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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Section by Section Review, March 26, 2010
This review is from: Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver: The Official Pokemon Johto Guide & Johto Pokedex: Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
The Pokemon Company have put out an odd product this time. There are several sections to this guide, and it is rather interesting that it is a volume 1. I'm assuming that this means that Part 1 is for Johto, and Part 2 is for Kanto. We'll see, when there is a Part 2.
I've had mixed feelings towards this book. As a strategy guide, it seems to be lacking some things that I am used to. Also, some of the information is not as in-depth as I would prefer, while other information is remarkably in-depth.
So, I'll break this up into sections for my review.
Section 1: Introduction of characters.
-This section has a few pictures and names of the various characters you'll meet in your adventure. While I understand this is a flavor section, many of these characters are introduced later as well. I feel that this section was a waste of a few pages.
Index:
-This section was done rather well, with other sorting methods used to try and find things quickly. This made for a nice reference section.
Region Map:
-Nice detail, and a general list of interesting items at each location. I will probably use this quite often.
"How to Use This Book"
-I'm not sure why this was added... it is another index page.
Primer for Pokémon Training
-Some information here seems to be reiterated a few times, but there is some interesting information here. There is a list of the event Pokémon, advice on using False Swipe and sleep to catch Pokémon, and other listings for those that are both new and familiar to Pokémon. I learned a few things about increasing and decreasing Pokémon encounter rates as well. Useful information is provided on how the damage is increased or decreased from typing, and nice source of data for other things. I liked most of this section.
-Sample team building is provided as well, for ways to work around each starter. For instance, it says to put a Sandshrew and Krabby on your team to assist Chikorita, creating a nice triangle of resistances and strengths. A sample of what the guide says: "Chikorita is weak against Fire-type movies. That's why you want Krabby, a Pokémon who's strong against fire-type Pokémon. However, Krabby is weak against electric types, so add Sandshrew for its advantage over Electric types. Water types that have the upper hand against Sandshrew are at a disadvantage against Chikorita." This gives you a solid foundation for building a sample team.
-I would have loved for this section to go more in-depth with teams. People have been playing with competitive teams for years, and advice on team strategies would have been interesting. There could have been advice on building a sandstorm team, on what types of Pokémon become good physical and special walls, and sweepers. Even general descriptions of what these terms mean could be a drastic addition that can give people a large advantage.
-Radio Programming charts were useful, but overly descriptive. Looking at them, I realize they used the same set of charts for all of them, but some space could have been saved condensing the data.
-A list of items is provided of what your mother buys if you have her saving money. However, it does NOT state how much money you have to have saved for each of these.
-Shiny Leaf guide was rather interesting. This is something I wasn't actually aware of, until I saw it. A nice chart displays where to get different leaves for your Pokémon. I really liked this charge, but I'm not sure if this needed to take up an entire page.
-Overall, this section is full of information for a new player. Old players might learn something new,, but not as much. I do wish some of the information was more in-depth, but I'm happy with most of what I have. To improve this section, a bigger guide on team building with a handful of teams and strategies would be nice. There are websites out there providing this information for now, though.
Johto Walkthrough:
-Pay good attention to the first page of this. There are keys here that are NOT repeated elsewhere (though some of it could easily have been at the bottom of pages associated with it). Notice the Encounter Rate chart, Version Differences, and field moves. These are not repeated, which is something I kind of disliked.
-There are good step-by-step instructions, though I dislike the blue section. There are orange steps that you preform the first time you enter somewhere. When you get to the blue steps, they are "after x event has happened." In the early part of the guide, this information gets repeated, so that creates redundant information.
-There are notes on many pages to the right of steps, and some are useful tips or advice. Sometimes this is just flavor text, but I found it to be useful information more times than not.
-In the guide, there is a "differences between Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver" section. This explains some quick information, but the information is not complete. The Pokémon that are different between the two does not have a complete listing, but that is the only thing that wasn't complete. Note, however, that it says here that you can get both Lugia and Ho-Oh on both versions, just at different times and levels. The Pokédex later on does NOT state the same information.
-Another special section describes Pokémon that are useful for field moves. This is a great section, and people should pay attention to it. Rather than teaching HMs to your fighting Pokémon, create a slave based on this chart that you can teach the extra abilities to.
-Wherever items are located, there is a graphic of a pokéball in its location. The bad thing for this, on the maps, is that the items are not listed. There is a chart that lists the items and when they are available for you to pick up, but there is nothing saying what item is what. I found this frustrating.
