Joe Madureira, the creative director for the Darksiders games, has recently showed interest in working on a Legend of Zelda comic. With Madureira’s past experience as a comic book writer and his expressed enthusiasm for the Zelda series, it seems as it be a great idea for Nintendo to give him the opportunity to start this comic book series.
This wouldn’t be the first Nintendo has teamed up with a comic book series. Back in the early 90′s Nintendo had a deal with Valiant Comics, now known as Valiant Entertainment, Inc, which produced several Nintendo Titles in print form including Super Mario Bros., Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda.
Our great friends over at Glitterberri have been hard at work for weeks dissecting every page of the Hyrule Historia and translating it to English for us. They have been doing an incredible job and because of their hard work, we have learned some incredible info on the Zelda series that would otherwise remain a mystery for sometime.
One of the more recent facts dug up out of the depths of this wonderful book is the mystery of the Ocean King’s World. When dealing with games like this that take place in alternative worlds, it is hard to know exactly how they are all connected. Yhanks to Glitterberri, we are able to shed just a little more light on this mystery. Jump inside for the quote from Glitterberri and my thoughts on the matter.
It has been several weeks and our great friends over at Glitterberri are still hard at work translating the mysteries hidden inside Hyrule Historia for us. They now have a total of seven new pages translated from this great book and are still working on even more. We now have details covering Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, The Wind Waker, and Phantom Hourglass.
It’s only a matter of time until they have the complete book translated and at the pace they are going it seems that day wont be too far away. For now though, all the pages they have so far is enough to hold me over. Be sure to check out the newest translations after the jump.
The amazing people over at GlitterBerri have been hard at work uncovering all of the details hidden within the Japanese text of Hyrule Historia. As each day passes they come closer to getting every page translated. Since our last update on their progress, they have fully translated five different sections and are still hard at work at bringing us even more.
From a statement from Shigeru Miyamoto to mysteries of the Triforce and the Palace of the Twilight, the new translations from Hyrule Historia may uncover more exciting details of the Zelda series than previous sections of the book. Make the jump inside to read a few quotes from Miyamoto and to find out more about what was uncovered in the translations.
Hyrule Historia has been released in Japan for a couple weeks now but its first print run sold out in just a mere number of days. I was one of the lucky few people here in the United States that was able to get my order in and I now have a copy to show for it. However, if you are interested in importing a copy for yourself, you might just have that chance as a second print of the book is now available over at Amazon Japan. Hyrule Historia copies have been appearing on ebay and auction sites here in United States, going for insane prices anywhere between $100 and $150!
We still have no word on whether or not this book will ever see the light of day outside of Japan. There is a campaign going on over at Facebook to bring Hyrule Historia to the west in an English translation. There has been no word from Nintendo on this subject, but we’ll have to stay tuned. My thoughts are that if it ever comes out in English, it will be quite some time. It will have to be fully translated and it likely won’t be published by Shogakukan if it is released in other territories.
UPDATE: Since this post when up, it appears that the book is no longer available on Amazon Japan! Did it sell out that quickly? Stay tuned for updates.
UPDATE #2: The book is now available once again at Amazon Japan!
The recent information pulled from the Hyrule Hystoria book has been killing old theories, creating new ones, and leaving fans craving for more. Though with it only being released in Japanese and no official translation yet, we are stuck trying to decipher each individual page as well as we can. Our great friends GlitterBerri and Beno are working hard to bring translations to us as quickly as possible.
If you have been following along with our Hyrule Hystoria posts then you are well aware of all the amazing details and surprises hidden within this book. If you haven’t than you should head over to GlitterBerri’s site and catch up on what you have been missing out on. With each passing day we are getting more of the pages translated and posted online. Furthermore, Beno is now editing the actual scanned pages, inserting the Japanese translations. Basically, you can now read some pages of the book as if it were released in English. Note, these are still just translations, but you can check them out over at ZeldaNut.com. I’ve included two sample pages after the jump. Keep reading to see what details we have recently uncovered so far from this incredible book.
The recent release of the Hyrule Historia book has offered us an outstanding amount of information on the Zelda series. The only problem being it isn’t in English yet. Well Mases and our great friends at GlitterBerri have been trying to translate and peice together some of the answers hidden within this book. After many days of hard work and a lot of effort we now understand more about the Zelda series than previously imaginable.
