Final Fantasy XII Signature Series Guide Reviews

• Poor organization and strange errors cause an otherwise likable guide to falter

  
  By A19H56Q031VZKU on 2006-11-19
  Brady Games is notorious for putting together somewhat haphazard game guides, and the FF12 guide is no exception. What we have here is a colossal guide for FF12, featuring almost all of the information that any player needs to complete the game. It includes lists of all of the loot drops in the game, strategies on how to beat all of the optional bosses, and advice on how to build your party so that the license board does not completely perplex you. However, the guide has many inherent flaws, which make it a little less than lovable.
  
  To begin, the guide is chock full of spoiler information. Nowhere in the guide can you go and get the quick and simple advice that you might be seeking for a part of the game. Instead, the writers have chosen to fill almost every part of the walk through up with unnecessary information on the storyline scenes and spoilers that which makes playing the game a little boring. The guide could easily have had 50+ pages taken out of it if the writers had avoided spoiling most of the game's storyline. Instead however, it seems that they have (with Square-Enix' blessing) filled every part of the walk through up with spoiler content in order to add weight to the guide when the weight is superfluous.
  
  Another hindrance on the guide are it's strange typographical errors. Throughout the guide the reader will find instances where references to other pages are turned to question marks. For example, when going over a side quest, the guide says to look to page (???) for more information. This is rather troublesome and it leaves the reader wondering if that page is even in the guide.
  
  The guide also suffers from bad organization. The maps of the dungeons are small and cumbersome, and while playing through an area, players will have to continuously flip back to the page with the map and squint their eyes to find out where the treasure chest they want is located. The guide also fails to mention where some of the "good treasure" drops are in each dungeon and the player will have to refer to the exhaustive bestiary section to find out where the monster they want is located and if they are capable of killing it.
  
  Another lack of organization is the lack of an index. The guide is set up in such a way that in order to know everything, the player will have to start using it when they start the game. If they begin to read it during any other point, they will have to flip back and scrounge around before they might be able to find a piece of information that otherwise could have been found by using an index.
  
  The final blow to the FF12 guide however is the complete lack of explanation of how the treasure chest system works. There are tables however, that break down the frequencies of finding an item, but it requires trial and error before the player will find out exactly how to use the table. A thorough explanation should have been in order to explain this critical aspect of the game.
  
  Despite these numerous errors, the guide still offers much to players who are in need of help for completing the game. It offers great advice on how to defeat all of the bosses (and the previously mentioned optional bosses), it gives the location of every single item, and it has a very pretty presentation, chock full of screen shots and artwork. If a player is seeking this guide, the best advice would be to locate the limited edition version of it, as it comes in a hard cover case and has an extra "art book" that comes with it.
  
  *Update* Another serious flaw with the guide that I didn't realize until I got towards the end of the game was the lousy advise the game guide gives on one of the last dungeons. While this dungeon is indeed optional, it features a few of the best items in the game as well as some of the hardest fights, so boo on Brady Games for not taking the time to explain this dungeon in better detail.
  
  

• Another Good BradyGames Guide

  
  By A2R4HK5ZJKL0UH on 2006-10-31
  First of all, I must say that this guide is absolutely gorgeous. If nothing else, it is worthwhile for the collectability and the beautiful artwork.
  
  Second, BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO BUY THIS GUIDE be advised that there is a special edition version of this guide. The special edition is more expensive but it includes an artbook (VERY beautiful and detailed), the guide, and a folder to keep them in. The special edition guide has one of six covers featuring a character from the game, but the artbook contains all of the images - so no worries if you don't get the one you want. However, the inside contents of the two guides are EXACTLY THE SAME. Just be aware of that before you decide to buy.
  
  The guide contents themselves pretty standard - the guide first includes a story, character profiles, and even a "relationship flowchart." There is a full explanation of the License Board system including a chart that shows how each character can access the complete board. Other sections include Gambits, Espers & Quickenings, a complete Walkthrough, Hunts, Side Quests, & Secrets, Weapons, Armor, & Accessories, Magicks & Techniques, Items & Sundries, The Bazaar, Marchant Shops, and last but not least, a Bestiary. This guide is great for getting everything in the game, and as I said before, if you're a collector, this is a must have.
  
  

• Need more organize and detail data! Essential for such complex game.

  
  By A3Q0G2M6GSN4IT on 2006-11-03
  Final Fantasy XII is a very complex game with all treasure box items being random and rare monster appearance. A complete strategy guide is highly recommended. A good example is that one single mistake at the beginning of the game might change the entire probability of occurance down from 100% to 0.1% for certain powerful items, such as the Zodiac Spear. There are also near 400 different monsters, bosses, and enemies data that player should know their strong and weakness in order to defeat them at ease and obtain rare items.
  
  Moreover the maps in FFXII are HUGE, very similar to MMORPG scale, while contains many hidden paths that are NOT shown by pressing SELECT button for the in game maps. A printed collection of maps are very convenient.
  
