Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Helpful
Review: First of all I have seen a few guides from Brady Games, and in my opinion, this one has to be one of the worst that they have ever written. This guide contains very little information about secrets, boss strategies, general tips, hints, etc. Throughout the entire guide (yes beginning to end, and it gets worse the further you get into the guide) the book consistantly wants you to go to a website to get information about parts of the game. The majority of the time the information that you would like (and sometimes need) is not included in the guide, and is only located on the website. This gets very aggrivating very quickly. Suppose I don't have a connection to the internet, or have a computer that connects to the internet over a slow phone line. Now what does the reader do Brady Games? I can get on the internet and download a guide off of the internet that is more comprehensive than the one written by Brady Games. If I'm going to buy a guide, I would like it to cover everything in the game, and contain every little piece of information contained in the game as well. If you want to get all of the information about Final Fantasy IX from this guide you have to visit playonline and give out your personal information which isn't a good idea. Why would playonline need your personal information anyway if all you are going to do is view their website? If you are looking for a guide that will only give you the basics, and tell you which direction to go, then you should buy this guide, but if you are looking for a real comprehensive guide, then look for a different guide.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst strategy guide ever!
Review: This strategy guide stinks! I've never seen a guide so full of useless information. They should just have the website listed in the instruction manual for all the good the guide does you. No hints, very few tips on bosses. I personally don't want to have to pause my game every few minutes and go online just to figure out what I need to do. It should be in the guide. Who cares if it's longer? The guide for FF 7 and FF 8 were far better because they told you everything you needed to know. This one should to.
Rating:
Summary: This will drive you crazy
Review: Ok you need to understand one key deatil about this guide first. Every secret, every code, and every trick is not in this book. As a matter of fact everyone of them is intentionally left out. See the trick is when everything is online at www.playonline.com So, while playing the game if you want to know something, the book actaully says in it "To find out how to... goto www.playonline and use **** keyword."Honestly, all the actually codes, tricks, and hints, are online. The only thing this guide has is the keywords you need to find them. You get the keyword out of the book, and type it into a special spot on the playonline website. Now unless you have an constant internet connection and can have constant access to a pc while playing, this book is worthless.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed the moment I have bought this guide...
Review: Nice try, BradyGames, but this guide wasn't worth a cent. After a few weeks of playing Squaresoft's Final Fantasy IX, I was stumped with the Chocograph's mini-game. Frustrated, I wanted to buy a strategy guide that would help me solve the problem. Unfortunately, I was shocked to see the guide's lackness of quality; the information on chocographs was only a few sentences! As I skimmed through the guide, all it said was "Visit play online for details!". I was disgusted by this [stuff]. Did I just pay $$$ for a guide full of advertisements telling me to visit this website? What if I don't have a computer? What if I'm too lazy to turn on my computer? What if my internet connection runs at 14.4K speed and am dying for a webpage to load? Well that's what the strategy guide is for. Bad guide.
Rating: 
Summary: An Objective View?
Review: Just like what the book's introduction suggested, this book aims to "covers the key elements to get you through the game without giving too much away." Its walkthrough directs you to the next part of the game, and then leave you to explore on your own before directing you to the next part; using sentences such as "in the next area, be sure to get all the partially hidden treasure chest before going through the door to the right", instead of the "in the next area, move up the stairs, down the left stairs, left to where the tree is, right to the treasure chest for potion, and right, left, down, up for a ether. Then cross over to the far right where you see a door and enter" sentence you see in complete walkthrough by most others online.
In short, this guide is for the gamer who wants more freedom and wants to depend on his/her gaming and reasoning skills to get through the game instead of following a walkthrough entirely like a zombie (hey, what are you playing the game for then?) This also includes screenshots of areas and happenings, and is particularly helpful in showing you which part of a place you can find a hidden treasure chest. Other than that, it also includes basic information such as abilities of characters (what it does, where you can get this abilities from, etc), items/weapons list, side quest hints and bestiary that includes graphics of enemies. However, this guide "includes occasional teasers where you can find information exclusively to PlayOnline.com". I don't know about others, but I honestly do not like this system. This means that most of these teasers, such as "Freya can learn a new ability at this time, go to Playonline.com to learn more", means that each time you reach this stage and want to play this part, (but don't know how to get start), you will have to log online to get more information. So, either you get the information beforehand, or you switch on your computer and stay online as you play the game. (Ridiculous, isn't it?) It would have been better if they include this information on the sidebar of the book, or, you can find out on your own without any hint and help. The chocobo guide (side quest) is not of much help either, so you would either have to supplement it with help from other online walkthrough, or again, explore on your own. Like I said, dude, this guide is for the gamer who need help but wants more freedom and wants to depend on his/her gaming and reasoning skills to get through the game. If you want help from the beginning to the end, go and download an online guide written by other gamers instead.
Rating:
Summary: The book just doesn't tell you anything!
Review: A strategy guide should have information. This one does not. Instead, it has many URLs that you are expected to type into your web browser and then read the information that you wanted on your computer screen. This guide completely fails you help you find the game's secrets and defeat the major enemies. DO NOT BUY THIS GUIDE BECAUSE IT WILL NOT HELP YOU!
Rating:
Summary: I have a dream...
Review: I have a dream...
that the people who wrote this book will never do this mistake again. I have a dream...
that the Dan Birlew will hopefully write a better guide for the future Final Fantasy games.
Rating:
Summary: Sucks
Review: -Buy game: about $39
-Then buy guide: about $14
-Then waste your time on the internet when all the info you paid 14 bucks for should be in the frigging book: Priceless Don't buy this book unless you need to, and when you're done, return it or trade it in at a Sell/Buy/Trade game shop
Rating:
Summary: Ditto to what everyone else said
Review: I buy a strategy guide to get some information while I am gaming, not so I can run to my PC and try to print out information. Bad idea, I hope they won't do this again.
Rating:
Summary: Zero stars
Review: I found more help in one of the Game magazines.
A guide such as this should tell you about side quests and item characteristics. This guide misses too much.
It refers you to the On-line site which doesn't work right. Read the message boards there and they agree. Don't buy this unless you have nothing else to help you walk through.
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