I played Dragon Quest Builders at PAX West this year and it was one of my favorite games of the show.  It’s basically a combination of Dragon Quest and Minecraft.  Those two game series are very robust, so you know you’ll need a comprehensive guide if you get stuck or don’t want to miss out on secrets.  Luckily Prima Games has you covered with the Dragon Quest Builders strategy guide!  Let’s take a look inside and see what’s all in there!

Here’s a closer shot of the front cover.  You also get a free eGuide when you get the paperback version.

The first part of the guide covers the Builder Basics.  These include controls, combat, building items, and characters you’ll meet.

The next part of the guide covers the Story Mode in the world of Alefgard.  I think the best part of this guide are the overhead maps you get.  Here’s an example:

The guide also covers everything you can do in Free Play mode, which seems just as robust, if not more so, than Story Mode!

And that’s only a little over half the guide right there.  The other half is nothing but appendix information. 

You’ll get charts and descriptions of everything in the game.  Including all manner of crafting material, building blocks, items you can craft, decorations, food, medicine, tools, weapons, armor, accessories, rooms, fishing, and a full bestiary of all the monsters you fight.  Here’s a picture of the last page of the bestiary.  I put it in because it had some good Akira Toriyama artwork on it.

And the last part of the guide covers the trophies you earn and the DLC items.  Only main problem I had with the guide is some of the text is a little small.  The other beef I had with the guide isn’t really a problem, just a minor quibble.  I’m a big fan of Akira Toriyama’s artwork, and he does all of it for the Dragon Quest games.  He also did the art for Chrono Trigger as well as popular manga and cartoons like Dragon Ball.  I kind of wish there was more artwork of his in this guide, but considering it’s a strategy guide and not an artbook, I guess it’s better to have less pictures and more content anyway.  This is definitely a guide you’ll want to buy, though.  A game like this would be really hard to play with a FAQ on the Internet, as the book is way more organized for quick reference.

Tags: Misc