What do you dislike about the guide?
The lack of charts and info about assists. I also didn’t like how pictures of normals dominated the pages. I also would have liked if things were a bit cleaner in the special moves section of each character.
What are your favorite parts of the guide?
Rich character sections.
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
I guess that ‘novice’ combos would have been nice. An art section too.
Do you think we used our 400 pages wisely?
Most definitely.
**What are your thoughts in general? **
For a guide to a game like this I am impressed with how quickly everything was gotten together. I consult it all the time.
Most Novice Combos are found through Mission Mode so I don’t think they were MASSIVELY necessary to put in the guide. Especially since everyone should be learning BnB combos, which aren’t as easy in this game. And to learn those, you just need to learn the mechanics of the character, which the guide and Mission Mode do.
**What do you dislike about the guide?
**
As a stone cold beginner to modern fighting games, I found the guide to be slightly confusing - not
so confusing that I wouldn’t say it was good (or even great) but confusing enough that I had to
go to the internet with book in hand and try to make sense of some of it.
One quick example, off the top of my head, was: it took me a long time to figure out why some of
the frame advantage charts had “dashes” in the boxes;
There are a lot of concepts for a beginner to absorb and to me, it felt like I was
trying to drink out of a fire hose without any guidance. I totally understand that
this is a major challenge of what you set out to do - the game doesn’t lend itself
to clear explanation and I am sure you guys knocked it out of the park relative to
previous attempts - but if you’re curious about the final score, I would say that
for this beginner, it didn’t feel quite gentle enough to be a “perfect book.”
**
What are your favorite parts of the guide?**
The intelligent explanations of basic concepts. Each individual concept was handled
very well. It was the connective tissue that I am referring to above…
**
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?**
More guidance into how to learn the skills and concepts involved. Maybe even
exercises/training suggestions.
**Do you think we used our 400 pages wisely? **
Sure, except to the extent I have mentioned. This is more of a “depends on
your goal and audience” question.
**
What are your thoughts in general? **
Truly should set a new standard for guides and game-based publication. It’s
quite possible that I was not the exact audience for the book - almost certainly
I wasn’t given how much space was dedicated to frame advantage and more-than-basic
combos.
So even though I was confused at times, I recognized that this represents a
tremendous achievement for gaming publication.
What do you dislike about the guide?
Can’t find anything wrong atm, haven’t had time to read it all!
What are your favorite parts of the guide?
The writing for the history of MvC, stuff like that is a great read to take a break from the strategy stuff and I really like the history lesson, it brings out the inner nerd in me. Outside of that, I really like how the character sections are done. So much info I find it hard to take a break and read it because I’m busy playing the game too much.
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
I thought it was odd that out of all the normal and special attacks, that the properties of the ground and air throws weren’t included. It would’ve helped a little bit to know if something had a otg state or not without having to test ourselves.
Do you think we used our 400 pages wisely?
For the most part, yes. I would like to say more, but there’s so much info in the guide I really haven’t read it all to say if there was more I wanted to see, but it’s really complete as is. I thought it was an odd inclusion for the DLC characters’ data in the guide, but unless the versions you guys got to test isn’t going to be changed much then I guess it’ll be fine.
What are your thoughts in general?
Greatest fighting game guide to ever hit English print.
What do you dislike about the guide?
Its paperback binding.
What are your favorite parts of the guide?
Besides the amazingly useful, exhaustive content? Hrm… I’d say the overall layout and design. The guide is really gorgeous to flip through. I went out and bought an additional copy just to perserve its binding and shelf it right beside my scholarly books.
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
I wish there was a hardcover edition with better binding. I wasn’t expecting so much usage out of this guide; I just bought it for the sake of supporting you guys. Now it’s always open on my desk whenever I’m in training mode. It’s a type of book I’d like to have in hardcover to perserve its mint condition from heavy usage.
Do you think we used our 400 pages wisely?
Absolutely. Frankly, you guys touched on all the important bases and seemed to have satisfied both the hardcore and casual audience, a feat very few strategy guides accomplish.
What are your thoughts in general?
By chance, did you model your guide from Double Jump Books? The way this book was structured reminds me of the original Disgaea and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne guide from Double Jump Books. This guide is definitely up there among the best. Congratulations on putting together this amazing book and thank you and your team for the hard work.
