Ultima: Exodus - Hint Book
The Ultima: Exodus - Hint Book is a hint book for Ultima: Exodus, the NES port of Ultima III: Exodus. It was produced by Work House and published by FCI in 1989.
My brother bought me this book shortly after I received the game for Christmas. I really loved the book and read it cover to cover dozens of times. It was not just extremely helpful at giving me the information I needed to beat the game, but it also is gorgeously illustrated and designed.
Status
I own a badly worn 1st edition and have read it many times.
Review
Good
- The water colors of the opening comic are beautiful.
- Illustrations are made for the majority of the game's weapons, armor, tools, races and monsters.
- The are dozens of screenshots from the game all through the book.
- Detailed maps are included for every town and dungeon, as well as Sosaria, Ambrosia, and Exodus' castle.
- The useful aspects of each town are described, screenshots are made, and even little illustrations are given.
- Each dungeon is mapped, described, and you're told on which level you can find key items.
Bad
- Some of the people the book identifies as having helpful hints are actually not useful at all.
- The opening story tries to retcon aspects of the Ultima story like confusing Britannia with Sosaria, and, for some reason, Lord British is depicted as a stereo-typical Jesus.
- The lava is not colored red in the map of Exodus' castle.
Ugly
- The book's binding is very poorly made. Shortly after I got the book, the cover began to fall away from the pages, and slowly but surely, the pages began to fall out.
Media
Credits
- Publisher: FCI
- Produced and Edited: Work House, U.S.A., Inc.
- Editor In Chief: Yukio Yamashita
- Senior Editor: Kenji Orimo
- Editors: Nobu Takagi, Pocky Iwase, Death Iwamoto
- Layout: Hiroshi Ohashi
- Illustrators: Tetuo Hiroi, Macky Ohmori, Kenji Murata
- Cover Design: Hiroshi Ohashi
- Assistant Editor: Tiger Tsukamoto
- Copy Consultant: Kazuto W. Brandjord
- Copy Coordinator: Golden Empire Publications, Johnny L. Wilson, Jason Watabe, Margot Blattmann
- FCI Editors: Elizabeth Hamburg, Tatsuo Ozu
- Editorial Consultants: Donn Nauert (Sendai Publications), Kunihiko Kagawa (Pony Canyon), Yasuhiro Kawashima (Locus)