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Final Fantasy Guide Box Set from Prima listed on GameStop.com (FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX)

Q

qualitydisc

Member
entrydenied said:
VII and VIII were easy since they had the PC versions to work with. FFIX never had a PC version and with SE losing their source code and assets it's probably not something to expect anytime soon.
Click to expand...

This does not surprise me. IIRC, there was an interview with Hashimoto where he admitted that their source code for FFX was missing pieces and they had to re-do some of it from scratch for the HD remaster.

Seems like game companies do a terrible job of archiving stuff like code and assets after a game's release. They just move on to the next project and don't give any thought to preservation.
 
S

Syntsui

Member
How come these fucking ''professional companies'' manage to lose the source code of their fucking games?

It's absurdly amateur, beyond ridiculous.
 
M

Minions

Member
Syntsui said:
How come these fucking ''professional companies'' manage to lose the source code of their fucking games?

It's absurdly amateur, beyond ridiculous.
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell it has been "assumed" to be true since they have not modified the code and instead just used a wrapper for drm etc etc.

I don't know if it is actually true or not. Nowhere I've searched has any source saying they lost the source code, just that people believe it is true/possible.
 
W

Wedge7

Member
Nice!

So buying this. Then again, I love collecting guides in general. Most of the time, I dont even really use them for the game, just enjoy flipping through them and reading the random stuff at the beginning, rarely use the actual walkthroughs.
 
F

fates

Member
FFIX finally gets a strategy guide.

Back when FFIX originally came out all it got was an expensive PlayOnline brochure.
 
A

Altered Juice

Member
dinozzo-head-slap-o.gif


Syntsui said:
How come these fucking ''professional companies'' manage to lose the source code of their fucking games?

It's absurdly amateur, beyond ridiculous.
Click to expand...

how embarrassing.
 
M

MrDaravon

Member
Oh wow, glad I got in at the $86 price when I saw it posted on CAG earlier. Like the Zelda guides I would expect these to probably be around for a bit though, unless there's either way more demand for this and/or they do a lower run. Probably depends in part on why this thing even exists; my guess is still that they're just simply tapping a hardcore niche market of people that will buy these things. Given that there are $120 versions of the DA Inquisition and AC Unity guides, I'm betting that Prima/Brady are realizing that they can make up (likely) flagging print guide sales by putting out much pricier premium ones that a small but dedicated audience will buy. It's pretty smart actually, make them more of a straight up collectible.
 
bobawesome

bobawesome

Member
It's good to see that Final Fantasy IX could finally be getting a decent guide. That said, this is a bit much for just guidebooks...
 
S

Shadow_FFVI

Member
If Square releases FF VII, VIII and IX with trophy support, for say $15 to $20 on PSN, I would buy them day one and obsess over them for God knows how long.
 
K

Krammy

Member
Prima have always made really solid guides. I've actually been a fan of them since picking up their Dragon Warrior III book back when I was a kid, so I'll probably pick these up just for the sake of it, as pricey as it is.
 
Gameboy415

Gameboy415

Member
The set is down to $77.99 on Amazon right now!

$26/guide is definitely more reasonable so I went ahead and locked in a pre-order. :)
 
V

VGChampion

Member
$5 in tax. Ew. Haven't ordered anything big on Amazon in awhile so I forgot Florida has to deal with that now. Golden days are over. :(
 
Q

qualitydisc

Member
Ah, I was wondering the other day if there was any news about it since the original announced date was approaching fast

Amazon has Maryland tax as of very recently too :(
 
S

Stereogatari

Banned
£75 on UK Amazon. As much as I want it, it'll be hard to justify that. Even £50 would seem steep.

£30-£40 would be reasonable. But with things like this you can't chance it. Though it doesn't look like a limited run?
 
S

Shosai

Banned
Syntsui said:
How come these fucking ''professional companies'' manage to lose the source code of their fucking games?

It's absurdly amateur, beyond ridiculous.
Click to expand...

It's not unusual for a company to lose the source code for a 14-year old software product that was only shipped on physical disks and never touched again. That said, Japanese companies are kind of weird when it comes to software development. There's stories of some companies archiving their code on paper printouts only, and others that took way too long to start using source control, middleware, and Agile.
 
A

AgeEighty

Member
Amazon and other sites have now posted a release date for this set, at last, of March 17.

Can't wait to finally have a real FFIX guide, and hopefully this indicates that there are plans for the game in the future other than languishing in Classics limbo.
 
N

NateDog

Member
Big bump but Amazon.com changed the release date to July this year now. Seems to keep being delayed (although personally I won't complain as I'm short on money right now).
 
K

Kaneda Shotaro

Member
They wouldn't be releasing an FFIX guide randomly. It's probably getting released on PC or maybe they're planning to release 8 and 9 along with 7 on PS4.
 
