Prima Games Archives

Final Fantasy XIII-2 CE Strategy Guide – Why Should I Buy?

January 31, 2012 By Keri Honea 7 Comments

Happy Final Fantasy XIII-2 day! I’m one of the rare few people who loved the first game for pretty much everything and didn’t hesitate in preordering the sequel. Apparently a lot of reviewing sites like this game more than the first, which will probably equal in me hating it. Seems to be the case with everything else, but I’m excited all the same.

If you’re like me and refuse to play a Final Fantasy game without a strategy guide–seriously, I have no interest in playing for hours on end finding every little thing–then I’m sure you’ll make no exception for this strategy guide. However, before you make the plunge in spending an extra $10-20 (depends on where you buy it) for the Collector’s Edition, please read this handy comparison of the two editions. I’m glad I have the Collector’s Edition, just because I love hardback covers, but other than that…I have really nothing to recommend.

Like most CE guides, the inner artwork is slightly different from the regular edition. However, the CEs usually sport the same inner artwork as the paperbacks, including the extra artwork as extra first pages. This one, does not. And after flipping through the CE guide, I have not been able to find the paperback’s inner artwork.

CE front fly page artwork

Paperback front fly page artwork

Furthermore, the back fly pages artwork of the CE has the same image. That was fairly disappointing as well.

There is an extra artwork section in the back of the CE that includes behind-the-scenes interviews with developers. It’s a nice touch for die-hard fans.

At the end of the day, I can’t fully recommend the Collector’s Edition over the paperback, unless you are a true collector who loves hardbacks and included ribbon bookmarks. In other words, insane, like me.

Uncharted 3 Strategy Guide Review

January 16, 2012 By Keri Honea 5 Comments

I admit that I’ve not been a fan of strategy guides that Piggyback Interactive has written in the past for various reasons. I won’t get into why here–because you should have read all of them in the past–as they have nothing to do with the Uncharted 3 strategy guide. What I mean to say is that the strategy guide for Uncharted 3 is the best guide I have ever seen from Piggyback Interactive. In fact, the guide is downright PERFECT.

Yes, you read that right. PERFECT.

To start with, the guide incorporates Piggyback’s usual art book design, but it’s done in a way that doesn’t impede upon using the guide. It’s so rare to find this in guides. Usually they are able to be artsy at the expense of being a guide, or they just choose certain pages to be artsy with that are free of guide content. The Uncharted 3 strategy guide is designed to appear as if the pages were something out of Drake’s own journal, but they don’t come off as cluttered as the last strategy guide did.

The walkthroughs are clearly laid out, and all collectibles are both mentioned in the walkthroughs and separated from them. In other words, the walkthroughs mention the collectibles, but the guide to find them are in separate call-out boxes on the page. The guide does the same for the platforming “puzzles,” which I greatly appreciated, because sometimes I had trouble discerning where I needed to jump and climb, especially while getting chased.

In case you are wondering just how well the collectible portions of the walkthroughs are, I’ll just say this: I found all 101 collectibles in my FIRST playthrough. That’s a miracle, people. I was able to do the same with Gears of War 3, but there weren’t 101 of anything there–except for maybe enemies to kill at one time.

The Uncharted 3 strategy guide also contains fabulous tips for Trophy hunters. One of the back appendices lists every Trophy, and where applicable, it describes the best places to attempt the Trophy acquisition. For example, for the RPG Trophy, the guide suggests replaying a particular scene in the desert a couple of times for easy acquisition. Every guide should do this, and I develop a soft spot for a guide every time I find one that does instead of simply explaining what the Trophy is. I can see what it is when I turn on my PS3, thanks.

I also really, really enjoyed the game developer commentary that was strewn throughout the book. It was fun learning about the origins of the names of the Trophies, where developers got inspiration for certain scenes, or what their overall goal was with depicting a certain moment this way or that. Little extra touches like these really make the book come together and feel like it’s more than just a strategy guide, and therefore, worth the money.

Well done, Piggyback Interactive and Prima Games. The Uncharted 3 strategy guide is definitely one of the best strategy guides I have ever come across. I look forward to seeing future strategy guides from these companies being just as polished, if not as perfect.

SGR Rating: 5/5

Author: James Price
Publisher: Piggyback Interactive
Editions available: Paperback and Collector’s Edition
Acquired via Distributor (Prima Games)

Top 5 Strategy Guides of 2011

January 4, 2012 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

Everyone else is writing up about their top 5 or top 10 video games from 2011, and I want to do the same, but hey, this is a strategy guide site! I can come up with the top 5 strategy guides from 2011 easily!

And with that fantastic intro, here we go!

