A new guide

[Rogue]

i think square should make a new guide for ff9 since the guide we have now sucks..... i think they should make one with everthing in it cause not everyone can get one from piggyback guides.com the one thats in united kingdom only. i have that one and its awsome!!!! the only thing wrong with it is that it dont have good boss srategys

[Tavrobel]

They aren't going to make one, because the game is on a retired system with no remakes planned. As popular it might be, in the big scale, it isn't (which explains the unecessary FFVII spinoffs).

The only reason they let BradyGames do the guide in the first place was to hash out and support their new online service system, PlayOnline. Since it would base itself mostly on name recognition, it would be able to support PlayOnline based on the revenue created when people visited the site hoping to obtain information that was detouring them from the guide (with the keycodes and all that). Square was thinking about the future, because at the time, FFX was planned on having online support (whether or not it would be what FFXI is like currently is up for debate).

It was purely for menetary reasons incase TSW bombed in the theatres and they could no longer support their online partner. As it turned out, TSW DID bomb, and they were forced to merge with Enix. Ulterior motives besides that (such as genuine want to stop competing with the enemy) are not necessary to be hashed out here.

EDIT: I think the FFIX guide sucks too.

[RyanML]

i bought an E-book guide off ebay... its good if you can decypher some of the place names, as they have either translated it from jappanesse or they had a different copy, it helped me through the game/bosses and side quests, only thing that annoyed me with it tho is, somtimes when you need to get certain things at that point in the game (for sidequests, final weapons etc) they dont tell you about it...

[Rengori]

Figure it out yourself. You'll end up paying more attention to the story and less to the guide book, and in the end having a lot more fun.

[Quindiana Jones]

I played without guide a few times. Then wanted to get it all done, so used the guide. Nifty little things, they are.

[farplaner]

All of the guidebooks suck. True, they can be useful, but they are always incomplete. Why spend $20 for partial help when you can go online and learn (for the most part) everything you need to know and more.

And Rengori has a good point. The worst part about using a walkthrough is that it can't help spoiling some of the game (even the so-called "spoiler free" guides).

This is why I have decided to buy a notebook for FFXII. I'll accumulate whatever info I need to know on subsequent playthroughs. I'm sure it will take some effort to find everything, but it's more rewarding that way.

[Rengori]

And Rengori has a good point. The worst part about using a walkthrough is that it can't help spoiling some of the game (even the so-called "spoiler free" guides).

Actually my point is the guide book sucks you in so much you entirely forget about the story.

[Rogue]

the only way i buy a guide is after i beat the game so i can do alot more stuff when i go throgh the game the second time that would be dumb to buy a guide even if u had not tried to beat the game