This guide is pretty informative. Lists all the secrets, side quests, armor, weapons, monsters, and all the stuff a strategy guide should cover.

My only complaint is I wish they would integrate more of the secrets into the gameplay section, because I feel like I am missing some of the secret stuff and have to go back later and get it.

Other than that, it is good.

hey gringos go and buy toyr videogames guide because you CANT play a videogame like this with no guide XD

A MUST read if you have the game. It definitely helps you understand the game and you probably won't get through the game if you don't purchase this item. Also, a great buy and great price in comparison! [[Final Fantasy XII Signature Series Guide]]

If you want to enjoy your Final Fantasy experience you must get this book. Otherwise you have a long road ahead of you.

I'm adding a positive review here as a special educator for parents whose children play video games. Buying game guides for your kids is a good way for them to spend time reading and analyzing information. Buying guides is also a way for you to see what your children are playing. This game and the guide have some very educationally advanced concepts that you can take advantage of, if your child happens to want to play this game.

Final Fantasy XII has a nomenclature that is based on many cultures around the world, and many languages. You will find culture and words that are Japanese, Irish, German, Sanskrit, Arabic and English. These can be found in names of characters, the espers (big monsters that help the game characters attack), maps and locations in the game, magic attacks, even weapons. All of these have names and descriptions that are based in many cultures around the world. Explore these with your child!

Have your child describe to you what is happening in the game and explore the guide to get more depth. When your child revisits a location in the game, have them go around and talk to the people in that location. What are the people saying? For example, as the empire begins to amass for the war against Dalmasca, what are different townspeople saying? What are their interests?

Doing the reading of the speech in the game and interpreting it by speaking aloud to you are ways to improve language use, expressive language skills. Reading improves receptive language. This guide has a lot of world history in it that can lead to many kinds of discussions, without you needing to actually play the game.

There is nothing offensive in this game, and everything to be gained by reading the guide and discussing the languages and cultural historical details the game developers have written in.

One good activity to explore with the help of the guide is the Bestiary, which is a list of the monsters in the game. The list actually contains pages of stories and myths. So, as your child captures various monsters, they will get a page about that monster, but also more pages that contain unrelated mythical stories. These stories are worth collecting and reading. You won't find these in the guide, just the list of the monsters. You have to catch the monsters to get the pages of stories. One of the best stories is the one you get by defeating the Garif hunter in the Greensnake area of the Ozmone Plain.

On top of this, your child will likely play the game longer and get more time in, making the game purchase a good money buy. Eventually you can resell the game along with the guide, which adds value to a game resale.

Everything to recommend! I have a child with a speech and language disorder and games with their guides have really improved his ability to process language. He is an honor student now, and good play like this has added to his reading.

This book clearly and accurately guides the player through the games main storyline and through the many aspects of the this fun game. From tips on setting up gambits, side quests, hidden espers, bestiary, navigating the license board to full detailed maps of every area, this book has it all.

I've been playing final fantasty games for a long time and I was getting a little worried - because each release was getting worse and worse after FF7.

FF12 is freakin' beatiful. Great battle play, great graphics, and great acting. You can play this over and over again and not get tired of it.

I bought the guide to go with my other guides (collect them with every FF). This is one of the guides that are so incredibly horrible that I wish I hadn't looked at a single page. Final Fantasy XII has an amazing story. Too bad you can read the whole thing on page one.

Every time you look up a boss strategy, the next page has the description of what happens afterward in big, bold text.

If you want to experience the game, don't buy this, or if you do, save it for the second run through the game.

I really needed the book in some kind of ways. I like to fill up all my duties and complete everythin to 100% in the game so i dont just play to finish but to have a good review at the end. I needed the book and it did helped me. Sometimes it just didnt make any difference but hey they wont write what u have to do step by step! its still a stategy game. Very fast delivery

OK, I'm about to enter the Mosphorian Highwaste. I'm going to need the map of that. I know it's here somewhere... hmm... yep, here it is, right under by pillow.

Maybe I should go out on a hunt. I'll need the guide to mark 27. Where's that now... hold on... ah, under my chair.

