Rating: 
Summary: Waste of money
Review: As a number of people have already stated, this guide is subpar. While i will admit that some parts are definately helpful, this does not make up for what the guide lacks. There are a number of tasks the guide neglects to mention that are required for a number of items that could otherwise be found. The author has the uncanny ability of leaving out important points until chapter 5 or later, at which point he mentions, "oh, but if you'd done THIS in chapter 1, you chould get THIS..." Of course, now in chapter 5 and 150 hours into the game, this does little to help a gamer out. Important notes should you buy this guide: (1) During EVERY chapter, check back with the completion guide at the end of the book. They've conveniently neglected to mention everything one should do in the correct chapter, but included it here. (2) Read through all the side quests before beginning in order to circumvent the above problems. (3) Spend your money on something more worth while.
Rating: 
Summary: Errors as usual
Review: Authors/Editors/Publishers of strategy guides have a difficult job, because they try to release their product at the same time the game is released. This means that very little proofreading takes place prior to publication, evidently, and for a game as complex as FFX2, getting facts and figures correct would seem to be important.The main problem, aside from the usual multitude of text errors, is that the most important portion of the book (the completion guide that lists percentages by section) has basic mathematical errors, starting in Chapter 1, which throws the numbers off for the remainder of the game. For those players who want to view the "perfect" ending, it is unclear which numbers to believe. Is it the running percentage total, or is it the percentage by section? Seems to me an editor with a calculator or at least basic adding skills could have fixed that problem. Aside from that major flaw, the book is very beautiful. The graphics are very nice. One might ask why the order presented in the completion guide differs from the order presented in the walkthrough, but this is a minor point. It is clear that much work went into compiling data. One only wishes that that data would be checked more thoroughly.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential for the Game
Review: Final Fantasy X-2 is a spectacular game, but trying to master it without is guidebook is near impossible! Nice user-friendly walkthroughs and text make this one of the better guides Bradygames has ever created! What probably stand out most is how thick this book is! It's HUGE and since its over 350 pages I expected quite a bit from it. It delivers quite nicely and helps you master the game to 100% The characters section of the guide goes into each character introducing you to the ones used in your party and what role they play in the game. No problems here. The Dresspheres chapter is beautifully done telling you what abilities you get, how to get them and they even suggest when you should get them. All the Garment Spheres explained and a detailed screenshot and listing of what abilities and power ups you can gain for it. The battle system is explained VERY nicely. While the battle system doesn't require that a whole section of the guide is dedicated to it, for those new to the world of Final Fantasy it helps, especially considering the battle system differs from Final Fantasy X. The walkthrough is perhaps where the guide begins to fall and it's understandable to see why. Since Final Fantasy X-2 has no set path (its VERY non-linear) it makes the walkthrough nearly impossible to organize. All sidequests are incorporated into the walkthrough as well as several secrets. The walkthrough touches on one area and then doesn't return to it for a while. So if you're one who uses a guide as you go, it's difficult to do with this guide. The information in the walkthrough is all over the place. Plus, the table of contents doesn't help you find what part you're at so get ready for a lot of page flipping. However, for what it's worth, the guide doesn't spoil any of the plot and it helps you obtain all the endings as well as 100% completion of the game thanks to the handy-dandy flow chart in the back, ensuring that you do everything you possibly can in one area. Not to mention the maps are highly detail. Each area shows enemies stats perfectly without having you flip to the back of the book (and page flipping in this particular guide is a real pain!). Final Fantasy X-2 is full of mini games and this guide has an entire section for them. Every mini-game is explained in great detail with tips that will help you through. Again, it's nice because you'll get everything. The bestiary is detailed explaining all stats but that information is also all over the place. Each fiend has their own box where their stats are detailed. A nice easy to use bestiary but again, a lot of pages to flip through. Lastly the guide comes with a two sided poster. One side with a mixing chart the other just a poster. The mixing chart is actually in the guide so I wouldn't worry if you lose it or anything. Overall, the guide is pretty good. The good:
+Detailed Walkthrough
+Nice for those new to Final Fantasy
+Clear Screens
+Mini-Game Coverage
+Detailed Bestiary
+A Flowchart for 100% completion.
+Helpful Boss Strategies The Bad:
-This information is all over the place!
-A LOT OF PAGE FLIPPING!
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete
Review: First of all the good thing about this book is that it has a lot of color pictures. Other than that, this book is a bit of a mess. The problem comes from the layout of the book. The game itself is a nonlinear game, and the book tries to be a nonlinear book. THe problem with that is that it jumps around too much. Using this book, it's difficult to follow the course of action, and impossible to get a 100% complete. It would have been better if they had chosen a certain course, and then presented a walkthrough for that course. Another thing which wasn't very good in my opinion was that the item list wasn't very helpful. If an item isn't sold in a store, then you wouldn't know how to get it. You'd have to spend about 15 minutes looking through the creature list to find out if you can get it from a creature or not. If you can't, then it would be impossible to find where to get it using this book. You'd have to find it by chance. Basically, I found that this book gives you lots of information that you already know, or is in the game, or is easy to figure out. The really difficult things are hardly covered and the detailed information that you need isn't even covered. I would pass on this. You can find better guides elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Whoever buys this is an idiot
Review: HOW CAN PEOPLE LIKE TO BUY THIS? I'm not saying it's not useful. aLL I'M SAYING, IS WHY DON'T YOU GO TO SQAURE-ENIX USA.COM ITSELF, AND GET THE GUIDE FROM THEM! SAVE YOUR CASH!