5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex games have always prided themselves on providing multiple methods of how to get through the game, and DXHR is probably the first one that actually does just that. It really is possible to fight your way through every level and it’s possible to sneak through every level. It’s also possible to change it up every level. This guide walks you through three possible methods to take with near flawlessness. The only problem I had with the guide was its page layout:

The problem with this style of maps in a guide like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, though, is that since there are literally three different walkthroughs for every section, logistics doesn’t allow each map to stay with each entire walkthrough.

As a result, sometimes you have to flip back and forth to see the specific locales that the walkthrough references. It doesn’t take away from the accuracy of the walkthroughs or the maps at all, but it does remove efficiency in quickly finding what you need to get back to the game, adds a bit of annoyance, and hinders the effectiveness of the guide’s layout.

But you know, for a guide to get me through a stealth game when I hate stealth without throwing a controller once, you know it’s a fantastic guide.

4. Portal 2

Portal 2 was probably the most perfect game this year. I have zero complaints about any of it, and the same went with the strategy guide.

One thing I really appreciated were the warnings/suggestions at the beginning of the single-player and co-op chapters, where it strongly urged players to only use the guide when they were stuck. I can’t recall any guide saying that, not even the original Portal strategy guide. Granted, the reason why people buy a strategy guide is for assistance, but it’s nice that the writers asked users to try to work out the puzzles on your own, because really, you won’t get the beauty of the game without trying on your own.

Thankfully, the rest of the Portal 2 strategy guide is great and doesn’t hide behind this suggestion to mask any deficiencies. The guide is divided by campaign, chapter, and then chamber. The start of every chamber has a clear map–multiple maps if the level has multiple areas–with marked orange and blue portal placements. Each placement is numbered to correspond with the numbered paragraphs in the walkthrough. So if you just look at the guide whenever you have a quick question, it’s extremely easy to find what you need within seconds.

My favorite part of this guide still to this day is its blue and orange cloth bookmarks that were included with the Collector’s Edition.

3. Uncharted 3

I know I haven’t reviewed this guide yet, but I can say it’s the best damn guide I’ve ever seen Prima Games publish and Piggyback Interactive write. I know that Piggyback and I have had not the best relationship, but they completely won me over with their guide for Uncharted 3.

I’ll put it this way: I found all 101 treasures during my first playthrough with no problems.

2. Skyrim

This is another guide I haven’t reviewed yet, and I really haven’t gotten that far in the game. Why? Because I can’t take three steps without stumbling onto another side quest! I had to close the guide so that I wouldn’t discover any others.

I am amazed that a guide could take on something as massive as Skyrim and be so damn accurate with everything. It has over 600 pages to prove it.

1. The 3rd Birthday

I wasn’t a fan of this game at all, but damn if it wasn’t the best strategy guide I have ever come across.

I honestly finished the game weeks ago, but I’ve had the hardest time sitting down to write a review for the guide because it was perfect. All I want to say is just that: it’s perfect. Perfect design, perfect advice, perfect organization. It’s really hard to elaborate on that, hence why it has taken me so long to write more than five words about it.

Every guide should follow The 3rd Birthday strategy guide’s structure. The first page of each mission has maps of the areas Aya will explore, all clearly marked with items, enemies, and exits. Each map is labeled as “Area #”, and then consequently in the walkthrough, each section marks which area Aya is in. It’s plainly easy to find exactly where you are at any given time. Also on this front page are a list of the mission’s Feats, which are sort of like the game’s Trophies–if the PSP had any Trophy support. The Feats are also mentioned again when the best time (or only time) Aya can accomplish them, and they are placed in clear, callout boxes so there is no risk of missing them.

This guide has become my personal bar that other guides measure against. It just goes to show you that you can make a stellar guide about any game, no matter how big, how hyped, or how mediocre.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Guide Review

December 22, 2011 By Chris Nitz Leave a Comment

Here we are, 25 years later and Link is still spelunking through various dungeons in a quest to save a princes who cannot manage to keep from getting herself kidnapped. It seems that no matter how many times we have to save this stolen royalty, Nintendo always seems to make a game that is entertaining, familiar, and enjoyable. Unfortunately while Skyward Sword brings its A- game to the table, the Skyward Sword strategy guide from Prima Games appears to have brought its B game. However, all is not lost on this guide.

The guide starts players off with a nice breakdown on basic game mechanics, items and their corresponding locations. From there Prima gives a brief biography of the main characters before finishing the section off with a small map of The Sky world and a chart breaking down where to find the Goddess Cubes tucked away throughout guide. Overall this is a nice start and the details of the items is very helpful.

