The recently announced Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia isn’t out until next year, so of course it already has an upgrade …
For those who aren’t concerned about this 320-page third volume in the “Goddess Collection” series matching the first two — Hyrule Historia and Art & Artifacts — Dark Horse has revealed a deluxe edition of The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia that is styled after the original Nintendo Entertainment System game’s iconic golden Game Pak … authentic even up to the black slipcase!
Together, the three books look at the video game series’ first 30 years, up to the release of Twilight Princess HD for the Wii U, comprising first the lore, then the artwork, and now an encyclopedic reference guide.
From Dark Horse:
“The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition honors the game that started it all by recreating the original gold cartridge as faithfully as possible. The cover is a gold foil paper with gloss lamination and a spot gritty varnish. The details are embossed and debossed. It has gold gilding on the top and fore-edge, with black gilding on the bottom. This book looks and feels so much like the original cartridge you might find yourself blowing into the bottom before you open it! The book comes with a black polypropylene sleeve, lined with velvet flocking, and a scale instruction booklet.”
Yes, you read that right — the instruction booklet. Remember those?
The Zelda Encyclopedia is an exhaustive guide to franchise from the original 8-bit adventure The Legend of Zelda to Twilight Princess HD, describing enemies and items, potions and poe ghosts — an expansion of the lore touched upon in the 2013 smash-hit Hyrule Historia, concept art, screencaps, maps, main characters and how they relate, languages, and much, much more, including an exclusive interview with series producer Eiji Aonuma.
Both editions of The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, standard and deluxe, go on sale June 19 April 24, 2018, and are available now.
