The previous reviewers have adequately addressed much of what this guide has done both well and where it is lacking, so I will be briefer than usual.

I always play Final Fantasy games with a guide. They are indespensable at letting you know if you are going to miss any valuable items, where secrets are to be found, what level you "should" be before attempting a boss and how to deal with specific enemies. They also act as a broad reference on any questions you might have at any specific point in the game.

It is on this second point where this specific guide fails. This guide works best if followed entirely along as you progress in the game. If you attempt to use the guide as a general reference for sticking point that you encounter as a you progress, it will leave you wanting.

The main point is there is no world map layout. This is a critical omission. If you were to go wandering around ad hoc and search on your own or do some level grinding it is very easy to become lost/disoriented. Without a world map to direct you where to go to locate your next way point, you can easily end up wandering aimlessly for far too long. This could have been rectified by indicating names of places on the game map but they are not, maybe due to the DS's screen size but nonetheless they need to be SOMEWHERE. And part of the reason someone would buy a game guide.

Along the same lines, if you were to stray from the games indicated path of progression, which is possible to a certain extent, it is easy to encounter areas, bosses, that you are entirely unprepared for. This is common obviously for an RPG but additionally where a guide comes in handy. Area summary and level info is fairly routine for a guide and this do not include it. Lastly, organization is fairly poor, from non-alphabetized beastiary, to no table of contents for the walkthrough, ie. what page is what town on?

Lastly, the overall feel of the book is cheap. Brady has been putting out top-quality guides for FF games for years and this guide really feels like a cheap afterthought. This guide really makes me think of a competitors guidebook.

In the end, the book will be a necessity for many gamers despite its flaws, it's just that it could have been so much more. For the completist who plays an RPG along with the manual, the guide will be sufficient, but less valuable for the person looking for a casual reference.

I'm very satisfied with this product. If anyone remembers the original Final Fantasy game this strategy guide comes in handy for the hardest games in any video game generation.

Fantastic guide with great information. I did, however, have to reference GameFAQs for a better explanation of how to best get all of the weapons from the Arcane Labyrinth. Definately worth the money.

This is a great product that, if you play any final fantasy games you know is a MUST HAVE!!!

This guide is great. A must have for FF3 DS. It guides you through all the little, and sometimes very annoying if you don't have a guide, puzzles along the way.

Get ready for what's next by knowing what's next in the game so you can make the smart decision on what class to choose.

A MUST HAVE!

The game is mostly self explanatory. Not too much hard side quests that makes it hard to complete the game 100% without the guide, but for those small stuff, like the forging, the guide really helps.

How useful do you think seeing a review for FF# strategy guide is when you want FF12: Revenant Wings? If you review something make sure its for the RIGHT item. thanks.

If you are tired of exploring every dungeon by your self, this book holds all detailed maps you may need.
Sure, at least one map is missing (again). But I haven't completed the game / book yet.
Even if Bradygames "lost" some maps again, they made a huge development compared with their FF1 Strategy Guide. The caption tags do not cover important passages on the maps anymore.

If you need a hint how to solve a specific puzzle, this book hardly provides answers. E.g.: I needed "something cold" to cool down the Dreadnaughts machine during one of the bonus-dungeons. If I refer to a book with a walkthrough, I expect the name of the needed item and where to get it. But this book just repeated the task: you need "something cold". Nobody needs these stupid "gap-fillers". My primary intention is to play the game. I just need a hint if I got stuck during the game. Some short and precise information's. I definitely never need this multi-page repetition of the obvious main story the game is providing anyway by itself.
In my opinion, the old strategy guides distributed by Piggyback (ff 8 etc.) were much more useful.

Conclusion: If you need some Dungeon maps for your orientation, this book is the right choice. If you expect any hints how to solve a puzzle, better try to find it in the www. !

There are about a million Final Fantasy guides out there. Well, just about. However, in all fairness, I can't just give this guide one star just because you won't need it or just because it's the same thing as the Final Fantasy Origins Guide that BradyGAMES produced four years ago. In all fairness, this is a really good guide to Final Fantasy. There are simple problems going on here, though. The first being that if you have BradyGAMES Final Fantasy Origins Guide or Nintendo Powers Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls Guide... then plopping down seventeen dollars for this guide... just for the PSP extra content is absurd. It's even more absurd if you do have Nintendo Power's guide because you're only going to be missing ONE dungeon.

For what it's worth, though, if for some reason you actually need a guide for Final Fantasy and you don't have the Origins or Dawn of Souls guide, then you've got this one.

