[:plant:] Right. Let's talk guides.

So, I collect them. I know Skills' collects them. What about the rest of you?

What's your take on guides? Do you buy them like I do, largely for the art and second time through a game? Or are you a person who won't go through a game without a guide at your side to make sure you get that 101%? Or are you someone who views guides as an ungodly creation, a black spot on the history of gaming and gaming culture?

The reason this leaps to mind for me is that I spent the last 45 minutes making written in notes on my FF XII guide to make it actually, you know, useful. Hand written notes of when side quests become accessible and when certain places/people/things become available. It actually reminded me of having to go through my FF IX guide and make alterations galore thanks to the terrible, terrible idea that was PlayOnline. If anyone still has that guide, by the way, the common belief that it's useless because PlayOnline no longer hosts FF IX information is false. Square still has the information available, it's just at a different address.

That, for me, was the biggest joke of a guide I'd ever seen. It was worse than any of the old NES or SNES guides I'd used. Hell, even some of the unauthorized stuff from the early SNES days were better than the FF IX abortion. Myself, I find I generally know more than the BradyGames guides, though the boys at DoubleJump rarely let me down.

So, how bout it? Love 'em, hate 'em? Tell us why. Tell us who your favourites are in terms of publishers. Hell, tell us who your least favourite publishers are. What's your favourite book? Least favourite?

YOUR GUIDES. YOU SHOULD SHOW ME THEM.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm not so much into guides anymore but any hardcover guide I'll buy. I love collecting Working Designs guides. They're thick, some are hardbound, very detailed, and contain random bits of humor throughout. I still need to get a hold of a mint Lunar 2 guide though. The last guide I bought was for Super Mario Galaxy, and I only bought it because it was hardbound!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Miles

I'm not so much into guides anymore but any hardcover guide I'll buy. I love collecting Working Designs guides. They're thick, some are hardbound, very detailed, and contain random bits of humor throughout. I still need to get a hold of a mint Lunar 2 guide though. The last guide I bought was for Super Mario Galaxy, and I only bought it because it was hardbound!

I've got a bunch of the Working Design guides. They're just gorgeous. You can hate Vic Ireland all you want, but the man put out some quality stuff.

How ya doing, buddy?

I always buy strategy guides for RPGs, anything else isn't worth having a guide for. Everyone says to use gamefaqs if I need to know something, but it's so much more convenient to not need to be at the computer

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Well, I like to collect game guides. As I wouldn't need to keep going back to GameFAQs just to look at the FAQs. And also I like the artwork. Like the authors would tend to blend characters, art rendering of certain locations etc...

I was speaking idiomatically.

I think the single most useful guide I own is the Super Mario RPG guide. Actual pictures of the hidden chests are so much more accessible than text-based descriptions.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Do Prima and Brady still dominate the guide industry? Because all they did was pump out rubbish back in the day.

Versus and Piggyback had the best guides, with fold-out posters and everything. Versus' FFVII guide was legendary.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Megalith

Do Prima and Brady still dominate the guide industry? Because all they did was pump out rubbish back in the day.

Versus and Piggyback had the best guides, with fold-out posters and everything. Versus' FFVII guide was legendary.

Yeah, Prima and Brady are still the main names in the game. They're better, but still not as good as Versus, or DoubleJump.

Also, in an awesome aside, I had the FF VII guide from Versus and lost it in a move. But then, about two years ago, I see someone I buy from on ebay regularly has a no picture offering of "Versus Final Fantasy 8 guide." So I message him, asking if he meant FF 7. Turns out it's his wife, as he's off in the middle east somewhere, and he wants to sell off his game collection. So she's doing it. She's too lazy to alter the title, right? So I wind up buying a mint condition Versus FF 7 guide for 19 dollars. The other auction of the Versus FF 7 guide going at the time went for over 100. Score.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Denicalis

So, I collect them. I know Skills' collects them. What about the rest of you?

So, how bout it? Love 'em, hate 'em? Tell us why. Tell us who your favourites are in terms of publishers. Hell, tell us who your least favourite publishers are. What's your favourite book? Least favourite?

YOUR GUIDES. YOU SHOULD SHOW ME THEM.

Love them for the same reason you did. Artwork. My favorite publisher is Double Jump and I wish Versus books lived still. They held the BEST comprehensive data ever. I cite FFVII's. There's others that I haven't seen but heard they were just as insane coverage. I mean really, Versus books blew the other guides out of the water. Double Jump guides were great though.

