The Legend of Zelda is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026, and another major piece of Hyrule history is joining the celebration this fall.
Nintendo and Dark Horse Books are bringing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Secrets of the Zonai to North America on October 20, 2026. The massive 472-page hardcover takes fans behind the scenes of Tears of the Kingdom, offering a closer look at the artwork, development, history, and ideas that helped shape one of Nintendo’s biggest adventures.
It arrives during a milestone year for the franchise. The original The Legend of Zelda was released for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan on February 21, 1986, beginning a series that has now been exploring Hyrule for four decades.
Going Behind the Scenes of Tears of the Kingdom
Secrets of the Zonai is much more than a traditional collection of finished game artwork.
The book opens with more than 50 pages of illustrations, character artwork, and promotional material from Tears of the Kingdom. From there, nearly 300 pages are dedicated to the game’s development, including sketches, notes, rough designs, concept artwork, and recollections from its creation.
For fans who spent countless hours studying ruins, deciphering the game’s history, or simply wondering how Nintendo built such a massive version of Hyrule, the book also dives much deeper into the world itself.
More than 80 pages are dedicated to the history of Hyrule, beginning before the founding of the kingdom and exploring the mysterious past of the Zonai through the events seen in Tears of the Kingdom.
The book also includes interviews with several of the people who played major roles in creating the game, including series producer Eiji Aonuma, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and art director Satoru Takizawa.
Together, that makes Secrets of the Zonai part art book, part development archive, and part history book for the version of Hyrule established by Breath of the Wild and expanded dramatically in Tears of the Kingdom.
A Standard Edition and a Collector-Focused Hero’s Edition
Dark Horse will release two versions of the book.
The standard hardcover edition is priced at $59.99 and includes the complete 472-page Secrets of the Zonai book. It measures approximately 9 by 12 inches, making it similar in presentation to the oversized Zelda reference and art books Dark Horse has released in the past.
Collectors will also be able to pick up the $119.99 Hero’s Edition.
The Hero’s Edition contains the complete book with an exclusive cover and packages it inside a green slipcase inspired by the ancient Zonai. It also includes a cloth map of the Depths, an art print featuring Link and the Sages, and a replica of the Secret Stone of Time.
For anyone who has collected Dark Horse’s previous Zelda books, this should fit naturally alongside releases such as Hyrule Historia, Art & Artifacts, The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, and Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion.
Returning to the World of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom
Although this is not a new Zelda game, it gives Nintendo another opportunity to revisit the world created for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom while offering fans information that could never be fully explored during normal gameplay.
That is especially interesting with the Zonai.
Tears of the Kingdom dramatically expanded the history surrounding Hyrule, introducing players to Rauru, Mineru, the ancient Sages, Zonai technology, the founding of Hyrule, and events taking place long before Link’s current adventure. Much of that history is presented through memories, environmental storytelling, ruins, and discoveries scattered throughout the game.
Secrets of the Zonai gives Nintendo’s development team room to pull those pieces together while also showing how the ideas evolved behind the scenes.
It also arrives at an interesting point in Zelda history.
Nintendo has already confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is being rebuilt for Nintendo Switch 2, bringing the Nintendo 64 classic to a new generation during the series’ 40th anniversary year.
That means 2026 is allowing Nintendo to look at two very different eras of Zelda at the same time: one through the return of the game that helped redefine 3D adventure games in the late 1990s, and another through a detailed examination of the enormous open-world Hyrule that defined the franchise on Nintendo Switch.
40 Years of Exploring Hyrule
Few video game series have reinvented themselves as many times as The Legend of Zelda while still remaining instantly recognizable.
From exploring an open Hyrule on the NES to entering a three-dimensional world in Ocarina of Time, sailing across the Great Sea in The Wind Waker, transforming into a wolf in Twilight Princess, and eventually being given almost complete freedom to explore in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda has repeatedly changed what an adventure through Hyrule can look like.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Secrets of the Zonai provides a chance to preserve part of that history while giving fans a much closer look at how one of the series’ most ambitious worlds was created.
Both editions are scheduled for release on October 20, 2026. The standard hardcover is priced at $59.99, while the Hero’s Edition is priced at $119.99.
For longtime Zelda fans, collectors, artists, and anyone who wanted to dig deeper into the mysteries of the Zonai, this looks like one of the more substantial Zelda releases arriving during the franchise’s 40th anniversary year.