However, when I say its the same as the Final Fantasy portion of the BradyGAMES Final Fantasy Origins guide I'm not kidding. The staff actually copied and pasted the material from the Final Fantasy section of the Origins guide released in 2003 and stuck it in this guide. They made minor edits, of course to suit the PSP version (like they say R instead of R1). However, the good news is that the Final Fantasy Origins Guide was a good guide and all that good stuff about it is coming here.

This simply means that they do cover the jobs really well, telling you everything about them and what stats will increase at level up. They've got an incredibly detailed walkthrough that leaves no stone unturned. In each section of the walkthrough they have suggestions on what to buy in towns and why you buy it. They also have a list of enemies and a small portion of each section dedicated to telling you about those enemies--how to defeat them and such. They've also got detailed maps that pin point out the treasures. There's a lot of good stuff here. The Bestiary is also really good and tells you everything you need to know. Like I said, however, all the text included in the walkthrough is the exact same text that was in the Final Fantasy Origins Guide. All the way down to the mediocre boss strategies (which were more or less: Keep hitting it until it dies).

However, since the Origins game didn't have all the really nifty extras that Dawn of Souls or the PSP version has, they actually did have to work on that, and they do a pretty good job with the bonus content as well. But to be honest, if you've got the Origins Guide or (better yet) the Dawn of Souls guide, then perhaps GameFAQs would be better for the extras and this guide would be better off left on the shelf.

It's a good guide to be sure, but if you've got previous guides that cover Final Fantasy, it's not really necessary to get this one.

There are about a million Final Fantasy II guides out there. Well, just about. However, in all fairness, I can't just give this guide one star just because you won't need it or just because it's the same thing as the Final Fantasy Origins Guide that BradyGAMES produced four years ago. In all fairness, this is a really good guide to Final Fantasy II. There are simple problems going on here, though. The first being that if you have the BradyGAMES Final Fantasy Origins Guide or Nintendo Powers Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls Guide... then plopping down seventeen dollars for this guide... just for the PSP extra content is absurd. It's even more absurd if you do have Nintendo Power's guide because you're only going to be missing ONE dungeon.

For what it's worth, though, if for some reason you actually need a guide for Final Fantasy II and you don't have the Origins or Dawn of Souls guide, then you've got this one.

However, when I say its the same as the Final Fantasy II portion of the BradyGAMES Final Fantasy Origins guide I'm not kidding. The staff actually copied and pasted the material from the Final Fantasy II section of the Origins guide released in 2003 and stuck it in this guide. They made minor edits, of course to suit the PSP version (like they say R instead of R1). However, the good news is that the Final Fantasy Origins Guide was a good guide and all that good stuff about it is coming here.

This simply means that they cover the game really well, from its complex leveling system to going in depth on all the characters. They've got an incredibly detailed walkthrough that leaves no stone unturned. In each section of the walkthrough they have suggestions on what to buy in towns and why you buy it. They also have a list of enemies and a small portion of each section dedicated to telling you about those enemies--how to defeat them and such. They've also got detailed maps that pin point out the treasures. There's a lot of good stuff here. The Bestiary is also really good and tells you everything you need to know. Like I said, however, all the text included in the walkthrough is the exact same text that was in the Final Fantasy Origins Guide. All the way down to the fantastic boss strategies.

However, since the Origins game didn't have all the really nifty extras that Dawn of Souls or the PSP version has, they actually did have to work on that, and they do a pretty good job with the bonus content as well. But to be honest, if you've got the Origins Guide or (better yet) the Dawn of Souls guide, then perhaps GameFAQs would be better for the extras and this guide would be better off left on the shelf.

It's a good guide to be sure, but if you've got previous guides that cover Final Fantasy II, it's not really necessary to get this one.

I found this a great guide but myself and a friend who has the same game. We are trying to get the hidden class character and it doesn't say who the 7th email comes from or how to get it. Otherwise a great guide.

Ok I guess I've been spoiled by the quality of most of the other Final Fantasy guides by Bradygames. This one is just not on the same level.

Good points:
-Helpful hints about jobs
-Help w/ bosses
-maps

Bad points:
-Rather simplistically written, as if for children.
-Not a very good bestiary. This bothered me a lot.
-No world map w/ all locations on it.
-No play-by-play list of activities in each area, as in many guides.


If you're like me and prefer to have a guide with you while playing an RPG, this book is not a bad idea. But if you're used to much more detailed guides such as the ones for Final Fantasy X and XII, you may be disappointed.

Well, since I finished my Final Fantasy collection off, it only seemed right to finish off my Final Fantasy guide collection as well. Final Fantasy III is a complete remake full of its own exclusive secrets and side quests. A guide could come handy and luckily this guide really isn't all that bad. It has its sticky spots, but at least it isn't useless. This review is pretty long, so if you want a basic rundown of what's good and bad about the guide, you can look to the bottom at "The Good" and "The Bad."

