A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides
The beautiful Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Collector’s Edition strategy guide is here, but is this another DOOM CE? Aside from the pretty cover, which is extremely pretty, we reveal all that is unique from the standard paperback strategy guide. This is gonna be another collector’s edition where it really depends upon your personal tastes and what is important to you.
Check out the video below and find out what we mean.
I used to do unboxing videos of video game collector’s editions for Action Trip, but as that is going by the wayside and my love for these collector’s editions is not, I’m going to continue to unbox them and share them here.
So here is my first of many, and I’m bringing in another fellow CE aficionado to do some unboxings as well. I present the unboxing video of the Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness collector’s edition.
In this industry, when it rains, it pours. It’s been fairly dry since early May after DOOM released, and now this week, we have two anticipated games and strategy guides releasing: LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness. I cannot wait for this new LEGO guide to help me obtain yet another Platinum trophy.
And I’m going to hope and pray that Star Ocean doesn’t become yet another game I start and don’t finish due to its length and depth. I still have so much guilt about Xenoblade Chronicles X, which I do want to get back to. Not to mention, Twilight Princess. Poor Wii U; I seem to neglect you the most.
As for what I’ve been playing, I’ve put in 30 hours for a game I’m reviewing for PSLS that I can’t mention. And that 30 hours was all this week. If I hadn’t gone to E3, I probably would have finished the game by now. I’m fairly certain I’m at the halfway point or close to it.
I’ve also been playing a bit of Final Fantasy Explorers, as that’s a great quick pick-up game for the handheld. However, I’m already stuck at what to do to complete this one exam as the instructions don’t entirely make sense. I need to see if there is a strategy guide for this one. I may have missed such an announcement, as I did with Yo-kai Watch, and I need a guide. Who has time to run around the entire creation looking for ten dragons to slay in an hour? I sure don’t. I’ll kill them myself, but show me where they are. That’s all I really want, as well as a list of which ability combinations will create which Crystal Surges. Such a beating.
And I’m lazy. But that’s obvious, right? I write about strategy guides, which are for the lazy and those who want the most efficient methods possible to get the most out of a game. Hey, I think I just wrote a mission statement for a guide company. Feel free to PayPal me a check!
Before the demise of ActionTrip.com, I started to freelance a bit with PlayStation Lifestyle, mostly to get some extra cash and pick up games that no one else wanted to review. It turns out that it was beneficial for me to do so, as it gave the managing editors a chance to work with me and when AT folded, they were the first to come and say they wanted me on board in some form or fashion. First up, I’ve been assigned to review two rather large RPGs, and with the first one (that releases next week) I’ve started to have a small panic attack. How can I play this game without an RPG strategy guide?
You think I could have gotten anywhere in Final Fantasy without strategy guides?
It’s an action RPG, so I don’t need assistance in planning a strategy like I would with a turn-based game. However, there are so many choices to make, and how do I know if I’m making the right ones? I’ve already found a flub with one of my choices for skills. If only I chose to add a science skill, I could have prevented one fight. If I had improved my strength sooner, I could wield this badass staff now. And how do I know which dialogue trees will give me the best ending?
Simply put, it’s stressing me the fuck out.
I’m trying to stick to a certain character and make my choices based upon that, like one would do with action role playing, (see also, how Chris plays his RPGs), but the thought that maybe I’m not doing something right or that I’m angering my companions is just so stressful. Granted, I know this means that I can take what I know and replay the game making those “right” choices and seeing how things go.
I admit there is something magical when it comes to playing an RPG blind and not knowing what your decisions will do. A good strategy guide will tell you how your choices will go without spoiling too much. A perfect example is the strategy guide for Dragon Age: Origins or The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings. These guides would tell you who your choices would anger or please, but they wouldn’t fully give away the complete ramifications. For example, in The Witcher 2 strategy guide, when Geralt has to choose between chasing after an evil mayor to help arrest him or run off with the Scoi’atel, the guide tells you which choice will please which alliance, but it never mentioned that if you arrested the mayor, an entire village would be burned to the ground.
In this current game I’m reviewing, I had an agonizing choice to make over believing a rebel and letting her go or following my orders and bringing her in. I have a feeling I made a terrible choice, and my poor character is going to court chaos because of it. I sat at the choice screen and stared for a good five minutes. Now that I’ve seen how other things have unfolded, I now have plans to replay and make all new decisions, which I’m guessing was the developer’s plan all along.
I still really want a strategy guide, though. I wish more strategy guides would be published for these smaller, not-AAA yet not indie video games. I know why they aren’t, but it doesn’t help my need.
And I have a mighty need indeed.
So as you probably noticed, we kind of disappeared over the last couple of weeks. Chris is still on a photography tour, so he wasn’t supposed to be around, but I became extremely isolated. And then I ran off to E3. Let me explain why I withdrew, and then I’ll get into a bit of the greatness of E3.
About a month ago, I was promoted at my main writing gig as Editor-in-Chief, which was huge, and I was beyond excited about it. Two weeks later, I got the call that the company owner decided to shut the site down at the end of the month. And no, they aren’t going to wait and see if I can turn it around. I was numb for several days, and I bounced a lot of ideas around while I was in shock. What am I going to do? Will I have to get an office job? What about my kids? What about SGR? Is my time writing about games over? I was a hot mess.
And then I had to go to E3 with a smile on my face as if nothing was wrong, which I failed miserably at. Fortunately, some of my previews are getting published at sister sites, so not all the work I did at the show will be for nothing.
One of the biggest highlights at the show was seeing the fine people at Prima Games. I was feeling so down, and when they saw me coming, they smiled, and seemed happy to see me. It was a nice pick-me-up that I needed, especially when David S. J. Hodgson came over and said he’d love to be on our podcast. Oh you better believe I’ll do my best to make that happen as soon as Chris returns.
Prima also has a rather stellar line-up planned for 2016 and 2017, and yeah, I already claimed a few guides even though I’m so behind on the other ones I still have. That’s one thing I can say about losing the job; I’ll have more time to finally get around to these reviews!
As for what I am going to do, now that I’m back and calmer, I’m slowly developing a plan. It has to do with freelancing, mostly, but whatever I can do to still be as available for my kids as I can. That said, enough sad stuff; on to the greatness that awaits us throughout the end of the year!