Topic: Favorite Castlevania Guides

[Ratty]

I decided to play through the N64 titles again to celebrate October. So I pulled back out the old guides for them and am struck by how cool the "Millennium Presents: Official Strategy Guide" for Castlevania 64 is. Great corny dialog in the walkthrough, gorgeous art throughout with a nice art gallery and history of the series at the back, amusing character bios and terrific maps. Plus a giant poster, which I have pulled out and put away until I can get it framed. All the stuff you really want in a physical guide in the age of Gamefaqs and a million other free online maps and walkthroughs.

I wish more of the guides had been closer to the above, rather than the godawful Brady Games Lament of Innocence Guide, I guess most of them tend to fall somewhere inbetween. Do you guys and gals have any favorites?

[Lashen]

I used to buy strategy guides solely for the fact that they were more-or-less game art collections. Often, there were also character biographies among other interesting things that weren't always found on the internet.

You can pretty much find hi-res artwork and everything else fairly-easy now, though—I haven't bought a guide in quite some time, now that I think of it.

[JILost]

I grew up on Nintendo Power, so: NES Game Atlas all the way, baby!

[Shiroi Koumori]

I am always partial to the Japanese guides.

[X]

I grew up on Nintendo Power, so: NES Game Atlas all the way, baby!

Still got mine too 

[PFG9000]

I like the Japanese guides.  I can't read any of the text, but the pictures are pretty, and the guides are much higher quality in general than most American guides.  Some of mine are in the bottom of this photo:

[Shiroi Koumori]

I like the Japanese guides.  I can't read any of the text, but the pictures are pretty, and the guides are much higher quality in general than most American guides. 

You are right. They include a lot more info and pictures than the American guides. And they usually produce more than one guide per title. If I am not mistaken SotN has 3 versions of the Japanese guide book.

[JR]

This one:



Just for the sheer novelty. It has to be one of the weirdest looking covers of any Castlevania guide. Just the oddity of the whole thing intrigues me.

Plus I kind of like how the Japanese guides are so small. They're just adorable.

[DoctaMario]

The internet totally killed great strategy guides. The one thing about the web that I lament. I had the guide for the n64 games, but I don't remember who published it and it was an awesome guide.

[VladCT]

By the way, doesn't this belong in the Classic Castlevania Threads section?

[Nagumo]

I always like guides that add little bits of background info about characters or the story. For example, one Lament of Innocence guide provides ages for the characters and a Belmont family tree. Mostly, this something you tend to find in the Japanese guidebooks only, but the Millennium guide provides backstories about the characters and the enemies, which is really neat.

The only guide I own is the "All About Akumajo Dracula Guide", which covers SCIV, but also has a very nicely illustrated bestiary, and also lots of other things such as little columns about life in the Middle Ages, Slavic beliefs about vampires, a history of the franchise, etc.         

[X]

The only guide I own is the "All About Akumajo Dracula Guide", which covers SCIV, but also has a very nicely illustrated bestiary, and also lots of other things such as little columns about life in the Middle Ages, Slavic beliefs about vampires, a history of the franchise, etc.   

Okay that sounds like a juicy read, stop making me drool on my keyboard goddammit! 

[Ratty]

The internet totally killed great strategy guides. The one thing about the web that I lament. I had the guide for the n64 games, but I don't remember who published it and it was an awesome guide.

If it was in English and in color it was probably the official Millennium Guide. Unofficial (or "Totally Unauthorized" as they often liked to market themselves at the time) guides were usually in black and white with little to no screenshots and artwork. Here's a picture of the guide with some links to others for the game. http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Millennium_Official_Castlevania_64_Strategy_Guide
Unless you mean the one for Legacy Of Darkness, pretty sure there was only one English guide for that http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Prima%27s_Legacy_of_Darkness_Official_Strategy_Guide

PS- The Prima guide for LoD is pretty good but nowhere near as colorful or interesting as Millennium's for 64, which is a shame. I mean, it's serviceable and has nice artwork and screenshots in it. But I wouldn't recommend going out of your way or paying the "it's rare so the asking price is outrageous" fee for it.

I always like guides that add little bits of background info about characters or the story. For example, one Lament of Innocence guide provides ages for the characters and a Belmont family tree. Mostly, this something you tend to find in the Japanese guidebooks only, but the Millennium guide provides backstories about the characters and the enemies, which is really neat.

The only guide I own is the "All About Akumajo Dracula Guide", which covers SCIV, but also has a very nicely illustrated bestiary, and also lots of other things such as little columns about life in the Middle Ages, Slavic beliefs about vampires, a history of the franchise, etc.         

That does sound pretty cool. And count me as another admirer of the Japanese guides because of the artwork and their overall colorful and attractive nature. Especially that lineart and watercolor artstyle that was apparently popular in Japan in the 90s. I remember first seeing that when Pokemon exploded and they couldn't import merchandise fast enough, and I've always thought it's a beautiful style. Too bad I don't read Japanese.

By the way, doesn't this belong in the Classic Castlevania Threads section?

I thought about that after I posted it. But decided that asking about guides was unusual enough to leave it here since it's not a common subject. Though if the thread had or eventually does devolve into just naming a guide without discussion I'll probably move it.