i love the guide it is ridiculously good. but anything can be improved upon. when i look at the guide the 3 things i most want that arent in there are a comprehensive list of assists in ONE section and what those assists do… not just where they hit but full stats for them such as whether or not they have any invulnerability frames and for how long… maybe there range as well. also in that section i would have liked a detailed analysis of how to use assists… like “100 uses for assists” (or 10 or 25… w/e) being an mvc newb it would help to know of as many different uses for assists as possible, i’ve already learned probably 20 different uses or so, but there are probably hundreds of uses, so knowing as many as possible even just in theory beforehand, would expedite the learning process for beginners such as myself.
also in every characters section a “mock” team and where that characters placement in that team should be would be helpful as well, not necessarily to play that team but once again to get more of a feel for how its assists are used as well as team making.
and finally a list of all the invulnerable moves in the game (as well as assists) would have been helpful, and yes in its own section, or atleast at the beginning or end of each characters section.
anyways all that would most likely take up alot of space and the guide is certainly sufficient without it, but the question was posed so i thought hard for what might make it better… the guide is so good that one has to actually think to find things to be improved.
I’ll start by saying that I love this guide, and it’s the best guide I have ever bought. So, regardless of how critical I am, keep that in mind - I am singing your praises around, and these criticisms are really small compared to the wealth of knowledge you have given us. I have completely changed the way I play characters because of this guide, and I start new ones having a decent idea of what to do.
Thank you.
It’s 400 pages, and you wasted some on a pretty picture of the character with random crap about them that you can find in the actual game.
No explanation of what my grid means (super minor complaint).
Nigh-non-existent team-building sections for each character. I can sum them all up in a few sentences: “Use Samurai Edge for unblockables!”; “Beam assists really help this character!”; “Use Sentinel Force or Daggers to protect your advance!” - that’s about as deep as the advice goes.
Hit stun degeneration wasn’t explained via formula; I’m left to wonder. I understand that was probably a massive task for what little time you had, though.
This one is actually big: assists don’t list what special properties they have compared to their normal selves most of the time. Sometimes moves change between the normal move and its assist version (Shoryuken), sometimes they don’t (Orbital Grudge).
It seems like your lingo for projectile durability is a bit scattered, and it’s not always clear what is being conveyed.
The frame data. I tend to play by the beat of my own drum, and it really helps to know what is safe and what is unsafe without testing. I would not have bought the guide without this.
Hitboxes/hurtboxes. This is just as important as frame data to me. Ideally though, Capcom should let us see this in training mode.
A table of all projectiles for easy reference; I have to flip to the character’s individual pages to see what beats what, and it’s a time-eater.
Something about the weaknesses of characters, how to exploit them, and how to cover them. For example, most Dormammu players are struggling right now in figuring out how to get a rushdown player off of them without resorting to Haggar’s assist. It’s a huge question that goes entirely unaddressed in the guide. Most of the guide seems to be focused on “how to kill”, and not “how to recover”; everyone has to go defensive at times, and it’s something that seemed to be completely ignored outside of a few cases where a move is obviously for busting out of pressure, like Shinkuu Tatsu.
This would have been great. More comparison charts. I think the only one we had was the health chart.
I would be fine with all the pictures being removed, but I know the general public wants their pictures; not much to be said here.
Keep up the awesome work - I hope you get to work on future guides, because you did a splendid job.
great feedback everybody! i’m also a total dork for charts and graphs comparing data from different characters. i wrote some old gamefaqs guide like 37 years ago that was basically just that lol
The only thing I noticed that was missing in the guide that might have helped newer players was some sort of table listing each character’s primary role. So, battery, meter-user, assist, etc.
Like a few others have said, more comprehensive comparison charts (assists, projectiles, etc.) would have been nice. What’s there is excellent though.
One particular thing I would have liked to see is an evaluation of assists based on how well they could function as a Crossover Counter, which is something I intend to test myself. My TvC game improved tremendously once I realized I was using two of the few characters in that game that had an invincible counter; it’s nice to have something like that in your toolbox against very aggressive rushdown players.
To those who wish there was more information in the guide on “how to beat X character,” try reading through the character’s section to discover which attacks are unsafe, then file that away in memory.
What do you dislike about the guide?
