Heys Guys!
Any of you got the special edition guide that looks like the book on thr save screen?
i bought, its fuckin orgasmic! lol

Plainsofsorrow

I'll be getting it as soon as I complete the game. I never read guides until I've completed a game at least once, too many spoilers.

And welcome to the Shrine, by the way.

Yeah I bought it with my FF12. It's the same price as the normal edition so I thought, fuck it, why not by the limited edition one now rather than buy it when I have finished the game as they'll probably be all gone now.

Honestly it leaves out too much for my liking (as far as I've seen it's the same text as the regular edition, with the addition of the artbook and cardboard folder).

*No extended map of Barheim
*No map of Nabreus Deadlands
*Double Print of the Nalbina Fortress map for no reason
*Tons of empty cross-references for Side-Quests (see pg. ???)
*No description of the weather changes
*Incomplete bestiary for each section**
*No detail on how to ellicit Rare Game outside of the Hunt Club 30

**The bestiary appendix is complete as far as I've seen.

I'll update this as I think about it more. I know it has a lot more missing. Honestly, having a Penelo cover does not make up for these problems.

Who needs guides when you've got GameFAQs and cool people at the ffshrine forums to help you out?

;)

Who needs guides when you've got GameFAQs and cool people at the ffshrine forums to help you out?

;)

Very true. XII means more to me because I've been able to discuss it--and overcome the limitations of the guide--with everyone here. <--Emo :-P

Honestly it leaves out too much for my liking (as far as I've seen it's the same text as the regular edition, with the addition of the artbook and cardboard folder).

*No extended map of Barheim
*No map of Nabreus Deadlands
*Double Print of the Nalbina Fortress map for no reason
*Tons of empty cross-references for Side-Quests (see pg. ???)
*No description of the weather changes
*Incomplete bestiary for each section**
*No detail on how to ellicit Rare Game outside of the Hunt Club 30

**The bestiary appendix is complete as far as I've seen.

I'll update this as I think about it more. I know it has a lot more missing. Honestly, having a Penelo cover does not make up for these problems.

wow, didnt realise the guide missed so much out

wow, didnt realise the guide missed so much out

And more:

*Lists items highlighted on the second page of bestiary entries as only being available via poaching; this is blatently false. These items are dropped as well, much easier than poaching. I've found that these items drop more regularly if you DON'T chain. <--Just an observation, I could be wrong, but they do drop.

*Small, unmarked map of Zertinan Caverns. It is HORRIBLE about maps.

I got the standard guide when I got the game(limited edition game). Later I got the limited edition guide w/ art book. This helps me fully complete the game, even though it is with its cons though. Gamefaqs is great also, but I prefer the guide, it's worth it to me. Anyways, the guide isn't really as good as other guides. It's not as complete and error free as I want it to. I need more maps sometimes.

So basically, the standard guide is the better of the two? I'm going to buy the guide too eventually and I don't want to buy both just for some minor differences.

So basically, the standard guide is the better of the two? I'm going to buy the guide too eventually and I don't want to buy both just for some minor differences.

I didn't sit down and read the regular edition, but I flipped through it and it was the exact same text, graphics, etc. Same book, different cover, from what I saw.

Okay. I think I'll just buy the standard one then. I wouldn't want to buy a guide knowing it has lots of vital information missing from it. Thanks.

Okay. I think I'll just buy the standard one then. I wouldn't want to buy a guide knowing it has lots of vital information missing from it. Thanks.

Well they are both missing the information, if they are in fact EXACTLY the same text. I just don't see any reason to pay 10 bucks more for a carboard folder, an artbook, and a cover of your favorite character (this is on the inside of the folder, but how to discern who's on the cover w/o opening it has been discussed previously in this forum).

Definitely go for the regular edition.

Oh? I thought someone mentioned that the special edition differed from the standard one. Okay, guess not. What I want to know is if both guides contain the same information, why the difference in price? Just for the cover?