One of the many things we have discovered in the translation is a special section written by Eiji Aonuma himself. In this section he talks about Hyrule Historia, Skyward Sword, and ends it by mentioning the next Zelda game of the series.
Ocarina of Time is considered by many to be the best game in the Legend of Zelda series, but with the build up and flood of information we got leading up to Skyward Sword’s release, fans were sure it would overthrow Ocarina of Time and take the thrown for best game. In IGN’s most recent episode of Versus, they set out to discover if Skyward Sword had taken this title by asking their fans. In a poll, fans were asked to vote for their favorite game in four different categories including: controls, bosses, gear, and story. A total of just over 113,000 votes were cast and Skyward Sword came out victorious in all categories, winning IGN’s People’s Choice Award. To see the complete breakdown of the results check out the video after the jump.
We now have full scans of the Hyrule Historia book! These are high quality scans that show off the book in its entirety. Plans are underway to get even higher quality scans of the individual pieces of artwork. Furthermore, Beno and GlitterBerri are hard at work at getting translations of these scans available to the public. Be sure to check back here in the coming days as translations become available. Additionally, we will be highlighting specific pieces within the book itself over the course of the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: After an overload of visitors coming in, these scans have moved location. The original website hosting them is offline, but luckily a PDF version of the book has been made available over at Mega Upload.
We finally have our hands on Hyrule Historia! After waiting for quite a bit of time, it has finally arrived. The books you see to the left are of our actual copies of the book. One of which belongs to Melora of History of Hyrule and the other is my personal copy. Scanning has commenced and we will have high quality scans of the book and artwork in the coming days. Furthermore, our friends at History of Hyrule and Glitter Berri will be working hard to bring full translations of this book in the coming days as well. A lot is happening here but I’m glad that our copies of Hyrule Historia have finally arrived. Stay tuned!
We now have scans for much of the Hyrule Historia book. These aren’t the best quality scans, nor is it absolutely complete. However, there are now 105 pages available for download and because of the size of the file, we decided not to host them here at Zelda Dungeon. Instead, this PDF file can be found over at Mega Upload.
It’s only a matter of time before I get my hands on this book myself and will be able to provide high quality scans of the concept and official artwork that is being released for the first time in this book. In the meantime I have included some of the never before released official artwork from the original Legend of Zelda. The quality of scans isn’t the best, but these pieces stood out to me the most. Go ahead and make the jump to check them out.
Our friends over at History of Hyrule have tons of information about the recently released Hyrule Historia book. Over at their forums, Melora has pieced together all the various scans and translations that we have thus far. Furthermore, she has put together a sweet looking page showcasing the scans and translations we have available. Melora and I are anxiously awaiting our copies of the book and we should be getting them sometime in the next couple of days. As soon as they appear online, we’ll surely be posting about it here at Zelda Dungeon, so stay tuned.
As of now, the translations are a bit selective and all over the place. You can piece together the puzzle and look at the various pages that are translated right now, or give it a few days until more complete translations and scans are available. Either way, be sure to check back for all the latest on the Hyrule Historia in the coming days.
Our friends over at Glitter Berri have posted the next five pages in the Skyward Sword Prequel Manga. This now brings the total to 15 pages of the Manga. The entire book runs at 34 pages so almost half of them have been fully translated. The prequel manga is included with the recently released Hyrule Historia book, which I’m still anxiously waiting to get my hands on.
Glitter Berri and Beno have been working hard to get it translated and edited in a timely fashion. At the pace things are going at, the whole thing should be translated within just a couple of days so stay tuned. You can make the jump to see a couple of the new translations, but head on over to Glitter Berri to see all 15 of the pages.
The first 10 pages of the Skyward Sword Prequel Manga are now translated! This prequel manga can be found within the Hyrule Historia book and the artist is Akira Himekawa, the same person who was the artist for the 10 other Zelda Manga pieces that were released in America.
You can view the pages over here. Note, it’s only about 30% complete as of now, but the translators are working hard to get it done as quickly as possible. Special thanks to GlitterBerri and Beno for translating and editing the Manga. You can make the jump to see a couple of pages from the Manga, but be sure to head on over here to see the full first 10 pages. Stay tuned for all the latest scans and translations from the Hyrule Historia book and this Prequel Manga.
