Why was the Japanese A Link to the Past guide split in two?

Japan's official guidebook for A Link to the Past is not one book but a pair. Shogakukan published the Nintendo Official Guidebook in two volumes under the Wonder Life Special label: the top volume on January 10, 1992, and the bottom volume on March 10, 1992, weeks after the game's own launch.

The split follows the game. The first volume walks the player from the opening to the Swamp Palace, and carries the extras a launch book could offer: character and enemy lists, an interview with the development team, and a section on the making of the television commercial. The second volume finishes the quest. Together they are catalogued in this Library's census as one variation in two physical pieces.

Japanese players who wanted everything in one binding had another licensed choice. Futabasha's strategy book covers the game in a single 207 page volume, a reminder that even in 1992 the licensed guide field was competitive.

The Game Boy Advance remake restarted the count in 2003 with three more licensed guides, from Shogakukan, Enterbrain and Nintendo DREAM, so the A Link to the Past shelf in Japan holds five books across two versions of the game.