Guide Books

Started by Sydian June 1st, 2014 8:05 PM
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  • 18 replies

Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
I'm collecting guide books for my all-time favorite games now and I got my Jak 3 guide book tonight. After reading through the bios and seeing that the guide even has concept art, I thought I'd make this thread and ask you guys about guide books. Do you buy them? Do you actually use them to get through the game? Do you just like to collect them? Do you have a favorite company that makes them? Feel free to add anything else you feel necessary.
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Dragon

lover of milotics

Age 30
Male
Viridian City
Seen 5 Days Ago
Posted October 24th, 2022
11,170 posts
9.7 Years
Ohhh I adore guide books! I got a Fire Emblem Awakening Guidebook, but it's only on Japanese:



Needless to say, my Japanese is quite limited so I couldn't rely on the book much, but it has a general idea on what it has to say! It says how well a character can grow, their base stats, their own profiles, and so on. Pretty cool stuff! Oh, but then again, I do like how the Fire Emblem books look in general, in which actually, I believe that's how all of the classic Nintendo books to video games were - elaborate and colorful, just like the guide to the first Fire Emblem game:



Do I buy them? Well, I don't buy them much nowadays, because I usually just beat the game before I get to refer to a guide, so I don't have much use for them other than it being a collectible, hehe. Still Jaky, this thread you made makes me think that maybe I should start collecting a few of the ones to games I like! I recall a Mario Kart 8 guide being made too; I should check that out, teehee. 8)


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Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
You should start collecting some! I think I'm actually going to finish out the Jak trilogy. I found Jak II's guide at Replays one day and I got Jak 3 for my favorite game thing I'm doint now, so I might as well get the first one haha.

Anyway, I don't buy guide books much now, but I have a few from when I was younger. You can definitely tell I used the hell out of my Ruby and Sapphire guide. Like I said in my last post though, I am going to collect the guide books for my top 10 favorite games. I think it will be fun and rewarding, even though I've beaten the games already. I mean...really, what more can you do with your favorite game? That's kind of the thought I had through my head when I made this goal.

Also, I noticed most guide books now are really thick and usually hard cover compared to back when I was a kid. I don't know if games got longer or guides just got more detailed or what, haha. Back then though, not everything was on the internet so the guide was your best bet. I think it's strange now that you can pretty much find anything online, but the guide books are thicker and more elaborate than ever. I think they're more of a collector's thing anyway now.
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acatfrommars

Male
Seen February 5th, 2023
Posted January 9th, 2023
3,870 posts
9.6 Years
I haven't bought a guide book since I bought Pokemon Pearl. I never used them, they just collected dust so I decided not to buy any more. Plus, the internet is as useful as any guide book now, so I don't bother spending the extra cash. The only reason I would buy a guide book would be for nostalgic reasons, but besides that they're not necessary or as much in demand as they used to be.

Judge Mandolore Shepard

Spectre Agent

Age 35
Male
Marysville, Washington State, United States
Seen March 1st, 2018
Posted March 1st, 2018
9,433 posts
9.2 Years
I have bought quite a number of strategy guides to help me get through certain video games. I also like collecting them. As for a favorite company that makes them, I would have to go with Prima and Bradygames.
Now here is the list of strategy guides that I have bought:
Goldeneye 007
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (GBA)
Final Fantasy II
Castlevania Order of Ecclesia
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Xbox 360)
Star Wars Battlefront II (Xbox)
Halo 3
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (Xbox 360)
Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction
Final Fantasy V Advance
Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360)
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire
Pokemon Platinum
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky
Pokemon Black and White
Final Fantasy IV
Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon
Golden Sun Dark Dawn
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Xbox 360)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Pokemon X and Y
Pokemon Black 2 and White 2
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag (Xbox 360)
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Raine

Age 29
Female
Ontario, Canada
Seen December 16th, 2017
Posted October 5th, 2017
3,722 posts
9.3 Years
The only guides I have belong to the Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMix games; the latter of which I have barely played so the book has not been touched whatsoever. The strategy guide for XIII-2 on the other hand had proven to be quite useful in that I used it extensively while playing; had multiple tabs open for online walkthroughs as well in addition to using the guide book. Those are the only 2 I own :c I've seen Japanese guides for games that are exclusive to their country, and they look significantly more appealing than the ones released in the West.

