CHEATERS!!!

>>> Never, I just use faqs and guides after beating the game on my own..

I'm honestly surprised at the amount of walkthrough users. I didn't expect there to be as many! I thought most people just dived into the game and done everything themselves like I do. I guess I was wrong in assuming that!

For me personally, I just don't derive the same satisfaction from a game if I use a walkthrough. I would only ever resort to one if I was literally pulling my hair out in frustration! I wouldn't enjoy myself as much if I felt that I wasn't progressing of my own accord, but of some guide's instead.

Though in saying that, I do miss miss a lot of stuff first time round in a game like an RPG. I can definatly see the advantage of people using them to see everything there is in the first playthrough. And it's probably the wise thing to do if you don't have time for multiple playthroughs.

I dun reali use guides, i just buy dem for da pics lol:) and deres more satisfaction if you complete the game or a part of it. :elk:

My general rule of thumb is if I absolutely can not figure out what to do in under an hour and a half (Give or take, depending on the difficulty level of the game and story depth...) I take a look at the guide. The story still advances at a reasonable pace then, but I still get to have the fun of solving a few of the puzzles myself. Of course, the irritating part is that usually the first or second thing I tried was the right thing, but I just somehow managed to do it wrong. God I hate it when that happens...

I have a rule. I search for cheats, tips and walktroughs. I print them and then I leave them laying. Only when I really really need a tip or something like that I use it. Or when I need to beat a boss and I cannot figure out how.

i never use a guide unless i have to but i do try and find different hints and tips if i can but only as a last resort.

I always try to make it on my own at first, but when common sense prevail when for games we know it never will :p

Generally dont use them first time through unless I am completely lost. I usually buy the official guide second time through to do all the secret stuff.

Every FF game that I've ever played pretty much spells out for you what do. There are very few that actually required that much thinking, thus I've never actually been lost in an FF game, except on side quests and secret stuff in which case I may a strategy guide the second time.

It ruins the game to know what is happening the first time through. It bugs me that people play these games for all the wrong reasons and ignore the things that make the game cool.

Feion

I play through once on my own and then use a guide to get all the stuff I missed.

Sometimes even with walkthroughs I have enough trouble trying to figure out just what stupid mistake I'm making to make the game go on.

I thought about making a 'Stupid Things You Should Know How to Do in Games But Can't Quite Figure Out' guide, actually. but I forgot most of them. (like how to climb ladders. that was a big one for me in ff8.)

but, usually I'll go a ways into the game sans walkthrough until I'm sure that I'm missing enough stuff or if I don't have anything to save it with (this makes a good combination, you can play through a few hours to get a hang of it and you can't save anyways, so it's all cool:D) With FFX, I got to Kilika to the Ochu before I got one, I think I went through chapter 2 in ffx-2 (enough to be able to miss the scene in luca in chapter one-_-), through dollet in ff8, and there's no telling for ff5. 7 and 9 and probably 4 and 2 I started off with walkthroughs.

But, even after using them so often, I've found I can spot stuff more easily. 'Okay, I'll run into stuff pushing X constantly, see if anything happens!', 'Huh, I wonder if there's a chest over here, !! THERE IS!!', 'Hmm, I better say. . .this. . .and not that.'

the only time I've used an actual cheat code though is ff5. the first time I played it and got up to neoexdeath, I was all freaking out, so my friend suggested an infinite hp/mp code.

then I went back the next morning and beat it without the code:)

I do not need walkthrough's.. When I play a Final Fantasy for the first time I discover most of the sidequests and stuff..

If I have a guide, I buy the real ones, and I use them mainly for that charts of weapon/armor/magic/monster info more than anything else. Those are extremely useful in any RPG. Non-RPG games, I never use a guide, namely Zelda I can always do everything myself... and for the most part, I do all the Final Fantasy games myself the first time through... for example, the only thing I missed my first time through FFVII was Cait Sith's Ulti Weapon or whatever, but I didn't care cause I never used him...

THE JACKEL