Rating: 
Summary: Really Helpful!!!!
Review: I am currently at 30% in the game.
SPOILERS FOR GAME
This Strategy Guide is very helpful!! It tells you where to get the Special Dresspheres for Paine, Yuna, and Rikku (I have Paines and Yunas). Also when you are in Guadosalam it tells you a hint to get the most money out of a certain buyer for some data. It gives you the info you need to know for the bosses like if you need to have a White Mage out or a Black Mage or a Gunner to defeat it. I think it is very helpful if I didn't make my mom go out to Blockbuster and get it at 10:30 pm I would've been stuck for so long and not this far!!! :)
Rating:
Summary: Final Fantasy 10-2 Official Strategy Guide
Review: I cannot believe some of the high ratings people have given this book. This is by far the worst guide I have ever read. There are so many things wrong with it I can't even imagine how anyone would see it as worthy praise. I can't even see how Dan Birlew would allow this to go into print with his name on it. First of all, there are several instances where it does not give important information. As any one of the other bad reviews will tell you, there is an amazing item in the game that can only be found by talking to some guy in Kilika in every single chapter . . . and the book doesn't tell you this until the last chapter. A little late, don't you think? But that mistake has already been pointed out, so I don't want to beat it to death. However, there are several other important oversights. Take the "Blue Bullet" skills, for instance. The book lists all the skills and the enemies from which you can get them, but it doesn't tell you HOW to get them. For example, it does not tell you that a Malboro only uses "bad breath" after its health has been affected ten times. Also, it does not tell you that support skills like "mighty guard" and "white wind" can only be learned when the enemy is confused. I wasted so much time trying to get these enemies to use their skills on me and finally had to resort to online guides. Also, the book says that the only way to get the Mascot dressphere is by getting all 15 "episode completes" in chapter 5, but it doesn't specifically say how to get these "episode completes." The first time I went through the game I only sold 9 out of 10 of Tobli's tickets because the guide said the only reward for selling all ten was an item. Not until later did I learn that 9 out of 10 wasn't good enough for an episode complete. The second time through the game I skipped some annoyingly long CommSphere scenes in chapter 4. The book said that this prevented 100% completion, but it did not say that it prevented episode completion. 3rd time through I skipped animations that I had already seen twice . . . that's not allowed either, apparently. You'd think the book would tell you if you had to sit and watch the whole scene. But wait; there's more. There is a dungeon in the chocobo ranch that the guide never explains how to open. It does say that at the end of it you can get an important item, but that's all it says. Never is anything mentioned about how to get through this difficult dungeon or how to open it. Along the same lines there is a dungeon in Bevelle with normal enemies that are tougher than the final boss. All the book says about this dungeon is, "characters should be at level 99 with over 9000HP." One would think that specific strategies might come in handy for such difficult enemies. After all this is suppose to be "STRATEGY" guide. But even if the book isn't giving me all the information, at least the info it is giving me is correct, right? Wrong. Almost on ever page there is some sort of misprint in text or organization or maps, and these are not little mistakes. They are huge and are immediately obvious to anyone who plays the game. For instance, there is an enemy called a Node that will give you a very important item if you defeat it. The book says it has 30,000 HP so I figure I'd give it a shot. An hour later the enemy is still alive after pummeling it with my strongest spells, so I Scan it. Turns out it has 300,000 HP not 30,000. What a difference one zero can make. And as long as we're pointing out the mistake in calling this a "strategy guide," I'd like to call into question the strategies that it does list. Quite often, the strategies are overly complicated or require levels that characters haven't yet reached. Spending time leveling up characters is not strategy; it is merely a substitution for strategy. Heck, I don't need a book to tell me that being level 99 is better than level 30. In conclusion, this book is NOT a strategy guide because it either does not list any strategy or the strategy it does list is questionable. This book is NOT even a walkthrough because it skips important steps. It is obvious that no one at Brady Games actually tried to use this guide. If they had they would have realized that this book is nothing more than a waste of 347 pages and a waste of 16 dollars. I do not advice anyone to buy this guide! If you are reading this review you obviously have the internet, so use an online guide. These guides are copious and constantly updated by input from the users. Perhaps if everyone starts using these online guides the competition would hold the official guides to higher standards.
