Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but could've been so much better. , September 30, 2007
Final Fantasy XII is an incredible experience. There are tons of secrets and easter eggs to find. I'd love to tell you that this guide will you help you completely master Final Fantasy XII, but that's only half true. While it'll get you through the main game, there is a lot of information that just isn't here. For a guide as thick as this, it shouldn't miss anything... but it does.
The Limited Edition guide comes in a nice portfolio with a nice cover. Inside the portfolio is an art book with some great artwork. And it comes with the guide itself. It's not really enough to justify forking over an additional ten bucks for, but if you like artwork it's a really nice book. The main guide itself comes with a special cover as well. It'll be one of the six main characters from the game on the cover. The inner workings of the guide, however, are no different from the original.
The guide begins in standard fare, by giving you a little intro and telling you about the characters. Within this section they'll also tell you about character relationships toward one another. Unless you play through the game you wouldn't understand most of it.
After all the intro stuff the guide then talks about all the unique systems that Final Fantasy XII has to offer. It begins with the license board, showing you where all the license on the board are located. This is extremely helpful since within the game they don't show you. It makes it so you don't have to guess. It's also nice that they talk about each section and show it to you separately as well, since the full board is a little hard on the eyes.
They don't tell you much about Gambits. They give you a basic rundown and show you an example of how they work, but aside from that they give you no tips whatsoever. Such as examples of how a party might set them up. In the long run this isn't troublesome in the slightest. For the novice who doesn't understand the complex Gambit system... it's a pain.
There's a huge rundown of the battle system. Complete with tips and everything. From the basic of basic, to the complexities and giving you tips on how to restore you HP and MP. If the battle system is confusing you, this guide will surely help you. In addition, you'll also learn about espers and quickenings. Again, pretty basic fun down.
The walkthrough can best be described as decent. It's helpful, but only moderately so. They give you a basic step by step overview of each section while giving some call outs. The maps aren't bad, but they aren't exactly detailed. They give the location of items and point out shops and whatnot, and that's good, but for the most part you won't need them. A lot of the info isn't bad, but they never really get to the point of where to go and how to go about it. There are also spoilers found within the walkthrough. The boss strategies are also pretty standard. They keep constantly telling you to use quickenings and that's about it. Nothing about what attacks to look out for, or what spells you might want to consider using. At best the walkthrough can best be summed as a walkthrough that gets you through the game and that's it. Every now and then they call out sidequests, but for the most part, they don't let you know when there's a chance to do a sidequest too often. Here and there, but not always. With the number of secrets in Final Fantasy XII, it would've been nice if they could've called out all of them, rather than picking and choosing.
Speaking of sidequests, that's where we get to next after the walkthrough and this is where the guide just isn't useful anymore. They begin with the hunts, which is a nice section that tells you where to find them, but sometimes the info given to you is either downright wrong or misleading. They show you where the monster is supposed to be in each dungeon via a tiny map. Except sometimes the location of the monster is wrong, or sometimes there's no map and the text doesn't help. It makes going on the hunts a taxing task.
That's not even the worst part. When you really get deep into the sidequests section, you'll find that there are plenty of quests that either get a little mention or they don't tell you about at all. And when they do tell you about them, there's just not enough info. What enemies will you find in an optional dungeon? There are also no maps for many of the optional areas. Any area that has more to explore for when you return to later (such as the Subterra in the Pharos or the Great Crystal) have no map at all, and as such, will tell you nothing about the enemies you'll encounter or the items that can be gathered. In terms of secrets, there are a ton missing or that the guide doesn't do much to help you out with. If you're looking to master Final Fantasy XII in its entirety, this guide isn't going to help.
There's plenty of info in the appendices though. All the weapons, armor, accessories etc. are here. This is also pretty standard fare for an RPG guide. The bestiary, however, isn't very appealing. It tells you all the basic stuff without a fuss, it's just not very well presented. It's organized by the enemies number rather than in alphabetical order.
Lastly, there's a double sided poster. On one side is the license board. Something you'll already find readily available in the guide.
BradyGAMES hasn't made a horrible guide (it's certainly a long way from being as bad their Final Fantasy IX guide), but they've made one that has much to be desired. It's good for getting you through the main quests, but there's a lot of stuff that just isn't included. If you just want to do all the basic stuff, this guide is useful. If you want to completely master Final Fantasy XII, the BradyGAMES guide isn't going to help you do that.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horrible! Missing info and type-os'!, June 9, 2008
This guide is horrible! It is the worst guide I've ever owned for any Final Fantasy game. I have had to restart this game THREE times (50+ hours of play in each attempt) because I had made a mistake or missed something, following the guide VERY closely. Here's a quick breakdown:
-Awful layout (poorly organized, you'll be going back and forth and back and forth)
-Full of Type-O's (will refer you to "see (???)," switched quickenings Luminesece and Whiteout, etc.)
-Excludes MAJOR information like entire sections/regions of map!
-Boasts an incomplete and incorrect bestiary
-Contains almost ZERO information on Bazaar Recipes (vital for obtaining ultimate weapons), something for which you will find 30+ pages of print for on online guides and walkthroughs
-Is MISLEADING! If you trust this guide to tell you when save/obtain an important item, take advantage of an important side quests (or any of the other things Walkthroughs are expected to do), you will find yourself starting over from the beginning over and over, because it just doesn't!
I don't know if this guide was rushed to print or what, but it has just been one disappointment after another.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dissapointed...a 3.5, June 16, 2007
At first the guide is wonderful, and stays that way as long as you only follow the main quests. When you start the side quests it becomes a bit of a challenge...for instance one quest tells you to go to page "???" to find more information! Well that was awful nice of them...the guide is supposed to help not confuse!
Since this is the only guide in paper form get it, because it's worth it for the main quest, and the art book is pretty cool. Definitely get this one over the normal guide.
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