Current Events > Holy crap, Brady Games strategy guides were garbage.

(+) Yeah! (+)

My SO is playing FFIX right now, and she found the old strategy guide for it at a used bookstore.

They had this PlayOnline thing (which isn't online anymore) where half the stuff in the game had you go online and put in a code to find out what it was. Like, everything pertaining to Chocographs, hidden equipment, and boss strategies was through that.

---

But that was the only one like that. At least when it came to the Final Fantasy games, and yes, it was 100% bull shit

---

that sounds like a shortsighted idea on their part.

To be fair, the FFIX guide is pretty infamous for being complete garbage

---

PlayOnline still exist it's just for XI though

That guide was uniquely garbage and it was a demand by Square that the guide redirect the reader to PlayOnline, which they were trying to push hard at the time.

Of course, the strategy guide companies who agreed to produce that shit and sell it for actual money are not blameless, and yes, bradygames is filthy anal-hitler garbage, but this is not a good example.
---

They really were

It usually went Versus Books > (Nintendo) Official Guides > Prima >>>>>>> Bradygames

---

NeonOctopus posted...

To be fair, the FFIX guide is pretty infamous for being complete garbage

Yeah this is known.

SE really shot themselves in the foot on the time with very questionable decisions on printing a guide they so heavily promoted their primitive at the time and now defunct online system. But this an outlier. I own multiple guides of theirs and theyre very high quality.



---

Spooking posted...

That's why you don't spend money on guides and go to gamefaqs.gamespot.com instead for all of your video game needs!

Shame that online guides were not all that great back in 2000, which is why them pushing that Online thing was something they were trying to do - push into the online guides, which were not really a thing at the time.

---

We had the faqs

---

Spooking posted...

That's why you don't spend money on guides and go to gamefaqs.gamespot.com instead for all of your video game needs!

except aren;t all the guides on this site text only? I always hated text guides

The FFX guide was great

---

The only other bradygames guide I can think of that was just as shit as FF9's was tales of vesperia's. God damn that thing was bad.....you were missing like, 90 percent of that game's sidequests following that thing. Didn't even have maps. To this day I still want my money back for buying that, lol.

---

Balrog0 posted...

We had the faqs

Not until 2001, the game came out in 2000. Almost a full year

---

Their Wind Waker guide was pretty solid. Even included an OoT guide at the back for people who got the pre-order bonus. (god. remember when they gave entire physical games as pre-order bonuses?)

These days if I need help with a game, I'll usually just search its board here. Since 99% of the time if I'm that stuck, someone else here had the exact same problem.
---

Cool posters though

---

FF IX guide was bad but their other guides were much better.

Prima on the other hand was the worst. Their O.D.T. guide (which is the only guide for the game) is completely useless.

---

I loaned my FF7 Versus guide to a friend decades ago and never got it back. Thats about the only thing I regret ever loaning out.

---

Millennium Games' MGS1 Strategy guide > Brady Games guides

---

I had that strategy guide, and that Playonline thing pissed me off. I never used it.

I came in here to specifically mention the FF9 guide, and lo the topic is about that exact thing.

---

Heh, you got a blast from the disappointing past with that one TC, the FF 9 guide is notoriously the low point of player's guides. It was even more fun getting saddled with that lemon when I didn't even have home internet yet >_>

The silver lining here is that FF 9 was the first FF game I beat and near-100% completed without the help of a guide, and ultimately the game felt more rewarding for it. To FF9's credit, it toned down on the 'you pretty much need a guide to figure this out' side content. There's still some esoteric stuff like getting S-Rank in Treasure Hunter and Learning Dagger's real name that I didn't do until years later, but I managed to beat the game, complete Chocobo Hot n' Cold, and (I think) find Ozma and Hades without help.

---

I think my Vice City one has a couple hidden packages in the wrong spots.

---

Zikten posted...

except aren;t all the guides on this site text only? I always hated text guides

they at least have html formatting these days, lol

the old school guides are terrible to read through

---

this happend to me too..i remember being a kid and asking my friend to borrow his guide when we lent me the game and he tried to explain to me that without a computer I wasn't going to find it useful...borrowed it anyways and he was right lol

---

Why would she need a guide for FF9?

---

I loved the ff8 guide

---

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

Why would she need a guide for FF9?

She just bought a bunch of old guides for like $20. It was more for being a fun thing to look through, like old magazines. She stopped using that one, and is still using wikis and FAQs.

---

Best guide publishers and their best guides:
Future Press (Dark Souls, Bayonetta) > Piggyback (AC IV: Black Flag) > Prima (TES V: Skyrim, Mass Effect) > Brady Games (Spec Ops: The Line)

"Exceptional" combinations--game (guide):
Mass Effect 2; great game (Prima, poorly organized guide)
Lightning Returns; good game (Piggyback, excellent guide) **

** [ "Primer" section released as free mini-guide--a brilliant step considering how LR's digital manual is unavailable. ]

---

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

Why would she need a guide for FF9?

I recently rebought the FF7 one so I could use it in D&D

---