You know, as I'm using this guide, I'm really finding it convenient that the publisher saw fit to lend it only a temporary binding. Now as I use it in the privacy of my own home, I can reorder the sections of it as I find convenient... just in case I don't find it intuitive that guides to the weapons and items are listed AFTER the actual walkthrough. Of course, I really haven't been able to keep them ordered as the various pages find their way into remote locations throughout my abode... just like the important pieces of information in the book lie in wait scribed in six point font like minute treasures amongst beautiful but unnecessary artwork and redundant information on sidequests that yield virtually nothing.

Speaking of inconspicuous pieces of really important information, I seem to have misplaced my monograph guide. Now in the book it was after the item lists, given a tiny paragraph to itself with an nondescript header with a tiny announcement that monographs are, in fact, the single most important item in which to invest early on. I'm glad I found that out after reaching level 40 and already having spent 1,000,000 gil by selling items that would have taken less then half the time to collect with the monographs in my possession. So where is it again... ah yes, under my TV.

You know, it might have been easier to just send me all the important pages in a manila folder rather than choosing this book-like format in which to bind them just long enough to survive the shipment to my door. After all, book-style guides are ancient history. Removable rearrangeable pages... that's where the future of guides lies..

muy bueno lastima q se me estropeo un poco en el viaje pero es excelente

The book contains a lot of information but most of it seems to be poorly organized as compared to earlier books by the same company. Mapping is almost useless as it requires you to flip back and forth several pages to follow along. Too much plot can be revealed accidentally by reading ahead, since the descriptions of an area seem to be filled with plot details instead of area details. Print color combinations are a bit hard to read in some spots as well.

Negatives aside, the book does contain all the pertinent information that one needs for the game and expects from the past experience with similar books by this publisher.

I know it is often said and in saying what I am about to say I will likely discredit everything that follows, but despite that I have to dish out the ever popular. "I don't think I'll buy another Brady Games guide." This guide was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back. This isn't the worse guide I've ever owned actually far from it. That honor belongs to actually another Final Fantasy guide FFIX and I almost hope that they fired the guy responsible for that horrible piece of crap as it can hardly be described as anything but without drifting into the "too vulgar to print" catergory. Getting back on topic though let's take a look at my problems with the guide in question.

1.) Price -It's $20 and at the time this review is up so is the game. That is a lot of money considering you are paying for "guidance" for the same price that you are paying for the experience of playing the game. For that sort of price I want my guide to provide me with 100% of the information I need to provide me with maximum fun ...or at the very least highlights of the biggest secrets. I'll elaborate more on this below

2.) Disorganized -The information that is there has to be cross-referenced (without notation to do so) constantly. Nothing seems to work sequentially it's like a puzzle the group wants you to put together and I didn't pay $20 for Brady Games to give me another mini-game to figure out. Why are there 2 sections on Espers with only one being useful? That of course being the one in the back of the book and not the trap they want you to fall into in the first few pages.

3.) They highlight worthless information and completely disregard the important -I saw an entire section of page telling me of all the things I can do to complete a quest that would reward me with utter crap like a single elixir and a knot of rust. I saw no information regarding the crystal upper levels or even a mention of Pharos's basement. The latter of which holds some of the most powerful and important items in the game. Anyone who has played this game knows how awful status effects are in it and the fact that they don't tell you how you get a ribbon in the game (when there are 5!!!) is just wrong. Ribbon is probably the most important accessory in the game. They should have a whole section explaining how you get them and the best weapons

The only thing they did right by me in the guide is that atleast helped you get the Zodiac Spear as they should have they plaster information on it all over the place constantly, but that wouldn't have been necessary had they not been so wordy and I think the print quality looks great and I don't hate the binding job like others, but they made a big book about a 3rd of it being redundant or useless. I could have made a book half this size and given more information. I had to go to online peer guides to find everything I needed and in the future I think I'll just do that and save myself the headache and $20

This is a thank you to all that took the time to submit a review. I have been reading them as I ordered this guide directly from Brady Games. I have never received it and am considering reordering from Amazon. It seems like closing the barn door after the horse is gone, as I have 400 Hrs. plus in the game and character levels ranging from 58-63, but that crystal thing has some secrets and I would like to have a map. I know that there are at least 20 way stones in that thing and I want to check things out. I've already done what needs to be done there. I think the Excaliber sword is in there somewhere, although I may have missed the boat
on that. Again, thanks for the reviews, they have been helpful. Charlie S.

