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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A cut above other strategy guides, March 12, 2004
This review is from: Soul Calibur 2 Official Fighter's Guide (Paperback)
First off, note that this is a "Fighter's Guide", not a "Strategy Guide." It includes a section on Weapon Master Mode, mostly to tell you about the weapons. It includes a section on the game features, mostly to tell you about how they affect the characters. The only reason to buy this guide is because of the quality analysis it offers in the character sections. Strengths, Weaknesses, effective tactics, useful combos, and most of the moves that were left out of the official movelist. However, the guide is obviously one author's opinion, and while Lummis has obviously played the game against good competition and knows advice for each character's strengths and weaknesses, he's not as brutal about abusable moves or difficult characters as he could be. As a case study, the guide recommends forward,A,A,A as a good move for Kilik to use when expecting a counter hit, and lists several reasons why this is so. It also includes a handy picture in case you weren't sure which move forward,A was. In the movelist, it includes forward,A,A:B+K, a superior followup on counter hit which is not in the in-game movelist, but does not note that it is a Just Frame attack requiring precise timing. Neither movelist includes forward,A,A:A+B+K, an alternative non-offensive followup to the move. In this case, as in many others throughout the guide, Lummis offers detailed information on how to improve your Soul Calibur game for players who aren't used to thinking critically about their character, and improves upon the game's training modes, but is not completely exhaustive. If you're a beginning or intermediate player struggling to beat your button-mashing friends and the master of your local arcade, this guide is great. It provides a lot more information than a simple movelist, and the vast majority of it is quality information. However, don't hesitate to consult other sources.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great book for beginners, September 12, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Soul Calibur 2 Official Fighter's Guide (Paperback)
This book teaches you all the basic moves and tactics for every character-including Link, Heihachi and Spawn. All characters that are unlockable are also given coverage. Broken down into strengths and weaknesses; and offering gameplay styles for each character, the advice given is crucial for a newbie trying to pick up this game. Pick up terms used by SC II veterans easily with a guide to buffers, 8 way runs, guard impacts, air control, the different stagger effects, and more. The downside is the lack of deep insights. Only certain characters have a combo section-not all. Advanced players will find the advice rather amatuerish, and probably can give the author a detailed explaination of the generic "mind games" term used. Weapon Master coverage is also dense. It tells you the condition needed to unlock every goodie available, but doesn't tell you HOW to go about tackling the challenge! Consider it a reference if you will. Still, if you are a novice player who starts out from SC II, and knows next to nothing how this game works, pick up this guide. I highly recommend it for beginners, as when you are done with it, you will be transformed from noob to intermediate level. Head over to your local arcade to gain experience if you are hell bent on being a pro.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a bad book but it falls short at times., March 9, 2004
This review is from: Soul Calibur 2 Official Fighter's Guide (Paperback)
The Soul Calibur 2 Official Fighters Guide is a great "hintbook" but that doesn't neccessarily mean it's a "Strategy Guide". Which isn't bad. The guide is after all, a "Fighter's" guide and therefore it helps you to master the combat of Soul Calibur 2 but not the game itself. To begin, the game REALLY helps out for someone who isn't familiar with fighters or the Soul Calibur franchise for that matter. It helps you learn all the basics quite well. Each character has a combo's list and tips on how to use them. Detailing their strentghs and weaknesses and even tells you for some of them which characters are good to match against others. It doesn't mention characters to use all the time, but you get the general idea of who should match who. I also like that when reading this guide, its as if it's speaking to you. Therefore, it really is a good reference. Should you be a master at SCII then it probably won't matter, but let's just assume you actually got the guide to help you improve your game. A master player of Soul Calibur shouldn't need to buy this guide unless you're a collector. I do have a couple of gripes. The guide doesn't go in-depth on the many modes the game has. The Weapon Master Mode does a great job detailing what it is... but how do I go about it? Also, the fact that the combo guide and such is taken straight from the in-game is sad. It DOES tell you combos that aren't in the game itself at least. There's a moves list for all the characters as well. My last gripe is actually a big one. I LOVE that they have every character but for three specific characters (Assassin, Berserker and Lizardman) they give you a command list but they don't give you the strentghs and weaknesses of these characters. It's as if when they got down to those three they got lazy. A list of all the weapons for every charater is included as well as an art gallery. In short, where the guide fails to please is mostly at the fact that it's mostly a "Character" guide. It's great to learn about the games basics but if you want to master the game itself the guide will only get you halfway there. On the positive side
+Covers every character
+Strentghs and Weaknesses detailed
+A great leg up for those wanting to improve their game in combat.
+The text speaks to you
+The Game Basics are great for those new to fighting games and Soul Calibur The Bad
-It is, sadly, only a "Fighters" guide and not a full blown "Strategy Guide"
-Assassin, Berserker and Lizardman aren't detailed enough
-Not going to help you master the game
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