Customer Reviews

SOUL CALIBUR (R) III Limited Edition Fighter's Guide

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This review is for the normal version of this guide, I believe the only difference is that the limited edition comes with a soundtrack CD (and the covers are different).

This thick guide starts off by explaining the basics of the game, things like moving around, guarding, and different types of attacks. It then goes into more detail regarding
more advanced techniques likes impact guard, guard breaking and delayed attacks. Reading through these gives you a good sense of the options available to your fighter. The guide also covers the different game modes and explains a bit about each. One gripe I do have though is that while they cover the Chronicles of the Sword mode, they don't really give too much stragetic advice or recommend which types of fighters to use. Still, that section is informative enough.

The meat of this guide comes with the fighter profiles. Filled with colorful pictures and easy to read text thanks to a nice, organized layout the guide proceeds to list all of the moves for each fighter broken down by type. A nice explanation of how the fighter performs at different ranges is very helpful as is an overall summary which gives the player a good view of how to use that specific fighter. If that wasn't enough they also provide a section dedicated to favorite/best moves to use with each fighter. Very handy.

The guide also covers all of the unlockable characters as well although not in as much detail. The remainder of the guide is dedicated to the complete shop lists as well as prices and conditions to unlock. There is a complete unlockable section dedicted to all of the games secrets as well. Included is a nice foldout map which shows all of the main characters and their weapons with descriptions of different properties. Another small gripe is that I was hoping that they might include pictures of the different types of armor, but again that can be viewed in the game. Now one ommission that I could not find was that the guide did not lay out all of the possible pathways for the Tales of the Sword mode. Example being, the guide mentions to unlock Hwang you must defeat him in the Tales of the Sword mode but it doesn't specify how to actually go about facing him. Not a major deal but still would have been nice.

Overall, it's a great guide with plenty of useful information to help you with the game.

Strategy guides for modern fighting games are pointless, I think, as most of the games have detailed move lists available at the pause menu, as well as practice modes where you can perfect the moves and find out which ones you like. Most of these guides offer only detailed listings of character biographies (which have no value), move listings, and recommended moves.

Soul Calibur III's guide isn't much different, except for the unlockables. There are quite a lot of unlockable features and items in this game, and finding them can be difficult, especially all the items, weapons, and armor. This guide tells you how to find every item.

It also has a small section on one of the game modes, Chronicles of the Sword, detailing the levels and enemies in this mode. While simply playing the level once will reveal what the level entails, some levels are difficult and the strategy offered for each separate level can help some. Problem is, the section barely covers seven pages and half of that is tutorial.

I'd recommend this strategy guide for those two reasons above (unlockables listings and Chronicles of the Sword), though I'd also recommend not buying this guide at all as it's very expensive and adds little to the actual game play that trial and error couldn't add itself.

If you're buying this special edition guide for the included soundtrack CD, you might be disappointed. It is ABRIDGED. Only the most common songs heard in the game are included - most of the less common songs heard in Chronicles of the Sword and Tales of Souls are missing. In fact, the full version of this soundtrack (you can have it shipped from Japan - it's catalog number is VIZL-158) is 3 CDs long! In other words, you're only getting a third of the music in the game. Unfortunately, some of my favorite music is cut, so I'll be paying the 3500 yen for the full version.

Some of the songs on the CD are themselves cut short. For instance, the song "Forsaken Sanctuary" (the one that plays in the cathedral when Nightmare and Siegried are fighting) is cut short to 1:33. If you listen to the song in the game, you'll notice that it goes much longer.

As for the guide itself, I agree with the other reviewer who said that it's basically pointless. I never buy game guides (other than this one since it comes with a soundtrack) because, as said already, all the info in the guide can be found in the game.

So, all in all, I'd say that this is not worth your money. If you want the music, Google "VIZL-158" and buy that album.

I bought this guide expecting information on Tales of Souls, i.e. the different paths, what story scenes each path will unlock, how to get to Night Terror and tips on how to beat him.

It doesn't give any of that.

What it does offer some in depth information on the main and bonus characters and offers the reader some tips for Chronicles of the Sword. These are useful but primarily they aren't what I was looking for.

I also noticed a few misprints with regards to the fighting styles custom characters can use. For example for Samurai it said Katana, blank, Sickle. The third one is Katana and Shuriken. I also noticed a few other misprints, like saying a Knight would use Rapier and Shield, and I'm pretty sure I also saw it say a class uses a weapon which they don't actually use. But in the long run the tips it does offer are useful. The bonus CD is also a nice touch, especially if you like any of the game's music.

If you're primarily looking for a guide that can help you master the characters, then go for this. However if you're primarily looking for Tales of Souls information I suggest looking elsewhere.

This guide is beautifully set out, and a must-have for Soul Calibur fans who like to ogle the gorgeous characters (without leaving unsightly smears on their screens). The summaries of character strengths and weaknesses are fun to nod along to and murmur sounds of agreement. Unfortunately, there's no updated character biography, so it feels incomplete, but the setting out of main moves for each character is a nice feature. My main quibble with this guide is the stats page for the weapons. It's an unwieldly fold-out page, and the stats provided are inconsistent, and in most cases non-existent. The bonus soundtrack CD is quite decent, and a good alternative to ordering a much more expensive import over the net.