I generally liked this guide, but the Hunt section was ridiculous. The type was extremely small, and the black on tan color scheme only made it worse. For the life of me I can't understand why the Brady folks would come up with this design scheme.

Although other reviewers have complained about flimsy binding, mine was fine. However, the first KH2 Brady guide (deluxe version) I bought had most of the pages falling out during the first week, the second one (regular version and used) I bought was sturdy. C'mon, Brady folks, get the quality control together.

3.5 rating if I could.

This guide is a very unfortunate mix of good and bad (I am reviewing this several months after making heavy use of the guide, so this is by memory).

First the good:
* Very beautiful to look at, many great pictures
* Lots of useful info on how to use the License board, espers, and other new features of FFXII
* When the maps are correct (more later) they offer detailed info on where treasures are
* Treasure tables are great!

Now the bad:
* A ridiculous amount of spelling errors
* Many typographical errors (other reviewers have mentioned this; things like telling you to reference page ????)
* Many map errors: Maps will be for the incorrect area, or will be mislabeled
* Not enough information on the Hunts. You're better off looking online for help (though the little mini-maps provided are useful ... but sometimes it is hard to locate the exact area you need to go to since the map is so small)
* OMISSIONS. This was by the WORST thing in this book. There is pretty much NOTHING that annoyed me more than whats NOT in this book. Almost ALL of the optional dungeons are missing. No maps, no treasure tables, nothing. And sadly, that is what you really need a guide for. The main quest is pretty self-explanatory, and while there are some things you might miss, its not as essential. However, the side dungeons are much more complicated ... and there is almost NOTHING on them. What little there is is scattered around the book, and is of almost no use. In addition, there is no guide on how to craft the really valuable and hard to get bazaar items. Looking online on what I should've done to get some of the harder ones, I realized I could've saved HOURS if the guide had given some tips (for example, saying DON'T sell such and such loot). Also, information on how to make the rare game monsters spawn would've been nice, because thats another thing that you likely won't be able to find out on your own - some of the conditions are very strange/hard. In addition, some tricks (like easy leveling) aren't in the guide.

Conclusion:
Overall, I'm still happy I bought the guide. The maps in the guide were useful (and almost necessary to get some rare items), and the treasure tables were great. Unfortunately, the guide was missing so much that for the latter part of the game I rarely used it, instead looking online for information. This is unfortunate because, beyond the maps and treasure tables, there is really nothing here that you can't get free online. And the OMISSIONS pretty much guarantee you'll have to look online if you want to get everything in the game.

P.S. I've never found guides very useful for things like boss fights, or normal fights, or any of that - the strategies you need to use are usually pretty obvious. What I do use guides for are finding things that I would probably never find on my own (without spending a ridiculous amount of time in the game). There are a lot of these "impossible to find" things in FFXII, and unfortunately many of them aren't in this guide. ... which left me wondering "why did I even buy this ...". Also, I haven't had any of the binding problems mentioned yet, and I have heavily used this guide (I have 250+ hours of playtime on the game). Maybe I got lucky in that regard.

I've never seen a licensed guide that is as full of errors, omissions, and stupidity as this. Not to mention that it falls apart. Instead of a delux edition they should have offered it spiral bound. The downright errors are too numerous to list--from typos to bad advice to printing the wrong maps in certain places. The layout is ridiculous--what should be the most valuable section of the book is written in type that is not only tiny (I'm guessing 4 point--seriously), but printed black on brown! I'm really shocked that Square would allow their name to be associated with this shoddy, lazy book that doesn't live up to the excellent game or the venerable tradition of FF.

