Due out in April from Dark Horse, The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia is a 320-page tome covering the characters, places and things from the first 30 years of Nintendo’s RPG series. The newly-revealed $80 deluxe edition looks very familiar.


Covered in gold foil paper with embossed, debossed and textured features, the deluxe hardcover edition of The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia looks like it came straight out of a large-ish NES console. Rounding out the illusion is a black polypropylene sleeve lined with velvet flocking and a scale instruction booklet, in case you need to remember how to read a book.


If you ask me, the deluxe edition presents a problem. This is the third book in the “Goddess Collection,” which includes the bestselling Hyrule Historia and Art & Artifacts. The standard edition matches the first two volumes nicely.

Part of me wants to collect the whole set. The other part is salivating over this:


Tough call. Fortunately I have until April 24, 2018 to figure it out.