Friday, June 10, 2016

Hyrule Blog Historia

8 Years. 888 Posts. 8 Triforce Shards. 8 Instruments of the Sirens. 8 Bit. Since 08.

Hyrule Blog is now exactly eight years old. The very first post with the fitting title "The Future of Zelda", which would lead the way for years to come, is dated back to June 10th, 2008 at 10PM. In those eight years exactly 888 posts have been made here. That's a lot of Eights and to celebrate I want to share an interesting screenshot of this blog in its first year:


It's quite familiar, yet very different, isn't it? It already had the same background image and the logo had the same design, but I was talking about LOST, instead of Zelda... How weird!

In case you didn't know, this hasn't been "Hyrule Blog - The Zelda Blog" from the start. It was called "Torvus Blog" in its first year, named after the Torvus Bog region from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes as a pun. But it wasn't a Metroid Blog either, it was simply my blog, where I talked about all the franchises and things that I liked, video games and TV shows alike. Zelda was just supposed to be one of many different categories on this site, as you can see in the image above.

And that's understandable, because in 2008 there wasn't much to talk about Zelda. Phantom Hourglass came out the year before, we didn't have any Zelda news at the time and the only thing related to Zelda in 2008 was the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In the same year I also discovered the Metroid franchise for myself. I liked it so much that I even named myself and this blog after areas in the Metroid games. But now imagine, if I really would have kept this as "Torvus Blog - The Metroid Blog"... It probably would have been eight boring years.

Anyway, at the time I literally felt "lost" with what I was doing with this site, so I decided to aim at a new direction in July 2009, to give this whole thing a focus and to turn it into a blog about The Legend of Zelda, because this struck me as the most promising topic. Other things like TV shows I can always discuss in my favorite forum, but with Zelda there's usually so much for me to talk about that a forum wouldn't cut it...

And as it turned out, this was certainly the right choice. The last years have been exciting as a Zelda fan with many different releases. After Spirit Tracks in 2009, we had the 25th Anniversary in 2011 with Ocarina of Time 3D, Four Swords Anniversary Edition and Skyward Sword, as well as many other Zelda goodies like Hyrule Historia or the Symphony of the Goddesses. 2011 has also been the strongest year for this blog with 236 posts in total.

After the 25th Anniversary we were going through another void in the year 2012, but from early 2013 on there always was something to talk about for Zelda fans. At the time they announced the new big Zelda game that will be showcased next week on E3, but during this long development phase Nintendo really wanted to keep us entertained in the meantime: The Wind Waker HD, A Link Between Worlds, Hyrule Warriors, Majora's Mask 3D, Tri Force Heroes, Twilight Princess HD and Hyrule Warriors: Legends... There was always something on the horizon.

Some of these things were especially exciting for myself. An online Four Swords game is something that I always have been talking about on Hyrule Blog in all those years, which finally became a reality with Tri Force Heroes. A Zelda action game, where you can play as other characters besides Link, has also been an idea I had back in 2005 (based on Unreal Championship 2), which became a reality in 2014 with Hyrule Warriors. This has been very exciting for me and I still have a lot of fun talking about the big Zelda spin-off, predicting the next characters, their weapons and so on. This site is called "Hyrule Blog" after all, so it's only fitting that I'm obsessed with the one game that actually has "Hyrule" in its title.

But don't worry, The Legend of Zelda will continue to be the focus of this blog and for the next big Zelda games I always had one thought in mind: "Make Zelda less linear again! Go back to the roots!" And this wish has been heard as well, it seems, where I'm excited about the new game, which will hopefully lead us all into a great new era for the Zelda franchise and to many more exciting topics on Hyrule Blog.


As you can see from its roots, the intention of this blog was always to be a platform, where I can write for myself and go beyond the scopes of a forum. I make all these posts, because I often got thoughts and ideas about Zelda in my head, where writing them down gives me closure, like some kind of Zelda diary. The more I'm thankful for everyone, who's actually following this site and reading my thoughts!

Special thanks go to all of you, who regularly have been posting in the comments over the last years: angelday, Eduardo Jencarelli, Eren Jaeger, K2L, Lankelink, Marandahir, Skullvic and more...! Thanks to you all! It's nice getting some feedback here and then.

1 comment:

angelday said...

Thanks for the mention!

I think I ended up here because of your Oracle Ring FAQ, then stuck for the in depth Zelda content. My primary focus is playing Zelda games (and Nintendo first party originals) at my own leisure. I find completing the games to 100% very satisfying. I've never been able to do it by myself, but actually doing it is a very good feeling, too. Have high hopes for the new Zelda game, and I'll change playing strategy.