GameFAQs disavows any knowledge of this guide's existence...
Written: Dec 24 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quite thorough, no spoilers, same cost as smaller guides
Cons: Lots of white space, too much detail at times
The Bottom Line: I've read a strategy guide. This does not count as proof of literacy.
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| 32_Footsteps's Full Review: Final Fantasy X-2 Official Guide Books |
Video gamers have a love-hate relationship with strategy guides. On one hand, we want to be able to beat a video game on our own, without having someone hold our hands while we do it. Otherwise, were is the sense of accomplishment? On the other hand, game designers pack a game with so many secrets, most of which require counter-intuitive actions, a gamer will either waste all their time running around in circles or just breaks down and reads a walkthrough.
Of course, a big question to your average consumer is whether or not to splurge and buy a strategy guide, when there are free websites (like GameFAQs.com) that provide them for you. Of course, in some instances, you get the feeling that someone just ripped off the guide. The most recent case is in regards to one of the guides for Square Enix's latest PS2 offering, Final Fantasy X-2. Of course, with some of the goods available online, should you buy the guide?
First, if you'll notice, stores don't stock as many guides on the same shelf as FFX-2's guide. Clocking in beyond 350 pages, in the non-special edition, this guide passes walkthrough and reference material and runs straight into the goat-killer section of written literature (as in, place the book on a goat's back, et cetera). This might seem a bit excessive to some people. While Final Fantasy X-2 is certainly large, it isn't even the largest game Square Enix has released this year. What justifies the guide's length?
Well, on the positive note, this guide manages to go into great depth into each part of the game. I'm not just talking about going into specifics about what you need to do for a mission, which this guide does. I'm not just mentioning finding all of the secrets, which this guide also does. I'm talking about a breakdown of each part of the game. The guide will give you rundowns of what to expect in each situation, including common enemies and what strategies to use against them. In many cases, the guide gives multiple suggestions and allows you to pick whichever suits your style.
The guide also goes into great depth about the game's Dressphere (or, if you're familiar with other Final Fantasy games, Job) system, including the differences between each of the three characters you get while using each job. While with the starting jobs, this isn't important, some of the optional jobs acquired late in the game do grant different abilities to each and it's good to see that the guide outlines these abilities. Even more valuable is that the guide does suggest ways to make your party so that each job compliments another currently in use.
What's more is that the guide goes into more depth than any guide before it into the mini-games present in the game. A great contrast is BradyGames' own guide for Final Fantasy X. That guide talks about the one mini-game in FFX, Blitz Ball, and gives the stats for the players you can recruit. In addition, it gives you a basic rundown of what each move does within the game. The X-2 guide, though, goes into depth in each mini-game that the game has. It should be noted that X-2 has at least 5 major mini-games, and that's just off of the top of my head. Plus, the guide gives in-depth strategies, such as they are, for each mini-game (I mean, for the slot machine style game, not much strategy exists).
Of course, one thing the guide deserves to be commended for is the near-total lack of spoilers. Now, with any role-playing game, it is sadly inevitable that some parts of the game will be spoiled if you read about specifically what you will be fighting in a given area. Final Fantasy X-2 has a few such moments, most notably in Chapters 2 and 5. However, the guide makes sure to gloss over those parts of the game, so as the in-game reasons for these plot points remain hidden. This is much better than the guide for FFX, in which a major part of the ending was ruined in the guide (by Nobuo Uematsu, my favorite video game composer, no less). Now, I'll grant you that FFX-2's story is quite weak and spoiling it wouldn't ruin much. But it is nice that you won't have to deal with ruinous plot information from the guide.
Also interesting to note is the 100% walkthrough. Like many games nowadays, FFX-2 has a special ending that you only get to see if you managed to find every little secret in the game. The existence of this walkthrough lends credence to the theory that the manufacturers intentionally stuff the game with this stuff so as to make buying the strategy guide mandatory. The 100% walkthrough, mercifully even more spoiler-free than the main walkthrough, is notable in that it is remarkably similar to the 100% walkthrough that went up on GameFAQs. I'm not saying that it was stolen for sure. But I wouldn't feel too secure if I was running GameFAQs.
The guide's layout is pretty solid, and BradyGames has done a good job making sure that the guide is easy on the eyes. Pictures from the game are bright and not faded at all, and the text is clear and a decent font size. Moreover, rather than try anything fancy with the printing, the guide is good old-fashioned black text on white backgrounds. You won't find any problem simply reading the guide.
However, the guide's layout does have one serious problem. There is so much white space between each line, and between each paragraph, that you can't help but think that the guide, for all its length, is mostly empty. Truth be told, if you eliminated just the white space, we'd probably be talking about a guide that was almost 100 pages smaller than it really is. This isn't so bad since the guide retails for the same price as BradyGames' other guides, but there is some sense that you got ripped off, because the guide wastes alot of space.
In addition, this guide answers the question, how much detail is too much for a strategy guide? It's one thing to give the basic rules of a group of mini-games, but the guide breaks down each and every one of them. Bosses invariably have more strategies than most will bother using. In terms of avoiding spoilers, the guide generally takes 20 words what could have been said in 5. In other words, this guide desperately needs a good editor. It might be something only someone who has played this game and has read alot of strategy guides can see. That said, though, probably another 50 or so pages could have been reduced with proper editing.
In the end, the official guide for Final Fantasy X-2 is very good at what it does. Nobody who buys this guide will want for any other hint for the game. And you aren't going to shell out more for this than, say, the Prima guide for another RPG. Still, this guide could have been slimmer by over 100 pages without losing anything. I got the sense, to be honest, that the editors actually inflated the guide just so they could say that this was the most massive guide ever. This is a bit tragic, and really hurts what is otherwise a solid guide. Final Fantasy X-2 is a pretty simple game, and you'll likely find your way through it without the guide. However, if you are the sort who wants to get everything, then by all means get the guide. You aren't legally going to find a better source.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
32_Footsteps
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Member: Rick Healey
Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 234
Trusted by: 278 members
About Me:
Back from E3 - tiring, but worth it.
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