Book Review: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion

This is an incredible artbook. The level of quality and thought that goes into putting this book together is at the same level as the three Zelda books that came before this, namely Hyrule Historia, Art & Artifacts and Encyclopedia.

This is a humongous 424-page hardcover that features the art and making of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This is really comprehensive. Of all the video game artbooks I've reviewed, not many come to this level of detail.

For the artworks, you get to see lots of designs for the characters, props, weapons, environments, maps and in game stills. The designs for the world and the characters look great. I love the almost anime like drawing style and colouring.

The other highlight of the book is there is a lot of commentary by the artists and staff that created the game. They talk about everything, character designs, meanings to the ruins, including interviews with Hidemaro Fujibayashi (director), Satoru Takizawa (art director), Takumi Wada (illustrator) and Eiji Aonuma (producer).

This book shows you how much effort and the level of care that was put into making the game. Hats off to the company and the staff for creating such a beautiful game and this incredibly insightful companion artbook.

This is one of 2018's best artbooks. Most highly recommended.

Here's the full list of contents
Illustrations

• Key Art
• Character Art

Development

• Link
• Princess Zelda
• Ganon
• The Champions
• The Hylians
• The Sheikah
• The Zora
• The Gorons
• The Rito
• The Gerudo
• Spirits of the Land
• Monsters
• Creatures
• Weapons & Shields
• Armor & Clothing
• Parts, Ingredients & Ore
• Sheikah Relics
• Central Hyrule
• Necluda
• Lanayru
• Necluda
• Lanayru
• Akkala
• Eldin
• Hebra
• Gerudo
• Faron
• Notable Locales
• The Champions' Ballad

History

• History Written on the Geography of Hyrule
• The History of Hyrule: Chronology & Events
• 10,000 Years Ago: Lore
• About 100 Years Ago: Preparing for Calamity
• The Great Calamity: Downfall
• The Present: Resurrection of the Hero
• Ruins from Times Unknown: Mysteries of Hyrule

Building the World of Breath of the Wild

• Hidemaro Fijibayashi
• Satoru Takizawa
• Takumi Wada
• Eiji Aonuma

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This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild--Creating a Champion is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | AU | JP | CN)

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This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.