A survey was held between December 7th and 11th over at Famitsu.com to see what the readers thought were the Top 50 Nintendo games ever made. For those of you out of the loop, Famitsu is one most respected and highly circulated magazines over in Japan. Their fans have spoken and eight Zelda titles fit in the listing of Top 50 Nintendo games, six of which made it in the top 20. The Zelda games listed can be seen below. Go ahead and make the jump to see the complete Top 50 listing.
We are still anxiously awaiting our copy of Hyrule Historia to arrive in the mail, but we’ve recently uncovered some new scans over at the neoGAF forums. In this most recent set we have some new alternative concept artwork of Tetra from The Wind Waker that you can see to the left. Furthermore, we have concept artwork of Ganon and Ganondorf from Twilight Princess, as well as a bunch of Majora’s Mask and Skyward Sword goodies. It looks like there is just so much artwork to discover in this book and I cannot wait to get my hands on this. Go ahead and make the jump to see these nine pictures.
Our friends over at History of Hyrule have gotten their hands on the Skyward Sword Prequel Manga and have posted scans online. You can view the 32 page manga that came included within the Hyrule Historia book over at their image gallery. Unfortunately they don’t have the entire manga up, but they do have the bulk of it. Also, the Manga is in Japanese so unless you read Japanese, it will only be for viewing pleasure. Fortunately enough, translations are already underway and those hopefully will be available in just a few days.
The Skyward Sword Prequel Manga is included within the Hyrule Historia book that we’ve been covering for the last two weeks or so. The book has been sold out in Japan already, but fortunately enough the folks over at History of Hyrule were able to order two copies, one of which is for me! Thus, I should be getting my copy in sometime within the next few weeks, but we’ll surely see some scans at History of Hyrule in the next few days. Stay tuned, but until then, go ahead and make the jump to see some images from the prequel Manga.
A few days back we posted a translated grid of the Zelda Timeline from the Hyrule Historia book, courtesy of our friends over at GlitterBerri. We recently got sent a graphically enhanced version of this same timeline grid, making it closely resemble the grid that was published in the book itself. You can see the preview image to the left, but go ahead and make the jump to check out a larger version. The actual file that was sent to me was gigantic, but if you want to download it in all its 39mb glory, you can head on over to Mega Upload.
We’ve been reporting the last couple of days on the Hyrule Historia book that released in Japan just a few days back. A French fan was able to get his hands on the book and he flipped through it in a 20 minute video. At one point, there was a grid showcasing the now revealed Legend of Zelda Timeline. While it is similar to what we’ve seen for a few posts now, we now have a direct translation from the book courtesy of GlitterBerri. She has recreated the timeline as it appears in the book, albeit without the images, but you can see that direct translation after the jump.
Author Johnny Walls has just written a book, published December 16th by Gray Matter books. Here’s a brief summary from the publisher:
The level of interactive adventure, exploration, immersion and storytelling The Legend of Zelda brought to television screens across the world was unheard of and it planted an integral seed in the garden that one day would grow into the diverse gaming landscape we know today. Far from stopping there, The Legend of Zelda series has continued to release top-shelf games adored by critics and fans alike. Zelda, like all of our greatest fairy tales, legends and myths, presents that elusive and exclusive kind of enlightenment that only the fantastic can provide. In this collection, various contributors explore the connections between this cultural zeitgeist and theology.
As an installment of their ‘VS.’ series, IGN is asking, “Can any game surpass Ocarina of Time?” As the video states, it was the first game to receive a perfect 10 rating from IGN. Since then Skyward sword has also gotten a ten, and is the game most likely to beat out the classic. The match up will be decided based on views from this video so follow the annotations to vote for which game you think is better. Click ‘Read More’ for the match up criteria and my thoughts on the outcome.
In the recent Hyrule Historia scans over at History of Hyrule, there are a few things that you might have noticed if you browsed through the limited scans that are available. One of these is original concept artwork for the character of Midna from Twilight Princess. Believe it or not, the image that you see to the left was actually one of the early concepts of what Midna could potentially look like. That’s not the only concept either, as there are several other altered concept variations just for Midna. After looking at some of these, I think they could pass for alternative fan artwork. It’s pretty astonishing how unique some of these pieces of artwork are. It makes me wonder, how many of these hidden gems are there to be found in the Hyrule Historia book? Perhaps we’ll get concept artwork for several other Legend of Zelda characters throughout the history of the games. Jump inside to see larger images of some of the other variations of Midna.