And yeah, I paid for FFIX PLAYONLINEWHATASUCKER GUIDE with my free 25 dollar birthday gift card. Its really nothing but seriously I rather NOT own it. It IS disgusting. Absolutely DISGUSTING. Worst guide EVAR.

My favorite book(s) ever is the comprehensive collection of Valkyrie Profile and Tales series artbooks. They're both imported but good god, the artwork is just downright amazing and you don't find these casually anywhere else.

BEHOLD



Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well madame, your guide penis is larger than mine by several inches, I must admit. Very, very impressive.

Also, aren't those FFT figures just great? Mine are sitting in a glass cabinet under my Non HD-TV in the basement, wherein I play my Genesis, SNES and other such beauties.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I don't go out of my way to buy game guides since I'd like to complete a game at least once on my own. GameFAQs and other websites do a decent enough job of getting me out of a place I can't get through anyway.

However, my relatives tend to buy the game guides to the respective games they'll give me for Christmas and whatnot. Also, renewing my magazine subscription nets me quite a few complementary game guides. I usually read my guides either as a time killer or as a double-check for anything I might've missed in the first playthrough.

Pictures (not very much):

Left Pile: Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Stadium 2, Pokemon Red/Blue, Pokemon Snap
Right Pile: Donkey Kong 64, Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart Double Dash, Super Mario 64

Top Pile: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Super Mario RPG, Super Mario Galaxy
Bottom Pile: Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen, Pokemon Gold/Silver, Banjo-Kazooie, StarFox 64, Yoshi's Story, Banjo-Tooie, Star Fox Adventures

Sorry for the poor quality, but I only have a camera/phone right now.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I could ask, what's your RAREST guide? I suppose a Versus Books guide is worthy but really now, I meant like a one time only print for limited release.

We got lucky and scored a Soul Nomad & The World Eaters' guide that is limited to print out like 5k. Yeah its an Atlus game. :\

And currently we're missing TWO guides from our current game collection that does have a guide for. Suikoden II believe it or not, and Koudelka.

SD used to have SII once but lost it in the move as well and we're trying to get that. Koudelka actually goes for like a 100 bucks on ebay just like SII. Why we don't know but gee. Koudelka is like a prequel of Shadow Hearts series. That's the only reason why we kept it even though its quite dated.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Koudelka kicks ass. I have that guide for that. And for Suikoden II, actually.

What's my rarest guide? The Versus FF VII is up there. Persona I and II, definitely up there. Could be one of the WD guides. Lunar, maybe.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Please tell me that Koudelka guide, was it extremely helpful? Man I tried playing it, and I guess I should had saved that ammo much better. I suppose looking AHEAD would be easier. I bought the game not knowing that it was much hardcore than I thought it was. I'm glad I kept it after all of these years. SD kept telling me that its extremely rare now.

The most helpful guide? Hmm I suppose any Nintendo Super Mario guides are indeed awesome. I really like their maps with decent legend icons pinpointing where every items are. An excellent example is Super Paper Mario, you have maps covering BOTH sides. Great great map work on that.

I can think of a few games that could benefit a guide. I kept asking SD if there's any HARVEST MOON guides. SILLY I know, but Harvest Moon is not something that a newbie can just pick up and play... there's a LOT involved and can easily overwhelm you right away. I tried playing the series but damn it. Its just not that simple! xD I could always retort to a basic FAQ instead. :\

There's other deserving games at the moment that I couldn't think of... that needed a guide so badly.

Had any of you ever d/led an "e-guide"? SD did for Grim Grimorie. Its great and has mapped out graphs just like Vandal Hearts 2.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I always saw guides as part of the package: you get the game, you get the guide. So pretty much any game I end up owning, I try and track down a guide for it. I still don't have a huge collection yet, but its growing. The art is one of the bigger draws, since we usually don't get artbooks on this side of the world, but I like to have all the secrets laid out in front of me in case I just can't figure it out on my own (Wild Arms guides and their puzzle-box solutions pay for themselves after about the first hour). I'm all for beating games on your own, and I usually don't use the guides to help me through the first time, but they're just that extra bit that makes the whole experience feel more complete.

I also notice that old guides are usually harder to find than old games. I got Dawn of Mana for Christmas, but the game itself came out in early '07. I thought it would still be around, but I looked everywhere for the guide with no luck. Same thing happened with FFIV Advance last year. Its like stores cycle through guides after a few months, with only the high profile stuff like WoW and Mario sticking around forever.

