Customer Reviews

Shadow Hearts: Covenant Official Strategy Guide

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

In short, this is the worst game "guide" that I have ever purchased. This is why:

* No maps!

* Directions reverse left/right and east/west in several areas.

* Incorrect information about many of Yuri's Fusion levels.

* The Item Descriptions are often vague. Furthermore, information about the Items and Equipment are scattered randomly through the book. Ultimate Armors and the like are in an odd place near the front of the book instead of with the Equipment list. And if you see an item mentioned in the walkthrough, good luck finding it in the lists.

* Directions often neglect to mention the existence of valuable items in treasure chests in an area.

* Very thin spell data. Why aren't there lists of the extra spells you get when Solomon's Map sections are completed?

Overall, this book gives you as much content as would a text-only guide that you can find free all over the net -- an error-riddled guide at that. Don't waste your money.

If your thinking of buying this guide, think again. Yes, this guide does contain a "Walkthrough" But you can't get any more basic. For example, they neglected to include any sort of maps! The only thing I found useful in this guide was the sidequests section. Its the only redeeming part of the book which is why I gave it 2 stars instead of 1. Buy this book only if your a person that loves to complete every nook and cranny, and only if your the type of person who refuses to use an online guide. Did Brady just think Shadow Hearts 2 did not deserve a good guide?

Content Ratings: (out of 4)

Main Portion, Walkthrough: *

Extras, Sidequests: ***

Item Index: **

Monster Index: **

Layout: ***

I would buy this guide again if it cost: $4

Like the prior reviews stated if you're thinking of buying this guide I'd agree with thinking again. Yeah sure it gives you the side quest information, and boss and monster statistics but umm Hello what good is a Guide WITHOUT! the maps for each area?? Obviously those whom put together this guide didn't think this game deserved a good guide or didn't think they needed to include maps for who knows what reason. I've found many typos in this book as I've used it, some range from little things to not including item information such as weapons that are located in a certain area. But because of the side quest section I did give this a 2 star rating beyond that its really just not that great, I've seen better FAQ guides online from the private person that what I recieved from the company whom designed this guide.

I agree with the other reviews so far. The author tries to explain which directions to move in certain area of the game. First, this isn't very helpful when the author tells you to move west when the west direction doesn't occur until a few rooms later. Next, the author is very confused with directions. Sometimes right and left are mixed up. I think that even if you do not like reading online guides, you'll enjoy it much more than this guide. The pictures in the guide have no relevance whatso ever. OVerall, its just a rushed guide that is lacking in many ways.

No Maps.

Directions (NSEW) often reversed.

Many, many items MISSED.

No guidance on sidequests

No information on Magic crests

No information on items/armor/enhancements

No "strategy" provided.

Nice picture.

Sure this book has everything you need to get through Shadow Hearts II, but since it relies solely on verbal descriptions, you might as well not waste any money for something you can get for free on Neoseeker or Gamefaqs, or some site like that. The only reason I got one is because it was $1.25 at a game shop. $1.25 is cheap enough for me to pay for the convenience of not having to look up a good FAQ, but a price in the teens definitely is not. Don't buy this unless you are an extreme fan who wants to see some repetitive concept art.

No maps on all the dungeons, very vague directional instructions which make you run in circles again and again until you stop following them. The Side Quests section only tells you that there are side quests in this game (especially the Neam underground dungeon for obtaining Yuri's ultimate weapon), the rest, good luck!

The guide didn't even tell me that there's two endings for the protagonist, Yuri(well, yes, I did not play the first one, so how should I know?). I overwrote my save file just before the final boss, and have to play the game all over again so I can choose the right dialogue response to see the other ending...and you think that's fair?

It's expected that a guide book is supposed to guide our games to the fullest, but it's not true in this case. I spent about $10 and I regretted because I felt like I bought trash while I could buy something else.

Not a particularly great guide for a marvelous RPG game-playing experience! Don't buy it even for the colorful cover page.

I bought the guide on line after I had purchased the game online. I think I paid like $17 and had to wait at least two weeks for it because it was shipped from Switerland!??? When it came in I was so excited because I am a huge SH fan, but when I opened the package and took the book out, I was very dissappointed. I knew there couldn't be much to this guide when it only had roughly 160 pages to it. I mean, the game itself takes at least 50-60 hours to complete, and that's not including the side quests. Sure the guide mentions things I would not have other wise figured out on my own(maybe), but when you're really needing some crucial help, it's not there.

I guess buy the guide if you're a big SH fan, you know , just to have, but otherwise, just look up a walk through online and don't waste your money.

Usually Brady's Walkthroughs are pretty good. Whenever it comes to the comparison between Brady's and Prima, Brady always score better. Nonetheless, the Shadow Hearts: Covenant walkthrough is something that takes you there but not really there.

The book has a pretty good layout for the main story walkthrough. You will have no problem tackling the main story. However, the main drawback is it doesn't have an area map. The dungeons for each area are really big. So simply describing where to walk is not enough as there are places that can confuse you when it comes to how it looks like. There is a small compass map in the game which I think Brady's, if they want to spend more time to make a perfect walkthrough (like the FF X one), they could trace those maps so that we actually know where we are going. Of course after you spend quite some time inside the dungeon you will start to recognise the areas, but walkthroughs without dungeon map could be quite disappointing.

Then it comes to the side quests. The arrangement of the side quests are quite random too as some are at the beginning of the appendix and then others are at the end of the appendix, with a huge section of glossary in the middle. So you will need to flip to and fro to look for the one that you are doing. Which could be pretty annoying. Further the description of how to achieve you goals are too simplistic that you sometimes can't figure out what they are talking about. For example, in the Dog Shrine, sometimes they address the name of the stone tablet but sometimes they describe the stone tablet. This causes more confusion than helping. It will be much better to actually guide the reader by naming the stones themselves. Further it will help a lot if they actually show how the puzzles are like. They did that in the Omnimusha walkthroughs, I cannot understand why they can't do it here this time. The Aromatherapy information of Lucia also lacks the details that one would expect too.

Nonetheless, the section of what needs to be achieved by area and by character is very helpful and easy to access. This gives the reader a clearer idea of what needs to be done. The Solomon's Key solution and the Solomon's Trial solution are pretty good too, though there are one or two mistakes in the Solomon's Trial reward section.

The walkthrough does have pretty good boss and enemy strategy though, which is a very good side of the walkthrough as some people might need to rely on this to handle difficult bosses.

In all, the Shadow Hearts: Covenant walkthrough is not all disappointing, but it doesn't really show the depth and completeness that Brady's guides usually deliver. It's not bad and it's not good either, it's a lurk warm production for a very addictive and enjoyable game.

I totally agree with all these other reviews. I don't understand how the guide is still selling for so much, really disappointed in bradygames for this guide, they usually do such good game guides. I don't wanna beat the subject to death but yes, several times the guide points you in wrong directions.

The only purpose for me to ever buy this guide is because I like collecting guidebooks, alot easier to just go look up online for walkthroughs.