The follks at IGN have started their very own 2011 people’s choice awards. Voting has just begun for all categories and Skyward Sword is in the running for several of those categories including Game of the year. So now all you have to do is go over to their site and vote on each category. Here is what they had to say.
Is Dead Space 2 a better action game than Portal 2? What’s the best shooter, Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3? And what developer was best in 2011? Our overall awards will bring answers to all of these burning questions and many more. We’ll also give you a chance to weigh in with our annual People’s Choice awards, decided by you, on each award’s page. So make sure to make your voice heard by voting on your favorite before we announce all the winners on January 17th.
Yesterday we reported on the first translations available for the Hyrule Historia Japanese book. We are surely going to be seeing more scans and translations over the next couple of days, as the book is now available in stores over in Japan. Until then, the folks over at New Nintendo have translated a second page from the initial batch of scans that were posted at History of Hyrule. Of the two pages you see in the image to the left, the translation covers the page on the right side. You can see a large version of the translated page, as well as the translation itself after the jump.
Our friends over at History of Hyrule have posted some partial high quality scans of the Hyrule Historia book that is set to release tomorrow in Japan. The book has stirred up a lot of controversy as it is rumored to be a reveal of the Zelda Timeline.
While we don’t have too much information just yet, Beno from the Legends Alliance forums has posted a translation of some of the pages. If you make the jump, you can see the high quality scans as well as Beno’s translation. While there isn’t anything major revealed just yet, this does give us a previous of the level of detail that will be included in the Hyrule Historia book. This particular page focuses around the child ending of Ocarina of Time, as well as some material from Majora’s Mask.
A few days back we reported on a book entitled Hyrule Historia that is set for release on December 21st. The book is being published by Shogakukan, the official publisher for Nintendo of Japan. Recently, a member over at the GameFAQs Forums has translated the table of contents of this book and has discovered somewhat of a secret. Deciphering the translation, it appears that the long sought out Legend of Zelda Timeline will be revealed. You can find the translated table of contents below.
“History of Hyrule
~Finally Revealed, The Genealogy of the [Legend]~
The Timeline of Hyrule, Kingdom of the Gods………………………………… 68
The Legend of Gods and the Hero of Time…………………………………………… 70
The Downfall of Hyrule and the Last Hero………………………………………… 92
The Twilight Realm and the Hero’s Descendant……………………………… 110
The Hero of Wind and the New World………………………………………………………… 122
Audrey Drake is one of the editors over at IGN and she’s also a huge Zelda fan. She’s written so many Zelda pieces over the last few months and her latest one is entitled, Why Zelda Endures. In this article Audrey highlights five reasons why the Legend of Zelda series has been able to endure the test of time. She talks about how the series has a strong foundation, very few direct sequels, always stays fresh, and just offers some damn good games. She also talks about how the series has been live on, largely due to it having a A Tale That Spans the Ages. Here is what Audrey had to say.
One of the most brilliant (and at times confusing) things about the Zelda storyline is that it leaves itself open for infinite sequels without having to stretch. Rather than the developers having to continually contrive a new reason for the same hero to be needed over and over again, Zelda’s various creators set-up a timeless tale that is told across centuries, and a plotline that is truly eternal. With the unbreakable spirit of the hero, Link, being reborn ad infinitum – and great evil always waiting to arise – it’s a story that easily justifies its repetition, with each new installment only strengthening the overall lore.
Nintendo of Japan recently announced the upcoming release of a hardback collector’s edition artbook chronicling the history of The Legend of Zelda. The book contains not only artwork from throughout the series, but contains a history of the series, character and costume design notes, production images including scrapped costume ideas, and concept art for Link and various items. Fans will get a chance to see some of the more wild designs that did and did not make it into some of the games as well as a few notes from the developers. Also included is a preview of new official Skyward Sword manga. The book will go on sale December 21 and have a price of ¥32,55 ($41). Unfortunately there is no word at this time if it will be released outside of Japan just yet. We have a few pages to preview so jump inside to check out the pictures for yourself.
In a recent interview with Official Nintendo Magazine Eiji Aonuma mentioned that during development there were a few more ideas they had in mind with the motion controls in Skyward Sword that did not make it to the final version. Since these were scrapped they had decided to hold on to those ideas and use them in a later Zelda game in the future. Jump inside to check out what he had to say.
