4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I Wouldn't Bother with the Guide, October 30, 2005
This review is from: Dynasty Warriors 5 (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)
To correct the reviewer down below: Dynasty Warriors 2 had an official strategy guide from Prima, and clearly they didn't learn from some of it's faults. Although this one is not in black and white, it does have a few problems like... the fact that what the guide spends so much time on is something that youw ouldn't buy the guide for. It's almost like buying a guide to Super Smash Brothers Melee. Why?
However, there are some moments when a guide to Dynasty Warriors 5 can be helpful. Things like finding the "Valueable Items" were particularly helpful, but at the same time a blur. The maps in the guide don't point out where to find the valueable item in question and force you to constantly look back to the mission log. If that's the case then GameFAQs works just as well as this guide. It tells, but doesn't accurately show.
The maps aren't that helpful either. They don't tell you where to find those nifty life ups and musou ups (some generals drop them, but they're also found in pots). They claim they are random, but if you play through the game constantly, you'll see that a pot with a Life Up +10 will always have a life up +10.
Another note about the maps, is that they're not detailed. It looks like someone paused the game, and took a picture of the map they saw on screen and then passed it off as a detailed map. They don't point things out.
Some info is also wrong. There are typos in the items list, and the description of how to get some "Valueable Items" is not always correct, nor is it always detailed.
It's almost as if Prima knew there wasn't much of a use for a Dynasty Warriors guide. What it IS useful to have it for though, they did include, however it isn't done very well. Screenshots were blurry; information misleading.
It wasn't a horrible guide, though. But the biggest question is, why spend so much money on a guide like this? There is no real "strategy" to beating any mission.
What I'm saying is, you're not honestly going to buy this guide because you're having trouble getting to the enemy general are you? That's not the reason one would buy a Dynasty Warriors Guide. We'd most likely by it because we want to know where all those fourth weapons are, and how to get the secret items.
The problem is, Dynasty Warriors is very prominent online. You can find a lot more than just text in walkthroughs online. You can find detailed maps that DO pin-point out everything, and you can find more in depth descriptions on where to find fourth weapons.
The guide itself isn't bad, but it is a moment where it really is a lot easier to just go online. I'm not usually up for faqs found online because they miss that visual aid, but you don't need visual aids in Dynasty Warriors. The guide being priced at the standard fifteen dollars is high way robbery just to buy it for getting the special items, unlocking characters and stages, and the fourth weapons. Likewise, you won't have trouble in actually completing a mission. They're all pretty straight forward. So you shouldn't need this guide for that.
It's almost not a bad idea to invest in one, and I probably wouldn't have bought mine if it weren't ninety-nine cents at a used game store. But the reality is that it IS a waste. It helps in finding some of these things, but GameFAQs is so much more... you know... indepth and user friendly about it.
If you are determined to invest in this guide, then please, do like I did; find it at a very cheap price, and don't spent fifteen dollars on it.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
first review, April 25, 2005
This review is from: Dynasty Warriors 5 (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)
This is the first review I have ever written on amazon but I was really disappointed with this guide. I know it was also the first guide ever published for the Dynasty Warriors series and hopefully they will learn from the mistakes. Missing were specific locations of +10 and +20 items such as life and musou. They are not just random appearances and I was able to find them everytime in certain clay pots when I broke them. I found mistakes in the list of campaigns in musou mode for several characters and the info on how to get the fourth level weapon was not always correct. I also would have liked having markers on the map where the fourth weapon appears as a "valuable item" instead of having to scroll through the battle log in the game to find it. Also the maps for each campaign in general were very generic and did not add much to the understanding of where certain events occur in the game. When I played previous Dynasty Warriors games, I would check the free postings on different game sites and found them to be more descriptive then this guide.
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