I really thought this guide was a pain to use -- even though I bought it I ended up using online guides as much if not more. Some reasons why..

-I could care less about artwork, I just want accurate information in a well organized format. The organization in this guide was just poor. Why were things like the merchant shops and the monsters arranged by "area"? Totally useless.
-The guide is 349 pages long yet has no index.
-No mention of when different spells or equipments would become available in the shops.
-The guide often doesn't mention when a rare item or equipment is accessible during the walkthrough
-For the largest side quest in the game, the Hunts, information on each hunt, which could each probably fill a page if it was properly covered, was given a paragraph or 2 at most, written in microscopic print. I really hated this.
-Tiny or nonexistent maps for several optional areas in the game. This was great too.
-One day after I had bought the guide, it started falling apart

The one really useful thing about this guide was the pull out license board. Still, this is the last time I'm buying one of their guides.

Final Fantasy XII is not a self-guiding game. Even experienced gamers will miss things and make significant errors unless they have outside guidance that warns them what's ahead.

You need a guide - and this is a very good one.

Without spoiling the main story, the guide provides detailed directions, maps, beast statistics, locations of treasure and other key landmarks. The illustrations are breathtakingly beautiful. Using this book was almost as fun as playing the game.

True, all this information is also available online. However, I have found much of that information scattered among numerous documents, many of which were humongous plain text files. For me, the online resources were much better used as a supplement for specific questions rather than as a primary means to take me through the whole game.

The guide is not without shortcomings. The guide does not include location information for the Rare Game. The Hunt Club is supposed to be missing one beast (Biding Mantis); however, I have not yet verified that to be true. There are supposed to be errors in the Quickening requirements (p. 59), but this has not affected my ability to play the game. The book also lacks information about two major optional areas in the game: Zertinan Caverns and Pharos Subterra.

The book is badly bound. I have owned three copies, and pages began to fall out after just a week's use.

I am giving this item five stars because the information in it has proven so valuable. Many hours of enjoyable gaming I owe to this book.

Highly recommended.

I am very pleased with my purchase. This was my first internet purchase ever and I couldnt be more pleased. I came in great time and in perfect condition.

This is a pretty good guide, but there's a few things lacking. For example, on one part of the guide it says to refer to the numbers on the map, but there are no numbers on the map! Also, it's pretty detailed, but there's parts of it where they could have elaborated a bit more. Some of their maps have symbols, but no legends. Good, but could use a new version.

Final Fantasy XII is typically a game for which you "need" a walkthrough, be it online or hardcopy, if you have the intention to play it to the full, as some specific sidequests are almost impossible to solve without one (Zodiac Spear anyone?). Maybe it's a very clever way for Squenix to sell more guides and earn more money as it has been suggested elsewhere, but the fact remains that you do need one.

This guide comes in two versions, this one which is the regular edition, and the FINAL FANTASY XII 12 Collector's Limited Edition Strategy Guide 2 Books, with the same guide but also an nice extra artbook with a random 1 out of 6 cover featuring the art of one of the main characters, together fitting in a collector cardboard case. A great point about the guide itself is that it is definitively well illustrated with plenty of pics from the game, and lovely illustrations; I particularly enjoyed the large ones of the different summons. The fold-out poster with the enlarged licence board is also a clever addition.

The first part detailing the principles of the game is pretty solid, and the walkthrough itself does a good job to help you through the main story, although one can regret that the author felt necessary to detail at the same time all the main turning points of story; I know some suggest to skip these passages but frankly it is annoying, especially since it would have been very easy to leave those bits out of the text altogether, something they had done perfectly well in prior guides in this series. Maps may feel a little cramped, but they were still pretty clear to me: my only complain in that regard is that it's sometimes hard to find the one you're looking for if you don't stick to the main story (and the whole point of this FF is precisely to explore at leisure) as they are scattered all over the guide and there is no index or reference list to help you find them. But that's minor stuff.

