Anybody here purchased/checked out Prima's guide? How is it?

Was kind of expecting SCV guidebook quality but I’m not going to put it down just yet until I hear what you guys think.

Layout feels sloppy. Don’t like that frame data is separate from the character strategy / combo section.

Does it have frame data for the DLC characters?

I’ve heard the frame data is horribly wrong, so yeah, buyer beware.

Assuming you mean Angel etc? (Haven’t followed the game until today) No. Not that I see.

The layout if really odd. Its not alphabetized but rather characters are grouped together and commented on by different members of FGC and then listed alphabetically. So Aris Bakhtanians is first and he writes on Armor King, Asuka, Baek, Dragunov, Feng, King, Miguel & Wang. I find this really annoying and wish they would have put the characters in order.

Per character you get “Key Moves”. Which is just a list of different moves, and why they are good in different situations. You get “Advanced Strategies” which talk about how to properly play characters. “What to practice” which talks about practicing moves or mobility options that play to your characters strength. “How to beat…” which is just basic strategies on how to attack a characters weakness. “Combos” which is three solo combos and three tag combos.

You do not get a complete move list per character in their section, which is REALLY frustrating/annoying for a new player to the series like me. Instead to find what looks like a complete move list, I have to go to the “Frame Data” section. This is the second half of the book. This is ALSO not alphabetized but rather just characters listed at random, again, frustrating and annoying. The moves are listed, no pictures of what the animation SHOULD look like. Again, from playing the training room, its easy to mistakenly input a move and think your getting something when in fact your getting a totally different move. Picture would have REALLY helped and have been a nice touch.

I wish they had an allegiance chart so that I could pair players together and team combinations I should avoid.

This is a really weak guide when compared to something like the UMVC3 guide. If your new to the series, like i am, then you need all the help you can get, so I guess its worth picking up, if your experienced in the series then I couldn’t see a reason to pick this up.

5/10

No it does not.

Oh darn. Well, thanks!

Needs WAY more pictures…and any guide with “how to beat x character” just feels kinda scrubby. As if all players will play that character the same way.

:eek: Thanks for the reviews; the price tag alone is what kinda pulled me away from the guide, but hearing about the content is good to base a decision on.

Regarding “how to beat a character” topics, certainly people don’t play characters in the same style, but all players playing one character have the same tools and those tools don’t change between players. If you can beat Kazuya’s Hell Sweep by stepping to the right, there’s no way to not have that move lose to stepping no matter who plays him. I don’t think it’s scrubby, really, if it will teach you what to look out for and how to deal with the strong tools the character has.

I’ll probably pick it up tomorrow. After the bar was set so high with the Marvel 3, U Marvel 3 and the SCV guide, I was kinda hoping for the same. I was a fan of the SF X T guide, too. I usually buy them for all the info as well as for some cool artwork.

I heard a friend of mine say that there was an execution level listing somewhere in the guide. Can anyone tell me where Dragunov, Roger, and Christie/Eddy sit?

It’s bad. The main reason for a lot of people to buy it is move information and while between the guide and the in games menu you can grab this info, it’s not all laid out making it very tedious to have to flip around to multiple sources to put it all together.

Issues:
[LIST]
[]The frame data only shows a finished strings data, there’s no info on where you might be safer on block if you end it early.
[
]Bound/OTG/Tracking/etc… not listed next to the move. Highly inconvenient to new players.
[]high/mid/low… not listed next to the move. Also highly inconvenient to new players.
[
]Unalphabetized and split guide/frame chart making it a pain in the ass to navigate on the fly
[]Write ups on key moves are passable, but I still feel it was far too little info given.
[
]No alliance chart
[/LIST]

Simply the guide’s only perk is frame data on hand and it’s very poorly done.

I got and while it is informative, the layout is terrible. My guess is they wanted to showcase the writers. The frame data is nice. I am curious how accurate it is. I would rather a matchup portion than a how to beat character section. I do agree that many of the characters their section is just too short.

Which company did the SCV [S]guidebook[/S] bible? Couldn’t they have done it? Then again, I’m not sure how the “politics” behind who gets to do a guide on which game works so yeah.

sometimes they release sample pages of the guides. try searching for previews.

…damn. Should’ve looked here before I ordered lol. Ah well, it’s something at least. Still, the layout sounds very bad.

If you buy the guide with the intentions of strategies and character basics through advanced topics, then the guide is worth getting. It’s definitely faster than sifting through the internet for information, I actually referred to the guide earlier when writing about Jinpachi on TZ.

Ah, I see. That’s good to know, I was worried that it’d be hard to at least get that info from it. I can definitely get a tthe frame data later for specific things; just need something to give me some ideas with Leo and Feng, since I’m still learning Leo (picked her up late in T6 before I stopped playing) and Feng (played a little bit in t5 and now trying to main him here).

It has some good information, but it is so unorganized I rarely use it.