Yes. When I checked out the standard edition it had the exact same text. The special edition just has the stuff mentioned in my last post.

You could protest the practice of burying things in games specifically to force you to buy the guide for the sake of completion by refusing to buy the guide altogether. Honestly, it's one of the most dastardly practices in the gaming industry, but you only reinforce it when you buy guides for games like that.

You could protest the practice of burying things in games specifically to force you to buy the guide for the sake of completion by refusing to buy the guide altogether. Honestly, it's one of the most dastardly practices in the gaming industry, but you only reinforce it when you buy guides for games like that.

This is absolutely true. I've read your arguments on this topic, Prak, and I have to say I agree. Though I did still buy this one, shame on me.

I decided to pass on the guide for this one, although I did get the one for FFX-2. Well, hey, at least it came with a reasonably decent free poster, which is still hanging on my wall. :D

The Squall one from David Cassady's guide for VIII is still over my desk :D

No one is surprised.

I am SAVING up my MONEY for POKEMON GUIDE

I don't know why, but this guide is the best thing I've ever bought, I've barely looked in it, but it just looks AMAZING! That's pretty much why I bought it, otherwise I'd be using Gamefaqs or something.

If above account hadn't been registered nearly two years ago, I'd suspect a joke account.

If above account hadn't been registered nearly two years ago, I'd suspect a joke account.

Yeah, because he will be using Gamefaqs, because he has the guide. :sad:

Edit: The Lhusu Mine map is also incomplete. My gripe isn't with the fact that the maps are incomplete as you do get maps and candles in the game, but that the treasure contents are not catalogued for the areas missing maps.

Potential Spoiler Warning







This problem is pertinant because as you may or may not know the contents change with the Diamond Armlet equipped. In particular there is a piece of equipment that can be entirely missed based on what is currently known as a result of the guide.

In Sochen Cave palace there is a non re-spawnable chest that contains either the Iga Blade or the Koga Blade (both available 50% of the time when the Diamond Armlet is NOT equipped). If you get the Koga Blade and save, you've lost any chance of getting the Iga Blade. The Koga Blade can be obtained during the Great Cockatrice Escape side-quest and is dropped very rarely by the Ash Wyrm in Mosphoran, in the area where you fight Exodus. The Iga Blade is not available anywhere else, as far as I am aware.

Several other items can only be attained in chests, but those chests are either respawnable, or give you the item regardless of whether you have the armlet equipped, 100% of the time.

Perhaps the Iga Blade is available in one of the many chests not detailed in the guide.

That is why I am harping on the maps :D

This is based on information from Deathshining and what I am currently aware of [I'm currently at the Phon Coast]. If anyone would like to correct this information, if it is in error, please do so.

Here are the "differences" between the standard guide and the limited edition guide.

The actual "limited edition guide" is the "standard guide" exactly but with a different back cover(something more basic, but I can't remember it right now, it's better though), but the "normal" back cover is printed out in a seperate piece of paper(the other side of this piece of paper is blank) that they put right there in the package.

The guide comes in a box, the front cover of the box is the popular picture of the judges. There is an "inner cover" kinda to the box, which comes in one of six designs. The six designs are the six characters. You don't know which one you will get until you buy it and take off the plastic and open it. Unless there is some number printed on the stock tag that tells you somehow. I couldn't find any such number or info, and I am familiar with stock tags.

In the box, besides the guide and that piece of paper that is the seperate normal back cover, you also get something else. You get another book, it's an art gallery book and includes tons of great high quality pictures about stuff from the game. I think they include all the characters, races, espers, airships, and a bunch of other stuff. The standard guide costs $20 and the limited edition guide costs $30. You decide whether or not you will pay $10 for the special edition set, it's worth it for me! :)

You don't know which one you will get until you buy it and take off the plastic and open it. Unless there is some number printed on the stock tag that tells you somehow. I couldn't find any such number or info, and I am familiar with stock tags.

