A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides
Yeah, this has nothing to do with strategy guides, but these videos feature three of the writers here playing Towerfall: Ascension together at around 4 in the morning. We’re most likely finding everything far funnier than it is, and most of our skills are tired and weak to say the least. This was the highlight of my Extra Life experience, even over getting that Zelda tattoo I’ve wanted for years.
And now I have them all archived in one easy to find location. Enjoy!
Oh, did you make plans?
Well I did it, I stayed up for over 24 hours straight to do nothing by gaming things this past weekend in the name of raising money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, or more specifically, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. I flew to Iowa, packed up my Xbox 360 and all of my Dragon Age games, and prepared myself for some gaming greatness with my EvilCast crew (and two writers here at SGR!).
Of course, as these things go, nothing really went as I had planned.
For starters, remember that 3DS poll I posted? It was unanimously suggested that I play Ocarina of Time 3D while getting my Zelda tattoo, but that never happened because I left my 3DS at home. I realized it when I got to the airport, pulled out my 3DS bag and noticed the 3DS wasn’t in the said bag. Ocarina of Time 3D wasn’t even in the bag because it was in my 3DS! I literally hung my head between my knees in defeat. I couldn’t believe I had left that behind. Most likely, I saw the 3DS bag in my purse, and just assumed my 3DS was within. Just goes to show that rushing around at the last minute never produces a positive result.
That also meant I had no gaming distractions while on the plane, which I suppose was good on the way there as I had a review to write for work. But man, I was unbelievably bummed, especially when the second thing fell apart for me.
As I said earlier, I brought all of my Dragon Age games, which included Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins Awakening, and Dragon Age 2. I knew I wasn’t going to complete all of them, but I at least wanted to start DA2. Yeah I didn’t get close.
The tattoo adventure, while awesome, took a good chunk of time out of playing since Chris’s tattoos were rather large. That was about 4-5 hours of DAO time I couldn’t have, which was actually quite precious, even if I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I reached the final boss at about 2 a.m., and after trying at least 8 times, I had to turn the game off. I was so upset, I was close to crying in front of everyone. Blake told me to stop, that obviously I’m too tired and I’m not performing as I normally would. I was pissed at him for saying so, but he was right. The lack of sleep was affecting my thoughts and obviously my emotions as well. So I thought about playing Awakening instead, but when I saw you could import your final save from DAO, I closed that down in a hurry.
It’s now nearly 4 a.m., and I have NO other games to play. I left my 3DS at home. I had counted on being able to finish DAO and move on to the next games. I played some Diablo 3 with Chris, but the problem was, I know that game so well, it wasn’t keeping me awake. I constantly blinked for long periods of time. We even tried to create hardcore characters to fight off the fatigue, but that didn’t work either. We joined Ross and Blake for some Towerfall Ascension, which was far more fun than I thought it would be.
It’s now 6 a.m. and every second I’m awake is killing me. During the last 30 minutes, we finally got Blake to play some League of Legends, and even though I was standing up to watch him to keep awake, I was nodding off. While standing up. I’m quite possibly too old for this shit. As soon as 8 a.m. hit, I bolted upstairs for bed. I didn’t say goodbye to anyone. I felt bad about that, but I was not thinking clearly. After my four-hour nap, I apologized profusely to my host, but he was fairly cool with it.
Will I do it again next year? I really want to, but man, staying up that whole time when you can’t have caffeine is hard when you’re this close to 40. I still don’t feel like I’ve fully recovered, but I suppose having kids doesn’t help the recovery process much either. But for now, I have to focus on the reviews staring at me…and finishing DAO, dammit. I think going back and buying a crap-ton of potions will help; it was probably stupid to face the final boss with only 15 potions on hand.
Tecmo Koei and Nintendo have both repeatedly said that Hyrule Warriors is not, repeat, NOT a Legend of Zelda game. It is, in all forms, a Dynasty Warriors game with a Legend of Zelda theme. Since Dynasty Warriors games pretty much hack-n-slash with a teensy bit of real-time strategy, why would one need a strategy guide for Hyrule Warriors? I’m glad you asked that question! While Hyrule Warriors is indeed a Dynasty Warriors game, it has enough Zelda puzzles and collectibles to warrant documentation and assistance for those who want every piece of the heart, every weapon, and every one of those blasted gold Skulltullas. Not only that, I’m not sure there’s a way to get through the Adventure Mode portion of the game without the strategy guide and without pulling out your hair in frustration. So yeah, the Hyrule Warriors strategy guide has been my own personal Bible for Hyrule Warriors.
