Don’t you think it’s perfect that the cover of Hyrule Historia’s English version is green? Don’t get me wrong, the ancient brown look of the original cover, making it look like an old tome, was pretty awesome and, I’m not knocking it. But the green is perfect, and not just because it’s Link’s color. Surely I can’t be the only person who’s reminded of the Book of Mudora from A Link to the Past?

I realize that might sound like an odd connection to make, but come on, think about it!

Any A Link to the Past fan ought to know what the Book of Mudora is. This green book with golden text on its cover is thought to contain Hyrulean lore and stories, and is used in A Link to the Past to translate the ancient Hylian language so Link can enter the Desert Palace. Are those enough bolded words to get the point across? Let’s look at some bulletpoints.

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The Legend of Zelda series has always been about an eternal struggle: Good vs evil, the hero vs the villain. However, after so many years, the same story has been retold several times — often with a few changes — while the basic theme remains the same. After so many sequels, one may wonder if we are actually playing through various accounts of the same legend. Most old stories have a huge amount of variations as they’re being passed on through the centuries. The Zelda series taking the form of an old legend would be no different. Alternatively, however, it can be looked at as a cycle: Link constantly returns to save the ever-in-peril Zelda from a new danger, but throughout the eras, the kingdom itself is reduced and rebuilt, and always changing.

Through many sequels, the timeline started taking shape. The kingdom of Hyrule has been threatened by a dark lord many times in the past, and each was defeated by a noble hero who took up the quest to defeat him. Throughout the centuries, a green clad Link does indeed appear in a time of need to rescue a princess Zelda and save a kingdom from an evil villain. Eventually, the great evil is vanquished and the princess rescued.

Skyward Sword introduced the concept of an endless cycle among these main characters — Link, Zelda, and the dark lord — explaining the cause behind the events of previous games in the series.

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Today’s Zelda Fanart Spotlight is on deviantART artist gabirotcho‘s Ocarina of Time fanart “Hyrule -TLoZ Ocarina of Time“. In this fanart it shows the entire layout of Hyrule during its existence in Ocarina of Time. Just about every location that is seen in the game is located on this picture: Hyrule Castle and Castle Town, Death Mountain, Lake Hylia, Kokiri Forest, Gerudo Valley, Lon Lon Ranch, and Kakariko Village are some examples of what can be seen. Another thing that is quite interesting to see is that of the Hero of Time that can be found towards the bottom center of the picture. He is overlooking the land with his trusty steed, Epona. Perhaps he is reminiscing on all the adventures he had while he traveled all the areas in this legendary land in his quest to save it from the one who wanted to destroy it.

Either way I think it’s best that I just stop talking and let you look at it yourself.

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Zelda lore is truly unique.

After over 25 years, we finally have a clear-cut timeline, and some very basic facts laid out: There are three Triforce pieces, several heroes, several princesses, and a monstrous succession of villains bred by hatred. But for every question each new game answers about the series’ lore, more questions arise. How does this world work? What is its history really like? How much of what we see in each Zelda game can we trust, when the series is mired in apparent contradictions that only sort themselves out through a convoluted timeline?

Compare to The Elder Scrolls, with its lore that rivals that of Middle-Earth in its clarity and richness. Its political factions constantly vying for power, its supernatural elements played against a fairly realistic world in both aesthetic design and complexity. Compare to Halo, a series in a much less story-driven genre, which nonetheless boasts several books and a cohesive backstory to its faceless main character. There are countless game franchises that develop their backstories in a linear way, reminiscent of (and sometimes similar to) that of books, movies, or television shows.

The Legend of Zelda is different. At face value, its looks like high fantasy, with its large cast of characters and its rich history. But it plays out more like a fairy tale, and people both familiar and unfamiliar with the series could probably point out the framework of most Zelda stories. There’s always a villain — if not Ganon, then an analog for Ganon. The villain is often trying to seize some relic, usually the Triforce. The princess is often, but not always, kidnapped or put in some kind of peril at some point in the story. Link, of course, fulfills his role as the hero and saves the day.

If Zelda is a high fantasy series in the tradition of Lord of the Rings, how does this repeating story make any kind of sense? Furthermore, why are the different iterations of Hyrule so dramatically different in terms of geography?

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Welcome to another segment of Timeshift Thursday! It’s great to have you join me as we discuss some of my favourite areas from past Zelda games and I would go so far as to say that this will probably be my most controversial editorial yet. I say this because I’ve read so many different opinions about this particular area and the actual Zelda title itself. Yet, I’m welcome to any comments you have about my different tastes in the Zelda series so let’s get into it!