-Puzzles are NOT solved for you. This goes for the Unown areas and the gyms. The player is still left to figure out everything on their own. Generally, when I buy a strategy guide, it is to get past some of these puzzles quicker. Unfortunately, if there was a puzzle I was unable to solve myself, I had to go online to find the answer.
-Trainer information is ONLY provided for Gym Leaders. For all other trainers, there is nothing provided for reference. The maps do give the trainer names and numbers, but their Pokémon are still unknown. Fortunately, you can use the names to cross reference with some gaming websites to know what you need to prepare for.
-Overall, the guide section requires a little reworking, but it is manageable. I'm still curious as to how many pages could have been saved if they didn't re-iterate several steps of the guide.
-NOTE- This guide only takes you through Johto. In the games, you unlock more content, and Pokémon, once you've beaten the Elite Four for the first time. As this is Part 1 of the guide for the games, it should be safe to assume that this information will be provided in another book, at about the same cost.
Safari Zone Guide
-Interesting new section. I found this useful, and it explained the way that the new Safari Zone works. A few patterns are displayed for you, and it tells you how to get the Pokémon you are looking for within. Great addition.
Pokéathlon Guide
-Awesome. The guide provides information on unlocking other areas, what Pokémon to use for each event, rules for the events, and strategies to win each one. I enjoyed this section, and I feel that each page was worth my time to read.
Pokéwalker Guide
-Nice information. Consolidated lists, useful charts, and it explains almost everything about the Pokéwalker. Unfortunately, it did skip over special 'events' that happen on the walker, and how sometimes a Pokémon will start following you automatically, if you don't already have one.
-I found this information to be extremely useful. This was worth putting in, and the extra information was enjoyable.
Wi-Fi Connection Guide
-A lot of information is here, but it is yet another place where competitive teams could have been explained, or competitive battling.
-This does not give information on connecting for Wi-Fi, nor anything on troubleshooting problems. Definitely something that was overlooked.
Link Play Guide
-Useful information again, but still nothing on connecting and troubleshooting.
Adventure Data
-Useful information abound. There is a ton of useful information here, and the data can seem overwhelming at times. I found all of the information I needed here, and more. There were well organized charts, item listing, and how to locate several things. These charts make up for the lack of the next section. If it wasn't for them, I would be completely upset with my purchase.
-Pokemon weakness charts were amazing. I've not seen this before, but only brief chart of what is effective against other types. This is a first I've seen. You can look up different Pokémon and find out what is effective, what doesn't work, and several other things. I really enjoyed this section, and was happy to find it. Unlike other guides, this lists everything per Pokémon. The data here is amazing.
Pokédex
-This section needed a lot of improvements. I'll actually sort this by pros and cons.
Pros:
*Direct Attack in the move charts. This lets you know if the move will directly attack an enemy or not. Useful for when you are attacking Pokémon that cause status upon direct contact.
*Performance stats were easy to read, assisting you for building a Pokéathlon team.
*Stats are useful for knowing how well the Pokémon grow in...
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Look for another guide, April 3, 2010
This review is from: Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver: The Official Pokemon Johto Guide & Johto Pokedex: Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
With 3 pokemaniacs in the house, this book is getting a lot of use, unfortunately we've been sorely disappointed with this offering.
Here some of the Good, the Bad, and the... Meh. (I'll be updating this as the book gets more use. Updates are denoted with asterisks.)
Update added:
* 4/28/2010 *
** 5/15/2010 **
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The Good:
Yay a index for the pokedex! Another plus attacks that require contact are identified.
* Nice page recommending 6 pokemon that can learn HMs, Flash, and Headbutt for field use (though a complete list of available pokemon would have been preferred). *
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The Bad:
The book arrived with the edge of the exterior lamination already pealing off and, of course, use has spread this. Also, the laminate had a flaw, a hole half the size of a pencil eraser, even before application. Construction quality does not seem the best. * Bubbles are appearing in the middle of the lamination and even with careful handling the lamination has rolled as much as an inch from the edge. *
The walk-through is very basic and requires a lot of backtracking because you get information about events that require much later triggers. Page pointers are provided but a linear walk-through would have been a lot more useful and less frustrating.
Lots of wasted space. Pages are often "packed full" of empty space, thanks to a wasteful layout, and useless, oversized, page-filling images, like the worthless photorama that takes up pages 2-17. The book could probably have been 1/3 thinner with a more economic layout (or, better yet, been packed with more info). Or to put it another way: which would you prefer, a page size image of Lance the Dragon Trainer and 1/2 page with 20 identical magicarps vs a page sized route map and breeding advice?