Although Skyward Sword has been receiving much praise for its amazing innovations and new approach to gameplay, a lot of the smaller details may be been inspired by things present in earlier games in the series. It is because of this the folks over at IGN have decided to take another look at the many elements present in the game and compare them to similar things found on previous Zelda games. They discovered that there are quite a few references to previous characters and situations in Skyward Sword. Including some gameplay elements and phrases heard in the very first Legend of Zelda. In this article they are going through the series one game at a time and comparing the many referenced they find from Skyward Sword. And it turns out there are a lot of references contained within this game. Warning, there are a lot of Skyward Sword spoilers within this article, so read at your own risk. Jump inside to see what they had to say.
The January 2012 issue of Game Informer is now available to subscribers across the country and it has some Zelda goodies for us. In particular there is a two-page interview with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma and sound composer Koji Kondo. Both of these gentleman are two of the biggest names when it comes to the Zelda series and they talk about a range of topics. This includes motion controls, the story of Skyward Sword, romance in the game, the Zelda Timeline, orchestrated music, voice acting, and more. I’ve taken the time to type up the interview in its entirety and you can check it out after the jump. If you aren’t a subscriber to Game Informer, you can get a subscription for just $14.99 at any GameStop in the country, in which it comes with tons of other goodies as well.
The folks over at IGN have released their special Zelda Spoilercast where they talk entirely about the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The crew at IGN talks pretty extensively about the storyline, changes to the timeline, the games ending, and much more. If it isn’t clear enough, this podcast will completely spoil the storyline for you. After talking initially about the story, the crew takes live calls from fans. It’s a pretty good listen for any Zelda fan. These particular IGN folks are core Zelda fans so this isn’t just a casual podcast. They talk extensively about the Zelda lore and make plenty of references to the rest of the series. Make the jump to take a listen.
Amber had been dating her boyfriend for six years and been talking about getting married for about one. She had the thought in her head that something was going to happen, but didn’t know when. On a Friday night her boyfriend had made plans with her to go out on a date to a fancy French restaurant which made her suspicious since it wasn’t really an important day like an anniversary, so when talking about it with a coworker she realized the date was 11/11/11 and knew something had to happen, but didn’t want to get her hopes up.
When returning to her boyfriends apartment later that night she became suspicious when she realized his roommates were conveniently gone and everything was cleaned and dusted. He had been playing the classic The Legend of Zelda for the NES and had recently beaten it, so when he asked Amber if she wanted to start the second quest with him she quickly realized her suspicions were correct. When walking up to the Old Man that says the famous “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this!” she was surprised by the question she had been waiting for. Be sure to make the jump to read more.
The folks at IGN have decided to take a look at the various pros and cons of including voice acting in video games. Of course one cannot bring up the subject of voice acting in games without thinking of Legend of Zelda. The Legend of Zelda is one of the last great holdouts due to Nintendo’s reluctance to make a fully voiced sequel to the series. With the recent release of Skyward Sword it is again asked why does Link remain the silent protagonist in an era of fully voiced games?
They compare the histories of video games and movies talking about the evolution of technology allowing for more options that were previously unavailable. Later on there are some comparisons made between the Zelda series and other series that did eventually adopt voice acting. Taking the fan receptions as an example, listing which series were successful and why. Check out some more just after the jump.
IGN has posted an unboxing of the Limited Edition Zelda 3DS bundle that includes a copy of Ocarina of Time 3D. The 3DS is Cosmo Black with the gold Hylian Emblem on the top, along with a pretty cool pattern on the corners. For those of us that don’t have a 3DS yet, this seems like a perfect excuse to go out and buy one. It’s on sale tomorrow for 199.99, not bad all things considered.
January 29th, 2012 by Jesse
Joe Madureira, the creative director for the Darksiders games, has recently showed interest in working on a Legend of Zelda comic. With Madureira’s past experience as a comic book writer and his expressed enthusiasm for the Zelda series, it seems as it be a great idea for Nintendo to give him the opportunity to start this comic book series. 
January 10th, 2012 by Mases
January 7th, 2012 by Christina
December 22nd, 2011 by TheGreen
Author Johnny Walls has just written a book, published December 16th by Gray Matter books. Here’s a brief summary from the publisher:
December 21st, 2011 by Djinn
November 24th, 2011 by Destiny