  The US version FFXII strategy guide is actually a translated and reorganized version from the two Japanese guides: FFXII BATTLE ULTIMANIA & SCENARIO ULTIMANIA. I give the two Japanese guides 5 stars due to their complete data tables for monsters, items, equipment tables and most efficient boss strategies. The US Bradygames guide however, I give 4 stars due to not 100% complete as the Japanese guides. The US Bradygames version is lacking the most efficient strategies in certain boss fight, for example the US version says use QUICKENING (it works for most kind of bosses if player is skillful, so no need to mention everytime in the strategy guide), and the Japanese version actually teaches you to cast certain magic and Gambit combination to against certain boss that player has to defeat it within a time limit (Use ZAP + VIRUS combination, where ZAP can lower the HP continuously (Numerator) and VIRUS is to lower the maximum possible HP (Denominator) of the boss, this combination guarantees the HP of the boss can never be increased nor restored to the initial max. E.g. HP=50000/50000 can be lowered to HP=200/200). There are so many different ways to defeat a boss in FFXII, but QUICKENING is just not the most efficient way against certain boss unless the player is very skillful.
  
  The Bradygames monster table is a lot simpler compare to the Japanese Ultimania. For example, the US version shows the monsters' weakness and strengths but does not show what kind of magics are effective against or Null to them. Morever, the Japanese guides has a collection of monster data with certain probability of dropping or able to be stolen different items, while the US version just lists them out without the degree of rareness.
  
  Apart from those differences, I still think that the US guide is good enough and I highly recommend people to get the collector's edition due to the extra BEAUTIFUL ART BOOK!! Worth every single penny! Exclusive in EB Games/ Gamestop.
  
  --Updated on 11-03-2006--
  I think the US version is needed to be a little bit more organized and add more important detail data. For example, if I need to find a map for a certain area, I must need to flip to the page at which the story has that particular section of the map. There is no index table for me to find the maps either. Moreover, I just figured one of the mistakes that the Accessories section for the Diamond Amulet ,which improves the probability of rare items apperarence, has only listed one location : Dalmasca Esterland!!! But there are several other locations where you can obtain it too!!! They are: The Tchita Uplands, and from Bestiary # 169: Mom Bomb with low chance for dropping the item. The locations to obtain this Diamond Amulet is summarized very clearly in the Japanese Ultamania Guides, but this information is scattered around in the Bradygames guide. It is kind of dissapointing to me.
  
  

• Terrible guide

  
  By A38C6NNO9AXQV5 on 2006-11-20
  There are many things that in my mind make this guide absolutely worthless.
  
  1) It's full of spoilers. If you accidentally look ahead, it will give away parts of the plot. Why they chose to document the entire story in this guide, I have no idea.
  
  2) They use a microscopic font on some of the pages that can only be read with a magnifying glass. I'm far sighted so it is especially difficult for me.
  
  3) The organization is very poor. They have a section at the end called "100 Secrets of FFXII". To read through it though, you have to wade through a bunch of spoilers. None of these secrets are referenced as you go through the walkthrough either, so you will have to read them all at once if you want to know what they are.
  
  Take some lessons from how they did the Dragon Quest VIII guide, Brady. No spoilers! All we need are maps, hidden stuff, and sidequests.
  
  Terrible guides can ruin a great game. Don't use this one and you will enjoy the game a lot more.
  
  

• They left out Fran's email address

  
  By A1M4NJYP0WNL8Q on 2007-01-17
  It's possible to win Final Fantasy XII in something less than 80 hours. And it's also possible to spend well over 200 hours. The difference is how far you get into the side quests and the various extras that the designers put into the game. The only problem, of course, is that the game itself gives you only the vaguest hints of what is there. It can take forever to push a character's licenses to the point that you discover that there is a special weapon, and then you have to figure out how to get it. If it takes some weird combination of sales to The Bazaar, for instance, then you may never see that weapon.
  
  To put it brazenly, without a guide you may never see half of the game. I have to admit that Square Enix definitely let greed guide them in setting up the game so that it will sell a lot of guides. If the guide had been completely worth it this would irk me less. But the truth is, for all the glorious illustrations and charts, this guide leaves a bit too much out. And many is the time I found what I was looking for way to late to use the information. For all the hype, the Brady guide is very much just another pretty face. It's not bad, but I feel compelled to rate it three stars just because they forced me to buy it.
  
  But you still need a guide to get your money's worth. I wound up using this guide, several on line walkthroughs and even a bulletin board before I honestly felt I had done everything there was to do. This is a big game, and anything that enhances the play experience is worth looking at. This would be a great thing to talk a friend into buying. Then you both will know what not to do to get the Zodiac Spear.
  
  
• Sorry Excuse for a Strategy Guide
  By A3CQ185QRF5T12 on 2007-01-30
  As near as I can recall, this is the most worthless strategy guide I have ever used. In virtually every instance, I have found it easier and less time consuming to figure out the problem without the guide. For instance, last night I fought a tough fight against one of the hidden espers. But I couldn't find the esper because I didn't know it was an esper. Since the word next to the health meter said BOSS, I therefore looked for a BOSS and couldn't find it. While I was fighting the guy (whose name sounds like a sneeze to me) my girlfriend took up the task of finding the guy. She eventually figured out the guy was an esper, but by then I had already figured out what worked and didn't work, so it was moot.
  
  Yes, this guide is chock full of (probably) every piece of information you could possibly need. However, the guide is poorly organized and finding the information you're looking for is often a more daunting task then trying to solve whatever the issue is in the game.
  
  The worst of it comes from BradyGames being too lazy and sloppy to bother with page headers. Instead, the reader is forced to scan through each and every page of a given section looking for sub-section changes.
  
  For instance, the bestiary is organized by the appropriate section in the game, and the order of those sections seems to be either random, or loosely based on the game time line. While this may seem a perfectly natural method of organization to people making the game (as well as to lazy writers of strategy guides), it is cumbersome and aggravating at times to look for a particular monster in the absence of page headers.
  
