As of late, I have been playing first person shooters for little over a year now. Few days I got back into role playing games and must say I have missed this genera on games. The game in question is Star Ocean: The last hope (for the PS3) as it turns out I had this game before for the 360 and had a strategy guide for it. I tried this time around not using it, and that didn't last very long.

 

With this said, I do use (or used to) strategy guides for deep role playing games. Best example I can give of this is another star ocean game, Star Ocean: Till the end of time. The main story of the game last right around 45 hours with a SG, and 50 without a SG. This does not include all the side quest and secret bosses; with a SG the entire game takes 220 hours, with out I'd say close too 270+

 

So do you use strategy guides the fellow gamers? Do you use them only for the secret part of the games, or for the entire game. Do you think it takes away from the game in anyway, or do you not care at all as long as you beat it?

Internet > Strategy guides.

 

I use Gamefaqs and a wiki that is associated with the game for all my infos.

Internet > Strategy guides.

 

I use Gamefaqs and a wiki that is associated with the game for all my infos.

True as well. Internet wikis can be very useful for games, as long as a lot of people put information on them. If the community is not that big, the site won't as well. Games I know that have big communities are games like Oblivion, fallout, call of duty, just to name some of the most popular. Games like star ocean, their wikis are not as in depth as those sites. So it is hard to get a lot of information needed for secret areas of games, as with strategy guides all the information needed for all the game is right here in from of me ready to go.

On my first playthroughs, I usually just stick with my good old gamer intuition, exploring and figuring out puzzles on my own. When I'm trying to achieve a "perfect file" by getting all the items and such, I'll use an internet FAQ because I have a phobia for missing missables.

I'll only use a guide if I get terribly stuck on a part of a game.

 

The most recent example was playing through Majoras mask for the first time (I know, a little late to the game) and getting massively stuck on the last temple where everything turns upside down. In Fact, Zelda games are the main ones I can remember. In OOT I, along with what seems like a lot of people got stuck on the Water temple on my first play through. Considering I was only around 11 at the time, I'm surprised just how far I got without the guide.

 

Apart from that, I rarely use guides apart for finding secrets after completing the game, or looking for tips on how to get certain endgame content.

I'll only use a guide if I get terribly stuck on a part of a game.

 

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Apart from that, I rarely use guides apart for finding secrets after completing the game, or looking for tips on how to get certain endgame content.

This. In general, I'm just too cheap to buy guides, and it isn't like I've needed a strategy guide in years.

 

I'll have an internet resource up if I need one, but that barely goes past character/item stats unless I really can't solve the puzzle. That rarely happens, I don't play many puzzle-happy games, and knowing how to get such and such character isn't going to help me actually do that in the game.

 

Though I do use this one Fire Emblem fansite frequently. Radiant Dawn has like 60 characters or something, three of which have fairly convoluted recruitment methods, and they all have their growth rates listed out very neatly.

Internet > Strategy guides.

 

I use Gamefaqs and a wiki that is associated with the game for all my infos.

 

Pretty much this. I use them if I get stuck or (more often) want to find secrets. For instance, I've used the Dragon Age wiki quite a bit, often looking at quest rewards actually. Because the main quests usually have two ways they can end, I like to check out the two ways.