Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

Gaming Diary: So Much A Link to the Past

By Leave a Comment

A Link to the Past randomizer tournamentChris mentioned in his Corner of Randomness that we’ve been sucked into a Link to the Past Randomizer Speedrun Tournament. I haven’t been able to watch the whole thing, but I came in at a good time. The Bronze Medal matches took place over the weekend, and the Finals have been going on since Friday. The Finals had three games back-to-back on Sunday, which was both insane and exciting. The  matches ended with the racers 2-2, so they have to go to a fifth game. Said fifth game is this afternoon. Excitement level is over 9000.

After watching so much ALTTP, I thought maybe I should give the game yet another try. I’m a bit of a better gamer than I was the last time I tried it. Maybe this time will be it. Also, I picked up a ton of new strategies from watching the players. This should be a snap.

I ran into one tiny problem, though. I’m not as good as they are. Not by a long shot.

They make it look so easy to avoid enemies. To save time, they dash through as much as possible, and they don’t fight any enemies unless they have to (to get a key or open a door or a boss). I was all, “THAT’S GENIUS!” In a Zelda game, fighting enemies does really nothing other than risk loss of hearts. It’s not like Link levels up from skirmishes. I do dash through everything and avoid fights as much as possible. But I don’t know the maps half as well as they do, probably not even a quarter. I don’t know the RNG a tenth as well as any of them. It’s easy for them to avoid enemies with ease because they know exactly how and where they will appear.

That said, I’ve learned a lot from their strats running through dungeons and fighting bosses. I always had a hard time with Armos, that first boss in the Eastern Palace. After watching that fight several times on Twitch, I tried one of their strategies, and lo and behold, it worked! It worked the first time, at that. I didn’t even lose any hearts. I pulled out my old strategy guide, which was released for the GBA port of A Link to the Past/Four Swords. It’s not as much of a strategy guide as it is guidelines for what to expect. No wonder I never got far each time I tried it. I’ve learned more from this weekend of watching a randomizer tournament than I have in a guide.

It’s an Official Nintendo Player’s Guide, as well. So much for those. Guess I know which guide I won’t be using whenever I decide to bite the bullet and give Ocarina of Time an honest go. (For the record, I have six different OoT guides. It’s…a long story.)

Gaming Diary – E3 is Distracting

By Leave a Comment

It hit me last night that I hadn’t written my Gaming Diary for the week. What in the world have I been doing? I’ve been way too distracted by E3.

Assassin's Creed Origins

I’m not there this year, which is weird. I wasn’t there in 2013, but that was only because I was 8 months pregnant. This is the first time since 2010 that I’m not going because I’m not affiliated with any press outlet. I have to say, it’s rather relaxing watching all the press conferences from the comforts of home. Been working on one monitor while the pressers stream on the other. My cell battery is lasting quite a bit longer too, as I’m not battling anyone for Wi-Fi or cell tower bandwidth. Then there’s fact I’m eating and sleeping far better than I would be if I was there.

I do miss seeing my friends, and I miss meeting up with my strategy guide contacts and talking the state of guides. That’s part of what is weird. The other part that’s weird is watching the press conferences and seeing where I normally sit. It’s like watching people sit at a bar or a restaurant at your table. That’s my table. I sit there. But now I’m not; I’m on the outside, looking in.

But I am able to do something from home I couldn’t do while at the show—watch gaming tournaments. Nintendo is hosting three invitationals this week, and I’m having a blast watching them. I never had time to stand around outside the Nintendo booth to watch these matches. E3 is always about running from one appointment to the next, usually in different halls, shoving $7 pizza down your throat on the way, and trying to find time to write about what you’ve seen. This E3 I’m watching gaming tournaments. It’s a toss-up which is better.

I’m also able to play Odin Sphere Leifthrasir whenever I want (a/k/a after I get my work done). At E3, the work is never done. The only free gaming time I have at the show is checking my StreetPasses. I’m still loving every minute with OSL. When I realized I can watch any of the unlocked cut-scenes from any chapter, I’ve spent an hour just rewatching the cut-scenes in chronological (not chapter) order. The story is so great, I’ll probably reread/rewatch these cut-scenes multiple times. I’m such a sucker for fantastical lore and love stories.

Then maybe I’ll be ready for the crazy open world game waiting for me in my backlog. Did you see how many were presented at E3? It’s all zombies and open world this year.

From the press conferences alone, here are the games I’m looking forward to the most from the show:

  • Wolfenstein II
  • Assassin’s Creed Origins
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps
  • Super Mario Odyssey
  • South Park: Fractured But Whole
  • Far Cry 5
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Gaming Diary – Why didn’t anyone tell me Odin Sphere Leifthrasir was a love story?

