I have only a couple real requirements from game guides: They must be organized and intuitive to use, and they must enhance my experience with the game. That's really about it. This guide from Prima for the masterful
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
passes these categories with flying colors. This is a fantastic guide, and the collector's edition of it makes what was already a very practical, enjoyable guide a beautiful, extravagant one that really thrilled me as a massive fan of the Zelda series.
In the beginning, you get your basic introductory section which helps orient the player to the fictional Zelda universe, training to acquaint the player with the controls and gaming mechanics, and a bestiary. After this is the huge walkthrough itself. The walkthrough is broken up into chapters, which is broken up into a few (usually 8 exactly) main objectives. Every page has tabs showing what objective you should be at on any given page, and to the side there is a tab showing what moderately-important-to-essential-items/collectables you should have collected up to that point in the chapter. In the upper corner of each left-side page is a meter showing how many maximum heart containers you should have at that point if you've been following the guide closely. At the beginning of each chapter is, generally speaking, the well-drawn maps to the areas you'll be exploring in that chapter. It's all very well organized, meticulous, and thorough. If you are even half-diligent in using the guide, you won't have any excuse missing stuff while playing the game.
Generally, when I use guides while playing games like this, I only keep them open next to me for reference to make sure I didn't pass up any collectables or if I'm hung up on a particularly difficult puzzle or sequence. As has been pointed out in other reviews, this book is huge, clocking in at almost 500 pages! However, each page is jam packed with helpful information. The descriptions of puzzle solutions were very succinct, accurate, and helpful. The boss strategies are exceptional! One thing I have to point out about the book I didn't expect would please me was the writing itself. You can tell that the two authors loved every minute of their time playing the game and making this guide. That enthusiasm really shined through throughout the book, and helped make my own personal experience with the game (I've beaten it thrice before) a very enjoyable on. It's always great when someone loves their job and it shows in their work. Kudos on that! The guide is also quite pleasing on the eyes. Concept art is always great, and the overall aesthetic design on the pages is really, really nice. Quite luxuriant, really.
The book is also organized quite well. As soon as something becomes attainable, be it a heart-container, a golden bug, a new item for inventory, or a poe soul, the book goes into great detail to get it all. That said, this is a very thorough, meticulous walkthrough of the game. I don't like to read guides more than I play, so generally I just try to keep the page open to whatever area I happen to be in at any given moment (only really following the guide in those "treasure hunt" chapters), and I found the guide to be quite complementary to my style of guide-gaming. It was really easy and intuitive to tell where I was and what collectibles and special items I could have access to.
Speaking of collectibles, any item you can imagine is given its own icon that really pops out off the page and stands out so you can make sure you don't miss anything. I was able to play the game, collecting pretty much everything it had to offer, and make no mistake, Twilight Princess is a massive game with a lot of well-hidden secrets. None of them were sheltered from my completionist machinations. Not only that, but the revised edition of this book added "legendary checklists" to the back of the book, making pretty much every item and its location easily available for reference, just in case you missed it in the walkthrough portion of the guide. It feels so good to know you went through a game like this, seeing everything the developers put in with the hopes that a select few would go to the effort to see it all.
Are there problems with the guide? Well, depending on perspective, sure. For instance, if you truly follow the guide as closely as possible, you'll more than likely have to keep flipping pages from where you are at to the maps at the beginning of the chapter to know what the guide is referencing when it tells you to move from one chamber to another, especially in temples/dungeons. Me? I didn't really use the guide in temples/dungeons for anything other than to make sure I got every collectible and piece of heart-container in them. I personally believe Zelda games should be experience without instructions on how to solve every puzzle and get through every second of the game. Still, those who don't share my beliefs and want constant consultation will find the page-flipping bothersome. Another complaint is that the authors will at times add in notes that literally only tell you how much trouble they had with a particular puzzle when playing. Most are a total waste, but some are amusing. Those are about my only complaints though, and very minor compared to the strengths.
Lastly, is the quality of the collector's edition itself. The hardbound cover is gorgeous, featuring some beautiful gold-foil tapestry borders. Gracing the front is a gleaming gold Hylian crest. The pages are gilded gold too; absolutely gorgeous! The book looks like it was made by the scribes of Hyrule themselves, and that is a big compliment. It also comes with a cloth overworld map, but honestly, this is pretty poor quality, and not exactly good for decorative purposes, but exceptional with helping you precisely locate all extras in the overworld. It's a complement to the game in a practical sense. Overall, an exceptional guide for Zelda enthusiasts and collectors.
In all honesty, this has got to be one of the highest-quality guides I have ever used in my life. It's meticulously detailed without resorting to being spoiler filled, the organization is exceptionally intuitive and easy to use whether being used to follow along every step, or just as a reference, and the collector's edition touches make this an ideal guide for any gaming/Zelda enthusiasts. Buy it, absorb the wisdom of the tome, and venture out to push back the shadow and save the world of light!
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Customer Review: A must have for any Zelda fan
skyforce95
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Best guidebook for best zelda game
Arrived on time with no problems. In great condition as well. Thx so much
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