More annoying is the fact that one or two maps are missing altogether, along with other informations both the Japanese and the European guides managed to cram in. Ok, so comparing it with the Ultimania, with its two volumes and 1000-something pages in all, isn't completely fair. And for sure, the great level of details provided by the Ultimania isn't always needed, and it's definitely not as easy on the eye. However, I find it odd that some of the information that made its way into the European version, which is pretty similar size-wise, didn't make it in the American one; notably, the lists provided just about everywhere are missing quite a few informations that would definitely come in handy. Probably the most obvious is the fact that there is NO information whatsoever given about the Loots which are such an important part of the game; only a list of names is available. If you're trying to find one Loot in particular, tough! All you can do is go to the huge bestiary (probably the only truely comprehensive list of this guide) and browse through the couple hundreds entries. Also, there is absolutely no key items list AT ALL! The other lists are missing details compared to the other versions as well, but you probably won't miss those informations too much.

However, another serious complain is that there are just too many mistakes, most of them luckily purged from the later European version. All lists have them, but the most troubling are probably found in the sidequests explanations and in the Bazaar Packages lists, where quite a few packages' required items listings are erroneous. It's really disappointing because, while I've always found a few mistakes in previous guides from this publisher, they were few and mostly on minor stuff. Here it feels really as if they didn't have much time to check twice what they were writing

I've hesitated a lot between 2 and 3 stars, but the guide IS nice, especially the collector's edition (if only some of the pages weren't starting to fall apart already....), so I did go for 3 in the end, although that's more of a 2.5 really. Unnecessary spoilers, numerous mistakes and missing information makes this, however, one less than perfect guide, although not without its merits

This guide is great, except the ESPER's part. The clues to find the Cúchulainn(The Impure) and Ultima(Walker of the Wheel)espers are incomplete.Even if you follow the hints to meet them, you will be lost, because there are missing informations.The rest is fine.

If you need some help or want to finish your game with stars, you should buy it.

I don't generally buy strategy guides as I usually use gamefaqs.com. In this case though, my wife brought FFXII home the day it was released and no faqs were available yet. If you like to get everything in a game, like we do, this guide will almost get you there. I don't remember what it was but I did have to look something up elsewhere (I think it had to do with getting some rare monsters to show up) and the organisation is a bit odd. All in all though, a good guide that will help you get the most out of this game.

Let me start out with this: If you own a copy of Final Fantasy XII, you'll need some sort of walkthrough or strategy guide to help you. Where you get your source is up to you, but allow me to recommend the Signature Series Guide by Bradygames. Surprisingly thorough "main-quest" coverage, information on every side quest in the game (including Hunts, Sky Pirates Den and optional bosses and Espers), a GREAT primer on the battle systems, and a License Board pullout make this guide essential to unlocking the game to its full potential.
The guide opens up with character/story introductions and a character relationship flowchart. If it's your first time playing - skip this section immediately. Then, an introduction on the License Board follows, including a complete breakdown of it's two halves. The author elaborates on the types of magicks, technicks and armors available to unlock and points out the essential spells you'll need. Next comes a study on the Gambit system. The author provides a sample gambit list for a character and explains the necessity and usefulness of each. Following that, is an introduction to the new Battle System. The basics are covered here, but there are many elements covered in this section that the manual doesn't include, so it's wise to read everything here. Information on Espers (Or "summons" for you FFX veterans) and Quickenings follow.
Then - the main walkthrough! It's extremely well detailed and lavishly illustrated with maps, screenshots, helpful advice and art. The author doesn't hold your hand every second of the way, which allows for some exploration of the games detailed levels. Take note, however!! This guide is never lacking spoilers! Unfortunately, the reviewers here are making too big a deal of this. It's quite easy to spot them and skip them if you know the key words to look for. ("...trigger an event in which..." is the most frequently used). Boss fights are also discussed in detail.
Next, a giant side quest section covers EVERY single sidequest and optional event in the game. It starts out with a great section on the Hunts (Though, the print is VERY small...the visually impaired - take note!). followed by information on Clan Centurio (If you're new, don't worry ; You'll find out what it is in-game) and info on the acquisition of the optional Espers. A run-through of the sidequests follows. However - there are a good number of typos and misprints that may confuse the reader. For instance, the infamous "page ???" misprints. The reviewers here also ballooning this problem to a much bigger state than it should be. It's not hard to figure out the page the authors are referring to. In addition, these typos are addressed at the Bradygames website.
An extremely detailed section on weapons, equipment, accessories and spells/technicks follow. Details on their acquisition, their stats and more can be found here. Then, a list of items, loot, bazaar packages and the many shops follow. The guide ends with a comprehensive bestiary, including information like the monsters' strengths, weaknesses, dropped/stealable loot, and stats. Unfortunately, it doesn't specify where to find them, which can cause some frustration occasionally. I also agree with some of the reviewers here who demand an Index, as it would most certainly be helpful. Also, an Atlas section would be great, as some of the maps are scattered throughout the sidequest/walkthrough section, and some maps aren't even shown!
Nevertheless, this guide never fails to help the player explore the world of Ivalice and unlock it's many secrets. A well-rounded explanation of the game systems, a comprehensive walkthrough on the main game, and coverage on the optional stuff really make this guide special. Not to mention, it looks great! The binding could be better (A few pages at the beginning of the book are beginning to fall out) but it's a minor flaw to consider.

