changes from Hyrule Historia, positioning Link's Awakening before the Oracle games rather than after.