Because almost all Zelda titles take place in the land of Hyrule, Nintendo can always be counted on to give us a beautiful Hyrule Field for Link to explore. Starting with the original NES adventure and fast forwarding all the way to Twilight Princess, Hyrule Field has been a memorable experience for players to travel in. By the time Ocarina of Time was being developed Nintendo even implemented a new method of travel, horse riding, by adding Epona to the Zelda series and giving us plenty of memories for our gaming childhood. We’re not here to talk about Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule Field, though. No, Nintendo created a greater, more expansive Hyrule Field which I love exploring to this day and hope to convince at least some as to why I thoroughly think Twilight Princess’ Hyrule Field as the greatest in the Zelda series.

Are you interested in taking a look at and sharing your opinions about Hyrule Field in Twilight Princess? If so, please hit the jump below and read my thoughts as to why I enjoy this area!

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A very large amount of creatures of all shapes and sizes have appeared in and around Hyrule throughout the series. Ranging from gigantic dragons and undead stalfos to the diminutive miniblins, they come in all types. Any adventurer can easily agree that Hyrule has a very diverse collection of monsters that have troubled the people and challenged heroes. However, there are a great many creatures that have appeared and have merely been called demons. What they really are or where they come from is rarely elaborated upon. The only common element anyone can agree on is that they appear to be a very malicious group of supernatural creatures with a desire to dominate and destroy. They are even hinted at being another race if not another classification of being entirely. Sometimes monstrous and sometimes perfectly human, they are definitely creatures of wonder that have taken a huge part in the history of Hyrule.

The demons appear to have a higher status among the monsters in Hyrule and have sometimes appeared in the mythology of the story. They can at times appear to be more supernatural and otherworldly than the typical foes, such as ordinary animals or bandits. Other times they are not only a threat to the hylians but the gods as well; usually the greater threats or more pure evil creatures are labeled as demons. This matches their description in real world theology as well since the concept of the demon is the oldest and purest form of evil. Often Zelda’s demons are led by a Dai Maou or the Great Demon King, which is a title many of the main antagonists have held at one point in the past. Starting with Ganon in his earliest appearance, the title Demon King has gone on to describe later antagonists such as Malladus, Bellum, and Demise. Given that so many different characters have held the title in the past, it might be more of an honorary or earned title.

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All things seem to be paying off for Dark Horse books after they released a fully translated English version of Hyrule Historia. As we already know ever since its release outside of Japan the book has become extremely popular on Amazon, eBay, and other such sites. Due to the overwhelming popularity of Hyrule Historia, Dark Horse has been quoted as saying that they feel the book’s popularity has only just begun and that they are willing to print as many copies as need needed to keep up with the high demand. However here is some more good news!

Jump inside to find out!

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Zelda’s three confirmed timelines are unprecedented in the series; there has never been anything quite like them in the entire series’ history. We’ve known some of the games’ order according to their relation to each other, and we knew two timelines existed, but we certainly didn’t know where every game went on the entire timeline, nor that there would be a third one. With the last game having been an ultimate prequel to the entire series, and with Hyrule Historia having come out to fill in the gaps, it’s easy to expect new additions to the end of the timelines for the next few releases, rather then stories that go between existing games.

So don’t you think it’s interesting to think about what we might see on these three timelines moving forward? What if Nintendo uses this brand-new opportunity to tell different stories, build different versions of the Zelda world, and utilize different themes on each of the three timelines?

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A lot of Zelda fans were long anticipating the exciting release of the English version of the Hyrule Historia. This book contains 237 pages of nothing but Zelda! The fascinating book of the ongoing series contains the full history of Hyrule including the long awaited Zelda timeline! Along with the creative footprints of each Zelda game, this includes various character concepts and designer comments. But it doesn’t stop there! At the back of this amazing book the Skyward Sword prequel manga has been translated into English. Want to find out the exciting news? Jump to find out!

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Hey there guys! New mailbag! This time we’ve got a few questions regarding the news about Zelda Wii U and The Wind Waker HD! Since that news was just announced, most of the questions are still about other games, but that’s okay, it just makes the mailbag diverse! Future Zelda games are still the main focus of this mailbag, however. Here’s the spinoff article I referenced in the video. 11 questions in all! Enjoy! You can watch the video here or check out the embed after the jump.

