Customer Reviews

SOULCALIBUR IV Signature Series Fighter's Guide (Bradygames Signature) (Bradygames Signature Guides)

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

 

 

It may seem strange to expect any value from these strategy guides, as a rule I usually avoid game guides like the plague, knowing that I can usually find information that is both free and better online. However, through circumstance I don't recall (it may have been included as a promotion) I ended up the guide for Soul Calibur 2 (which if memory serves was also from Brady), which was surprisingly insightful. It had a good overview of how to play each character and their strengths and weaknesses.

I saw this new guide in stores and noticed that it was around twice as thick as the one for 2. I took this as a good sign and purchased it. Unfortunately, the extra thickness comes from a combination of the larger character roster, reprinting redundant information (like movelists for multiple characters who have the exact or mostly the same move list), and pages of character back stories and art.

Don't get me wrong, this book is attractive to look at, and contains information like movelists and the requirements for the tower treasures in a much more storeable and readable manner then say, a print out from gamefaqs would. There are also still small sections about specific strategies for playing each character and a general beginner guide for the mechanics, however there is far too little space spent on actual strategy, which I perhaps naively expected more of.

I love this stradegy guide!! It helps so much for anything, especially for the Tower Of Lost Souls! I would recommend this to everyone!!

this book is very helpful lots of moves that i never would have figured them all out on my own with out the book very nice i bought a used but in great shape copy on amazon.com well worth the investment.

Like most Strategy Guides, this is a very handy product to have. However, please bear in mind that it is also not necessary for you to have this guide in order to get some help. There are countless websites on the internet with Walkthroughs and strategies for Soul Calibur IV. In my humble opinion, Strategy Guides are most useful for collectors like me.

The art work is very good. The quality of the paper and the bindings are right on par with other guides. The information is very accurate and very helpful. My only complaint is that some of the pages are in dark color, with the text also in dark color. Dark text on a dark background is very hard to read.

Some Strategy Guides can go up in value. I recall selling a Strategy Guide for a lot more than what I had paid for it. It was a Strategy Guide for an old Playstation RPG called Legends of Mana. I do not expect this Strategy Guide to go up in value and become a collector's item. However, if you are a big fan of the Soul Calibur franchise, this item belongs in your collection.

...but then, so does the game. You can just pause the game to see what each fighter's moves are. So, this has them laid out for you, which is superior for remembering them, I think.
However, I mostly got this guide to show me how the Custom Character items are unlocked, and it barely touches on that aspect of the game.
It's still a decent guide, but it's too bad that it isn't more extensive.

Soul Caliber 4 was my first genuine effort in "fighting games" and I was somewhat at a loss as to strategy. Some reviewers have complained that the guide prints the move lists, but I see this as a positive, since its incredibly annoying to pause the game and navigate through the menus to find the move lists. If you have the book, the entire movelist is laid out in front of you for quick perusing. The guide also describes the close-range, mid-range and long range strategies for each character, which players of most levels will benefit from. It also describes the various modes, such as Tower of Souls and how to acquire the hidden items on each level. Without this knowledge, it would be pure-trial and error to acquire each item and would literally take 10x as long (I guarantee there are few people who would sit there and figure out each item). All in all, this guide is far more useful than comparable guides for other types of games (eg: fable 2). Unless you're already a pro, you'd most likely benefit on some level from this guide.

Lately most games have horrible manuals that come with the game that do not provide any answers to any questions. I was hesistant at first, but no info is given with the game. The guide is great and covers everything the game has to offer. Everything from combo links to special moves and everything inbetween is discussed in great detail. this game is for fighting game fans who are willing to put in the time and effort for soul calibur 4. It is a tad pricey but for me it was worth it. If youre serious about really getting good at soul calibur 4 i certainly reccomend it.

I just picked up this guide and the Tekken 6 guide, both from Brady, and they're both terrible.

I used to be really good at Tekken back in the Tag days, and I found Tekken 6 and Soul Calibur 4 for cheap at my local GameStop. I don't know much about SC and the guide was pretty thick so I picked this up as well. I have to say, the guide was an epic disappointment.

A lot of the recommended attacks got me killed when I played the game against my friend. The guide didn't bother to mention that the attacks it was recommending were unsafe. I'd use them and then get owned. I had to go through each attack myself to test how good they were, something the author of this guide obviously didn't do.

The Tower of Souls information was pretty good, but nothing I couldn't find for free online. Avoid this thing at all costs.

This is a handsome and beautiful book, but the content is limited.

Strengths: Comprehensive move lists. Beautifully presented. Nice foldouts. Well organized.

Weaknesses: Not enough general descriptions of characters' orientations in the game. Long and boring descriptions of the characters' back stories. The print in the book is often obscured by the pictures and it is so small that you will need a magnifying glass.