At the time of its original Japanese release in 2011, Hyrule Historia was monumental for containing the first official Zelda timeline. This was quickly shared across the internet after its international release and popularity of it prompted Nintendo to translate the book. The information contained has seen become outdated, but there’s a lot of production notes and concept art that is perfect for fans of the series.
With Hyrule Historia getting the digital treatment, this means that Dark Horse’s trilogy of Zelda compendiums will be fully accessible on mobile devices. 2017’s Arts & Artifacts and 2018’s Encyclopedia were made available digitally alongside their print versions. For one reason or another, Hyrule Historia didn’t make the jump until now.
Hyrule Historia was the first pairing between Dark Horse and Nintendo. It eventually led to two more general Zelda compendiums and an entire book focused on Breath of the Wild. For years, the creation and history of this series was a closely kept secret to Nintendo. Fans didn’t get that much insight into the development process or even learn of canceled ideas until Hyrule Historia.
Nintendo is now, generally speaking, more willing to talk about various scrapped ideas. We learned a few years back that a Wind Waker 2 was originally scheduled and would have included Toon Epona, but western reception shifted gears to create Twilight Princess. A lot of unused dungeon designs have also made their way into subsequent Zelda installments, meaning Nintendo is never throwing out work.
It’s pretty wild to think of how many different ideas are thrown around at Nintendo’s HQ. Most things come back to Mario and Zelda, but the company is constantly trying to push the envelope to keep its franchises fresh.
Source: Reddit, Siliconera
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