The method of determining covers that I alluded to isn't anywhere near that sophisticated. You push up the guide with you thumb while it's in the plastic. Then you go by the 6 pictures to determine "by the hair" who you got.

This is Reese's Peanut Butter Cup's method. Low-tech, FTW!

I didn't do this when I got mine. It didn't even occur to me to sacrifice small children or the like to get Penelo. I just got lucky.

No.

No intentions of getting it either. Games are more fun when you beat them without tips, tricks and guides from others. Personal Opinion.

No.

No intentions of getting it either. Games are more fun when you beat them without tips, tricks and guides from others. Personal Opinion.

yup that's much more fun thats why till i first beat the game i hardly use any help..

It's very unlikely you will find all the secrets hidden in the game so a guide is necessary or use GameFAQ's alternatively. I like to buy guides for a more thorough explanation with the addition of nice artwork and much more easy on the eye than reading text along a screen.

You could protest the practice of burying things in games specifically to force you to buy the guide for the sake of completion by refusing to buy the guide altogether. Honestly, it's one of the most dastardly practices in the gaming industry, but you only reinforce it when you buy guides for games like that.

I'd say you'd probably stumble across those things after multiple playthroughs. As an example, I found nearly all of FFVII's secrets without ever buying a guide, just through playing it several times. When I finally borrowed the guide off my friend, I was surprised to see that not only had I found 99% of the secrets in the guide, I had also found others that weren't in the guide.

I don't mind having secrets buried a bit deep in games myself. It gives the game multiple play-ability value. But then again, I haven't read FFXII's guide or completed the game multiple times. It is possible that FFXII is a more serious offender for burying secrets deeply, hence the large amount of complaints.

Also, agree with Enya. The main reason I buy the guides is for the artwork, and as a souvenir of game long into the future after the disc has long been knackered.

I got Fran, which is alright. Anyways, I still haven't beaten it, not much time, plus I'm playing Rogue Galaxy and FF XII I'm beating in 150 hours.

Honestly it leaves out too much for my liking (as far as I've seen it's the same text as the regular edition, with the addition of the artbook and cardboard folder).

*No extended map of Barheim
*No map of Nabreus Deadlands
*Double Print of the Nalbina Fortress map for no reason
*Tons of empty cross-references for Side-Quests (see pg. ???)
*No description of the weather changes
*Incomplete bestiary for each section**
*No detail on how to ellicit Rare Game outside of the Hunt Club 30

**The bestiary appendix is complete as far as I've seen.This is a fantastic list. The lack of maps, especially in tricky sections, was awful.

Did they say in the guide when certain spells were available? Because I remember traipsing through the Nechrol only to find that the merchant sold Ethers (I really wanted Scathe and Telekenisis). What a waste.


The whole side quests section was poorly done. The organization was horrid, and maps were either really large or really small, depending on space. The editing needed a lot of fine-tuning.

Did they say in the guide when certain spells were available? Because I remember traipsing through the Nechrol only to find that the merchant sold Ethers (I really wanted Scathe and Telekenisis). What a waste.

No, they didn't. They mention him in the "100 Secrets of FFXII" section, which was especially aggrivating, but they never discuss his changing selection of goods. Perhaps they left this out because they assumed we wouldn't hit up the Necrohol until after the Feywood. Even so, they should have mentioned it, as there are those of us who are going to get in there as soon as we possible can.


The whole side quests section was poorly done. The organization was horrid, and maps were either really large or really small, depending on space. The editing needed a lot of fine-tuning.

Honestly, the whole guide reeks of Dan Birlew. I cannot stand that man. His previous assualt to my sensibilites was in the Kingdom Hearts guide, wherein he claimed that Glide was required for large number of items that could be obtained with High Jump and a modicum of platforming experience.

It's a horrible cycle, we need the guides to get everything and then they let us down anyway. I'm remembering the guide for IX and shuddering.