  If the book were designed for USERS and not the WRITERS, the bestiary would have been organized ALPHABETICALLY. You see the monster's name in the game, and flip to the page. Quick and easy, right? But alas, that would require more work in writing the book. Okay, fine. So they're too lazy (or too stupid) to alphabetize. Fine. Then the order of the area sections should be alphabetized so you could at least easily flip to the right section before you have to start scanning the page. Nope. No luck there either. Okay, then at there should at least be headers on each page to show you wich area is represented on the particular page. You know, like in a dictionary! Right? Well, no, again. You have to scan every page looking for new section names. It's ridiculous! The whole book is organized like this.
  
  The main walkthrough is fine, provided you are the type to follow the guide all the way through the game (how boring is that?). If you aren't, then you will have problems similar to those described above. Scanning every page looking for a new section. What makes this more difficult is that many of the area names are not easy words that flow off the tongue (maybe it's just me, but names like Bur-Omirsace, Bhujerba, and Tchita don't stand out like, oh, I dunno, say East East Franklin), which is fine, but many people may forget the names of the sections they are looking for and have to keep checking to game (or use a notepad). It's very tedious. But at least the main walkthrough is linear so you have some guidance there.
  
  Such is not the case with the side-quests section. Same as above: no useful organization and no page headers.
  
  Also, throughout the book, the writers cross reference related sections on other pages, but were too lazy to fill in the number. As a result, the references say: (see Page ????). That is incredibly sloppy and unprofessional. Gee thanks for the help guys.
  
  Most of these problems could be manageable if not for another problem, which is this:
  
  NO INDEX!
  
  ...and with only the most rudimentarily table of contents, the only way to make effective use of this guide is to turn off the game and read the book for a couple hours (probably making use of several dozen sticky tabs and spoiling the ENTIRE PLOT in the process).
  
  In short, this guide is not a guide at all but dump of information bound together with a $20 price tag. The writers seemed interested in only two things: (i) putting in lots of pretty pictures; and (ii) being able to say "oh look at how much information is in here." Of no concern to them is the ability to make use of the book. Since that is the primary purpose of any GUIDE, this one fails to serve its purpose and is therefore WORTHLESS.
  
  
• Useful Information
  By A1VIZFPC5FDDI5 on 2006-11-28
  I read most of the reviews and have decided to not buy the guide. I have also had guides made by the same company and they really missed out a whole lot. It seems to be a treand with this company. Somehow people still buy these books so the company may not really care to make an effort of improving their guides. Don't buy it if you don't want to be dissapointed. However, the last guide from this company that I bought was for FFX-2 which was a disaster indeed but had it's uses. Therefore, you can still buy this guide for other uses like which spells are strong, which enemies are strong etc. but don't expect it to guide you through 100% of the game. I personally won't purchase it though. Hope this was useful.
  
  
• Pretty sad guide actually
  By AFTH695JEHJGL on 2006-11-09
  Okies. Ive been buying final fantasy prima guides for years now (FF 7, 8, 10, 10-2, tactics) but avoided them for any other game. They might miss a few things in the final fantasy games, but for the most part, ive always found it to be a worthwhile investment.
  
  This time, im not feeling like it was worth it. Missing maps (and thus missing loot tables), no table of contents to SEND you where you might want to go (assuming its even in the guide), guide tells you to go to page ??? in a number of spots (yes literally ???), RIDICULOUSLY picture heavy (which is fine in limited quantities or necessities, but its a guide guys, not a picture book, ill buy a freaken art book if I want it)....
  
  Anyway, Can honestly say its the worst final fantasy guide ive gotten to date. I guess the fact they were releasing a limited edition guide version as well as the normal one should have been a clue that it was more hype than help.
  
  WHEN it actually has the information im looking for, then yeah its pretty damn good (still has errors of course, but I expect those and can overcome them). Its probably a pretty good walkthrough to get thru the primary game, but as far as the extras? Its incomplete. Very incomplete.
  
  I wont be preordering the next one. Ill wait to see what peeps have to say about it.
  
  
• Content with spoilers and no organization
  By A3FPIILI0K4BHX on 2006-12-13
  I want to start off and say that the guide indeed includes all information you would want. Side quests, hunts, loot, bazaar, walkthrough, bestiary, secrets, etc. Where this guide fails miserably is organizing everything and cluttering the guide with spoilers and useless screenshots. The presentation kind of looks pretty at first, but when you realize there's a bunch of junk you have to sift for information you quickly change your opinion about the guide.
  
  The walkthrough is probably the biggest failure of the guide. It's loaded with spoilers and useless spoiler screenshots that could've been replaced with larger maps or screenshots that help you find where to go. In addition, it fails to tell you when you should do the sidequests. The chance to do some of the sidequests are lost because you're at a point in the game you can't go back. The walkthrough is written in a roundabout way giving more story spoilers than what to do. I found myself having to go back to do something, missing sidequests I can't go back to, spending more time finding what to do because the walkthrough doesn't describe it well. The walkthrough is strictly for you to get through the story and it gives you spoilers. It gets the job done, but it's filled with holes.
  
  The sidequests are all included in the back, so you'll constantly be flipping pages to see if you can do any sidequests yet or so you won't miss any. The sidequest section itself is poorly organized as well. You have sidequests that open up earlier in the game put at the end of the section while the latter sidequests put in the middle of the section. Another irritating thing about it is that in some places the text is extra small requiring you to squint while reading what to do. The guide has the information, but you'll be spending some time looking for it.
  