And Versus, yeah, those were excellent. I have the Versus Books guide for Street Fighter Alpha 2 complete with pictures of every attack from every position, along with the percentage damage of each hit, and strategies for every specific character vs. character match-up. Not to mention concept art, exploits, tournament reports, codes for every version, and a poster. Those guys didn't go out of business, they worked themselves to death.

FELIPE NO

Actually, the Koudelka guide wasn't very helpful. It's fairly old school and sparse. However, it is a bloody monster of a game no matter how you slice it. Just fucking mean.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I generally buy guides for my RPGs, but if one of the games in my collection is from another genre but very enjoyable, I will most often purchase a guide for that as well. I would say that my best guide is for the SNES version of Ogre Battle. I recall I had an opportunity to buy the guide for the SNES version of Breath of Fire, but unfortunately, I did not purchase it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

DAMN IT. Thanks. Looks like Koudelka is gonna get a beat down from me sooner than I thought. xD

Which brings us to another question (I promise, LAST one, no more spamming up your thread), if there's no guide for said game, do you ever print out a faq/walkthrough from GameFAQs?

I had a few times just for games that are begging for it. But that's very far few inbetween though. I really hate sloughing through that shit. Too often its not worth the ink. I really appreciate the bare-bones type of walkthroughs that doesn't include spoiler and such though.

ALSO, are you such a SUCKER for these guides that you'd buy every version? Yeah. SD is such a fucking sucker for Resident Evil 4 that he owned two so far. He now wants the one for the Wii.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've collected quite a few thousand over the years.


And here they all are!

The Xbox Buyers Guide came with my GameCube (no it really did). The SNES guides were pretty handy, they covered like a good twenty of so games each. Including games that really had no need for a guide!


OH SO THAT'S HOW I RUN AND JUMP.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Yeah, I'll use GameFAQs if the guide sucks, or there is no guide. I'm a bit of a completionist freak.


Inernal: That's the most realest guide to a dog I've ever seen.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I try not to use guides on my first run through a game. I've done it before, and I have much more fun exploring on my own. I also enjoy the fun in a challenge. I'll only seek out help if something is ridiculously stupid or I'm completely stumped.

But I do like guides for going through a game a second time. Finding all the stuff I missed the first time is nice. I also enjoy reading any interesting notes the game may have on situations, or looking at the artwork in it. And there are some times when the maps in the guides are just so much more helpful than the text you can find on gamefaqs.

I don't own that many guides, but the best one I do own is the Lunar: EB guide. Working Designs put out some top notch stuff back then.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I think the most helpful guide I have is the one for Star Ocean 2. I can't imagine trying to keep track of the town character interactions without it.

I find it amusing when guides actually contain false information. Like the guide for Vanguard Bandits, there is an alternate path you can take in the game. But you have to not only beat the game first, but you have to get the good ending. The hilarous thing is I e-mailed them about the mistake in the guide where they simply said you had to beat the game and they denied that they were wrong.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I've got a small handful of guides, mainly from PSX and PS2 rpgs. I suppose my favorite ones would be my Versus Books FFVII guide, my original FFT guide, my Suikoden II guide, and my Valkyrie Profile guide. All of these guides are pretty good, and at one time or another have been hard to find. I might take a picture of my modest collection tonight.

Also, Koudelka was a great game. Loved the characters. And am I mistaken, but in order to get the "canon" ending, you had to actually lose to the final boss {like I had any choice in that matter}.

FELIPE NO

Thread is 2 months old, but who cares. I got a few in recently that's worthy of a bump. Ignore the games, they're just part of the "monthly purchases" of March he did the photo for.



We have managed to get Koudelka and Suikoden II guides specifically finally. That Phantasy Star II book was phenomenal to look at! Completely in color and loaded with maps! OMG! (Its rather unheard of in old old guide days.)

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Wow, I never expected a topic like this to exist. I've mostly thought of guides as wastes of money with the advent of GameFAQs (I was very angry when I realized I had bought a guide for Street Fighter Alpha Anthology on eBay instead of the actual game), but I guess art and maps and such are something I didn't take into account.

I actually just recently chunked guides for Spider-Man 3 and Onimusha 3 (complete with Jean Reno foldout). I don't feel too bad since I've never owned either game, but reading this thread did make me feel a slight twinge of remorse. Of course, now I'm gonna find out that they're extremely rare and worth a bazillion dollars and you'll be treated to a classic montage of me on my journey to the landfill to reclaim my lost fortune.

Edit: Also who is this "SD" you keep referring to, BTW?

Jam it back in, in the dark.