Customer Rating: 

May as well be written in a foreign language for me, but then I'm a parent, (enough said)but my boys think that it's wonderful and are now fighting each other as to who gets to look up the next part of their quest, (better than 'just' fighting, I suppose!). Seriously, it looks to have answered their questions in a simple manner, where the gameplay wasn't intuitive, where for example having spoken to a character in one place they had to return to another place and meet the same character again to collect a bonus item; without the book they were unaware of the need to do that task.
All in all a very good buy, especially in view of the price which is a third of what the game cost in the first place, after all 'they' may as well get the most out of the game that 'you' paid for!!

Customer Rating: 

The gripes about this being only half the guide are moot. It clearly says on the cover and spine that this is volume 1 and only covers Johto. After completing Johto the game is officially over as the end credits roll. The Kanto section can be seen as a large side quest and as such it's fine by me to publish a separate guide for that.

That out of the way, it must be said that this book enhances the experience of the game to a level that is hard to express in words. The game by itself is a great adventure, but this book makes sure you get to explore every nook and cranny and never feel lost or overwhelmed. It's far from the direct GameFAQs.com approach of telling the player exacly what must be done in painstakingly minute details. This is a general guide that tells you what must be accomplished in each area and gives you gentle nudges as to how to go about your task. It's a wonderful experience.

The layout and design is extremely well done. All pages are in full color, and the level of information on each page is quite staggering. There's story, maps, side quests, catchable Pokémon, appearance stats and trainer tips. On the same page and each and every page of the story walkthrough. How they prevented this from being a cluttered mess of information overload and instead appear as a beacon of intelligence is down to brilliant design and hours upon hours of editing. This beautiful work took a long, long time to prepare.

For the catch'em'all segment out there, you're told where, when and how often the 250+ Pokémon appears around the Johto region (the first half of the game) so its easy to catch the more elusive ones.

By now I have completed the Johto section of the game (I'm an old guy with a job and can't play 10 hours a day like the kids) and the Kanto region lays open before me. But I refuse to take a single step there before volume 2 of this guide is published, because playing with the guide in hand is just so much more fun than going it alone. Until the end of May, I'm trawling through this volume to catche the Pokémons i missed the first time through and complete the areas that were not open before.

Customer Rating: 

Overall a very good guide, there were only two things i was disappointed about :

The pokedex part is very detailed about move learning sets and such but only give one or two places to catch each pokemon (route 34, national park, ...) and sometimes they give only one when there are really four different places... But that is bearable thanks to the fact that each route page gives the full list of pokemon you can catch on it with details.

The second "bad" point is that some of the cave maps don't have enough contrast for me, so hard to see if ledges are up or down sometimes, but that can be helped by good light ;)

The included map / type advantages double poster is REALLY useful.

Also note, because apparently it s not obvious to most people (despite it being noted on the cover and clearly stated in the title) that the SoulSilver / HeartGold games are basically two games in one : the Johto game and the Kanto game. This guide only covers the Johto adventure, for Kanto there is a volume two guide :)
The Official Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Kanto Guide and National Pokedex

So to sum it up, it's not a "perfect" guide (none of them are, it would take fifty volumes, we have bulbapedia for that) but it s a pretty damn cool one, with lots of useful extra info, a detailed adventure walkthrough and a decent Johto pokedex.

Customer Rating: 

This was a huge disappointment to me. I bought it as I hoped that I could use it after completing the game to find any easter eggs that I missed, only to see that it ONLY COVERS JOHTO! What's more, it gives basic information, and only gives details about key battles, nothing about the smaller trainers that are around. It takes the time to point them out and say who they are but nothing more. The only useful information that I have gained from it is how to access the buildings in the Ruins of Alpha, as having prior knowledge of Gold and Silver I wsas able to complete Johto without it.

The title of the guide is also deceptive. It does not mention anywhere in the title that it is only half the guide, and that there is a second part covering Kanto. Better using a fansite or a guidesite if you get stuck, they're cheaper and more detailed.

Customer Rating: 

My son received this as a birthday gift and was exited to have a little assistance to help him on his journey in the game, only to find out that it offered little, as he had completed everything already described in the book. Despite being good and detailed, it seems that customers are being exploited and Amazon should make it clear in the title that it is Vol 1 and not a complete guide. The games came out together, why not the guide?