Region and area maps are tiny. Many are only 1 to 2 inches wide or tall. Some are even less than 1 by 1. The Cliff Edge Gate map image (p126), an area about 35 game steps square, is the size of a postage stamp, but don't worry, Eusine's image on the next page is twice as big so you can spot all his vital details... or not.
Pokemon information is incomplete. No Egg, TM or HM moves, egg groups, and Togepi's description is missing Extrasensory, an awesome starting move.
Pages 26-57, the "Primer", is has tons of info but the table of contents has only 6 entries and there's no index. Try finding the radio schedule quickly or the growing berries info.
No information about pokemon in trainer battles. Only the "boss" (like Gym Leaders and the Final Four) pokemon are identified.
No information about pokegear callers. I.E. Do you really want this person's phone number? You can't erase them once you say yes and most callers are just plain annoying. * These callers actually reduce the number of "goody" calls (callers that will give you something) and the battle callers won't become worthwhile until badge 7 or 8. *
No info about breeding, gender color differences, locations of items found by the item finder, Ruins of Alph puzzles solutions, shiny pokemon, or battle impact on stats.
Hints/Notes are sometimes dropped without rhythm or reason, so finding them when you need a refresher can be difficult.
Less than 1/6 a page is spent on trading and nothing is mentioned about trading pokemon from GBA games (i.e. you will need to get to the Pal Park in Kanto, vol 2).
* The contest events lack any specifics on what is required to win (beat x time, collect x flags, beat magikarp size x, etc.) and no winning answers to quizzes. Descriptions of Pokeathlon events don't tell which tri-event they are part of - Speed, Skill, Power, Stamina, or Jump. *
** As another reviewer points out, all the dexes are limited to Johto outcomes. Pokemon, berries, items, etc. are listed as trade only even though they will become available in the Kanto half of the game. They should be listed as "trade or see Kanto guide". **
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The Meh:
The "poster" is an oversized postcard slightly smaller than the book. Thicker material nice, size not so much. * There is a two page map (p20-1) that is obviously twice as big, so the point of the map side of the postcard seems lost. The other side is the attack vs type matrix, but this could have been printed on the inside of the cover which is blank. *
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Overall
** This guide's information is sketchy and incomplete, sometimes difficult to locate, and sometime wrong or outright misleading (such as ignoring Kanto availability in pokedex entries).
There appears to be no reasonable reason for this information to have its own book. If this format is any indication, a consolidation with volume 2 should have required no more than a tighter, less wasteful layout of the walk-through and advice sections plus, generously worst case, another 50 pages and 2 or 3 dollars added to the price. Everything else is probably duplicated and hopefully more accurate in volume 2. For comparison, the platinum standard of guides, Versus, walks through both regions in just 100 pages and tells you EVERYTHING about Crystal, exact item placements, all trainer battles, etc. This guide uses 200 pages and covers only the bare minimum of Johto's pertinent information.
Bottom line, this guide feels, at best, like a half-hearted effort that, more often than not, forces you to go to the internet to get guidance to fill the holes. Not exactly why one buys a game guide. **
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** If you are lucky enough to own the Versus Crystal guide, expect some significant changes but you'll find the guide can still be very helpful. **
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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Terrible Ripoff!, March 19, 2010
This review is from: Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver: The Official Pokemon Johto Guide & Johto Pokedex: Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
I bought this guide thinking that it would have everything I needed to complete this game. I like to really "complete" my games, and I needed a guide like this to find all the items, pokemon, etc. I am also comparing this guide to my old guide for Pokemon Gold & Silver, which was amazing at the time.
This guide is TERRIBLE. It only includes the Johto part of the adventure, leaving about half of the game with no information. And any information it does give you is primitive at best. Oh sure, it'll show you where some items are, but it won't tell you what they consist of, making you go and get the item, even if it's something worthless. It will show you where trainers are, but won't give you any details about them or their pokemon. It will tell you where some Pokemon are, but doesn't give extra details like percentages of occurrence, so you won't know which pokemon are rare in a given area.
This guide feels very empty, and about half of the book is devoted to a lame Pokedex. All it shows you is the moves learned while leveling up, not TM moves or egg moves... This guide feels like a little kid wrote it. And for the price I paid, I was expecting a lot more information about the game itself. At this rate, I feel like I'd be better off with the old G & S game guide from the 90's than this. There is very little value for your money here.
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