$20 ($50)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild proved to be a major evolution for the franchise. Compared to earlier games, its scope was absolutely staggering. For many, Breath of the Wild and its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, became the new benchmarks to compare future iterations–and open-world games in general–against going forward. If you want to take a look behind the curtain to see how the new era of the series came to be, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion is the definitive way to do just that.

Creating a Champion is a 424-page doorstopper of a hardcover–though it’s available as an ebook, too–published by Dark Horse in 2018. Perhaps most notably, the book offers dozens of pages of art by Takumi Wada, the lead artist for Breath of the Wild. It also has roughly 300 pages of concept and production art from other members of the team.

To accompany and contextualize the illustrations, Breath of the Wild’s lead developers detail the philosophy behind and evolution of the art. As you read through the commentary and admire the images, you can start to see how the largest version of Hyrule came to life.

The history and lore of this Hyrule is covered extensively, and it also contains interviews with multiple key creators, including franchise lead Eiji Aonuma, Nintendo art director Satoru Takizawa, game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and lead artist Takumi Wada.