1) When I buy a hint book, it's expressly so I DON'T have to go to websites to collect up all the hints and tidbits to complete a game. There's not a page that goes by in this guide that doesn't have a callout box suggesting you go the website and learn an even BETTER way to defeat this monster, or where the last of the umpty-umpth Magic Thingy is hidden. I bought the book to learn these things;

2) as of the moment (either from overload or over-fancy design, I can't tell yet) the website you're supposed to link to is DEAD slow. And there's no easy way to collect all the hints at once; yu have to enter these search codes listed in the book, resulting in a LONG visit to the site, racking up lots and lots of hits for Square to crow about.

Now, what's IN the book is choice as always. The walkthru is easy to follow, and doesn't ruin the twists of the plot any more than a walkthru has to. The monster and item guides are well laid out, if a bit incomplete (see above) There's a nice selection of original concept art peppered throughout the book, the kind of stuff you only see in the imported Japanese art books at a premium price. So it's still worth getting but...

I feel like when you used to look at the pictures of all the things you could build with Legos, and once you got the set, the small print said "items on box require more than one set to build". Yeah, I can play with what I got, but I was expecting a more complete experience that wouldn't require more of my time.

34 of 35 found the following review helpful:


Where's the Beef?  Nov 07, 2003 By Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™"
The strategy guide business is one of being partly an aid and partly a souvenir. It's not often that a guide manages to fail on both counts. Especially when the underlying game is one as complex and varied an RPG as Final Fantasy IX. I'm not sure what was going on at Squaresoft's planning tables when they thought this out (other than a desire to save pages) but the guide is missing many of the key elements that should make a player willing to but it.

Rather than provide a detailed walkthru, the information is split between the book and an online web site. All the real details, advice, and solutions require stopping the game, going online to find something out and then returning to the game. Since my Playstation is in one room, and the computer is in another, I wound up using the guide for high level order of play information and figuring everything else for myself. Since the game isn't particularly hard to follow through without a guide using it to amplify the playing experience is a futile exercise.

In addition, in several places the guide has an irritating habit of telling you to do one thing and then telling you several pages later to do something else. I generally don't read guides through from cover to cover while taking notes. Instead I use the guide when I run into an problem or to make sure I haven't missed a side quest. One thing a guide should never do is cause a mistake that means I have to replay 10 hours work in order to correct a tiny omission.

The supplied charts are acceptible, but uninspired in the amount of detail provided. And there are no maps worth mentioning. Even the amount and quality of imagery and graphic design are mediocre. Couple this with the fact that the website is generally accessible (all the manual does is provide special search keywords that really aren't needed) and I honestly can't encourage players to buy this guide.

23 of 23 found the following review helpful:


playonline site is horrible  Nov 17, 2000
Well this is a fine mess, you pay for the book and then it refers you to an online address that you must register for and doesn't work. I suggest you save you money and use the great sites like gamefacs.com and rpgamers.com.

17 of 18 found the following review helpful:


This book is great...  Nov 20, 2000
...for people who spend half there lives online trying to figure out the game they just bought instead of playing it and enjoying it. I bought this guide because I couldn't even get on the website. Imagine my dismay when every page has a link to the site so you can find information that should have been in the book in the first place. If Bradygames is going to continue with this "new" style of strategy guides in the future, then they've lost me as a customer.

11 of 11 found the following review helpful:


Great for propping up chairs.  Apr 01, 2009 By T. Conomos
I want to give this guide a one star review but it is just so perfect for correcting off balance chairs and tables that I can't possibly do that.

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