Do you need it to get through the Legend (story) Mode? Definitely not. You can swing your way through that with little trouble. The game tells you which rooms to go to and what to do to advance the story, and none of the combat moves are complicated. It’s not hard to force your way through the campaign without help.
It’s gathering all of the collectibles where the strategy guide is vital. Each level has two gold Skulltullas to find (one only appears in Hard mode), and they only appear under certain circumstances. In addition, when they do appear, you’re given only the area where they are, not where they are. Sometimes they’re in plain sight, but more often than not, they hidden. They also only appear for a short amount of time, so it’s crucial to get there and nab the little devil as fast as possible. The strategy guide will tell you not only where he is and how to get him, but when is the best moment to get him. Sometimes those areas are locked too early in the level, or a certain story sequence will prevent you from backtracking. Since the Hard Gold Skulltullas have even more stipulations to trigger their appearance, this info is quite precious.
Not only that, but each level has pieces of the heart and heart containers (gotta have those for any Zelda game!) only found when clearing certain keeps. Each of these collectibles can only be nabbed if playing as a particular character. Since you can’t get over half of these in your first playthrough, the strategy guide helps plan the additional playthroughs. There are so many levels, no one wants to play through each one over and over with a different character to find whose heart container can be unlocked.
Most of the Hyrule Warriors strategy guide is devoted to the Adventure Mode, and this is the largest chunk of the game, time-wise. The map in Adventure mode is the overworld map from the original Legend of Zelda, and each square represents a scenario to complete. Finishing levels in the Legend Mode unlocks scenarios, but you also have to reach a certain rank in scenarios to unlock future ones. Each scenario has the opportunity to unlock more weapons, Item Cards for Adventure Mode, characters, heart containers, and more gold Skulltullas. If it sounds confusing, it’s because it is and it’s completely overwhelming to boot.
The strategy guide breaks it down by each square, A-1 through H-16 (now that should take you back), goes over what the scenario requires, the coveted A Rank prerequisites, and how to complete it without too much stress. This section alone makes purchasing the strategy guide worth it. This will eliminate potentially several hundred hours of game time spent in frustration. Plus, the overview breaks down the code in how to get both gold Skulltullas in every scenario.
The back section of the Collector’s Edition has an additional treat, a behind-the-scenes look at making Hyrule Warriors. This includes the overarching story they wrote with the game, concept art, and how they developed the characters, including the Zelda history behind the characters. It’s a fantastic addition that any Zelda fan would love to read through.
The Hyrule Warriors strategy guide has been by my side through each and every foray into Tecmo Koei’s version of Link and Zelda’s struggle against Ganondorf. I honestly couldn’t imagine exploring Hyrule any other way.
Author: Garitt Rocha
Publisher: Prima Games
Editions Available: Hardcover Collector’s Edition
Acquired via Publisher
The Extra Life gaming marathon is this weekend, can you believe it? I’m flying out to Iowa to do the marathon with my podcasting team, where Chris and I will get Zelda tattoos, all four of us will play some Diablo III, and we’ll do our best to stay up all night while playing lots and lots of games. I’m packing up my Xbox 360 and my 3DS as well as a PS4 controller for the D3 session, and lots and lots of Dragon Age gaming. I should bring my Wii U for Bayonetta 2 as I’ll have to review as well, but I really wanna get both DA games under wraps ASAP.
Of course, I still need your votes for what 3DS games to pack and play! I’ll be playing my 3DS while driving to the tattoo shop, getting my tattoo (maybe), and definitely while Chris gets his. Then of course there is the ride back as well. I’ll need great 3DS games to play while I hope my battery stays cool! Maybe I need to look into picking up a car charger as well…
Regardless, please vote and boss me around a little bit. Reign me in, tell me which game to focus on and finish. I’ve had a huge problem finishing games this year. I blame how much greatness is out.
So what do I have going on this week? Well, maybe I’ll finally finish writing up my Hyrule Warriors guide review, and then I have Skylanders Trap Team to wrap up before I leave on the jet plane.
Let’s not look at November right now, okay? Let’s just enjoy the greatness of October, before it gets too scary. Oh what’s that? What about Bayonetta 2 and Sunset Overdrive and Lords of the Fallen? Shhhhh….you’re ruining my peaceful moment.
Go vote for the 3DS game I need to play while you’re busy reflecting on how to not ruin my peaceful moment…
Just when I started to think I wouldn’t be reviewing a few guides we really wanted to review, this lovely package shows up at my door.