Got Creating a Champion (Again)

This may seem excessive, but I got myself another copy of Creating a Champion, the huge artbook for Breath of the Wild. I already own the Hero's Edition of the book, but lately I found myself browsing through it quite often, because there were things inside that may have a relevance for the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, like information about the Zonai, dropped concepts, and so on. It's very interesting.

But since it's a collector's item, I tend to be extremely careful with it, so I decided that I should get the normal edition in addition, just so that I can browse it more casually. So, it was mainly out of convenience, but there was another reason:

Its design lines up perfectly with the Goddess Collection – Hyrule Historia, Arts & Artifacts, and Hyrule Encyclopedia. The publisher, Dark Horse, was really smart here to have released such a nice special edition of the book, while at the same time they've made the normal edition look really good next to their other releases, so they might double-dip on fans like me. Well, it works.

They do have the exact same format and size, however. Originally I thought that the Hero's Edition is slightly larger, but that's not the case. I wouldn't have minded a smaller size for the normal version, because with its 424 pages it's quite heavy and the second largest book in the series, only four pages (two sheets) thinner than Arts & Artifacts.

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if Tears of the Kingdom were to spawn a fifth book in the same style, but I suppose I don't really need another fancy special edition in that case...

Got Zelda Encyclopedia

There it is. Dark Horse's Goddess Collection Trilogy is finally complete and the three books, Hyrule Historia, Arts & Artifacts and Encyclopedia, look very nicely next to each other. Points for consistency! This is also the main reason, why I didn't get the Deluxe Edition, though I liked the normal design better anyway.

But they certainly look nice together in a shelf.

Sadly, Aria Tanner (also known as GlitterBerri) isn't amongst the translators this time. She did a good job with Hyrule Historia and it was always good to know to have an actual fan standing behind the translation.

Anyway, I heard mixed things about the contents already. While the books look very consistent, the contents are not, retconning details from Hyrule Historia's timeline or making up details that sound like but fan theories. Yeah, no...

I will take a look at the book and share some thoughts later on!

Got Art & Artifacts

Yesterday I received the new Art & Artifacts ("Hyrule Graphics" in Japan) book published by Dark Horse. As you can see, I didn't go for the Limited Edition, mostly because I wasn't a big fan of the Master Sword design and the standard edition just looks so much better right next to Hyrule Historia, because Dark Horse used the same design for both books. Even the backs match precisely, so they go very nicely together in any shelf:

If Dark Horse also releases Hyrule Encyclopedia in the same style, it will become a nice collection.

The book itself isn't as big of a must-have like Hyrule Historia, but it's still nice a nice addition and with a total of 428 pages almost twice as thick as its green, older brother, where both books complement each other. Other than the official timeline and the Skyward Sword manga, Hyrule Historia was essentially a collection of concept art. Now Art & Artifacts offers a collection of all the official artworks that were released alongside all the games. This includes cover arts, character designs, item images and illustrations. Some bigger illustrations go over two pages and fill them out completely. For Breath of the Wild there's even a foldout triple page to display the large free climbing view from last E3.

There's also a pixel art section at the end, which seems like a nice idea, however, it only covers the first three games. And then there's the big interview section with some of the designers. These interviews and their reveals have been all over the Nintendo news for the last couple of weeks/months, but it's still interesting to read it all for yourself.

Overall this book is a nice way to go through the entire Zelda series again on a visual basis. It's perfect for reflecting over 30 years of the franchise in one evening, especially looking at all the character art brings back quite some memories. It's also nice, if you want to show anyone, how diverse the Zelda series really is. There are so many different art styles and character designs in this book, it's amazing.