Edit: I finally looked at the author credits and Dan Birlew was not involved. David Cassady was, and I'm a little shocked as the guide for VIII was pretty decent. I can only think of one error, and one omission off hand. Feel free to enlighten me to others.

What's the point in getting guides anyway? The games these days are far too easy to warrant buying a guide. If you're a perfectionist, the guides you can find on gamefaqs and other gaming forums are far more helpful. If you get it for the artwork, you're wasting money and missing out on BETTER works that go into the artbooks.

What's the point in getting guides anyway? The games these days are far too easy to warrant buying a guide. If you're a perfectionist, the guides you can find on gamefaqs and other gaming forums are far more helpful. If you get it for the artwork, you're wasting money and missing out on BETTER works that go into the artbooks.

The guides on Gamefaqs are better. I've made myself quite the hypocrite by saying I agree with Prak, and owning all of the ones for FF's main lineage. *Sigh* the difference between intentions and behavior.

Intentions means shit. I only have myself to blame.

Well, it's only hypocritical if you've ever bought them before, even knowing that games were being designed for the purpose of selling them. I bought quite a few guides for games like that before I realized what was going on.

I saw FFXII's guide and I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping to see something on the vain of the Dragon Quest VIII guide which I think is quite possibly the best guide Brady has ever published. Everything is clear, and in the form of an Atlas. No spoilers in it, just maps and charts to help you find your ways by yourself.
FFXII lacks a lot of maps, the layout is messy and there's a lot of "see page ???" in it... I searched the page "???" but it's nowhere in the guide, lol.

I don't mind having secrets buried a bit deep in games myself. It gives the game multiple play-ability value.

Although I agree, I hardly ever play an RPG all the way through more then once. Sure I did with FF III (VI in Japan) but thats because I was a kid and had time.

Nowadays I will still play an RPG all the way through again, but only years after I originally did it. Like recently I picked up FF III (VI) again and played it most of the way through. Except I had forgotten nearly everything since it had been at least 10 years since I played it.

Not everyone has the time to play a game through 3 and 4 times. Especially a game like this where I will probably spend about 150-180 hours just on the first play through. I realize most of you on this forum are younger and have all the time in the world. But wait until you get a job, a home of your own, a gf/wife and a real life. You'll realize that there is more to life then FF.

And another thing, the only things I've really used this guide for so far in my play through is for things like the Deathbringer, Zodiac Spear and Fomalhaut. Namely getting the spear really early by running as fast as you can through the Necrohol.

And if any single one of you actually think you could of gotten the Zodiac Spear without knowing which chests not to open for the Necrohol spear, or that you would have been lucky enough to get the 1% chance spear in the Henne mines, doing soft resets repeatedly your not only young and naive but a bit retarded as well. There is simply no way to know how to get the Necrohol spear unless you got really lucky or you regularly pass up chests for the hell of it.

I went with the regular after I had the game for about a month. LE just didn't seem worth it, similar to KH 2's.

Yeah I bought the special edition guide and managed to snag a Penelo cover. In truth though I bought it for the art book. It's not too bad.

CORRECTION:

There is a map of Nabreus Deadlands. However, the entrances and exits are not labeled. It exists, but it is subpar.

I don't want to drag this discussion out, I just want to be as accurate as I can.

Knegative there's also this PiggybackInteractiv.com first release Final Fantasy XII guide that looks like an ancient tome and it's the first hardcover videogame guide ever written. it's got a very good detailed guide on the Barheim Passage and the rest of the walkthrough's unmatchable. i reffered to it a few times when i was stuck in the Pharos Third Ascent maps.

and it's the first hardcover videogame guide ever written

Not quite true. I have the guide to Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete for the PS1, and it is also hardcover and included a lot of extras like memory card stickers, character stickers, interviews with the producers, retro check comparing older versions of the game, etc... I have yet to find any guide that beat this one.

But I'd like to compare that UK FFXII guide to the Brady one.