  Parts of the guide have you referring pages to ???. I'm not sure if it's a print error or the page doesn't exist.
  
  The limited edition of the guide is exactly the same only with an artbook. It's not really a hardcover. If you've seen FFX-2's limited edition guide or Kingdom Hearts 2 limited edition guide, then you know how this limited edition guide looks. The artwork is pretty neat, but nothing spectacular. A lot of blown up shots of the same kind of artwork you'd see in the regular guide.
  
  Should you buy the guide? If you are a collector of Final Fantasy games and guides, then this guide should be a pick up. It's not that bad compared to FFIX's ridiculously horrible guide. It doesn't compare to FFVIII's strategy guide, which in my opinion is the best one so far. If you are the average guide seeker, the guide is still worth the pick up for all the information you want like license board, loot list, weapon, armor, and items list, hunt list and so on.
  
  
• some mistakes are forgivable, others are unforgivable
  By A2XZD6O15G249Q on 2006-12-19
  Forgivable mistakes:
  Shoddy editing such as "see page(???)"
  Spoilers (I guess they don't bother me as much as other people)
  
  Unforgivable mistakes:
  My book started falling apart on the second day. Loose pages constantly fall out.
  Tiny fonts on low contrast backgrounds, especially in the Clan Hunt section. I had to use a magnifying glass.
  No index.
  Incomplete. For example, there is no map of the side quest part of the Great Crystal, and no directions to the treasure chest that has Excalibur in it. You'll need to google that. You may as well save yourself $20 and google everything else, too.
  
  
• an excerpt of a letter I sent to brady games
  By A2IY5VNLYQYGEG on 2006-12-25
  Here is an excerpt of a letter i wrote to brady games about this book. I thought it would be helpful here.
  
  I bought your strategy guide for Final Fantasy Nine, and I was highly dissapointed. I was expecting a strategy guide that had all everything that I'd need to know to complete 100 percent of the game. Instead i've been going through let down after let down when it comes to this book. I'll list my gripes that i have with this book.
  
  1. Not all maps are provided. the most egregious omission is the map of Lusu Mines site three and site 11 and their treasure charts. also missing are maps of the Great Crystal upper level and it's treasure charts.
  
  2. Incomplete listings on how you can obtain weapons and armor. while playing through the game and looking throught the beastiary I frequently find that not all the ways of getting an item are listed under it's listing in the weapons/armor section of the book. this is highly annoying.
  
  3. Where's the loot? I see you've made a rather expansive addition to the loot section of the book [they have a rather pathetic update page on the bradygames website where you can download what i hope is the completed loot list], why is it that you only list the location of highlighted loot? i want a complete chart..
  
  4. When's [insert item here] availible in the shops? there is no indication of what magicks/weapons/techniks etc. are availible in what shops at what time in the game timeline. Is this not important information?
  
  5. My book fell apart. After a couple weeks of use i'm losing lots of pages.
  the book is 20 bucks. Can't get a quality binding for that price eh?
  
  6. Side quest vagueness. Not only is the listing of sidequest out of order chronologically, you have clauses like the following example from the "patient in the desert" side quest. "See the ferryman Missing quest on page (???)." Are you kidding? page (???)
  
  7. Rare monster conditions. Ok, you give the conditions for 30 of the rare monsters in the hunt club sidequest. what about the conditions for running into the other 50? I only see they're locations.
  
  8. I think theon concurrences is wrong. I think they're more related to aggregate mist charges spent than the type of number of types of quickinings used. and christ, the example you used to explain concurrences....
  
  Those are the major issues I have with your book. I have minor issues with crossreferencing issues (you list the monsters in each area in the walkthough, why don't you just put the same info as the beastiary in the back? what monster has the most experience to gain, most licence points to gain? where is the best place to level up?)
  
  serioulsy though, this is the worst guide i've ever come across, you know i'm not just flaming all the reasons listed above are valid, and should have been caught somewhere in you QA process.
  
  Thanks Much
  Drew.
  
  
  As a previous reviewer mentioned. since you're going to have to google things anyway you're better off saving the twenty bucks and googling half the stuff. They have a lot of information in the book, and you can use it to finish the game. but the book itself seems unfinished. perhaps this is what happens when you have no competitors.
  
  
• Okay, but with serious flaws.
  By A3OFRAW1TTH3TP on 2007-06-04
  After seeing so many positive reviews about this guide, I ordered it, received it, used it, and became utterly disappointed with it. The few great things about this book that other reviewers have already mentioned aren't enough to make up for the many, many, many little things, and some major things, that ruin this book. This is a long, negative review. If you don't want to read it all then skip to the last paragraph.
  
  Final Fantasy XII is a huge game, so it goes without saying that it deserves a huge guide. So is it a huge guide?
  
  Well, uh, the book is thick? No. It LOOKS thick. In fact that was the first thing I noticed when it first arrived at my doorstep. Held up spine-to-spine next to Bradygames' Final Fantasy X-2 guide, it's about 50% thicker, yet they both contain EXACTLY the same number of pages. But I'm just being stupid. It's not about the number of pages a book has.
  
