Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

Monday Gaming Diary: I Love Strategy Guides Way Too Much

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Goddamn timer.

Goddamn timer.

My dedication to strategy guides occasionally goes beyond the prudent call for playing something that I will like or for something that is even good. Right now I’m playing something I absolutely hate but wanted to like, and it hurts me so much that I hate it that I literally have to talk myself into playing it instead of hunting down all of the collectibles in The LEGO Movie Videogame. I am sadly talking about Lightning Returns – Final Fantasy XIII.

After my rage from finishing Final Fantasy XIII-2, I knew the only way I would play the last game (this will be the last game, right?) would be for the sake of strategy guides. Despite how much I despised where the story went in FFXIII-2, I had hopes that the finale would be better. Not sure how, but the story actually got worse.

After watching the intro sequence that left me utterly confused, I opened up the game’s Datalog to fill in the blanks, as I’ve always had to do with FFXIII games. My heart sank. My head bowed. I wanted to drop the controller. Instead, I found myself hoping things would improve. Somehow the story steadily worsened, and I don’t think it’s going to climb the other direction before this travesty is over.

It doesn’t help that I don’t like the gameplay either. I thought Square Enix perfected the paradigm party system in FFXIII-2, but they’ve had to twerk it again to something even more confusing with some FFX-2 flair. On top of that, there’s a timer, one of the three things I loathe in video games.

As I continue to play, all I feel is pity for the poor strategy guide writers who had to pour in hours in the name of strategy guides. I genuinely hope they liked it to ease the pain at least a little.

At least the strategy guide so far is fantastic. It may help prevent me from destroying the world in the game on purpose.

Free Guide Friday Giveaway – Pokemon X & Y Postgame Adventure

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pokemonxy-postgameFor whatever reason, the Pokemon Company opted to divide the strategy guide for Pokemon X & Y into two guides. I now have in my hands The Official Kalos Region Pokedex & Postgame Adventure Guide for Pokemon X & Y. That’s a mouthful. One is going to a reviewer, and the other, thanks to Prima Games for sending two, will go to a Pokemon fan.

It contains the complete Pokedex for Pokemon X & Y, strategies for the postgame (finally), and a poster. If you own the first guide, might as well round out your collection.

Want this for free? Read on.

This will be available to both Twitter and Facebook fans. If you follow us in both venues, then hey, you can enter twice. Once again, it’s US contestants only.

Twitter Rules

  • Follow both @strategyreviews and @PrimaGames on Twitter.
  • Tweet something about wanting this second half of the Pokemon X & Y strategy guide from @strategyreviews and @Primagames for #FreeGuideFriday. Both twitter accounts must be mentioned as well as the hashtag and the following shortlink (http://strgygui.de/1kofPt9) to be a valid entry. If your tweet is creative, I’ll most likely retweet it, if you care about that sort of thing.
  • All entries must be in by Friday, February 28th, at noon. I will randomly pick a winner at that time.

Facebook Rules

  • Write a comment to the Facebook post announcing this contest about wanting and/or needing this strategy guide. Humor is always appreciated for my own personal amusement.
  • Be sure to use the #FreeGuideFriday hashtag.
  • All entries must be in by Friday, February 28th, at noon. I will randomly pick a winner at that time.

You think you got it? Let the entries for this strategy guide commence!

One-a-Wednesday: From the Strategy Guide Archive–Perfect Guide to Ocarina of Time

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It’s sad I really don’t have that many strategy guides from the dark ages, back when several companies published them, and there could be two or three of the same guide. One that I do have multiple copies of is the strategy guide for the N64 Ocarina of Time. This one is the Official Perfect Guide, published by Versus Books and written by Casey Loe and Gerald Guess. Casey Loe is still very much in the strategy guide writing game, so here’s proof that he (or she?) has been with it for quite some time.

I’m going to have to write up a comparison showing the differences between this guide, the other OoT guides, and the current OoT 3D strategy guide. How design and layout have changed is remarkable.

Monday Gaming Diary: Must Stop Delaying Lightning’s Return

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legomovievideogameI fully admit I’m dreading playing Lightning’s Return. I was so angry with how FFXIII-2 ended that I literally threw my PS3 controller on the floor. If it wasn’t for the strategy guide, I would completely ignore that this game exists. Square Enix taking forever to ship me the game really didn’t bother me too much, as I really did have another game to review for Action Trip. It hasn’t helped that a friend has warned me that the game has two features I utterly despise: a timer and stealth. I know I have to play to see how bad these elements are, and the strategy guide should help me overcome them, but ugh, it’s just not gearing me up.

So I buried myself in burning through the story mode of The LEGO Movie Videogame, telling myself I really had to do so for review purposes. (Really bummed there isn’t a guide for one, by the way.) I finished the game on Friday, freeing up the weekend for Lightning, right?

No.

I realized that I am sooooo close to finishing the story portion of LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, which is the 3DS prequel to the Wii U game. Must play and delay the inevitable…

I never did finish The Chase Begins thanks to needy children, but I’m going to be good and not play it tonight. This Lightning Returns strategy guide ain’t going to review itself. Now that I do have the game, I no longer have a real excuse. I should probably play this game with wine nearby, shouldn’t I?

A Link Between Worlds Mini-Review

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zelda_link_between_world_linkI love The Legend of Zelda games at their core, yet I admit it’s a little sad that I haven’t finished very many. Thanks to either getting bored or rage quitting, finishing A Link Between Worlds brings my grand total to two. Since I’ve been told repeatedly that finishing Phantom Hourlgass doesn’t count, as that’s not a real Zelda game, does this one count? I want it to count, and not because I finished it; I want it to count because it’s the most fun Legend of Zelda game I’ve ever played.

A Link Between Worlds implemented two new ideas very well that eliminated most of the tedium I’ve found with past games. First, the ability to rent most of the items was one of the best ideas the creative team has ever had. One reason why I get so bored in Zelda games is the repetitive nature of the game. Go to a dungeon, find a weapon, use that weapon to get through the rest of the dungeon, use that weapon to defeat the dungeon boss, and go back all over the world to find uses for that weapon to obtain more collectibles. Rinse and repeat. Since you can rent almost all of the items from the beginning, the world of Hyrule is instantly open to hours of exploration. If you have enough rupees, only two abilities are barred from you after Ravio’s shop opens: 1) finding items buried in sand and 2) lifting very large boulders. It was so nice to not have to comb every acre of Hyrule and Lorule numerous times in the name of completion.

The second great new idea was Link’s ability to merge into walls as a living painting. Every Zelda game has its own gimmick, and this one was the most enjoyable one. It forced new ways of thinking for solving puzzles, being stealthy, fighting bosses, finding collectibles, and traversing through Hyrule and Lorule.

In an attempt to try to not spoil anything, the fact that the ending is not entirely about Ganon being the bad guy was a welcome surprise. Many probably thought it was predictable, but I never saw the ending the coming. It made me love the game even more.

When I finished Phantom Hourglass, all I felt was relief that I was done. With A Link Between Worlds, I was instantly sad it was over. No, I’m not sad enough to play it again on Hero mode, but I definitely could have played it for several more hours. Now I’m eager to give A Link to the Past another try.

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