By Leave a Comment

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

The first week of summer after school is always a bit rough, because summer camps haven’t started and the little one’s daycare closes for the summer. We had a week to kill without any set plans and I still had to get some work done. Since I couldn’t leave the two of them unsupervised without fighting, I did a lot on my laptop and decided it was time to pick up my Vita again. I thought about going through a LEGO game, since I need something mindless for two reasons:

  • gotta keep at least one eye on the kids, and
  • I need a break from heavy, hardcore open-world games.

I love what I have played of Horizon: Zero Dawn thus far, but it’s too much to get into right after playing Mass Effect Andromeda. Right now, I need something light, something that won’t take a billion hours to do everything, and something mindless.

As such, I purchased LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the Vita (gotta get them double-Platinums!). And then the game took forever to download. While waiting, I decided to give Odin Sphere Leifthrasir another go. I played it a wee bit back when it released, liked what I played, but moved on to something else. I bet it was another game review.

Regardless, I’m playing it now AND HOLY COW I CAN’T PUT IT DOWN. I loved Dragon’s Crown, also done by Vanillaware, so I knew I’d at least like the combat. They’ve vastly improved the formula, but more importantly, the story is absolutely amazing. If someone had told me way back when that this was a love story, I would have played this long ago. I stayed up well past 1 a.m. last night because I had to see if Gwendolyn and Oswald got a happy ending. I had to. I couldn’t go to bed until I defeated the final boss of Gwendolyn’s story.

Now I’m on to the next story, and I’m delighted that it’s another love story. I could see me replaying these chapters several times just for the stories. Who knows when I’ll get to LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens now.

Gaming Diary: When the Stack of Shame Becomes Shameful

By 1 Comment

PS4 stack of shameI really did enjoy my job when I reviewed video games, but it was rough on my stack of shame. Either the deadlines I had didn’t allow me enough time to finish a game I wanted to, or I had to stop a game in order to review this new one. I am going through my stack bit by bit now that I am out of the reviewing biz, starting with the games I have strategy guides for. I wrapped up Mass Effect Andromeda recently, and now I’m carving out time to play Horizon: Zero Dawn. That’s the last strategy guide I currently have from 2017 that needs to get done. Yes, I have a ton from 2016, but baby steps, people. Baby. Steps.

The problem is, if I start to think about what I should tackle next after HZD, I start to realize how ridiculous my stack has become. A good friend has threatened to spoil everything in Dragon Age Inquisition if I don’t finish that, so I need to put that higher in the stack. But I never did finish Tales of Berseria, and that game was really good. Then I think of Dragon Quest Builders, Dragon Quest Heroes, and World of Final Fantasy, which then leads me to Final Fantasy XV. Holy crap, I really want to finish that game! Oh wait, I never did start The Witcher 3. OMG I NEVER OPENED NIER AUTOMATA OR THE LAST GUARDIAN. What about Fallout 4? Aw crap, I never did finish The Division, and I loved that game! Shit…there’s also that thing called Breath of the Wild…

That’s usually when I turn to tea or wine, and then text a friend asking if they want to still play Gears of War 4 together. Procrastination, my old friend, you’re always there when I need you.

At the very least, I don’t have any games to review to make this hole even deeper. I also don’t have any future games on my radar until the fall, and so far, it’s only one—the next Assassin’s Creed game. That should help, right? (Humor me, please.)

Gaming Diary: Do I Replay or Not?

By Leave a Comment

Mass Effect Andromeda

Finished my guide-review playthrough of Mass Effect Andromeda over the weekend. I did enjoy this experience more than the review playthrough for a few reasons:

  • No rush, so I could actually get through every single side quest;
  • I was able to romance a character; and
  • I wasn’t crammed full of the main story because I could do every side quest.

Was the ending any better? Oh hell no it wasn’t. In fact, after playing the rest of the side quests, I’d have to say that it’s almost worse. So many questions are never wrapped up, and a few huge side quests are never resolved. At least I knew none of that the first time I played. This time, I’m really irked that the main story was Mass Effect: Halo AND major side quests weren’t wrapped up. That’s not a good recipe for an epic game, BioWare. You know how to make some good side quests, I’ll give you that, but your storytelling needs major work.

Now that I am finished with it, obviously, Horizon: Zero Dawn is next on my plate. However, I’m torn about playing MEA a second time. Part of me wants to explore different conversations with different dialogue choices, different main story choices (maybe this time I’ll let Sloane Kelly die…), and different romance options. Another part of me doesn’t want to go through the boring story again. Also not sure how much I really want to run all over creation again completing side quests.

Considering how many backlogged games I have to finish, including Dragon Age Inquisition, I shouldn’t consider a second playthrough of MEA at all. Somehow, I can’t help myself. It’s a Mass Effect game; I’m supposed to play it until every option is exhausted.

Top Posts & Pages