• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

Man, that IX guide was the biggest scammy POS thing ever. It tried so hard to push PlayOnline when it was just a really bad concept. Soured me off the service so much, made me completely skip FFXI.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
That's pretty expensive for just guides and some art.
 

Magnus

Member
It really is an absurd sell. They're not even that nice. I had all three. I sold them for $5 a pop years ago to a game store and was very happy.
 
Amazon Canada sent me an email concerning the shipping date. The books are to be released on the 7th of July. There has been confusion in the past regarding the release date, so I would imagine this one being final, if it wasn't already known.
 

NateDog

Member
Well the 7th of July (i.e. tomorrow) is indeed the release date. Amazon tried to charge me for it this morning.
 
Seems like these would sell a lot better if they actually had something to show us inside the guides so we could see the improvements.

I can't see buying them at this price sight unseen.
 
Well the 7th of July (i.e. tomorrow) is indeed the release date. Amazon tried to charge me for it this morning.

What happened ?

Those are some damn expensive guides.

The price is in the average of other hardcovers.

Are these re edited? The originals had a ton of typos and Mis information

Yes they are. The page says that they have been completely revised. I would hope so, as the IX guide was full of "see Playonline for more info" bullshit. And the VII guide was apparently not good. The guide for VIII was fantastic; I already have it. I'm curious to see how they revised it.
 

Jacobbles

Member
Someone please post some pics when they receive theirs!

I assume some of you US folks will get it by the end of the week, assuming the release date is indeed July 7?

Keen to see pics of how these look inside, especially the FF9 one. I've already spent my 'monthly book allowance' but... you know... This could be a real FF9 guide.
 
I forgot I ordered these so I guess I got them today.

Anyway, it's heavy at least. Though I expected the guides to be more thicker.

Looking through the guides, it feels that the FFIX guide was written by someone different than the other two. The FFIX guide looks a lot less comprehensive and more of the space is used as filler just to take up space. The other two guides look pretty good though.

There's also an advertisement for a new box set that includes the guides of FFX, FFX-2 and FFXII. Dunno, if I'll bother ordering that.

CJWyBTsUcAABIo2.jpg
CJWyBc0WsAAuuOc.jpg

CJWyBviUYAAKBvI.jpg
CJWyCIvWEAAOHQE.jpg
 

WildBingo

Banned
Looking through the guides, it feels that the FFIX guide was written by someone different than the other two. The FFIX guide looks a lot less comprehensive and more of the space is used as filler just to take up space. The other two guides look pretty good though.

There's also an advertisement for a new box set that includes the guides of FFX, FFX-2 and FFXII. Dunno, if I'll bother ordering that.

That's because they are just the old guides reprinted and 7 and 8 were indeed by the same author back in the day.

So I wouldn't bother with the next set either if you have the old guides like me. Guarantee those will be the old Brady guides' content too like this set was.
 

Minions

Member
I forgot I ordered these so I guess I got them today.

Anyway, it's heavy at least. Though I expected the guides to be more thicker.

Looking through the guides, it feels that the FFIX guide was written by someone different than the other two. The FFIX guide looks a lot less comprehensive and more of the space is used as filler just to take up space. The other two guides look pretty good though.

There's also an advertisement for a new box set that includes the guides of FFX, FFX-2 and FFXII. Dunno, if I'll bother ordering that.

The FF9 guide is pretty much the main reason to pick up this set as the alternatives were all awful.....

That really makes me kinda disgusted if that is the case. I guess I will pick these up when they are cheap cheap then.
 

Revas

Member
In case it hasn't been said enough in this thread, the FFIX guide is just god awful. Shame because FFIX is the quintessential FF game.
 
This is or isn't the "go to playonline" FF9 shit? God that was the worst.

Little steep, but I do love me some FF strategy guides and don't have mine anymore.

edit: wait, those amazon reviews are yikes, screw that
 

Minions

Member
Yeah.... If they were going to completely half ass this, what was the point of even doing it? Unless they just did a small run or something. I think the description is even misleading as none of stuff was updated at all other than the FF9 guide.
 

