Customer Reviews

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete: Prima's Unauthorized Strategy Guide

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Stategy guides are often the lifeblood of many gamers who want to tackle a difficult or complex game. Having played through Lunar: The Silver Star when it was first on the Sega CD many years ago and now through Lunar: The Silver Star Story Complete for the Playstation, I must say that a strategy guide can be very useful for this game, at times. The dungeons are long, monsters tricky, and bosses a real challenge. Unfortunately you will find little help in Prima's Unauthorized guide. The inaccuracies in Prima's guide make it too unreliable to be a useful reference.

The most obvious fault that I can find with Prima's guide is that it is in black and white instead of color. While a number of stategy guides are now coming out in B&W to save you the more expensive price of a color guide, in Lunar's case such money saving becomes a real liability. Maps of dungeons and towns are difficult to read because they are in B&W and very unclear. Screen shots are even worse due to the B&W treatment, because their visibility is marred due to some very bad blurring. It looks like Prima was only interested in making a quick buck by having the first guide on the market instead of caring if gamers can understand what is happening in the book.

Beyond just the cosmetic problems with the book, the real trouble stems from the fact that the information is inaccurate. Trying to find that last, rare, hidden Bromide? Good luck hunting it down if you are using Prima's unofficial guide. Why, you may ask? Simple. Prima bases most of its info on the SATURN JAPANESE version, rather than our Playstation American version we just bought. Working Designs, the makers of Lunar, purposefully changed the location of items in our version to make the game more playable and for the sake of storyline. That way the only way to get all the correct info is to get the official stategy guide from working designs themselves.

In all fairness, Prima's unofficial guide does have one merit. The enemy and weapons guide in the book are useful. The weapons guide helps you plan out what you want to buy and how much it will cost you, while the enemy guide lets you know what you are going up against. Knowing the enemy can help you set up your parties formation and supplies as needed. Quite useful. But then the official guide gives you this info too, and in color.

If you need a stategy guide, buy the official one from working designs. The official guide is in color, comes with free stuff like stickers, and has the actual, correct info you need for beating Lunar right. In the case of "Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete: Prima's Unauthorized Strategy Guide," "unauthorized" means inaccurate and incomplete.

Well, maybe she did, but not too many readers of this guide would disagree with that statement if they have tried to use it. Inaccurate lists (as they refer to equipment found in the Japanese version of the game), incomplete (and confusing) maps, plot spoilers, and tons of white filler space are what this "guide" is riddled with. Most everything all the other reader reviews have said about this book is true. I couldn't suggest you buy the official guide (which is EXCELLENT) or even the July 1999 issue of Expert Gamer magazine, both of which give you something that qualify as a strategy. An obviously rushed job, expect no boss or fighting tactics to be found, nor any of the game's secrets. It's not the worst game guide in existence (believe me, I've read hundreds)--that honor still goes to Prima's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night guide (check my review for that as well for a good laugh). Still, avoid at all costs.

The main problem with this guide is that is based on the Japanese version of the game. Working Designs spent alot of time changing the game for an American audience, so the guide is basically worthless for the American version of Lunar:SSSC. Not to mention the poorly described dungeon maps and the poor black and white photos. The guide looks like it was done by a kid on his home computer rather than done by a professional publisher.

It could've been better, they do have great boss strategies and walkthroughs. There are some problems not all there info is accurate, like names of items and such, I think mainly because they got mixed up w/ the game that cam out in Japan too. They don't tell you what level you should be for certain bosses, but not most strategie guides do, I used this throughout the game and didn't find too much trouble w/ it. I havn't seen any others guides for this most excellent RPG.

Prima is usualy a good source of information when it comes to game guides but in this case it was very poor. The guide is difficult to read with black and white maps and the guides heavy use of symbolisim which is very anoying. It is missing chests on maps, numbers and item names are wrong and it does not tell you where to find everything like most Prima guides do. Not only is it incomplete it is also wrong. I do not recomend this book if you have already beaten the game but for first timers who just need to get out of a tight spot and to advance in the game.

If I could have rated this book with 0 stars, I would have.. but I couldn't, due to the fact that you could actually read it. Prima is very hit-or-miss. Their PC books are generally quite good, but their console books are quite the opposite.. they have the occasional great book (Final Fantasy Tactics, Breath of Fire III, and Star Ocean: Second Story), but usually they are not worth it. Lunar is quite the same, with bland, black and white pages, a boring walkthrough, and was missing a -lot- of useful information (like the Bromides, for instance). The fact that this book was written with the Japanese version, too, is cause for concern, due to the numerous differences between the US and Japanese versions. Also, the book is riddled with plot spoilers (as is usual for Prima's books), so if you'd rather read the game than play it, by all means buy Prima's book. However, Working Desgins' official book is a much nicer book, complete with retrochecks (referencing the differences between the PSX and SegaCD versions), a bromide listing, and stickers and a free poster offer. You can't go wrong, and it's about the same price, plus in full color.

I was lucky enough to get this strategy guide for free when i bought the game. the maps are very confusing, the symbols are annoying and it is not in color!!!

Come now this is one of the most poor exuses for a strategy guide, which is surprising cause Prima isn't that bad of a company for making guides. For starters this book is (for some reson) based on the japanese version, which (sorry Japan) is much much worse than the American. (Thats a first) Secondly, there is no maps and no color, sorry I prefer my books from OZ but thats the way it is. It is also poorly written and dosen't even apolagize for being wrong. If you want a strategy guide for Lunar, get the official working designs one, which is in my opinion the coolest guide ever made, and if you want to know how to play the Japanese version, then Prima is just your book, actually it still sucks for that, learn Japanese and get a guide from there, you will be much happier.

I found that this book helped me go from place to place but it did nothing as far as strategies and the boss stats were all wrong.

For starters the so called "guide"(I'ts so worthless I do not think it deserves the name strategy guide)is based on the Japanese version of the game(What the heck?That's real smart[I said that sarcastically];how could someone be stupid enough to release a guide based on the Japanese version of the game in the U.S.?)!!Second,it has close to NO maps!!Please whatever you do;do not get this guide.At least I don't think you should,but if you absolutely must get it,go ahead and waste your money.It's worthless.