What do you dislike about the guide?
Some characters had more love in terms of strategy than others, nitpicking though.
The typos, especially on the back cover - unprofessional - at least get these right
NO INDEX - i want to look up a move and have it rapid-referenced; surely this can be done - although stuff is still easy to find - looking up a game mechanic is useful this way as the contents section doesn’t pinpoint this (over 24 pages!). Not sure if anyone else was bothered by this though.
What are your favorite parts of the guide?
System mechanics explanation, Accurate Framedata (re: agrees with the game going gold - too many guides previously screwed up with this). COLOUR (or COLOR!) - vibrant awesomeness that doesn’t put you to sleep - compliments the smaller-than-usual font. Some love for Shuma and Jill.
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
Blockstun? It’s seeming important for constant pressure - minor.
An Index - see above.
Do you think we used our 400 pages wisely?
Yes, crammed with content.
What are your thoughts in general?
Talk to your distributors about worldwide availability.
Preordered mine online at bookdepository.co.uk in the UK - got it quick! But anyone else outside the USA wanting one is SOL for the time being. Pity because it’s such a great tool to get someone immersed in the game.
In terms of updates, should we be expecting anything from you in the future?
Not really necessary imo. It’s easy enough to break down what’s provided, learn how things can chain from that, and simplify things a little if need be.
What’s up with there being an export restriction on this book?
I first ordered the guide from a large online store and they send a message yesterday that the book wasn’t available anymore, I then placed an order at the american book center, but they just e-mailed me the following
You placed an order with us for the book
9780744012873 - Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Signature Series Guide
Unfortunately there’s an export restriction for this title.
This means that we are unable to get this book any time soon.
We apologize for this.
Nothing, the guide is very well laid out. The history of the series is useful to new players, I’d imagine.
What are your favorite parts of the guide?
The battle plan for each character was especially helpful as a baseline way of thinking about everyone.
What would you liked to have seen that wasn’t included?
Some list all on one or two pages that says what purposes different characters serve. For instance, Battery character, Meter-user (or Meter-dependent), and Quality Assist all come to mind as archetypes of characters that would be useful to see all on one page.
**Do you think we used our 400 pages wisely? **
I think you guys did a great job!
What are your thoughts in general?
I bought the guide thinking that it would become outdated after the metagame develops in a couple months, but this is something that is going to last a long while, especially since the frame data is all right there. Really nice work, and I was impressed by the guide.
Dislike:
Keep in mind this is a brief overview, the “cancel” notation screwed with me a bit as characters such as Dante H cancel (so seeing a Standing H->Cancel->M had me thinking a hard cancel versus canceling with a medium) .This might just be how my mind initially read the notation. Far more important however,
Needed more simple combos
It might just be my mediocrity, but I have great success with streamlined combos over the grand, even back in MVC2.
It being a paperback also sucks in terms of how well this will hold up while reading/playing.
Favorite Part:
Battle Plan is really insightful. I have to say as a book in general you had a very attractive layout/scheme. What should have been included?
As mentioned, more simple combos and perhaps some type of “UPDATE PLAN”, like “should MVC3 be patched/DLC characters etc, we’ll link you up with any corrections.”
I know Shoryuken exists for such already, but still that would have been a good afterhtought this MVC3 seems the most proned to updates compared to earlier titles like SF4.
*
400 pages *
Yeah, its thick and everything to me as a competitive fighter liked it. Again that’s more of a personal goal, I didn’t find anything wasted for sure.
*
Final Thoughts*
Only and I mean only strategy guide I have -ever- bought for a fighting game if that tells you anything. Nicely written with good details and a layout that makes finding what you need and explaining it relatively simple. Good job.
I really hope you can work something out with Bradygames to make a new SSF4 (arcade/whatever) edition guide for when it gets released on consoles. The current Prima guides for SF4 are complete rubbish; I’d kill to have a guide excatly like this ridiculously fantastic MvC3 guide for the next iteration of SF4. Pretty please!
Outside of that, I really like how the character sections are done. So much info I find it hard to take a break and read it because I’m busy playing the game too much. 