R

Reick17

Member
Apexhell said:
wasnt the ff9 guide super bad and just had a url to go to for info i think i remember that.
Click to expand...

It had only the most basic info possible. At one point I had found an archive of the website info to go with it, but that seems to be lost with time. Hopefully this new one (if it ever comes out) is a full, actual guide. I've never completed IX and would love to dig into it.
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
AuthenticM said:
Ok, I thought they were just repackaging the same guides from before, which was a major turn-off because the guide for VII was supposedly not great and the one for IX... well, let's just not talk about that one. But that's not what's is happening. According to Prima's website, they are completely revising the content of each guide.

I am totally getting this now.
Click to expand...

Yea the Versus guide for FFVII was much better than the official one way back. Interesting to see them revisit these at all.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I'm sure that if you went to a particular Barnes & Noble you could buy these books because they sold them for multiple years after the console cycles changed. B&N even had the art book for IX many years ago. It is insane to buy these 3 guides for that much. Whose legs are they pulling? There are even unofficial guides with no pictures and illegal scans of the older books somewhere (?). Seriously though a GameFaqs FAQ probably has more info in it.

Edit: They're revised. My case still stands.

I owned these games at launch. I did well back then even with GameFAQs. It's interesting, but that price. The physical copies of these games don't even go that high.

You can buy VII, VIII, and IX for dirt cheap. It's crazy how they're doing this now versus using the "retro" complaint for their business model.

You might be getting ripped off over strategy guides that don't even touch their original release. You know you could finish each game in its entirely using boosts and items and these guides will be completely useless to you.

That was an awful response a game guide author could give someone. Guides are simple anymore. They're just showing you pictures of what you're already doing and they're talking about it. The W3 e-guide is about as bare as it could get. I didn't even need to use it and nothing really sticks out.
 
S

Stereogatari

Banned
Stereogatari said:
£75 on UK Amazon. As much as I want it, it'll be hard to justify that. Even £50 would seem steep.

£30-£40 would be reasonable. But with things like this you can't chance it. Though it doesn't look like a limited run?
Click to expand...

Oh wow I forgot that I heard about this back then.

Anyway the price I can get it for now is £42.50 :).
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
Northeastmonk said:
I'm sure that if you went to a particular Barnes & Noble you could buy these books because they sold them for multiple years after the console cycles changed. B&N even had the art book for IX many years ago. It is insane to buy these 3 guides for that much. Whose legs are they pulling? There are even unofficial guides with no pictures and illegal scans of the older books somewhere (?). Seriously though a GameFaqs FAQ probably has more info in it.

Edit: They're revised. My case still stands.

I owned these games at launch. I did well back then even with GameFAQs. It's interesting, but that price. The physical copies of these games don't even go that high.

You can buy VII, VIII, and IX for dirt cheap. It's crazy how they're doing this now versus using the "retro" complaint for their business model.

You might be getting ripped off over strategy guides that don't even touch their original release. You know you could finish each game in its entirely using boosts and items and these guides will be completely useless to you.

That was an awful response a game guide author could give someone. Guides are simple anymore. They're just showing you pictures of what you're already doing and they're talking about it. The W3 e-guide is about as bare as it could get. I didn't even need to use it and nothing really sticks out.
Click to expand...

It's not much of a rip-off. You get three hardcover strategy guides for 90$, so 30$ each. It seems like the standard price for hardcover strategy guides.
 
M

Magnus

Member
I'm confused. If so many people thought it was games and not guides....why was there still any excitement?

We have VII, VIII and IX for cheap already on multiple Sony platforms....and if they were remakes, they certainly wouldn't have announced them all in one go like that.
 
D

dallow_bg

nods at old men
Magnus said:
I'm confused. If so many people thought it was games and not guides....why was there still any excitement?

We have VII, VIII and IX for cheap already on multiple Sony platforms....and if they were remakes, they certainly wouldn't have announced them all in one go like that.
Click to expand...

Because it could have been a leak.
Obviously not though.
 
K

KenzinFive

Member
Prima's FFVII guide was fantastic a part of my childhood and probably my favorite guide ever, if it weren't for DoubleJump's (RIP) awesome and insanely thorough Disgaea and Persona guides.

EDIT: Nostalgia's a hell of a drug, because I just remembered that the Prima guide for FFVII had a bunch of errors.

Maybe it's just my initial gut reaction, but that price seems way too high. Even if they are hardcover...maybe I'll grab them when there's a big price drop
and I don't even like FFVIII what is it wrong with me
.
 
F

Fisty

Member
I would consider this if its the FFVII guide for the PC version and an actual guide for FFIX instead of just instruction manual-level info and urls. At about $75 though.
 
V

Voror

Member
Would love to buy this but the price is just a bit too high. I wish they would release them each separately so I could pick each one up on it's own. I'd be most interested in the IX guide given how useless the original is.
 
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