  Content is much more important. I'll start with the walkthrough. With the exception of the boss strategies, I've come to the conclusion that the walkthrough is mostly completely useless. More than half the walkthrough is pure spoilers -- exposition on what you can expect to see during the games many cut-scenes. I mean, honestly, if I'm playing the game, I'm going to see what's happening, so it's really all just a waste of ink.
  
  As for the boss strategies, they're really not all that spectacular. Some are certainly good. But many are little more than a list of attacks the boss might use. And several are so bad that they can be paraphrased into one simple sentence: "Hang in there." How helpful.
  
  The one good thing about the walkthrough is that it adequately prepares you for obtaining the Zodiac Spear (the strongest weapon in the game), by pointing out the treasure chests you should NOT open AS you get to them. This is something I know many people get frustrated over late in the game, so... Good job, Bradygames, for that.
  
  And, I must say, the maps are outstanding (despite the fact that some of them contain minor incompletions). They're clear, and they show the locations and potential contents (they can change) for every single treasure chest in the game. (Although... The map for the Zertinan Caverns seems to be missing...)
  
  But enough of the walkthrough. FFXII is side-quest heavy, so what of the side-quest section of the guide? There's room for improvement.
  
  Mark hunting is the biggest side-quest in the game, so it naturally deserves, and did receive, more text than any other side-quest. And the strategies for defeating them are mostly good. The problem is that -- and this is a surprisingly HUGE problem -- the text is SO SMALL you can hardly read it! Seven pages of size 6 (at the most!) font, and even worse, black ink on a brown background. I don't know about other gamers, but after spending even a couple minutes staring at a TV screen, I don't appreciate having to readjust my eyes to that extreme to be able to read something. WHY they would do something like that is beyond my understanding. If they wanted to save space, they could've cut back on the plot exposition in the walkthrough. If they HAD the plot exposition because they wanted to stretch the number of pages, then they could've used bigger font here to add several MORE pages. It just doesn't make any sense.
  
  As for the rest of the side-quests, they're pretty good. Except for one, which would have been nice if they had mentioned IN the walkthrough that you have to complete half of it at a certain point in the game, otherwise miss it entirely. But that's just one slip-up for an otherwise nice section of the book.
  
  Then there's the item lists. Not bad, but it fails to tell you where you can find most of the Loot, so you have to search through the Bestiary beast-by-beast to find what you're looking for.
  
  So that's it for the content. But really, all that nitpicking I just did doesn't hold a candle to the book's more serious problem: construction. Aside from the ink that smears from just the slightest moisture on your fingertips... I've only had the book a month and already the pages are falling out. I've had Bradygames' FFX guide for about five years now -- the pages are torn, wrinkled, stained, and the cover's half faded, yet not one single page has ever fallen out. I've had the FFXII guide for a mere month, I've handled it with the utmost care, and it STILL fell apart on me.
  
  I know this is a ridiculously long and negative review, but... Bear in mind that the things mentioned within the many 5-star reviews here are absolutely right, but these are the things they missed, which all add up to a waste of money.
  
  Incredibly poor construction, a walkthrough that's mostly plot exposition, and you can find most of the information in this book, and much more, in various online FAQs and whatnot. But if you get the book, all this information is somewhat organized into a nice, pretty package. And the maps are outstandingly helpful. 2 stars, because it's just not worth $16.49 (the current price). If it drops to closer to $10, then I might bump it up to 3 stars.
  
  
• Good for those who don't wanna play FFXII 100%
  By A3A1TM9D6XU2IF on 2007-04-27
  The guide presents nice maps, and the license board poster is very helpful. However, as other buyers said, the guide is a mess when you talk about organization! Besides flipping pages back and forward to find stuff, I realized there are some hunts details missing, and some nice side quests as well! So if you love playing FF series by completing it 100% getting all the items available, secrets and stuff, this guide is not recommended for you. I only used it to check license boards, and check treasure chests table.
  There are many free guides in internet available that you can follow to complete this game 100%. Unlike this guide, they tell you WHEN you can already get some nice hunts, a lot better battle strategies, list of spells, armors, weapons and items you can have, how to make nice gil and level up. They tell you WHEN and WHICH side quests are already available. When I tried to follow this official strategy guide I got lost like "hey they dont talk about hunts at all, no side quests no nothing", then I had to GUESS what hunts and quests were available and keep turning pages to check hunt guide at the end of the book, plus when I wanted information about rare monsters, it was faster goin to Google than keep searching this guide bestiary! So hard to find them.
  Well, in the end I played the whole game with a free strategy guide, and using the pictures and license board map from this guide , then i could finally play it smooth to reach 100% and i had lots of fun =)
  
  
• Awful
  By A2RLKJKDOWDO2G on 2007-09-13
  I really thought this guide was a pain to use -- even though I bought it I ended up using online guides as much if not more. Some reasons why..
  
  -I could care less about artwork, I just want accurate information in a well organized format. The organization in this guide was just poor. Why were things like the merchant shops and the monsters arranged by "area"? Totally useless.
  -The guide is 349 pages long yet has no index.
  -No mention of when different spells or equipments would become available in the shops.
  -The guide often doesn't mention when a rare item or equipment is accessible during the walkthrough
  -For the largest side quest in the game, the Hunts, information on each hunt, which could each probably fill a page if it was properly covered, was given a paragraph or 2 at most, written in microscopic print. I really hated this.
  -Tiny or nonexistent maps for several optional areas in the game.
  -One day after I had bought the guide, it started falling apart
  
  
  The one really useful thing about this guide was the pull out license board. Still, this is the last time I'm buying one of their guides.
  
