Are written walkthroughs slowly dying?

[RH | 5,212]

48 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

Ctrl-f works every time.  Jump right to whatever you need. 

I can't say for sure but I probably learned of the ctrl+f shortcut because of GameFAQs.

[fox | 1,771]

58 minutes ago, Shmup said:

Yes I used that one but it’s not very in-depth. Some quick dot points aren’t like the guides I meant where you would get break downs of every item and locations and details per level.

If the written guide isn't detailed enough, it should be easy to scrub through a video playthru and find the exact level and section that is giving you grief
 

[OptOut | 9,031]

5 hours ago, B.A. said:

I used to print those out to have a physical guide. Like 100+ pages of beautiful text!

I guess we figured out where the rainforest went, lol!

 

As for myself, I generally will use both written walkthroughs on GameFAQs and YouTube videos.

I would say that a WELL WRITTEN walkthrough is preferable to the video, in terms of being able to convey more specific and detailed information. Plus, you can easily scan through and reread as many times as you like, whereas the video can be annoying when you have to keep skipping back and forth to find exactly what you want.

Videos are better for boss battles though, when it may be hard to describe the timing and positioning necessary to beat certain bosses with particular patterns and weakpoints. I usually watch a video after losing to a boss a couple times, to see how it's done, usually written guides aren't as helpful for that.

However, the biggest problem with the written walkthroughs, if they even exist for certain games, is they were usually written by 14 year olds in block paragraphs thousands of words long with descriptions like:

"walk back the way you came until you see the thing now you're going to have to go back down the third passage on the left and shoot the guy then pick up the 4th energy crystal and take it back to the place you found the 7th do-whacky but be careful because there are more guys down the second passage to the right but if you go down the stairs then you'll find some more ammo and a health pack so you should probably pick them up now or wait until you're low on energy when you come back this way after you pick up the 9th do-whacky before you fight the boss."

And then you read the boss description (which was the bit you were ACTUALLY looking for) and it says:

"Oh man this guy was really tough, I don't know even how I managed it but if you hit him enough then he'll eventually go down but watch out for the energy beam because it will kill you in one hit and you have to start the level over."

[Deadeye | 1,601]

6 minutes ago, OptOut said:

However, the biggest problem with the written walkthroughs, if they even exist for certain games, is they were usually written by 14 year olds in block paragraphs thousands of words long with descriptions like:

"walk back the way you came until you see the thing now you're going to have to go back down the third passage on the left and shoot the guy then pick up the 4th energy crystal and take it back to the place you found the 7th do-whacky but be careful because there are more guys down the second passage to the right but if you go down the stairs then you'll find some more ammo and a health pack so you should probably pick them up now or wait until you're low on energy when you come back this way after you pick up the 9th do-whacky before you fight the boss."

And then you read the boss description (which was the bit you were ACTUALLY looking for) and it says:

"Oh man this guy was really tough, I don't know even how I managed it but if you hit him enough then he'll eventually go down but watch out for the energy beam because it will kill you in one hit and you have to start the level over."

So true.  Once you find authors you like, you end up reading their stuff to avoid things like this.

[Gloves | 12,266]

5 hours ago, Shmup said:

This made me laugh because it reminds me of all the old JRPGs on there. Five pages later, they’re still going through the items and magic/summons.

I normally would just ctrl-f to what I wanted.

Glad to see there is still some love for the written walkthroughs. And @Gloves that is crazy you’ve written so many trophy guides. Did you write the persona 5 one? That one was amazing.

 

I did not, I was out of it by the time that released. My username over there is "Noid". 

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,096]

9 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

Ctrl-f works every time.  Jump right to whatever you need. 

That works ok if you know what the thing you want is called. But if your not sure that doesn't help or if the author doesn't call it the same thing