Questions and timestamps:

(00:24) – What’s your favorite cameo in a Zelda game?
(00:58) – Hypothetically, if the Zelda series decided to genre hop, what genre would you want for it?
(01:55) – Knowing what we know now, what do you want in the new Zelda Wii U?
(03:42) – What improvements would you like to see in the remake of The Wind Waker?
(04:25) – Are you happy about the delays for quality reasons, or do you think The Wind Waker HD isn’t enough to make up for the wait?
(05:31) – Would you like to see more Zelda games take place in other countries?
(05:47) – How would you feel if your partner in the next Zelda game could fight and be more interactive?
(07:10) – How does Ganon spend his time in the Sacred Realm, and how does he keep escaping?
(07:42) – If you held a Pictograph contest like the one in Majora’s Mask, what shots would you reward?
(08:04) – Which version of Twilight Princess’ Hyrule is canonical? GameCube or Wii?
(08:52) – What’s your opinion on the connection between Demise and Ganondorf?

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Matthew Taranto, author of Brawl in the Family continues his holiday tradition of foregoing a webcomic with a musical video for the annual Christmas strip. For the past few weeks, various Nintendo characters have been vacationing in other video game worlds. But as the old song says, there’s no place like home for the holidays. Hear the song after the jump!

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Today’s Fanart Spotlight is on deviantART artist Gabriela-Birchal‘s Wind Waker fanart, “The great flood“. This fanart depicts the moment where the gods of Hyrule are flooding it to prevent Ganondorf from controlling the land. The King of Hyrule can be seen to the bottom left touching the Triforce, perhaps wishing for Hyrule to be flooded. Ships can also be seen floating atop the waves that are slowly engulfing the majestic land. The water that is falling onto the land is pouring from the sky and in the background one can see other areas of Hyrule that are slowly being covered and surrounded by the falling water.

This marks the beginning of the end of a truly great and powerful land.

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Undoubtedly one of the most memorable things about The Legend of Zelda and Ocarina of Time among others are their soundtracks. The brilliant works spearheaded by Koji Kondo and the rest of the sound team throughout the years have become lodged in our heads months, years, maybe even decades after their releases. The influence of Zelda’s music is clearly universal, as the “Open Treasure Chest” theme is profoundly well known among adults and children. In fact, the music of Zelda and Mario may be the most popular in gaming, extending far beyond the realm of gamers.

Like the franchise itself, Zelda’s music has evolved in many ways. The outdated MIDI format was recently tossed in favor of a live orchestra, and pieces have steadily become more advanced in their composition over time. From the class tunes of The Legend of Zelda to the somber music of Twilight Princess to the orchestrated goodness of Skyward Sword, Nintendo’s composers have yet to disappoint. Make the jump to take a trip through time and relive some of the greatest musical moments in Zelda!

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The kingdom of Hyrule itself and its real world correspondents haven’t been a subject of exploration in the past few years. That’s why I’d like to delve deeper into this bizarre world and explore its economy, real life counterparts and the inner mechanisms of its government. Its appearance, structure and culture have evolved since each Zelda game that used Hyrule as its backdrop essentially reinvented the region. At the core of every version is Hyrule is a shared structure that contain attributes including centralization, class division and forms of government that they all share. Make the jump to read more!

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There has been a large number of recurring objects, themes, and characters in the Legend of Zelda series. More often than nearly any other number or symbol, the number three appears to have the most significance in the Zelda series, and as I will discuss later, other places as well. It is such an important attribute that many things involving it, great and small, are very noticeable, and its symbolism can be seen in both the series’ gameplay and its mythology. The foremost example is the Triforce. After the first game, the concept behind the Triforce would be expanded to have a profound influence upon the peoples that live in Hyrule.

The Triforce itself consists of three golden triangles of incredible divine power, left by the three deities that created the world upon completion of their work. Each piece is named for and represents a fundamental force or virtue that is important to the people living within the world: Power, Wisdom, and Courage. The Triforce is the primary artifact that all of the culture of Hyrule is centered around; the familiar triple triangle symbol is seen throughout much of the countryside and can be spotted in even the most mundane of places. The triangle has become a holy symbol signifying the religion of the Hylian people and a lucky charm worn by many. Not only serving as the main object of worship and admiration, the Triforce is also acquired by many of the main characters. It is said to grant the wish of anyone who places their hands upon it. Each individual piece, while not as powerful, still grants the owner incredible abilities. Ganondorf’s lust for the power it provides has been his main motivation as well as the source of conflict within the story of several games.

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