/vr/ - Retro Games

Final Fantasy 12
By that I mean I actually bought the guide for it from a used book store just a couple months ago. I've owned the game since it came out.

Final Fantasy 11

>>4941814
Legend of Mana. It barely had any info too, I learned everything important from forums. Which is one of the reasons I never bought another

Resonance of Fate maybe? I pick up retro strategy guides within my genres when they fall in my lap cheap but I couldn't say for sure what the last one I picked up was. Resonance of Fate is hard

No, wait it was Dark Souls 3

>>4941842
I have that guide too. If only it had some in-depth info about the crafting sytems, then i'd be gold.

>>4941814
I have never paid for a strategy guide.

>>4941814
Even at 13 I knew they were trash. tiddies tho.

>>4943429
>BradyGames
Of course you'd think guides are trash.
Official Nintendo Power guides were exquisite.

Banjo Tootie, specifically for getting into Gruntilda Industries.

They really could have made it clearer that you can ride the train, 10-year-old me didn't get it.

Needless to say it soured me

This.

Got the internet a short while later, didn't really need physical guides with GameSages and GameFAQs.

>>4943449
>Needless to say it soured me
Why's that?

>>4943460
Want to know why it soured him? Check PlayOnline for all the details.

>>4941814
>What was the last game you bought a strategy guide for /vr/?
Ogre Battle 64

Final Fantasy IX, the first and last strategy guide I purchased.
>log onto playonline.com to see how to complete this section !

>>4943460

>>4943512
>online-only DRM for guide books

>>4943553
Yeah it's considered one of the single most colossal fuckups in all video gaming.

Bought one for some pokemon game idk how long ago.

>>4943512
Same

>>4941814
FF7
I was like 'FUCK THIS SHIT I'm done with strategy guides'

and then I got the internet the next year anyway

>>4943429
Brady Games sucks my dick. I wasted hours of my life because their guide gave incorrect info on how to get a gold chocobo in FF7.

think it was the paper mario guidebook, gamefaqs would take forever to load on my piece of shit computer

baldur's gate 1 and commando 1 (beyond the ennemy lines).

>>4943449
any way of getting the playonline-stuff somewhere?

>>4941814
>Actually throwing money at a book that tells you how to beat a game you threw money at earlier have fun playing
It's like you don't even want to play the game yourself and have fun, or something

>>4944909
>earlier to have fun playing*

idk if it counts, but i was hanging out at a game store sometime in the 90s and someone just sold the shop a copy of alundra. the owner was my best friend's older brother and he said he'd gimme the strategy guide for it if i bought the game right then and there. I was gonna buy the game anyway because fuckyeahlandstalkerlookin'thing so there you go.
Before that, the one that came with earthbound. never owned or bought any others besides those two.

>>4944909
mommy buys it because she's thrilled I'm reading anything :-)

>>4941814
FFIX. Shit was a playonline.com advertisement.

Last 3 I got were: fft, diablo, parasite eve. I only got them to bundle if I ever sell my games. (Not likely, parasite eve is my favorite ps1 square game)

>>4941814
It was this one, somewhat recently. Not because I needed it or anything, but Terranigma is my favorite and these guides are really comfy, for lack of a better word.
Guides like these actually came with the games in a "big box" in place of a manual. There were a few other titles like Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia etc. where that was the case.
I only own thise one, but as far as I know they were all exactly 72 pages long. They were enough to get you through the game, but due to the page limit I guess they wouldn't always be able to show 100% of the game. Certainly not the case for Terranigma. For example, they don't mention items you get from subareas on the world map or where to get all magirocks (not even a list). I also noticed that at least one magirock location is not indicated on the appropriate map. There are small errors right in the beginning, i.e. a picture of a strength potion shown but it being called life potion.
Flipping through this guide really makes me nostalgic even though I owned neither it nor the game back in the day. Probably because it reminds me of cheesy 90's gaming magazines.

Imagine being so lacking in grit you need your hand held through playing with a child's toy

>>4941814
never bought one, never used one. always went for gamefaqs.

>>4945001
You know what I like seeing? Huge details on how the game works. Damage mechanics in beat-em-ups, frame data for fighting games and shooters, and individual variables. I don't care for strategy guides, but I want a mechanics bible for heavy reading.

Know what sucks? Literally nowhere on the internet seems to catalog this kind of data. I've had a theory for a while that Devil May Cry uses the same damage system as Resident Evil but because I lack the DMC mechanics I'm stuck not knowing. Here's a fact; the strategy guide for Biohazard 1 showed the hitpoints and damage data for every monster in the game, and it was glorious.

I want to know what the developers were thinking, and what is hidden from the player. I want the game to be stripped like a loli in a rape doujin and laid bare for a royal fucking for the most optimal plays possible.

>>4941851
I need one for that game because I find it harder than the other two :^(

>>4945026
>autism speaks

>>4945043
I fail to see the autism, is this "I DUN LIKE IT SO THAT MAEKS IT AUTIRMSMSSMMSMS T.T" redditry?

>>4945060
>Know what sucks? Literally nowhere on the internet seems to catalog this kind of data. I've had a theory for a while that Devil May Cry uses the same damage system as Resident Evil but because I lack the DMC mechanics I'm stuck not knowing.
>autism speaks

>>4945064
Not seeing your logic, both were directed by Hideki Kamiya and DMC was going to be a Resident Evil game from its initial stages (and it's very obvious considering various aspects of DMC especially in the castle). Sharing underlying mechanics like damage formula is expected. You can tell the SaGa guy was involved in The Alliance Alive from how that works for fuck's sake.

