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[Vitanimus]

After being home and digging through my old stuff, lo and behold I found a bunch of strategy guides

Spoiler

that I'm now selling

for Infinite Undiscovery, Final Fantasy XII, Star Ocean 4 and such to much nostalgia. Among them, I found this gem:

I actually played through DQVIII for the first time with a strategy guide and I have very fond memories of the game thanks to it. I thought it was an especially nice touch that the end game content was literally sealed in the strategy guide which made it super satisfying finally beating the game and seeing what was ahead.

What are your favorite strategy guides GAF, and why? Post bad ones too if you want.

 

[gugeifer]

Futures Bayonetta.

 

[JazzmanZ]

The pokemon ones are handy.

 

[CHusson91]

Versus did a great Majora's Mask guide.

 

[lazygecko]

Haven't bought a strategy guide for as long as I've had internet access since the late 90's.

I did have one as a child though. It was like this huge compilation of guides for several NES games. All 3 Super Mario Bros., Zelda 1 and 2, the first 3 Mega Man games, Castlevania 1-3, Startropics, Solar Jetman, etc... It had all the level layouts mapped out and photographed with plenty of hints and little lore bits. It made some of those games feel really epic in scope for my infantile brain.

 

[JonnyKtyler]

Future Press Dark Souls strategy guide is pretty awesome. I never use walkthroughs or anything to beat a game, but this guide was like a full encyclopedia with every bit of game information instead of just a walkthrough. Also it's a really nice hardcover book.

 

[Seanspeed]

I miss my old strategy guides. Think the last one I had was for FFX.

I remember I had like 3 different ones for FFVI, which I loved reading through even long after beating the game. This was my favourite(not my pic):

I also had the Forbidden Secrets one, which was all sorts of inaccurate, but still fun to read through. Shame I got rid of them(lost them?), cuz they seem to be worth money nowadays.

 

[super-famicom]

The Earthbound strategy guide that came bundled with the game is nice.

 

[purg3]

Future Press Dark Souls strategy guide is pretty awesome. I never use walkthroughs or anything to beat a game, but this guide was like a full encyclopedia with every bit of game information instead of just a walkthrough. Also it's a really nice hardcover book.

Even though a lot of the info is irrelevant after patches and such, they really are nice guides. I have them for both DS games. You can tell a lot of work was put into them.

 

[Zippedpinhead]

Favorite Strategy guides?

All the old nintendo Power guides instantly come to mind, with top of the top being Earthbound, Chrono Trigger and Link's Awakening (though the "Top Secret" compilation of Classified information codes and cheats was AMAZING but not game specific)

Best and most usable for Content? Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne OR the Arc the Lad 1&2 guide. Both are very well laid out and very useful. Nocturne's is laid out in a way that all the bosses have strategies, but no way of knowing who is the last boss (so spoilers do not happen).

Arc 1&2 really helps with the Choko sidequests, standard Working Designs flair, and Final Boss Rush strategies really helped me through the final boss (took me 3 days of playing off and on via PSP after carrying the save file from PS1, through my PS3 and then transferring it to PSP, I have since moved it to my Vita). A while back I asked Victor Ireland via PM if the planned Arc 3 and Monster arena Guide ever happened (so that I could ready my wallet and track it down) but it never came to fruition.

 

[Cormano]

For someone whose first strategy guide was Final Fantasy IX, any strategy guide but that one.

 

[Minister of the Dog]

It reads like an adventure and it's full of beautiful artwork. It's really something else, and very hard to find in my country.

 

[diamount]

Was perfect toilet material for weeks.

 

[doctorcdcs]

The Lunar 1 and 2 strat guides for the PS1 for consoles, but my favourite has to be the old sierra point and click (king's quest, police quest) strategy guides for PC. They were amazing reads.

 

[E92 M3]

The Lunar 1 and 2 strat guides for the PS1 for consoles, but my favourite has to be the old sierra point and click (king's quest, police quest) strategy guides for PC. They were amazing reads.

Working designs did some fantastic strategy guides, indeed.

 

[Japanmanx3]

The Piggyback Collectors Edition Hardback FFXIII guides for each game respectively.

There is also a special place in my heart for both the FFXII and KHII BradyGames Limited Edition Guides.

 

[Kikolool]

Skyrim....

 

[Anth0ny]

Nintendo Power's Ocarina of Time.

 

[daveo42]

The best guide I've ever purchases was the SMT: Nocturne guide from Double Jump. Probably the best companion guide to any game ever.

Brady Games are generally garbage and you can usually do better following a GameFAQs guide.

 

[E92 M3]

Skyrim....

I have two sealed copies of the legendary guide - so beautiful

 

[WhereAreMahDragonz]

It reads like an adventure and it's full of beautiful artwork. It's really something else, and very hard to find in my country.

Yep!

 

[gugeifer]

Actually, anyone can say anything good about Prima's collectors chest with Zelda games guides?

 

[Krejlooc]

This was the first guide I ever bought, and I still have it in very good shape. I really love this guide, it's got so much great content. Full maps for every act in both Sonic 1 and 2, with many different routes highlighted through each act. They, for example, tell you a route that nabs you 7 1-ups in Green Hill Zone act 3 without backtracking, and they tell you what to watch for to maintain the higher, faster path.

Plus it covers the Sega master system/game gear versions of the game, too. I probably would have never found all the emeralds in Sonic 2 8-bit without this guide.