  
• Strangely Bad
  By A329PH9AVFF6US on 2007-10-02
  I've never seen a licensed guide that is as full of errors, omissions, and stupidity as this. Not to mention that it falls apart. Instead of a delux edition they should have offered it spiral bound. The downright errors are too numerous to list--from typos to bad advice to printing the wrong maps in certain places. The layout is ridiculous--what should be the most valuable section of the book is written in type that is not only tiny (I'm guessing 4 point--seriously), but printed black on brown! I'm really shocked that Square would allow their name to be associated with this shoddy, lazy book that doesn't live up to the excellent game or the venerable tradition of FF.
  
  
• Poor Editing, Errors, and Omissions
  By A2W0LMPC72GGTJ on 2007-10-12
  This guide is a very unfortunate mix of good and bad (I am reviewing this several months after making heavy use of the guide, so this is by memory).
  
  First the good:
  * Very beautiful to look at, many great pictures
  * Lots of useful info on how to use the License board, espers, and other new features of FFXII
  * When the maps are correct (more later) they offer detailed info on where treasures are
  * Treasure tables are great!
  
  Now the bad:
  * A ridiculous amount of spelling errors
  * Many typographical errors (other reviewers have mentioned this; things like telling you to reference page ????)
  * Many map errors: Maps will be for the incorrect area, or will be mislabeled
  * Not enough information on the Hunts. You're better off looking online for help (though the little mini-maps provided are useful ... but sometimes it is hard to locate the exact area you need to go to since the map is so small)
  * OMISSIONS. This was by the WORST thing in this book. There is pretty much NOTHING that annoyed me more than whats NOT in this book. Almost ALL of the optional dungeons are missing. No maps, no treasure tables, nothing. And sadly, that is what you really need a guide for. The main quest is pretty self-explanatory, and while there are some things you might miss, its not as essential. However, the side dungeons are much more complicated ... and there is almost NOTHING on them. What little there is is scattered around the book, and is of almost no use. In addition, there is no guide on how to craft the really valuable and hard to get bazaar items. Looking online on what I should've done to get some of the harder ones, I realized I could've saved HOURS if the guide had given some tips (for example, saying DON'T sell such and such loot). Also, information on how to make the rare game monsters spawn would've been nice, because thats another thing that you likely won't be able to find out on your own - some of the conditions are very strange/hard. In addition, some tricks (like easy leveling) aren't in the guide.
  
  Conclusion:
  Overall, I'm still happy I bought the guide. The maps in the guide were useful (and almost necessary to get some rare items), and the treasure tables were great. Unfortunately, the guide was missing so much that for the latter part of the game I rarely used it, instead looking online for information. This is unfortunate because, beyond the maps and treasure tables, there is really nothing here that you can't get free online. And the OMISSIONS pretty much guarantee you'll have to look online if you want to get everything in the game.
  
  P.S. I've never found guides very useful for things like boss fights, or normal fights, or any of that - the strategies you need to use are usually pretty obvious. What I do use guides for are finding things that I would probably never find on my own (without spending a ridiculous amount of time in the game). There are a lot of these "impossible to find" things in FFXII, and unfortunately many of them aren't in this guide. ... which left me wondering "why did I even buy this ...". Also, I haven't had any of the binding problems mentioned yet, and I have heavily used this guide (I have 250+ hours of playtime on the game). Maybe I got lucky in that regard.
  
  
• Disorganized, incomplete, and frustrating. Lots of pictures though
  By A196WNS4XO3U0M on 2007-12-03
  I know it is often said and in saying what I am about to say I will likely discredit everything that follows, but despite that I have to dish out the ever popular. "I don't think I'll buy another Brady Games guide." This guide was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back. This isn't the worse guide I've ever owned actually far from it. That honor belongs to actually another Final Fantasy guide FFIX and I almost hope that they fired the guy responsible for that horrible piece of crap as it can hardly be described as anything but without drifting into the "too vulgar to print" catergory. Getting back on topic though let's take a look at my problems with the guide in question.
  
  1.) Price -It's $20 and at the time this review is up so is the game. That is a lot of money considering you are paying for "guidance" for the same price that you are paying for the experience of playing the game. For that sort of price I want my guide to provide me with 100% of the information I need to provide me with maximum fun ...or at the very least highlights of the biggest secrets. I'll elaborate more on this below
  
  2.) Disorganized -The information that is there has to be cross-referenced (without notation to do so) constantly. Nothing seems to work sequentially it's like a puzzle the group wants you to put together and I didn't pay $20 for Brady Games to give me another mini-game to figure out. Why are there 2 sections on Espers with only one being useful? That of course being the one in the back of the book and not the trap they want you to fall into in the first few pages.
  
  3.) They highlight worthless information and completely disregard the important -I saw an entire section of page telling me of all the things I can do to complete a quest that would reward me with utter crap like a single elixir and a knot of rust. I saw no information regarding the crystal upper levels or even a mention of Pharos's basement. The latter of which holds some of the most powerful and important items in the game. Anyone who has played this game knows how awful status effects are in it and the fact that they don't tell you how you get a ribbon in the game (when there are 5!!!) is just wrong. Ribbon is probably the most important accessory in the game. They should have a whole section explaining how you get them and the best weapons
  
  The only thing they did right by me in the guide is that atleast helped you get the Zodiac Spear as they should have they plaster information on it all over the place constantly, but that wouldn't have been necessary had they not been so wordy and I think the print quality looks great and I don't hate the binding job like others, but they made a big book about a 3rd of it being redundant or useless. I could have made a book half this size and given more information. I had to go to online peer guides to find everything I needed and in the future I think I'll just do that and save myself the headache and $20
  
  
• Agree!
  By AKFV327JQ3S78 on 2006-12-31
  The book is extensive, but is it not comprehensive. My brother and I have been playing the game for months and require online research to fill the gaps. I am annoyed with how they filled the pages with the story. If they wanted to adapt a novel based upon the game, they should have did that instead of selling it as a strategy guide.
  