The guide begins, like every other guide out there, with a game basics section which is, of course, a rehash of what you'll find in your instruction manual. It's not necessary, but as a "just in case" it works to quickly help you get adapted to the game. It isn't that many pages, and you probably won't need it. Although, there are some tips outlined here that aren't mentioned in the instruction manual or in the game itself. So it's still pretty handy to have along. Afterwards it goes into the characters and sub characters. Again, more stuff you probably won't find yourself paying much attention to. It tells you each characters starting stats, but it really isn't necessary to talk about those things anymore than it was necessary to explain the simple battle system.

After all that stuff, though, the guide talks about the jobs, which you actually might find pretty useful as a whole. All 23 jobs get an in depth explanation and tips on how to use them, and they're actually not half bad. They'll tell you what abilities they've got, what magic they can use, and effective ways to use them. There's even some detail about using them once you near the end of the game. Finally, you'll find out what their weapons for achieving job level 99 can do for them. It's pretty good stuff, and doesn't waste a lot of time. It's also nice that they give you a table of stats for each level the characters reach. It's also pretty handy that they give you a list of there equipment on the spot rather than making you flip through all the weapons and armor. This section is extremely useful to those new to the game.

Afterwards we have the list of weapons, armor, items, magic, etc. All this stuff is pretty standard for an RPG guide. It's an unwritten law that this stuff must be here, and you probably won't need to refer to it much, but it's nice that it's there.

After all this we finally get to the meat of the guide. The walkthrough. I must say that I was quite pleased with it. There are no story spoilers, and the walkthrough gets right to the point. It's divided into sections based on what crystal you're going after (i.e. there's a whole chapter concerning the wind crystal, a whole chapter concerning the fire crystal etc.). All the objectives are listed at the beginning of each chapter in the walkthrough. There are then sections for each dungeon, town, etc. So it's pretty well organized. For each town they offer tips on what to buy, and they'll tell you what it is you need to be doing, while also providing you with the appropriate information for inns and the weapon and armor shops. In dungeons the walkthrough tells you what enemies you'll encounter and the basic stats about them, and then lead you through. Boss strategies aren't so bad, and also don't waste time. The screenshots are also crystal clear.

The walkthrough has a couple of things that make it effective. The first is that it doesn't waste time catching you up to speed on what you should be doing. The second is that there is not a lot of page flipping as found in several other Bradygames guides. Finally, the maps are extremely detailed. Taken from a birds eye view, they'll be easy to use as you go through your adventures. The walkthrough doesn't refer to the maps often, but it ensures that you're going to use them. All the items are pointed out on the maps, but it probably would've been nice to have a list of items to collect in the area.

There is one big glaring issue about the walkthrough, however. There is no world map, which would've helped. Before each area you'll see a screenshot of the world map in the corner and it can help, but it's really small. Still good, but really small. If the world map had been used on one page, it would've been several times better. Still, on the whole, the walkthrough is a blessing. They'll even mention which job classes you should use and when.

After the walkthrough there's an enemies list. This bestiary isn't bad, but it's pretty annoying. The monsters aren't listed in alphabetical order. Instead they're listed in the order you should encounter them, with the exception of all the bosses actually being in the back. This isn't horrible, but can be really annoying if you're someone who puts the guide down for a long period of time and then picks it up about ten game hours later. It causes for a lot of page flipping. The good news, at least, is that all the enemies are listed in the walkthrough. So there's no real reason to use the enemy list. For item drops there's a handy table at the beginning that you must use along with the enemy list. It can be annoying to keep flipping back and forth between them, but again, all the data you'll actually need for the monsters is listed in the walkthrough.

The side quests and secrets are at the very back of the guide. It's useful and in depth, particularly on the secrets unlocked using the mognet. The only big problem with the sidequests is that the secret dungeon doesn't have a map. They'll tell you about what you'll encounter there, and give a big fantastic strategy on the boss, but they don't tell you how to get to him or anything.

With the minor problems aside, the Final Fantasy III guide really isn't all that bad. It's well organized and doesn't dilly dally with the objectives. If you're stuck on Final Fantasy III, then this guide will certainly help you get unstuck.

The Good

+Detailed game basics section with tips that otherwise aren't detailed in the game or instruction manual
+Great run down of all the jobs, providing tips and strategies on how to utilize them
+Detailed walkthrough that doesn't waste time
+A Spoiler Free Walkthrough
+Detailed maps
+Superb boss strategies
+Crystal clear screenshots
+The side quests and secrets are all covered

The Bad

-There is no overworld map
-The enemies list is heavily disorganized
-Secret Dungeon is missing a map