It hardly has to be said about Nintendo Power. They do produce some rather fantastic guides. It's no surprise that with the release of the next Pokemon games, they'd have a guide ready to go. It's a fantastic guide, that spends quite a bit of time trying to get people used to the new style of gameplay Pokemon has gone.
To be frank, the first sixty pages of this guide alone are dedicated to helping the newcomer dive into the fundamentals of the game. It'll help you answer the questions at the beginning so that you may see what Pokemon you'll be, and goes in depth on each of the starter pokemon's stat growth and even suggest a couple of partners you might want to consider having. It manages to present this without holding your hand. This section also goes into how the game differs from other Pokemon games. It even provides a Q&A. I can't imagine anyone would be confused about this game after picking up this guide.
The Story Mode walkthrough is pretty short and basic. It gives you a description of your mission, then talks about preparation and then goes into the dungeon itself. You won't find any maps in this guide (except the world map). Since dungeons are randomly generated a map seems like hardly something you'll need. These walkthrough sections are short. They tell you what pokemon appear in each area and for how many floors, along with telling you whether or not you can recruit them. The walkthrough does come off as being a little small and underdetailed, but looks can be deceiving. Since dungeons are randomly generated and you're doing the same thing in just about each and every one, there's really no need for in depth strategy. They also have boss strategies when they come about, and while their strategies aren't fantastic, they're there at least. Some are useful, some aren't, but the ones that aren't useful don't really hurt the guide too badly.
The walkthrough is pretty short. At only twenty pages it's amazing the guide itself manages to be nearly 200 pages all together. As I said, the walkthrough is actually pretty detailed and helps you through the game, but the bulk of it is what comes after the story mode walkthrough. The Extra Dungeons section is twice as big as the walkthrough. This section is more or less the same as the walkthrough, only covering optional dungeons. This will help you to recruit better pokemon, and just all around help you do better in the game. They work well enough. There's even a flow chart just before this section. After that, we get into more of the technical aspects of the guide.
The Game Data Section has a list of every item, orb, battle move, TM and HM, Ability, Gummy and Status change you can think of. If you need help trying to see what items and moves can do, look no further than the Game Data section which is there to be used as a reference.
The fifty page pokedex may be the biggest aspect of this guide. It's certainly the most appealing. All 387 Pokemon are detailed in the Pokedex. For each Pokemon it lists it's moves, stat growth (represented by red arrows, the more arrows the higher the stat growth) what level the evolve at and size. It's a drag they don't really go indepth on which Pokemon can learn what moves with TMs and HMs. There's a list of the TMs and HMs, but there's really nothing in the guide about which Pokemon can learn what. They tell you the type, but that's about it.
Overall it's a great guide to get for the game. It's probably the best one, but at this time I haven't gotten my hands on the Prima guide. The Nintendo Power Guide is by far one of the best Mystery Dungeon resources you could get, though.
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