Dark Cloud 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

Rating:
Summary: Evil Rabbit Seeks End of World
Review: Dark Cloud 2 is one of those games that desperately need a strategy guide. The game simply has too much going on. While not knowing something is rarely fatal, you will miss a fair number of things if you play from the ground up. This means going back and redoing stuff when you finally figure out what is wrong (if you figure out that something is wrong) or overcompensating by extensive leveling up.

It is no surprise that this guide is over 200 pages. Prima has a high standard for attractive packaging, and this is no exception. The material is generally accurate (I did find a few glaring mistakes) but is less successful from the viewpoint of clarity and coverage. This is one of the few guides I have read where so much effort has been made to avoid spoilers that the authors forgot that a strategy guide is supposed to be part spoiler. Because of this quirk, fairly straightforward information has been obscured or left out.

Take maps, for instance. Unfortunately, there aren't any. This is a game that always rearranges its dungeons, so maps can generally be done without. But, there are fixed locations where maps would help. These areas are important sources of supplies and character improvement materials. Just the place where a little help could go a long way to ease the craziness of the game.

Another example is improving weapons. As you move along in the game, it gradually comes clear that your weapons are never strong enough. It took me a while to realize that powering up is much more complicated than either the manual or the guide indicate. If you don't catch on to this, the last parts of the game can get very frustrating.

So, this is a mixed review. I couldn't have done as well as I did with the game without the help provided by the guide. In that sense it is a great success. But what was left out contributed to a great deal of my frustration. I'm coming to the conclusion that guides are becoming too fixed on large amounts of supplemental, cool, (and basically useless) materials (to compensate for being expensive and of limited use) and less on making sure that coverage is good. Even so, I don't think the buyer is going to be disappointed, but be prepared for a lot of unexpected quirks.

Rating:
Summary: Evil Rabbit Seeks End of World
Review: Dark Cloud 2 is one of those games that desperately need a strategy guide. The game simply has too much going on. While not knowing something is rarely fatal, you will miss a fair number of things if you play from the ground up. This means going back and redoing stuff when you finally figure out what is wrong (if you figure out that something is wrong) or overcompensating by extensive leveling up.

It is no surprise that this guide is over 200 pages. Prima has a high standard for attractive packaging, and this is no exception. The material is generally accurate (I did find a few glaring mistakes) but is less successful from the viewpoint of clarity and coverage. This is one of the few guides I have read where so much effort has been made to avoid spoilers that the authors forgot that a strategy guide is supposed to be part spoiler. Because of this quirk, fairly straightforward information has been obscured or left out.

Take maps, for instance. Unfortunately, there aren't any. This is a game that always rearranges its dungeons, so maps can generally be done without. But, there are fixed locations where maps would help. These areas are important sources of supplies and character improvement materials. Just the place where a little help could go a long way to ease the craziness of the game.

Another example is improving weapons. As you move along in the game, it gradually comes clear that your weapons are never strong enough. It took me a while to realize that powering up is much more complicated than either the manual or the guide indicate. If you don't catch on to this, the last parts of the game can get very frustrating.

So, this is a mixed review. I couldn't have done as well as I did with the game without the help provided by the guide. In that sense it is a great success. But what was left out contributed to a great deal of my frustration. I'm coming to the conclusion that guides are becoming too fixed on large amounts of supplemental, cool, (and basically useless) materials (to compensate for being expensive and of limited use) and less on making sure that coverage is good. Even so, I don't think the buyer is going to be disappointed, but be prepared for a lot of unexpected quirks.

Rating:
Summary: Will Prima ever get it right?
Review: The Dark Cloud 2 Prima Guide is yet another guide by Prima; Another Guide that isn't worth your money.

Many people who have read previous guides by Prima will know that no Prima guide is without errors -- and this is no exception. The Dark Cloud 2 guide is full of information, but, sadly, a lot of it is incorrect.

Such things like their Weapon List are incorrect, And even some of their monster information.

Another thing is they fail to help us with some of the Mini-Games, like Spheda, they don't provide us with any helpful hints or anything, which would be quite helpful, as Spheda can be VERY frustrating.

One huge annoyance is that they don't list where and when you need to get the Power-Up items, and without those items, you're going to have a hard time playing this game.

Even though this guide is ridden with errors, it's very pretty to look at, it has a lot of Official Artwork in it, Pictures of Monsters, Screenshots, etc. Unfortunately, just being pretty won't save this guide...

Apparently, Versus Books, who does a great job on Guides, was supposed to release a guide for Dark Cloud 2, but they seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. If Versus Books DOES come out with a Dark Cloud 2 guide -- buy theirs, and forget Prima ever released this guide.

Don't waste your money.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: This strategy guide is informative of what items you will acquire during the game. They do let you know when an inside scoop is coming up on the particular level you are on. That's as far as i can go though. Alot of info is left vague as far as step by step dungeon walk thrus which I think is why you want a strategy guide in the first place. So you don't miss key items in the game.