I brought the limited edition guide on the day i got the game. I did however rent the game first and didnt use the guide. I always buy the guide because i find if i dont i miss out on half the game because the secrets in the games get more and more stupid to come across as the games progress. Final Fantasy 7 only had a few not to dificult secrets to obtain with the likes of the secret characters and such and such. But how the fuck im expected to know how and where to find omega weapon is a joke. I bet noone (well VERY few) people have actually just come across him and said "what the hells that......OH FUCK". Because the process involved in actually finding such secrets is just rediculasly hard. And things like getting the best weapons. Theres nothing in the game that gives any clues as to how to get them so how are you ment to get the best swords? Theres no way in hell i would have come across the best ninja sword without the guide. But TBH i do find myself lookin on here and game FAQ's a hell of alot cus its easier to search for things with the find option on internet explorer.

But given what other people have said (i didnt take down user names, forgive me) but it seems like the secrets are gettign harder and harder to work out so that you literally HAVE to buy the guide. I like having secrets in the game dont get me wrong but i think there now far to hard and id even go as far as to say too random, for any hope of actually finding them out yourself. Like i remember back in the day of final fantasy 7, the best weapons you found in box's. I think thats a little more logical then finding them from killin a random rare creature, and not opening 4 certain random treasure chests. It's a joke. You may argue the fact that you get Excalibur in a treasure chest, took me 40 mins to get it last nite. Im sure not many people have found it and got it first time. And if you didnt have the guide then why would you go back to check if it was there again? I doubt it. It just seems to me like at first the guides were just a little extra help if you needed it, and now there compulsary if your going to get the most out of your hard earner cash that you spent on the game in the first place.

Honestly it leaves out too much for my liking (as far as I've seen it's the same text as the regular edition, with the addition of the artbook and cardboard folder).

*No extended map of Barheim
*No map of Nabreus Deadlands
*Double Print of the Nalbina Fortress map for no reason
*Tons of empty cross-references for Side-Quests (see pg. ???)
*No description of the weather changes
*Incomplete bestiary for each section**
*No detail on how to ellicit Rare Game outside of the Hunt Club 30

**The bestiary appendix is complete as far as I've seen.

I'll update this as I think about it more. I know it has a lot more missing. Honestly, having a Penelo cover does not make up for these problems.

My special edition guide has all these things, not sure which guide you got but mine is just fine, couldn't be better.

My special edition guide has all these things, not sure which guide you got but mine is just fine, couldn't be better.

If I may be so bold: Pictures or it didn't happen.

I'd like pics of your extended Barheim Map and Page 231 (because it has a large fistful of the ??? Cross-references).

I'm not trying to doubt you, but enough people here and elsewhere have noticed these issues.

When did you get yours? New printing, perhaps?

My special edition guide has all these things, not sure which guide you got but mine is just fine, couldn't be better.

AWSOME sig.
I have Balthier

If I may be so bold: Pictures or it didn't happen.

I'd like pics of your extended Barheim Map and Page 231 (because it has a large fistful of the ??? Cross-references).

I'm not trying to doubt you, but enough people here and elsewhere have noticed these issues.

When did you get yours? New printing, perhaps?

Mine's a uk copy, not sure if it makes a difference, my barheim seems to have everything, including the room where you fight Zalera and the entrance to garamsythe. Maybe there is something else that isnt included, I'm not sure, i can post pics if needed.

And my page 231 is the giza rains part of the walkthrough if that helps.

Mine's a uk copy, not sure if it makes a difference, my barheim seems to have everything, including the room where you fight Zalera and the entrance to garamsythe. Maybe there is something else that isnt included, I'm not sure, i can post pics if needed.

And my page 231 is the giza rains part of the walkthrough if that helps.

Yeah, that sounds pretty different, and being from the UK is probably the reason. Pg. 231 in the US version is part of the Side-Quest appendix, specifically the Patient in the Desert Side-Quest.