Dragon Quest VIII by Bradygames (2005, Paperback)

It's very informative and easy to use. The book has a lot of pictures and maps about the game. Also it explains the use of the controks and the game basics. There are some charts to help with the game. It also explains all the characters, creatures and monsters. What I like about it most of sll it's easy to read and all in color whitch really helps alot.There's much more to it. I believe it's very essential to the game. I highly recommend it, without it woundn't be as enjoyable. My only problem is I can't stop using it. The reason I bought the book I couldn't play the game very well without it. Also I didn't want to go all over the internet and talking to people looking for clues. It can be played online also.

I usually always buy the accompanying guides for every RPG game I play for the simple facts that I don't want to miss anything along the way or waste hours trying to figure out where to go next. One of the coolest features in DQ 8 is the alchemy pot where you get to mix different ingredients with weapons or armor to create new weapons, armor, items, etc. There are literally hundreds of different recipes you can use and although throughout the game you do come across some recipe hints, it would be virtually impossible to figure them all out yourself. The guide literally gives you most of the recipes and where you can go to find the ingredients. This saves hours of trial and error time and lets you focus on playing the game. There is also a point in the game whhere you acquire monsters for a monster team and the guide gives you some great advice for assembling a good team as well as most monsters' stats. Plus there are so many treasure chests in the game and some you come across early on but can't be opened until later which is where the included treasure chest map becomes priceless.

My only complaint is that toward the very end of the game there is a point where you have to perform a few tasks and the book leaves out one step and i had to go to an online walkthrough to find out what I had to do next. When I was looking through the online walkthrough I found a few other things listed that I could do or acquire which weren't listed in the printed guide. So the printed guide is not 100% definitive but it's way better than running to the computer every 5 minutes.

I bought my guide new and by the end of the game, it was in pieces because I actually used it so much that it fell apart. Looking back, if I didn't have it I would have missed A LOT - well worth the $$.