Rating:
Summary: NOT a strategy guide
Review: I cannot believe some of the high ratings people have given this book. This is by far the worst guide I have ever read. There are so many things wrong with it I can't even imagine how anyone would see it as worthy praise. I can't even see how Dan Birlew would allow this to go into print with his name on it. First of all, there are several instances where it does not give important information. As any one of the other bad reviews will tell you, there is an amazing item in the game that can only be found by talking to some guy in Kilika in every single chapter . . . and the book doesn't tell you this until the last chapter. A little late, don't you think? But that mistake has already been pointed out, so I don't want to beat it to death. However, there are several other important oversights. Take the "Blue Bullet" skills, for instance. The book lists all the skills and the enemies from which you can get them, but it doesn't tell you HOW to get them. For example, it does not tell you that a Malboro only uses "bad breath" after its health has been affected ten times. Also, it does not tell you that support skills like "mighty guard" and "white wind" can only be learned when the enemy is confused. I wasted so much time trying to get these enemies to use their skills on me and finally had to resort to online guides. Also, the book says that the only way to get the Mascot dressphere is by getting all 15 "episode completes" in chapter 5, but it doesn't specifically say how to get these "episode completes." The first time I went through the game I only sold 9 out of 10 of Tobli's tickets because the guide said the only reward for selling all ten was an item. Not until later did I learn that 9 out of 10 wasn't good enough for an episode complete. The second time through the game I skipped some annoyingly long CommSphere scenes in chapter 4. The book said that this prevented 100% completion, but it did not say that it prevented episode completion. 3rd time through I skipped animations that I had already seen twice . . . that's not allowed either, apparently. You'd think the book would tell you if you had to sit and watch the whole scene. But wait; there's more. There is a dungeon in the chocobo ranch that the guide never explains how to open. It does say that at the end of it you can get an important item, but that's all it says. Never is anything mentioned about how to get through this difficult dungeon or how to open it. Along the same lines there is a dungeon in Bevelle with normal enemies that are tougher than the final boss. All the book says about this dungeon is, "characters should be at level 99 with over 9000HP." One would think that specific strategies might come in handy for such difficult enemies. After all this is suppose to be "STRATEGY" guide. But even if the book isn't giving me all the information, at least the info it is giving me is correct, right? Wrong. Almost on ever page there is some sort of misprint in text or organization or maps, and these are not little mistakes. They are huge and are immediately obvious to anyone who plays the game. For instance, there is an enemy called a Node that will give you a very important item if you defeat it. The book says it has 30,000 HP so I figure I'd give it a shot. An hour later the enemy is still alive after pummeling it with my strongest spells, so I Scan it. Turns out it has 300,000 HP not 30,000. What a difference one zero can make. And as long as we're pointing out the mistake in calling this a "strategy guide," I'd like to call into question the strategies that it does list. Quite often, the strategies are overly complicated or require levels that characters haven't yet reached. Spending time leveling up characters is not strategy; it is merely a substitution for strategy. Heck, I don't need a book to tell me that being level 99 is better than level 30. In conclusion, this book is NOT a strategy guide because it either does not list any strategy or the strategy it does list is questionable. This book is NOT even a walkthrough because it skips important steps. It is obvious that no one at Brady Games actually tried to use this guide. If they had they would have realized that this book is nothing more than a waste of 347 pages and a waste of 16 dollars. I do not advice anyone to buy this guide! If you are reading this review you obviously have the internet, so use an online guide. These guides are copious and constantly updated by input from the users. Perhaps if everyone starts using these online guides the competition would hold the official guides to higher standards.
Rating:
Summary: Good but False
Review: I have been a FF person all my life, so I had to get the game and the book. Dan Birlew is one of my most favorite authors in the Stragedy guide book section, but this was one of his worst. Unlike Kingdom Hearts, he made many flaws, and a couple not true statements. Although the bestiary and guide through the game is good, he doesn't show all the main characters like Nooj, Gippal, or Baralai for instance. Also in the guide an error is in the part to get a book for that big thing in Djose in chapter 5. Many errors were also made especially in the mini-games section. Although it is a complete guide and gives a walkthrough through the whole thing except for the last battle in the game which is against Shuyin and the guide for 100% part were not in there and flawed, I gave it a 4 star rating for it because I've seen other guide books and believe me, either I couldn't understand them, or they didn't give enough information.
Rating:
Summary: Important Information concerning an error.
Review: I have the guide and looked at other reviewers' opinions of it. I have not started the game yet or begun using the guide, but I found the mistake in the guide where one reviewer states that a percentage is thrown off in the 100% completion list. On page 250 of the guide, it appears that after completing events at Bikanel Desert, you will have 18.2% completion total at this point. Then, it states that a Calm Lands percentage of 0.2% adds up to a new total of 19.0%. This actually is supposed to add up to 18.4% So where did the other 0.6% go? For the sake of people using this guide like I will be, take note that after doing Bikanel Desert events, there is an event in Bevelle where you talk to Bararai for 0.6%. This brings the 18.2% from Bikanel + 0.6% from Bevelle to 18.8%. Add the 0.2% from the Calm Lands that I mentioned previously and we are back on track at 19.0%. It wasn't really an error in the guide, rather an omission. Once you do the events at Bevelle, the guide can once again be on track and no errors will be seen in the 100% completion list. Hope that people who buy the guide will take note of this and not miss out on 100%! - Joseph
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