The Legend of Dragoon: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

Rating:
Summary: My last review is wrong! This is the real one!
Review: This isn't the best of guides and it certainly isn't the worst of guides either. (If you want to see a horrible guide then get that FFIX crap!) I keep looking through this guide and notice that it is extremely helpful and full of Information. The stardust checklist makes it easy to keep track of what stardusts you've gotten. The optional Sidequests list isn't very helpful at all in fact thats a quick what to do. But for Optional quest like Magician Faust, its totally useless for stuff like that. Some HP listings are off. Its strategy is pretty helpful though. I also noticed that it doesn't list every item in an area. I also can't use it for a recomeneded party. (Albert and Kongol are too low in magic defense so why use them all the time?) Next is that some of there boss strategies are helpful (Use your own though) All in all this guide is so-so because it has no maps and it doesn't really have any secrets at all.

Rating:
Summary: Basic Walk-through
Review: This one had the makings of a good guide, or so I thought initially. First the good: The introductory section is VERY strong; you get story as well as gameplay background information, followed by an introduction to each character (accompanied by all of their special equipment and techniques). The item and equipment lists describe adequately the functionality of the game's treasures (though neither is 100% complete). A full-spread map helped me find the specific region I needed to travel to if I had forgotten. And most of the boss strategies were pretty well-written, albeit rigid (i.e., tailored to one specific group of fighters). Finding the 50 Star Dust stones, one of the biggest of the game's secrets, is made easy with a handy detailed checklist. The inclusion of an optional quest list was also a nice one. The not so good: The enemy list in the opening section is next to useless. Not only is it missing a handful of the game's creatures, but you're only told the name of the special attacks that some of the creatures possess. Being that a majority of the foes DON'T have these, a good 70% of the 2 page chart is filled in with "N/A" . Stats, specifically the amount of experience and gold you win from each enemy would have made a trip to these pages worthwhile. The area walkthroughs themselves also left a lot to be desired. Being that LoD is a very linear game, more of the guide's space would have been better utilized if 2D maps were thrown in depicting the specific treasure chest locations. Instead, most of the directions tell you how to get from point A to point B, when more often than not this is a simple trek across the screen from left to right. On the flip side, there are a few areas in the walkthrough that take this "point A to point B" notion to the other extreme; the desert area on Disc 4, for example, is one of the game's biggest and most confusing areas--the guide simply says "move on to the next area," and completely ignores the 25 or so maze-like screen the player must go through to traverse it. And the bad (and in this case, VERY bad): The main part of the "walkthrough" is, unfortunately, the undisputed king of plot spoiling I've ever come across in the hundreds of guides I've ever played along with. Major twists and turns to the game's story are strewn across the pages, calling out to the readers like newspaper headlines. For example, I was flipping ahead a few pages to see if one of the bonus dungeons was covered (which it wasn't), and in doing so the climax of the story was "accidentally" revealed to me when I looked at the wrong paragraph. This is WRONG, and completely unnecessary. The space should have been devoted to areas I mentioned above. Top all of this off with a spelling and editing job comparable to the game's (if you've played it, you know what I'm talking about), and you're left with something that could have been so much more.

Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as pretty as the game
Review: This one had the makings of a good guide, or so I thought initially. First the good: The introductory section is VERY strong; you get story as well as gameplay background information, followed by an introduction to each character (accompanied by all of their special equipment and techniques). The item and equipment lists describe adequately the functionality of the game's treasures (though neither is 100% complete). A full-spread map helped me find the specific region I needed to travel to if I had forgotten. And most of the boss strategies were pretty well-written, albeit rigid (i.e., tailored to one specific group of fighters). Finding the 50 Star Dust stones, one of the biggest of the game's secrets, is made easy with a handy detailed checklist. The inclusion of an optional quest list was also a nice one. The not so good: The enemy list in the opening section is next to useless. Not only is it missing a handful of the game's creatures, but you're only told the name of the special attacks that some of the creatures possess. Being that a majority of the foes DON'T have these, a good 70% of the 2 page chart is filled in with "N/A" . Stats, specifically the amount of experience and gold you win from each enemy would have made a trip to these pages worthwhile. The area walkthroughs themselves also left a lot to be desired. Being that LoD is a very linear game, more of the guide's space would have been better utilized if 2D maps were thrown in depicting the specific treasure chest locations. Instead, most of the directions tell you how to get from point A to point B, when more often than not this is a simple trek across the screen from left to right. On the flip side, there are a few areas in the walkthrough that take this "point A to point B" notion to the other extreme; the desert area on Disc 4, for example, is one of the game's biggest and most confusing areas--the guide simply says "move on to the next area," and completely ignores the 25 or so maze-like screen the player must go through to traverse it. And the bad (and in this case, VERY bad): The main part of the "walkthrough" is, unfortunately, the undisputed king of plot spoiling I've ever come across in the hundreds of guides I've ever played along with. Major twists and turns to the game's story are strewn across the pages, calling out to the readers like newspaper headlines. For example, I was flipping ahead a few pages to see if one of the bonus dungeons was covered (which it wasn't), and in doing so the climax of the story was "accidentally" revealed to me when I looked at the wrong paragraph. This is WRONG, and completely unnecessary. The space should have been devoted to areas I mentioned above. Top all of this off with a spelling and editing job comparable to the game's (if you've played it, you know what I'm talking about), and you're left with something that could have been so much more.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Companion
Review: With any RPG you should consider buying the player's guide. If not for anything else, to see what you have to look forward to, and it is always helpful for difficult parts. Legend of Dragoon is a great game, I used the strategy guide a lot and it was a huge help. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who is deciding to purchase Legend of Dragoon for the PlayStation.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: With this book you are almost certain to beat the bosses, Without it you won't find very much Stardust, it tells you where to go, and it even gives you a strategy for the last boss. It would be nice if the book had a few area maps, but that's okay. You will have a lot more fun with this book than without it.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: With this book you are almost certain to beat the bosses, Without it you won't find very much Stardust, it tells you where to go, and it even gives you a strategy for the last boss. It would be nice if the book had a few area maps, but that's okay. You will have a lot more fun with this book than without it.