Customer Reviews

Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver: The Official Pokemon Johto Guide & Johto Pokedex: Official Strategy Guide

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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 each area. Useful for team building.

*Move charts have useful information attached to the move the Pokémon learn at various levels.

Cons:
*Move charts do not include egg moves, TMs, or HMs.

*How to Obtain is not always accurate, complete, and is often lacking. With only two sections for it, I found it to be wanting.

*Move charts often repeated movies for evolved Pokémon. The higher evolved forms would show moves as being known by default, but would display it as being learned at level 1 again for each previous evolution. This made some lists longer when they shouldn't have been.

*The listed abilities do not have a general description of what they do. You have to look in the back of the book for this.

*There is no information on breeding Pokémon. Nothing explains the egg groups, how to breed, or egg moves. I found this information to be quite lacking in that regard.

*No separate section for evolution lines for Pokémon. Instead, you had to look at the already crowded "How to Obtain" section.

-In the Pokémon games, the Pokédex is one of the most important databases. For this guide, I had to go to online sources for everything. This is disappointing, as that is one of the main reasons why I picked the guide up. Also, only the Johto Pokédex is included... which is rather disappointing. It appears that they want people to buy the separate Pokédex guide in order to get complete information. Without previewing this guide though, I think I'll stick with the online Pokédex that I've used before.

-Overall, I was completely disappointed in the Pokédex section of the guide.

The Pokédex is one of the larger sections of the book for me, and finding it lacking really put me into a negative mood. With all of the smaller things about, I found myself cross referencing this book (mainly for the detailed maps) with guides I found online for free. A guide is not made to be a reference to use with something for free... it should be a great offline resource so that nothing else is required. This guide requires a lot of work before I will be happy with it. I hope that Part 2 doesn't seem as rushed as this one.

Unfortunately, this is the only guide available for the game. No other companies (prima, etc etc) have created one, so we are stuck with this if we want a paper guide. Rather upsetting, really.

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. **

When I pre-ordered this guide, there was NO notation that this was just Volume One. Sure, this is the way the Diamond and Pearl guides came out, but I was relieved that Platinum was just one volume, complete in itself.

The pros for this guide: maps, I suppose. And info on sidegames, but only those available during the first half of the game.

The cons: Worthless Pokedex. Not even egg moves! No info on any Move Tutors except for Headbutt, because these will be in the second volume. I kept flipping back and forth, because of the non-linear "do this here before that event, then come back later for these things..." descriptions for each section. No info on trainers, except gym leaders and your rival. By now most Pokemon players know about shiny Pokemon, but this guide doesn't bother to mention the phenomenon at all - it just states that the Red Gyarados is a shiny Pokemon, with no explanation. The guide doesn't even mention the odds of shinies, or that every Pokemon has a shiny form.

And how do you catch Suicune?!? It is a Pokemon in the first half of the game, but the 'dex says you need to transfer it in from D/P/Pt.

I could keep listing the problems with this guide, but it's not worth my time and energy - or yours.

I found myself relying on my old Gold/Silver guide from Versus Books to play the game - and it's a decade old! IT listed each and every trainer you will find, as well as their Pokemon. IT lists monies and rewards received from battles. IT has far more details on HM and TM moves than this new waste of money.

If you want a guide, either go online, or just wait until Part 2 comes out in a few weeks and get both then. Or, if Part 2 ends up like the Part 2 for Diamond and Pearl, you may not need this Part 1 at all.

I'm not annoyed at Amazon for this waste. This is all on the Pokemon Company, for sheer greed and laziness. The 6-week delay for part 2 is unnecessary - after all, this game's been out in Japan since last September. I only wish that another company would write guides for these games - the competition would encourage the Pokemon Company to do it right the first time! Otherwise, I'll just use the on-line guides from now on.

While many reviewers are pointing out the fact that this is only a guide for half of the game, there is something far more annoying, in my opinion, about this guide. This is the guide for the first half of the game and it ignores anything after fighting the Elite Four for the first time.

When I say that it ignores the second half, I mean that it completely pretends it does not exist. The Pokedex listings of locations to find Pokemon (which is one of the primary reasons I purchase these guides) has some Pokemon listed as Trade Only when they are available in the second half of the game! They go so far to ignore the second half that they have Pokemon listed in the book Pokedex as not available in HeartGold/SoulSilver when they are, in fact, available in the second half.

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.

I bought this at Gamestop. For the price I paid I was expecting a FULL guide like the Platinum version.
These new games have TWO regions in it. Johoto AND Kanto! Why the hell did they split this up in 2 volumes? By the time the vol.2 comes out most players will have already finished both parts.

Since the daycare center is in the Johoto region I'm shocked that they didn't include a section on breeding. I had to use my old Platinum guide for this.

I found the so called "Pokedex" lacking in info. Like for example.. They stated that the legendary birds Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres can only be obtained by trading them from Platinum. They should have mentioned they can also be obtained by catching them IN game!

It was also a very STUPID idea **NOT** to include a KEY ITEM list for the items that can be only obtained in Kanto. I had to go online to find this info.

Unless you enjoy being left hanging until they release the 2nd half of the HeartGold/SoulSilver adventure, I'd recommend going to a gaming site to get your walk through. Might not have all the fancy color maps, but at least you can sit and play the game having some idea what to do when you beat the first championship.

To me this was a huge disappointment after purchasing the complete guide for Platinum. When I first received this guide book, I couldn't believe how small it was in comparison (for the same price). Then to learn there's a whole second region to work through and nothing to help you with it. I guess it's intended to lay the game down and wait until the next volume is released (for those who rely on the books for help).

And then there is the cost of the book(s) with the company splitting the book into two guides. Here I have a complete platinum volume - twice the size in comparison for the same retail cost as one of these newer volumes. If you want the complete set (Vol1 and Vol2) for Heartgold/SoulSilver, you will end up paying out at least twice the amount.

So unless you don't mind wandering around aimlessly after the first championship or laying down your game until the publishing company is prepared to release the rest of the game guide for HeartGold/SoulSilver AND you have extra money burning a hole in your pocket, I highly suggest searching for a complete walk through found on the internet. They are out there.........that's what I had to do just to continue playing the game.

Such a shame too after the last complete guide from this publisher I found to be very good for Platinum!!!

This guide is very useful. It helped me beat the game and not miss a step or sidequest or secret

I have purchased these guide books in the past for myself and my kids. This newest version lives up to my high expectations. The directions are easy to follow, even for my 9-year-old daughter. The walk-throughs are step-by-step and the Pokedex is very detailed. Can't wait to get the Kanto guide in a few weeks.

I guess the Pokemon Company(The Publisher) wants you to spend your money twice. Once with this guide & then with the upcoming Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver: The Official Pokemon Kanto National Pokedex Strategy Guide.