The main walkthrough is where things seem to sidestep into a mishmash of good and evil. Each major area and temple are broken into their own sections with the step-by-step instructions flowing in the same manner you would likely travel about the world in the quest to save Zelda. Each of these sections begins with a rudimentary map and any heart containers/goddess cube displayed. The maps could be a bit more detailed, but they work well enough.

There is monster information mingling with my walkthrough information

Things start to deteriorate when it comes to how monsters are listed along with tips and strategies. First, there is no beastiary listing every monster in the game, but rather the monsters receive little blurbs tucked away throughout the book. I did find this to not only be distracting in the flow, but a game like this does benefit from all the monsters being broken down in a section all their own. Next are the tips and strategies given. I found these to either be exceptionally helpful or completely useless, if not almost game breaking. If you plan on using this guide verbatim then do take warning that you have a 50/50 chance of these aiding you in your quest or making simple tasks unnecessarily hard.

The last part of the guide details the various side quests, of which there are not a lot of in the game, item upgrades and where to find upgrade materials, and a collection of maps. I found the upgrade portion to be valuable as it not only details the items you need, but it also tells you what the result is and where to pickup hard-to-find materials. It is a small section, but one that I used plenty.

The last issue I have with the guide, of which I received the Collector’s Edition, is the unnerving sound of pages tearing as you flip them due to the gold leaf applied to the edges. It is almost as if a soda full of sugar had spilled on the pages prior to shipping. The guide was just fine, but it is still not a sound you want to hear with every page turn.

Now, where the guide shines is in the artwork, included cloth map (Collector’s Edition only), and the way it does not provide spoilers. This is one guide that I really enjoyed the included artwork. There are a lot of assets plucked from the game, but the hand drawn pieces are just amazing and fit extremely well with the overall look of the game. The blue and gold cover, and the problematic gold leaf coated pages, is simple yet elegant. It is also enjoyable to have a guide give you direction without desiccating major plot-lines.

This guide does an okay job of helping you through the game, but keep the internet close by as there are fan guides that do an excellent job of guiding you through the game. It is hard to recommend this at its current cost, however. If you must have the book then go for it, otherwise wait for it to drop in price before splurging.

Swanky cloth map!

SGR Rating: 3/5

Authors: Alicia Ashby
Published By: Prima Games
Editions Available: Paperback, Collector’s Edition
Acquired via Publisher

Super Mario 3D Land Strategy Guide Review

December 14, 2011 By Nicholas Michetti 3 Comments

Super Mario 3D Land is Nintendo’s newest Mario game and quite the killer app for their 3DS platform, fusing together classic 2D and 3D gameplay to form something newer and more different than previous installments in the Mario franchise. With SM3D Land, Nintendo has hidden a number of areas and objects throughout, which could be easily missed by even the most hardcore of gamers. Luckily, Prima Games has Mario fans covered with quite the comprehensive and easy to navigate guide that will help them find every secret that Nintendo’s latest classic platformer has to offer.

Prima’s SM3D Land guide, first of all, is tremendously easy to navigate. The guide has clear pages with easy to read text, easily noticeable callout boxes that don’t distract from the natural flow of the guide, and world names written on the edge of the guide’s pages to enable easy navigation to wherever gamers need to look in the guide. The guide has bright colors, but no color too bright or distracting for the player. The guide’s intro section shows all of the moves and enemies in SM3D Land and even has a page on how to navigate the guide, which is perfect for those gamers who may never have used a strategy guide before.

The Walkthrough section of the guide has a map with an overhead view of each level. The map is marked with the locations of power-ups, various items of interest, and the end goal flag locations. A legend on each and every map is present so that these noteworthy items can be noticed and found easily. The map is also marked with numerical “points” that correspond to identically numbered sections in the Walkthrough. The points are areas of interest, Star Coin locations, or trouble spots.

The guide’s advice in the Walkthrough is just about as spot-on as guide advice could possibly be. For the most part, the guide leaves very little to the imagination and explains in detail what players need to do in order to advance. Nearly every single area of each level is covered and what exceptionally little isn’t is easily able to be figured out by just playing through and using the map, although first time Mario gamers playing SM3D Land may need to pay close attention at times. For core gamers or gamers who know Mario well, the tiny bit not covered won’t be a problem in any way, but could prove to be a tiny bit troublesome to newer gamers who need more help.

Prima’s Super Mario 3D Land Premiere Edition Guide is a must-buy for any gamer who might need help with SM3D Land, from the gamer who may need help playing through the game to the Mario fan looking to uncover every secret. The guide has extremely reliable advice, is easy to navigate, and helps gamers find every hidden area and Star Coin that they could possibly need. Few guides are as useful and easy to navigate as this one and any gamer who’s purchased a copy of SM3D Land should consider buying a copy of this guide as well.