US Game Guide Problems?

Hello members of this forum, my name is Eric Pratte and I am the author of the Prima Guide. I would very much
like to know if there are complaints with the guide. The stories and move list came from Sega as did the cheat mentioned
elsewhere in this forum, but the rest is all me. It is not meant to be a hardcore guide like some of my other guides
(for different publishers), instead we made an attempt to educate the more casual gamer.
The webmasters of this and another VF site offered help to us during the creation of the guide, but since there was little
need for expert strategy and nuance knowledge we decided to graciously decline.
I thank you for your criticisms in advance
Eric

P.S. I have an extensive fighting game background (just in case that is in question).

 

Eric,

Wow. I'm speechless. It's great that you would ask this type of question, especially amongst those here. Jon Goetzman was especially helpful - many thanks to him and you during the writing process.

I think the question raised by many here is that you mention that you have written other hardcore guides. Will one be produced for Virtua Fighter 3tb? I know myself and I'm sure many others here would love that project to happen. VF3tb's steep learning curve and vast depth of play most definitely accomodate more than enough information for a hardcore guide. Hence the publications from Gamest in Japan. (we're all just sick of translating them!)

I have not seen the Prima guide yet - I'm sure you've done a fine job for the casual gamer to grasp VF3tb and hopefully spurr them into playing more.

Many thanks.

Cheers,

<font color=white> Llanfair the prized <font color=green>cabbage</font color=green></font color=white>

 

Cheers, Llanfair... well said... We've all spent many hours trying to translate Japanese guides with limited success (although my Japanese is much better now!)... So, I'm sure a more hardcore VF guide would be well received by the VF community...

cheers,
kbcat

 

The move list in the guide may have come from Sega, but it contains many errors. Some examples. It lists Jacky's df+P,P,f+P and df+P,P,P,P attacks, neither of which are in VF3TB. Jeffry's stomach crush is listed incorrectly as b,df+P+K+G,when it should be b,df+P+K. Kage's shinsodan is incorrectly given as b,db,d,df,f+K. His Kuhadan "Air Circle Bullet" into Shinsodan move is not listed. Sarah's PPu+P and PPb+P are also omitted. There are other errors as well, this is just a sampling. Considering that the guide advertises a "Complete moves list for every character," this is unacceptable.

Regards, Imashroom

 

I agree with Imashroom... errors in a movelist are unacceptable--especially if the guide were to be aimed at more experienced players (in that case the the movelists would be an appendix and not the focus of the guide). But, if Prima's guide can generate interest for the VF series with the casual gamer--then I'm all for it, warts and all.

I honestly believe that the VF series is the best fighting game series bar none, with complex, rich, and rewarding gameplay. The other series have their merits. I like Tekken and Street Fighter, but they can't compare to VF. In spite of this the VF series flounders in North America. I'm hoping that this guide will bring some attention to VF, it's a wonderful game and I want other people to enjoy it. I don't want the day to come when VFx is out only in Japan, and nowhere else because it's not profitable (remember VOOT).

It would be nice if the guide was perfect, but at least there is a guide. I'm sure if we wanted to generate a VF3dc Technical Document with accurate movelists, exhaustive system descriptions, and deep strategies we could... If fact we probably should!


cheers,

<font face="Arial, Helvetica" color="#3366ff">kbcat</font>

 

kbcat, it is good to hear from you again. It's been several years since I had the opportunity to assist you and Yupasawa on the old Firestarter move lists. I value your input so much, I would appreciate your reading the thread I started on Lau's P(d)K+G and Pai's PP(d)K+G -- I'd like to hear your thoughts as to their "existence."
As for your comments concerning the Prima Official Strategy Guide, I respectfully disagree. I am a big consumer protection advocate. If something is advertised as being part of a product and the consumer purchases it with the belief that it is part of what she/he is purchasing, then they are being ripped off if they don't get what they have been promised. This to me is just flat out wrong, and it makes me angry. The Prima Guide doesn't contain what it claims to, and this needs to be corrected. Perhaps they could publish an errata supplement and somehow make it available to the consumer for free. Otherwise it is a counterfeit product that disregards the rights of the consumer. BTW, BradyGAMES just released its Virtua Fighter 3tb Official Strategy Guide. It's interesting that both BradyGAMES and Prima use the words "Official Strategy Guide" on their front covers. The BradyGAMES guide also says "Complete Moves Lists!" on its front cover, which, like Prima's similar statement on its guide, also turns out to be misleading. For example, just like in the Prima guide, I could find no mention of Sarah's PPu+P, or PPb+P, Kage's f,df,d,db,b+P ("another backwards roll"), or his Kuuhadan ["ninja roll"] into shinsodan, and like the Prima guide, it lists Jacky's df+PPf+P (which is not a move in VF3tb). It incorrectly distinguishes Jacky's two TT PK moves as depending on distance from the enemy (when in fact it his foot stance that is the determining factor). There are other similar errors as well, though they are less in number than the Prima Guide's errors. Both guides also fail to do such things as adequately explain how to do Kage's shinsodan attack. However, it's not all bad. The BradyGAMES guide has some fairly decent strategies for fighting the CPU, and it has a series of articles called "Move Spotlight" which will prove useful to beginners (it's just too bad they didn't do one for the Shinsodan!). Also, both guides contain a move list for Dural, which is damn hard to find anywhere else. This might make their purchase worthwhile for some.
Regards, Imashroom (aka Simon Ellberger)

 

Hey Imashroom. We're not a cross purposes. I agree with you. To quote myself,

"I agree with Imashroom... errors in a movelist are unacceptable"

These guides shouldn't be published with incorrect movelists. It's even more pathetic when you realize that an accurate movelist is just a web search away. What I meant when I said "I'm all for it", is that since it's already out there let's hope it will at least generate enough interest in VF that people will seek out more information and become a part of the VF community. I never meant that inaccuracies are acceptable, but it seems we're stuck with them in this case. It would be nice if they provided an errata on their website (they do *have* a website, don't they?)--at least then some of their customers would find it.

As for the Lau/Pai P-Sweep/PP-Sweep stuff I'll have to look into it. But, I can tell you this now, I've always be suspicious of these moves in VF3.

cheers,

<font face="Arial, Helvetica" color="#3366ff">kbcat</font>