Ouch. this weekend brought me my first blog to not score a single comment. I guess it can be attributed to a couple factors -- it being a weekend post and nothing coming out this week being the main contributors.

But I encourage you to look back at This Week's Releases post and check out Mana Khemia this week.

But there's more Mana Khemia for today, hopefully that's not what scared people off last time.

But Saturday I happened to wander into the godforesaken land named the mall. Weaving in and out of the congragation of punk teenagers outside the yet to be opened new American Eagle outfitter (hey, kiddos -- the thing isn't open yet. Won't be for another month. Move along, there's other places to spend your parent's money on preppy shit) I finally ducked into EB.

I usually don't go into that one seeing as its in the mall and it's one of five less than twenty minutes away from me. One of three within a square-mile of each other in fact. But I was there and can never pass up a chance to be parted from my money for a piece of software.

But the first thing I noticed was that they already had the strategy guide for Mana Khemia on the shelves, despite the fact that it doesn't ship until today, and for only $19.99 while Amazon retails it for about $5 more plus shipping. I snatched it up and rushed out of the mall almost forgetting to find my girlfriend first.

It's kind of small, although it's about the same dimensions most of Double Jump's guides are (sans the monster they put out for Rogue Galaxy.) And because of the structure of Mana Khemia's narrative the walkthru is easily the smallest part of the book.



Now I know the internet gaming community is almost entirely anti-stragety guides; the common agrument being that there's nothing you can find in those guides you can't get for free at a site like gamefaqs or whatnot.

Now I guess this is true, but I've always been a fan of guides and I somewhat collect them. Though I've yet to buy one outside of the RPG genre. It's definitely a silly thing to buy for a platformer or a fighting game. And don't get me started on the Madden guides. Why they make those I'll never know. EDIT -- Take that back I did have one for the original Jak and Daxter, albeit I don't recall ever buying it or using it. Yet its here in my collection.

But I've always been a "book guy" -- right now there's dozens of boxes in my parent's basement filled with books waiting for me to once again have room for them. I love the feel and the smell of books. I love being able to hold something in my hand that's tangible.

I don't know about most of your set ups but my computer is fairly far away from where my systems are set up and it's just easier to have everything you need in hand, a few thumb flicks away, instead of running between rooms or with a burning laptop sitting atop your legs or on the ottoman.

What about printing things out? When gamefaqs first started I remember printing out the entirity of someone's guide on Final Fantasy 6. It numbered in the 300 page range. I kept feeding the printer paper for hours and even changed the damn ink once in the middle of that. Had I been smarter I probably should have hit cancel but once you get 100 pages in you kind of get determined to just finish the damn thing.

And ugh plain text formats? There's just something about a computer screen where words start blurring together and I lose my place. Usually strategy guides tend to have pictures and more interesting backgrounds. There's a huge difference between looking at a list of Persona's in a certain tarot class in the Persona 3 guide and on gamefaqs.

Although its becoming less and less the case, strategy guides use to be chaulk full of great artwork. It's kind of dissapointing to flip through the Mana Khemia book and see artwork used over and over again that's probably in the manual itself. But I've definitely see worse in the artwork department. Artwork, at one point in time, was my main defense of RPG strategy guides and it is a great shame that a lot of guides are forgetting great artwork.

Of course the other big complaint with guides are those people that think they're so noble and don't like to 'cheat.' I usually flip through a guide I buy once or twice, play the game and never look at the book again until my interest in the game wanes or until I'm done and I need to find some of the subquests that aren't blatently obvious. Seriously, a lot of things they put into games you almost need the guide to figure out they're even in there. Maximizing your relationships (and thus Personas) in Persona 3 almost requires a damn guide on its own to do. And I don't know about you, but I don't quite have the same amount of time that I once did to blow on figuring out how to unlock some of the best Persona's in that game on my second go through.

I'm not saying its not cool that you don't use guides. I understand fully. I'm not saying I need them to beat RPGs, especially the ones that come out today. Just don't act so snooty or noble when you declare that you don't use guides. Good for you. In the long run, no one cares.

And maybe this one is just me but I'm fascinated by tables. Bestiaries make me sweat. The Frog Logs in the Rogue Galaxy probably excited me to the levels porn could only hope to acheive. And just the raw data of character growth? Don't even get me started on level charts.

I've never owned it (mainly because its in Japanese above my level and goes for over $200 now) but Xenogears has a 300 page guide book that goes into a lot more backstory of the world of Xenogears. Not the game but the world the game takes place it. The evolution of the society and its social structure. The geography of the world. Its science. And the characters are explored further. Chaulk full of artwork. Its definitely one of my Holy Grails and I wish more guide books would attempt to be that. I think if there were more of these 'companion' books or the Ultimania guides were released in English they'd be huge hits with fans.

They're just another collectible and for a guy who collects books, they're my thing. I can see the reasons why they are a waste but in the long run, what collectible isn't a waste? The reason to buy them is for your own personal reason. I'm probably not the only one on here that collects guides, so c'mon and speak up. Who else buys them just to have them?Who else buys video game art books?

PS -- Once I have my copy of Mana Khemia in hand I'll start writing a review. From the guide it sounds like I can't give the battle system a complete, fair shake until chapter 5 so it may be a week or two before I get to that point. I'd also like to complete it one time through before then but we'll see how it goes. The fact that it has a New Game+ is encouraging so I can rush through it once and then expand at my leisure later.