Other than what I’ll touch upon in question 3, nothing. Great guide! What are your favorite parts of the guide?
This would probably have to be the combos and the frame data… very useful. My only hope is that they stay consistent, as frame data is easily patchable. What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
Probably a team section. Maybe with team building strategies and also a few example teams and how each character contributes to the whole synergy. Do you think we used our 400 pages wisely?
You did an absolutely fantastic job. Regardless of anyone’s answers, you included a LOT of valuable information and not everyone’s desires from a guide can be included, even with 400 pages.
**What are your thoughts in general? **
Touche, Mr. Brady. You can bet on me buying another guide from you (should i ever feel the need to again)
big typo: wolverine section, the very beginning of the highly important strategy section says something along the lines of “Your goal with wolverine is to land berserker charge” when it should say berserker SLASH. It was very confusing for a while…
Maybe in the “assists” section of every character’s page, you should’ve listed some specific teams or duo of characters that work really well together instead of just leaving it vague like "____ is good with ____ assists. The information there is still fenomenal and the guide is the best one I’ve ever read in my life. Very good job.
i haven’t gone through it all (400 pgs), but i’ve read quite a bit.
What are your favorite parts of the guide?
frame data
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
what you thought were a character’s weakness. this way people that play a particular character can work on that or if they have problem w/ a specific character they can try to exploit it. i would have liked it if you give a more in depth on why/how/when to use assist. imo this is probably the biggest difference when comparing versus series to other FGs and a lot of people don’t know why/how/when they should use assist. for a person that hasn’t played a versus series, assist either get underutilized or they get used way too randomly.
What do you dislike about the guide?
The overabundant usage of exclamation points makes parts of the book read like an '80s toy commercial. I’m guessing this was from the editor at Brady.
What are your favorite parts of the guide?
The content is just amazing. Aside from the gameplay stuff that most people are mentioning, I really enjoyed that you guys took the time to include information on the history of marvel. The information on arcade sticks was a wise choice to include as well.
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
Info on the missions would probably have been helpful. More emphasis on team creation strategy would have been nice too.
Do you think we used our 400 pages wisely?
Definitely.
What are your thoughts in general?
You guys really raised the bar for not only fighting game guides, but game guides in general. Yes, this even surpasses the legendary Versus Books Alpha 2 guide. I say without hyperbole or exaggeration that this is by far the best game guide I have ever read. Not only did I buy a copy for myself, but I picked up an extra for the Beijing expats who can’t get it locally. I’m also shilling it on another gaming website I frequent, plus the Newbie Dojo here.
Amazing job. I’m not sure what they paid you guys, but it wasn’t enough.
I’m probably one of the only “Deeply Serious” Competitors to actually go through the guide. Being in the mvc2 scene for over 10 years and getting into this game hardcore with players like fanatiq and neo, I can tell you that this guide is the first guide since I was 7 years old (UMK3 guide) that actually is worth the money.
The guide is helpful to scrubs as well as top players. It actually has helped me fight against opponents that I normally don’t know how to fight against. I mean, if you gave me about a year , I’m sure I could have discovered everything in the guide on my own or by watching matches/grapevine. But it really saved me the trouble of doing that and I believe I have an edge over other players who still don’t know matchups (which is key to winning early in the game).
TBH, I haven’t read through the whole guide even though it is the mvc3 bible, but I skim through it for certain things I need to know how to beat or counter.
The only bad thing I would have to say is that there is some tactic questions I had that I thought would be answered in the guide but it wasn’t (I don’t want to post it just in case I discover it and don’t want to share).
As far as usefulness, the character specs and frame data of course I studied to keep as ammunition and to know what beats what.
I can write up a whole writeup on this guide but Ill leave it at that
What are your favorite parts of the guide?
Screenshots associating the moves with their data are really useful. They save me time when I want to look up something in a match video I’m watching. Also the writeup for the individual characters were very informative re: game plan and approach.
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
Similar to what others have suggested, I would also like an appendix of sorts at the end with tables combining all the data together. It’s a small caveat considering how good the guide already is, though.
**What are your thoughts in general? **
The guide is really good and the price is a steal for the information in there. I bought it expecting to just consult it when I need to check frames, but now I pick it up whenever I want to learn a matchup quickly.