  
• Hours of fun
  By AL2KOOQ9O839D on 2007-01-04
  I bought this for my husband...it took him a day or two to get into it, but now he is addicted.
  
  
• Sufficient to finish the game, but not outstanding
  By A5CWLQF6QO3CN on 2007-01-07
  Brady's Guide usually have certain standards. Although there were disappointments like the Baten Kaitos guide, they are more quality assured than the Prima counterparts. So what about the latest addition to the FF series? Well, it is ok, not outstanding but ok.
  
  The guide is quite comprehensive on what you need to do and provides a lot of basic information about the game. However, there are still some short comings. For example, the part on Quickening is not that easy to understand and you ended up required to do a trial and error to figure out what it is talking about. I think a step by step approach with appropriate screen shots will make the work easier. Also the complete License Board is a tear off attachment, which is a nuisance because if you don't want to tear it off and lose it you can't really use it. They should have included it inside the main guide even as fold out sections instead of a tear off section. I finally resort to use the online guides for the License Board cos I don't want to tear something off and lose it.
  
  Dungeon maps are usually clear but when it comes to secret areas it is more text based than actually showing you. This is a bit difficult as you can just barely find out the bearings with the text description. You know where to go e.g. northwest of a particularly area, but then once you are there, you have to force your characters through the invisible walls to find that out. Also the non-inclusion of Chocobo tracks on the maps is a minus as sometimes you really need to ride a Chocobo to find out where they lead to - it could be a secret area or just a short cut on the same map.
  
  The hunts are quite good in description but Brady's Brady's you really need to have better colour coordinations - the prints are already small with many hunts cramped on to one page, how could you expect people to read when it is black fonts on a dark brown box? Many times I need to put the walkthrough under my reading lights to actually read the contents. The contents are well written but it is a waste if you can't actually read them!
  
  For items selling by the shops, I think it will be better if Brady's include when certain items will be available. This is because then we know where to go and when without revisiting shops hoping for things to open up.
  
  The Bestiary is a bit funny though, with monsters arranged by areas instead of alphabetical order. I remember it was much easier to look through the list in the older guides because they were organised in alphabetical order with the area where the monster show up as part of the description. It's just easier for me as I got used to that kind of system with the previous guides.
  
  Another issue is the binding. A walkthrough for an RPG has to have good binding. Pages starting to fall off after a while and I've been very careful in using it already - never force the book flat cos it is the collector's edition with a delicate package! I'm so disappointed that after all the TLC when using the book, pages still fall off!
  
  However, one thing I like praise about this book is that for areas that has no map in the game, Brady's did a great job to let you know what to do and where to go, though finding rare monster in those area is a tricky case.I'm quite impressed in the way they deal with these areas.
  
  In all, this is a decent guide and Brady's did do a comprehensive jobs in most aspect of the walkthrough. I'll still recommend it to people who want to get the most of the game.
  
  
• A Relatively Thorough Player's Guide
  By AIFF9RN3QTAFV on 2007-01-16
  This Strategy Guide was as useful as any. I very much enjoyed the game and this certainly helped. It is definitely not necessary if you are playing FFXII just to beat it, but if you want to get the Zodiac Spear or defeat all of the marks, then this guide is very useful. The writters are usually as specific as necessary, not getting too tedious (as walkthrough's go) but sometimes the leave too much open to interpretation, leaving most walkthrough-using players confused. What bothered me most was the fact that in order to get the Zodiac Spear, you have to go through the entire walkthrough page by page so that you don't miss a text box telling you not to pick up a certain chest, plus you have to start using the guide as you start the game because one of those chests is available as soon as Dalmasca's slums are open to you after Vayne's ceremony. That's not how I usually use strat. guides.
  
  They include the basic story and characters, the full license board, an overview of gambits, how to use quickenings and espers, the walkthrough, hunts, side quests (including how to find and defeat all of the espers), other secrets, weapons, armour, accessories, magicks, technicks, itens, the bazaar (including ingredient lists and a loot listing that does not necessarily list where to find all necessary loot), a list of merchant shops and what you can get at each (though it doesn't tell you at what point in the game most of the merchants actually begin selling these wares, I was bothered by the fact that you can't get four or five higher-level spells until after the second to last boss in the game), and a useful bestiary.
  
  
• A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away . . .
  By A1ETMNKF9HO2TJ on 2007-01-17
  Join the desert commoner-turned-hero Luke Skywalker on his adventure! Obtain hunt marks at Tatooine's Cantina - filled with many strange and wonderful creatures! Play and party up with sky pirate Han Solo and his quiet, but wise companion Chewbaca as they break out the Death Star prison with the grizzled warrior Obi-wan Kenobi, once a noble hero, but now traitor to the evil Empire! Rescue the lovely princess Leia and restore balance to her kingdom! Travel to wild and wonderous locales in Han Solo's Millenium Falcon! But don't forget about the useful-but-in-no-way-contributes-to-the-story party companion R2-D2! Flee or battle with Imperial Stormtroopers! Escape from Imperial starships! Or engage them in WWII-style intense dogfighting! Fight evil judges in their Darth Vader masks! But don't give into the Dark Side - choose mercy over the hateful execution of your foes! You have the power to save or destroy the galaxy! Lead the underdog Rebellion against the unstoppable Imperial armada!
  USE THE FORCE!
  
