Anyone remember the official strategy guide?

[Ten Year Old Squeaker]

For this game, it was super thin. Almost every paragraph referenced a website to get the "hint", And the website in question has been taken down a long time ago. I was so pissed after spending my money on the guide, and not being able to use it after a few years. I guess Square Enix figured "Hey, it's 2004. Everyone is playing World of Warcraft, not this ♥♥♥♥. Let's save money and close the website!" I am glad that we exist in a more modern age where people can upload guides to Steam with pictures.

And Square Enix, I love you but I want a refund on that guide I paid for back in 2001 after saving my allowance for four months.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/final-fantasy-ix-official-strategy-guide-dan-birlew/1004401104/2673278118395?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP1948&k_clickid=3x1948

[Ten Year Old Squeaker]

P.S. The website in question now only features material pertaining to FFXI. Like that would help me here.

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml

[Peanut Cheese Bar]

Yeah that thing was a p.o.s. I can't remember being that upset as a kid (somehow I didn't realize what a rip off it was @ 12 years old) , but reading a kotaku piece on it the other day I was shocked at how pervasive the absurd "online features" were. Was that a Brady guide?

[MeepMan69420]

i still have my original strat guide for FF7-8-9

[Truhan]

Considering the Nero sidequest wasn't even discovered until a few years ago, it was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥ guide for not having that detailed. That said, I don't remember mine having references to websites, it must've been the Prima unofficial guide or some ♥♥♥♥. I got it from a friend, don't judge me.

[DarkAlenia]

I still have mine. Two, in fact.

[QuatermassAU]

I have a more helpful walkthrough unofficial guide (a novel-sized guide book done by Power Magazine) as well as a sidequest guide in an issue of Station Solutions. I consult the former usually when looking at what I can steal from a boss.

[Taka]

Yeah, that guide is the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Strategy guide in recorded history, next to the guide for OoT made by nintendo power when they tried to make the guide sound like a storybook. I think it was NP anyway, the cover was gold or something.

[blahblahblacksheep8]

Originally posted by Truhan:

Considering the Nero sidequest wasn't even discovered until a few years ago..

What?? Has everyone been living under a rock or something?

[Krida]

the strategy guide made me sad, it was helpful for quick tips on bosses for which immune stats to get and what to steall off them. thats most of it. that playonline bs sucked

[Spicedstoner]

i have mine at home actualy lol still is good condition consideirng age

[AdolJr]

just use gamefaqs

[LadGaga]

The book was all right for the maps for areas. But nowhere near as good as the FF7 or FF8 ones that had preceded it.

I've got the books for all the Final Fantasy games as far as I'm aware. Might not have one for Tactics.
Even have a couple at least for FFXI. Which were pretty useless a year after the game came out lol.

[LadGaga]

No wait. I do have one for Tactics even. :)

[An Irate Walrus]

Originally posted by Tom "Terrific" Brady:

For this game, it was super thin. Almost every paragraph referenced a website to get the "hint", And the website in question has been taken down a long time ago. I was so ♥♥♥♥♥♥ after spending my money on the guide, and not being able to use it after a few years. I guess Square Enix figured "Hey, it's 2004. Everyone is playing World of Warcraft, not this ♥♥♥♥. Let's save money and close the website!" I am glad that we exist in a more modern age where people can upload guides to Steam with pictures.

And Square Enix, I love you but I want a refund on that guide I paid for back in 2001 after saving my allowance for four months. :rage:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/final-fantasy-ix-official-strategy-guide-dan-birlew/1004401104/2673278118395?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP1948&k_clickid=3x1948

Oh dear god yes.

I was just finishing up my freshman year of undergraduate work when IX launched. My folks sent me the guide as a Christmas gift.

The one thing you have to remember about that whole "PlayOnline" debacle was that IX launched at a time when public access Internet was not new, but it -was- just becoming common enough to be considered ubiquitous. Square and Prima were trying to capitalize on that emerging market by linking the text version of the guide to online resources. Essentially, you weren't paying for a print guide, so much as you were paying for a print catalog of codes to enter into the PlayOnline site for IX that would then cough out the information you were looking for.

The PlayOnline service died pretty quickly after the launch of FF XI, but man, memories.

I still have that guide lying around somewhere, too.

[LadGaga]

You know that you still have to log into the actual PlayOnline servers to access FFXI even to this day right?