So yes, this is just a case of "I DUN LIEK DIS POST SO THAT MAKES IT THE AUTISMSMSMMSMM T.T"

>>4945080
Lol was that mush supposed to make me rethink you coming across as a tard?

>>4945060
>redditry

>>4945087
Any plans that revolve actually explaining what's autistic about wanting to know how games work and how a series you're a fan of evolved and diverged as time went on?

You won't, and the divorce was your fault

>>4943629
Fucking same.
I bought one last year for nostalgia as I had it when I was 13.

>>4941814
This bad boii here. I actually kept it all these years until losing it just recently.

>>4941851
Mah Nigga

I got it too, but because I got suckered into getting the one with the journal and the little papercraft bonfire.

It was nice and I had money to burn.

I only ever got strategy guides because they were free with your $20(30?) subscription of Nintendo Power. Even as a kid I use my trusty 56k modem or read the players guides at book stores whenever i got stuck. As far as the players guides I got were not so much because of the game but because they included extra stuff: Pokemon TCG (An exclusive TCG Promo card)
Perfect Dark (A prequel comic book) etc.

>>4941814
The last time I felt I needed one? MGS4.
The last time I bought one for the pretty pictures? MGSV.
Inbetween those, I only bought a replacement for my own copy of the one for OoT. The replacement actually ended up looking worse than my original one. Should never have lent that one out. Came back looking like an asswipe, and my friend actually said that was normal wear and tear. Certainly a lot of wearing and some tearing, but not normal - all other guides I own firsthand pretty much retain pristine condition.

>>4946241
Why would you need a guide for Metal Gear Solid 4? I finished it only visiting my dad sometimes on weekends.

>>4946246
Pretty pictures. And ideal lines for sneaking past the enemy on The Boss difficulty.

I actually think muscular Meryl is mad cute and has top tier facial aesthetics. The strategy guide had a hi-res picture of her. I NEEEEEEDED IT, you catch my drift?

>>4946261
You're playing it wrong if you're being heterosexual.

>>4941814
Fallout NV I like the game and wanted some cool ass posters.

I only own Nintendo Power guides now that I think about it, they would send them as a free bonus when you'd renew a subscription and I subbed for like a decade. After they went out I would pick up Prima guides for Pokemon mainly, even though I knew Serebii had all the information it was nice to have it with me on the go for car rides.
So the mist recent one I have is Pokemon Platinum but I think I bought a guide for Minish Cap after that.

I think this is the most recent one for a retro game. Haven't been buying many guides lately, though I do like collecting them.

>>4945060
reverse-engineering the number-crunching of games takes a certain... level of dedication, though.

>>4941814
>bought a strategy guide
kids. lol

Mortal Kombat II

>>4946282
what did he mean by this

Final Fantasy 12. Partly because I wanted the fat art book that came with it, though. It has all the information might find in GameFAQs, but better organized and prettier. It really is comprehensive. the only thing it lacks is a map of the Great Crystal.

>>4941814
I never buy anything for a game. Not even the game itself, in fact.

>>4947792
Me too.
>"But if you don't buy them, they won't be able to keep making new ones you'll never have time to play."

>>4947792
>>4947803

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI

>>4947806
>the computer world becomes bleak and dark

he was right bros

>>4943512
>>4943502
>>4943461
>>4943460
>>4943449
And this is why they invented gamefags.

>>4941814
Also, FFXII
The International version of that game was exceedingly good.

>>4947867
Couldn't access it because mom was playing solitaire.

>>4943449
Fuck Bradygames eternally.

>>4947919
PlayOnline was actually Square's doing.

>>4947931
They were still part of it and their other guides weren't very good either.

>>4941814
Last one I bought was loooong ago, an unofficial one for FFIII on the snes. It was the size of a phonebook and actually really well done. After that the internet kind of took over.

I kinda miss well-done, good-looking strategy guides because they were memorabilia as much as they were instruction manuals, but like others have said, once they started coming with flat-out wrong shit in them or were just cliffs notes versions that told you to go to some website they became truly pointless. Might as well just get an artbook instead if you wanted something in print.

>>4946261
It didn't help that the last we'd seen of Meryl was low-res ps1 graphics, then we get MGS4 and it's like "Damn, Meryl looks like that?"

The ps1 X-Files guide.

>>4948595
boomer breeder pls go

>>4948604

>>4948583
Got pics?
Sounds neato

>>4948619
Is Cloud Atlas the best Hugo Weaving movie?

Soul Calibur 2 or 3. Wanted a list of moves on hand, was too much of a tard to just write them down.

>>4943450

Versus Guides where worth it for the poster alone. I still got the SF Alpha 2 one. Shit's sick as fuck.

>>4947867
Gamefaqs already existed at the time making that guide even more worthless

>>4948717
So only kids who couldn't use the guide bought the guide?

I didn't think I had any but I found one in a box of old books this week for Fallout 2, which came in a bundle with the game.

>buying a strategy guide for a game
No thanks, I prefer to figure things out myself, rather than having my hand held.
The same guys that use strat guides also probably use save states and cheat codes. and then they feel a great sense of accomplishment for beating the game, lmao

>>4941814

buying strat guides, kek, i remember when videogame mags gave em away for free on the cover.

>>4948817

Or indeed the magazine itself was a 80% printed solutions mag, with the rest reviews/new release info.

>>4948821

Think thats how i originally completed tomb raider and resident evil within a few weeks of release, and how i bred a gold chocobo in ff7.