I had a real hard time reviewing this guide. For starters, I didn’t really use it much in the beginning except when I remembered that I’m supposed to be reviewing it. But when I did use it, it was very helpful during the main quest. For some reason, the guide really fizzled out near the end, especially for the sidequests. I’ve never worked with a guide so divided before, so I will do my best.
The Good
The guide has a lot of good points. In the main quest, every section of the world has very detailed maps that plot out all treasure chests, quest items, houses, etc. Even if an area has different levels (meaning that the levels have stairs or ladders to reach whole new areas), the guide has a map for each level.
The walkthroughs do more than point out where players need to send Kaim next; they also point out where Kaim can find all of his 1000 years of dreams. This fact alone makes the guide 100% recommendable. I am not sure I could have found all of them without it. Some dreams were found in some weird places that I may never have gone to, and some were found after leaving and immediately reentering a place. I know I never would have thought of that.
I admit I never looked at the boss tactics for fighting the bosses. However, I ritually read the boss prep sections. If you do the prep, you really won’t need to read their tactics suggestions. The prep lists the skills that at least the immortals should have, and it also suggests the party’s average level before attempting the boss fight. The latter was probably my favorite part of the whole guide. I loved to know whether I needed to spend extra time leveling up or not. It’s inevitable that in any RPG you’ll be doing mindless leveling up at some point, but it’s nice to know when you should do before facing a certain boss, getting your party wiped out, and losing about an hour of your life.
The appendices are also one of the guide’s strongest points. They list all of the equipment, magic spells, rings, ring components, enemies, and everything you need to know about the Backyard tournaments, including the bonus material. The appendices also detail where to find all of Tolten’s Royal Seals, the invisible chests, treasure seeking items, and Cubic Music Scores even though the walkthroughs and maps already point them out.
The Bad
But this guide is far from perfect. A few of the maps left off a few items, such as the quest for the nineteen crystal fragments in hidden temple. Count them as many times as you want on the maps, but you’ll only count eighteen.
My biggest beef with the guide was the lack of an overworld map. You spend a good amount of time sailing on the Nautilus, and many items are found at the bottom of the sea. An overworld map, just for these items, would have been helpful.
The seeds were also grossly overlooked. The guide says that there are 99 seeds available to give to the Pipots, but it doesn’t tell where all 99 are. I think it goes up to 80ish. There is also a brief mention of the seed trading with the Pipots, but it doesn’t go into detail about how to complete it.
The sidequest sections were so incomplete, I really wonder if the writers just got sick of working on the guide. Maps are offered for only a couple of quests. A few quests don’t have that detailed of a layout, but the Temple of Enlightenment really, really needed maps. And speaking of the Temple of Enlightenment, don’t rely on the guide to give you too much of a heads up on how to defeat the common enemies. No information other than their stats is given.
Final Rating
This was the hardest part for me. The good points heavily outweigh the bad, but some of the bad points were really, really bad. So, I have to divide the guide up into main quest and sidequest.
Main Quest – 5/5
Sidequests – 3/5
Leave a Reply