NateDog

Member
Yikes I'm really not sure what to do. I could do with waiting a while on these if possible, the price seems very steep if they really are as bad as everyone says but I never had the original guides (but then again, if they're not even that good then is there much point?). I have the day to decide whether to cancel it or not as I don't get paid until tomorrow so my order won't be done until then, kind of leaning towards a no though.
 

MrBS

Member
I just flicked through the lot.

The dream is dead.
Each guide has been redesigned from scratch and updated with new high resolution screen shots.
Bull. Shit.

I know what 'from the ground up' means to me but Prima has other ideas. This is a lazy copy/paste. Have a look at the reviews on amazon. Plenty citing that the guides contain the same errors from the original guides. Good lawd.

I can confirm this gem
There are pieces of text that have been miscopied that weren't goofs in the original guide, I found one pretty quickly just glancing through the ff7 guide, you see red xiii's bio where vincent's should be.
I feel cheated. I don't hold Prima's name to the highest regard but damn son. This is low.
 

spikejaw

Neo Member
Here are some comparisons of the VII guide. As you can see the guide is identical, except where they made new, glaring mistakes(Vincent bio). They did put higher quality screenshots, though, so I guess that's something. First time image post, go easy on me!
MJ7qSVlh.jpg
I73sWHTh.jpg

95sNb6rh.jpg
hqLE680h.jpg
 

AgeEighty

Member
I received the guides too, and can confirm that they are by and large lazy copy-paste jobs. No new text or info, they're just reformatted and have new images.

The FFIX guide does have the PlayOnline information added in—or at least most of it. A couple of the tips from that site are missing. It has either been seeded inline into the original text, or added as text bubbles. But for the most part it's now a complete guide.

But these guides were not updated in the way Prima suggested. All the old errors and typos are still there. Info is still missing; the descriptions of the final boss fights in VII and VIII are still frustratingly vague. Even the quality of the bindings isn't really up to the standard of Prima's other hardcover sets, like the Zelda box.

I'm so disappointed.
 
Forgot I had them ordered but they showed up the other day. I've kept them sealed just in case and I think I'll be returning them. I'm a sucker for fancy looking guides but these just don't look worth the $80 at all. :/
 

graywolf323

Member
I received the guides too, and can confirm that they are by and large lazy copy-paste jobs. No new text or info, they're just reformatted and have new images.

The FFIX guide does have the PlayOnline information added in—or at least most of it. A couple of the tips from that site are missing. It has either been seeded inline into the original text, or added as text bubbles. But for the most part it's now a complete guide.

But these guides were not updated in the way Prima suggested. All the old errors and typos are still there. Info is still missing; the descriptions of the final boss fights in VII and VIII are still frustratingly vague. Even the quality of the bindings isn't really up to the standard of Prima's other hardcover sets, like the Zelda box.

I'm so disappointed.

sounds like only the FFIX guide might be worth it if you could get it separately

disappointing lack of effort since this could have been an amazing collection
 
Got mine today, too. It's a pretty looking box, at least! The prints are a little lazy... it's just glossy paper. FF Type 0-HD had a print on 'rougher' paper, higher quality.

Having said that, this is the second time there are huge errors in guides from Prima Games that I've found... the Type 0 HD has the same sort of typo's and just very blatant mistakes where I scratched my head a couple times. Like this:

BBIuGT1.jpg


How does no one catch this before printing? Don't they have a senior editor? Rush jobs... at least they look nice in my closet.

btup9e7.jpg
 

R-User!

Member
Forgot I had them ordered but they showed up the other day. I've kept them sealed just in case and I think I'll be returning them. I'm a sucker for fancy looking guides but these just don't look worth the $80 at all. :/

I returned mine sealed don't feel bad.
 
Top Bottom