Mana

Age 31
Male
UK
Seen March 25th, 2023
Posted August 18th, 2021
10,075 posts
14.4 Years
These used to be all the range! :(

These days I only collect guide books for final fantasy games :) I have one for all the main series games I own (and X-2 as well).

Satoshi Ookami

Memento Mori

Age 30
Male
Abyss of Time, Great Seal
Seen August 5th, 2018
Posted July 3rd, 2018
14,253 posts
14.8 Years
Haven't bought any... They should be packed to the games... If they aren't, I won't be able to find them for a good price.
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I used to buy guide books all the time, since I played a lot of games before the invention of the Internet. They were handy to have, especially when playing on-the-go, so I could look up any information I might need to get past some part of the game or prepare for what's coming next.

The best guide I ever bought was one for Final Fantasy VI. It was really detailed, clocking in at over 300 pages. The best part about it was the character bios, which were full of information not found in the game's manual. I'll always remember reading Locke's bio, finding out that he hated mushrooms, and feeling rather happy that my favorite character and I have something in common.

The worst guide book I got was one for Digimon World 3 by Versus Books. Every page had something wrong on it that I'd correct while playing the game, and was really just a waste of money. It wasn't that well put-together, and some of the pages fell out. But at least I got a cool Digimon poster from it! That's hanging on my wall still.

I still like strategy guides, but since I don't have a lot of money, I don't buy a lot of them anymore. Anything that I might need to know while playing a game I can easily find online now, since I play a lot of games at/on my computer. Or the guides online written by fans are better. For instance, I have the strategy guide for Breath of Fire 2 (which I'm currently playing) but I keep a guide from GameFAQs open because the latter is more detailed than the strategy guide.

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TRIFORCE89

Guide of Darkness

Age 33
Male
Temple of Light
Seen November 25th, 2017
Posted October 21st, 2016
8,122 posts
19.1 Years
As a kid I used to get the "Official Nintendo Power Player's Guide" for almost ever Nintendo game I had. Kept that up until they stopped making them. Now I get the nice Collector's Edition hardcover gold paged Prima guides for Zelda games.

Raine

Age 29
Female
Ontario, Canada
Seen December 16th, 2017
Posted October 5th, 2017
3,722 posts
9.3 Years
I don't really buy guide books. I don't like spoilers.
Spoilers? I mean, given that I only possess 2 guide books of my own, neither of them have particularly major story spoilers \: Which ones are you referring to?

Sonata

Don't let me disappear

Age 27
Male
Indiana
Seen 8 Hours Ago
Posted March 25th, 2023
13,619 posts
10.2 Years
I have one for God of War and then I have one for Final Fantasy Tactics war of the lions and they both basically tell every single little thing that goes down in the game.

Kotone

someone needed a doctor?

Female
somewhere ;]
Seen June 29th, 2018
Posted June 14th, 2018
2,787 posts
14.1 Years
the only time i bought a guidebook was for the pokemon games. other than that, i never buy the guidebooks.

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Pepperton

Male
Texas
Seen February 1st, 2023
Posted February 3rd, 2021
3,397 posts
9.6 Years
Guide books can be very helpful, but I only bought them back in the day when I wasn't as Internet savvy, haha. Now I simply google my issue when I come across something I don't know how to solve. A relatively impressive collection of guide books has accumulated in my closet from past years, but none of them have been touched in a long, long time, which says something about how often I play their games!

Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
Haven't bought any... They should be packed to the games... If they aren't, I won't be able to find them for a good price.
Some games did, actually. Earthbound had to be ordered back before its release and it always came with a guide. Mystic Quest came with one too.
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Shhwonk

always with the games, etc.

Male
i can't remember
Seen November 28th, 2016
Posted April 20th, 2016
102 posts
9.5 Years
I used to read them all the time when I was a kid. I remember buying the Pokémon guides because I loved reading the little tidbits about each Pokémon, how they evolved, reading all the attacks they could learn, the Pokémon I could catch on each map, etc. As for other guidebooks, I never strayed too far from that series, lol.

However, I've been meaning to start collecting them, as they are getting to be pretty cheap in game stores from what I can see. They're a lot of fun to read, to me, even if I don't own the game that the books are actually for! XD