On top of all that, the guide had a very full catalog section at the end, and some official artwork from japan (and america), a huge list of codes, plus the very first issue of the Sonic comic included.

I've bought every Sonic guide since, absolutely none of them are anywhere close to this one. In fact, very few guides in general come close to this. Great guide.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Mortal Kombat's

 

[Sushigod7]

Metal Gear Solid 3 LE, comes with guide and badass art book. Can't beat that!

 

[jonno394]

Piggybacks guide for WInd Waker was amazing. Lovely presentation, great artwork dotted about the place and just expertly made.

The writing and layout for the Future Press guide to Fallout 3 was amazing. Shame they changed the style for the New Vegas guide as it wasn't quite as enjoyable imo.

 

[DigitalRicket]

It left out some of the more "spoiler" battles in the late game but it was pretty awesome due to that holographic cover. Man, I wish I still had that guide.

 

[FrontalMonk]

Prince of Persia guide. Thing read like a novel, no joke. Great fun.

 

[Damaniel]

I have no real 'favorite' strategy guide, though the collectors' guides for Bethesda games (especially Fallout 3, but also Oblivion/Skyrim) tend to be pretty nice and thorough.

I do have a least favorite strategy guide, but everybody knows what it is already - Final Fantasy IX. Seriously, fuck that guide. I hated it when it was brand new, and I hated it even more when I got around to playing FFIX a few years back, since the original PlayOnline pages were long gone. I'm not paying $20+ for a shitty (and single topic) version of the Internet Yellow Pages ever again, thank you very much.

 

[borghe]

This was the first strategy guide I used (i.e. not the nascent version of gamefaqs at the time) where they introduced just downright game breaking tactics (in this case materia combos). I don't remember exactly... but there's a materia combo given in this one at the end where you can basically string 9999 damage hits together.. it's insane.

Loved this guide.

 

[Aesnath]

I picked up a really neat one for Castlevania 64 (after I'd beaten the game actually) because it was on sale/clearance. It was actually kind of a fun read and had an awesome retrospective of the series. At the time, that information seemed so hard to come by and I was obsessed with the series.

 

[zadig]

My favourite is probably the Bravely Default Square Enix Mook. The paper used and print quality are quite good, and the size is handy for flipping through. The only thing I don't quite like about it is that there doesn't seem to be much information on Nemeses. The hardback Ni no Kuni guide is probably my second favourite.

I usually buy guides for "big" rpgs, but really regret getting the Final Fantasy IX one back in the day, ugh!

 

[Joni]

Anything Piggyback. BradyGames and Prima can't compare to them.

 

[Skilletor]

Awesome content, amazing art. Loved it.

 

[TheFightingFish]

Pretty sure this is the one that I remember the most from my childhood. What I remember in particular about it was that it had like a full little mini Star Wars novel that fit in between all the mission guides. Doubt that it was really that good, but I loved it at the time.

 

[Shiina]

Anything Piggyback. BradyGames and Prima can't compare to them.

This. They're on a different level content and paper quality-wise.

 

[pete_clarf]

I love collecting guides. I have 81 of them (actually thought I had more). Dragon Quest guides are all very helpful. Golden Sun I & II combo-guide was great. I think my favorite guide of all time in terms of usefulness was Dragon Warrior VII

Some of favorite guides are for games that don't even really need them. It's just fun to look through them after you've beaten the game or to look back at parts you've gotten past. Some examples of this: Blue Stinger, Haunting Ground, Resident Evil 2 and 3 combo-guide.

 

[Krejlooc]

Awesome content, amazing art. Loved it.

I have this guide, it's excellent.

 

[thoseAREmySHOES]

Earthbound is my favorite that I still own. The Dark Souls guide was quite good, but I couldn't resist selling it for 70 bucks.

 

[outunderthestars]

Just wanted to share my love of this set. Picked it up for $76 new and have been blown away.

 

[Angry Guy]

Anything Nintendo Power or Piggyback. Not getting those strategy guides anymore is the real reason to be sad that NP is gone.

 

[DancinSwayze]

Awesome cover art too!!

 

[TheDarkKnight774]

This was the first strategy guide I used (i.e. not the nascent version of gamefaqs at the time) where they introduced just downright game breaking tactics (in this case materia combos). I don't remember exactly... but there's a materia combo given in this one at the end where you can basically string 9999 damage hits together.. it's insane.

Loved this guide.

That one was great. Unlike the official guide this one helped prevent spoilers in the walkthrough and had great tips with the materia system that were quite helpful. Great guide

 

[AmethystEnd]

Dark Souls II:

This thing is a work of art, thanks to EpicNameBro and AGermanSpy actually working on it themselves.

Edit: Forgive the compression.

 

[m0therzer0]

 

[Zukuu]

Final Fantasy VIII. I looked at the book sooo often before going to sleep to research stuff. So awesome.

 

[kittens]

The only one I ever owned was a dual Super Mario 64 + Pilotwings 64 guide that came out at least a month before the Nintendo 64 was release. I read that thing millions of times in my hyper hyped state, and sadly ruined a lot of Mario 64 for myself.

 

[dadozer]

Pages are falling out of mine 15 years later. So well written and designed.

 

[grimmiq]

FFXI the crafting/job ability/trait sections were awesome.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Mortal Kombat's

and this is a joke fyi

It's terrible (watch to the end)