  
• Final Fantasy XII has arrived
  By A1XJY9IO75Q4MQ on 2007-02-20
  Still working through the walkthrough. Can go forever completing the game. But very good description and helpful hints and tactics.
  
  
• Save Your Money
  By A19KUZKP1KMIFI on 2007-02-22
  My fiancee is a big fan of Final Fantasy games, and especially of digging through every last little bit of content in each game. In the past she has used online guides to help her find everthing, and I had hoped that a hard copy strategy guide would come in handy. It has do a degree, however, there are plenty of problems with the book. For one, the pages fall out easily, which is something less than convenient. She has mentioned quite a few times that inforation was inaccurate. In one case, a side quest stated to "look at map on page ??????". Yes, the question marks were part of the actual text instead of the page number. And it turned out that the name of map was something totally different. The book could have used a lot more proofreading/editing.
  
  All of the information in the book which is actually useful can be found online ... not much point in buying this book if you have a computer with a net connection.
  
  
• Final Fantasy Guide a MUST!
  By A38ISWMOM3V762 on 2007-03-08
  This is one guide with game that is a MUST!! Alone, no matter the expert gamer, no one could possibly find all the side quests and hunts and oh so many many things to do! This game is without a doubt my all time favorite and I am an 'oldie' and I love RPG games. The guide is totally helpful, more than any guide I've ever owned.
  Without the guide this game would be only one fourth of what it should be!
  
  
• Good guidance, but not complete
  By A1NVCCZHQVA79I on 2007-03-11
  Brady Games has always been known to be pretty thorough when writing walkthroughs. Take this book as no exception - but only on the walkthrough part. The book covers everything you need to know to finish the game but leaves out large chunks of maps, (Zertinian Caverns, for instance), and leaves many sidequests up to you. The rare monster guide is complete, but lacks the triggers for all monsters, which can leave you wandering around for hours trying to figure out how to find them. Also, the Guide contains many errors - it appears as though they published the book without finishing in page numbers for many Sidequests (see page ???, for instance). Overall, a good buy if you are looking for guidance from Point A to Point B, but you'll have to turn to the internet for help if you ultimately want to get the most out of the game.
  
  
• good if you need it.
  By ARHICA8O6C3E4 on 2007-05-21
  this thing has everything you need if your a cheater who doesn't like to play the game for themselves first. walkthroughs, cheats, bestiary, weapons, shops, etc. good product.
  
  
• The Standard Guide
  By A23Y48MHOD5928 on 2007-06-27
  This guide was exactly what I had expected from a Brady Games guide.
  
  The information isn't 100% on the game. Not all areas are defined. However, the walkthrough proves incredibly accurate and informative without giving away the in depth storyline at play later in the game. The spoils in the guide aren't unexpected (you're reading an entire guide to every facet of the game) and aren't unlike the spoils found in the manual to the game (the manual spoiled the entire news about the Strahl and the members that would be in my party before I ever encountered them).
  
  The side quests are accurate, except for the fact that some of the timing is incorrect. For instance, they report a quest requiring use of the leisure craft as being available LONG before the leisure craft is available for use.
  
  If anyone is having trouble with the game or wants to unlock and find all the best of the best in the game, I would highly recommend this book. The organization is iffy at best, but detailed instructions on completing every hunt and obtaining every esper is accurate and incredibly organized in comparison to the rest of the guide. An index would come in handy all too often, but the poster does come in handy as a bookmark (it's not too handy otherwise)
  
  
• complete guide???
  By AXMTO456465BM on 2007-07-01
  if i have to go online to access a walkthrough written by a gamer, have i really bought the guide? YES. i bought the guide, and for the most part, the guide is very helpful, but IT DOES NOT PROVIDE ALL THE ANSWERS. this isn't entirely relevant, unfortunately. this is the only guide. get it, cause it's helpful. but thankfully, there are awesome gamers willing to supplement it on the cyberweb. mainly, there are significant maps missing or innapropriately placed within the guide. other info is lost due to this, like chest location. also not included in the guide are specifics w/in special missions. furthermore, the loot dropped by enemies is listed in their the monster bio, but it's like looking in a haystack when you need a certain combination for a bazaar good. the stuff should be cross referenced. all told, this guide should be a third bigger (or more) just to make gameplay smooth -- which it doesn't do. i expect a full basis for acing a game in any guide, this gives you 85%.
  
  
• This guide is GREAT but it could be PERFECT.
  By A326UJWWFS6JUA on 2007-07-14
  This guide is great, except the ESPER's part. The clues to find the Cúchulainn(The Impure) and Ultima(Walker of the Wheel)espers are incomplete.Even if you follow the hints to meet them, you will be lost, because there are missing informations.The rest is fine.
  
  

• Final Fantasy XII
• Final Fantasy X Official Strategy Guide
• Final Fantasy X-2 Official Strategy Guide
• Final Fantasy X
• Final Fantasy X-2