Required Reading.

Im a new member here at EOFF although Ive been a fan of RPGs and FF in particular since the release of FF7. Im sure like many people who started with that game, Im sloowwwly trying to make my way through all of the Final Fantasy series.


With each new game I take on I feel a little torn when it comes to the use of game guides. On the one hand I wanna have everybodys best weapon, or collect all the cards and magazines, have every summons etc, etc.

On the other hand I hate to take away that sense of exploration and of being surprised by new discoveries. But I dont realisticaly think I could ever uncover all the secrets of these games without the use of guides, I mean some stuff I read and say " I would never have stumbled on that!"

How do you guys feel about the use of game guides?
If you do use them how do you use them without spoiling your own experience of exploration and discovery? Do you consider them required reading?

Personally, my absolute favorite thing about strategy guides, and the first thing I go for, is the last boss. Now I don't ever want to spoil this for myself, because I consider figuring out who the last boss is going to be to be the best part of the game. But DAMN, I just can't resist looking up last boss HP. I am so damn fascinated by HP in general, which makes last boss HP the absolute first thing I'll look at in a guide. After that I'll flip through the bestiary and look up other monsters' hp, and I'll try to figure out which is the regular enemy in the game with the highest HP.

So there's a lot of fun to be had with strategy guides, and I'd recommend them. But do try to finish the game once over before you go back with a strategy guide. It keeps things spoiler free so you can enjoy it differently the second time around.