The Good

+ Beautiful illustrations, maps, screenshots accompany...
+ ...all-encompassing walkthroughhs and data tables.
+ Excellent coverage on the game systems, including Espers, Quickenings and the all-new Gambit system.
+ A license board pullout helps the player plan character advancement.
+ A nicely detailed Bestiary

The Bad

- Poor binding
- A good number of typos/misprints
- Spoilers in the main-walkthrough, though easily avoidable.
- Lack of an index can make things confusing and hectic
- Many missing maps

if i have to go online to access a walkthrough written by a gamer, have i really bought the guide? YES. i bought the guide, and for the most part, the guide is very helpful, but IT DOES NOT PROVIDE ALL THE ANSWERS. this isn't entirely relevant, unfortunately. this is the only guide. get it, cause it's helpful. but thankfully, there are awesome gamers willing to supplement it on the cyberweb. mainly, there are significant maps missing or innapropriately placed within the guide. other info is lost due to this, like chest location. also not included in the guide are specifics w/in special missions. furthermore, the loot dropped by enemies is listed in their the monster bio, but it's like looking in a haystack when you need a certain combination for a bazaar good. the stuff should be cross referenced. all told, this guide should be a third bigger (or more) just to make gameplay smooth -- which it doesn't do. i expect a full basis for acing a game in any guide, this gives you 85%.

This guide was exactly what I had expected from a Brady Games guide.

The information isn't 100% on the game. Not all areas are defined. However, the walkthrough proves incredibly accurate and informative without giving away the in depth storyline at play later in the game. The spoils in the guide aren't unexpected (you're reading an entire guide to every facet of the game) and aren't unlike the spoils found in the manual to the game (the manual spoiled the entire news about the Strahl and the members that would be in my party before I ever encountered them).

The side quests are accurate, except for the fact that some of the timing is incorrect. For instance, they report a quest requiring use of the leisure craft as being available LONG before the leisure craft is available for use.

If anyone is having trouble with the game or wants to unlock and find all the best of the best in the game, I would highly recommend this book. The organization is iffy at best, but detailed instructions on completing every hunt and obtaining every esper is accurate and incredibly organized in comparison to the rest of the guide. An index would come in handy all too often, but the poster does come in handy as a bookmark (it's not too handy otherwise)

I beat this game once, and never knew about all the secrets and side quests that went along with this... this guide is definitely helpful

Coming in at over 300 pages, this guide is simply massive. It has room for a very finely crafted walkthrough that fills in all the blanks for the stumped gamer. The opening descriptions of gambits, the license board, etc. can get the reader accustomed to the new functions of the game before ever picking up the controller. The bestiary is monstrous, although a little strangely configured. As someone who likes to explore all options, I particularly appreciate the depth in which they cover side quests, which arguably set the Final Fantasy series a notch above the rest. It's a beautiful guide too, filled with gorgeous full-page pictures and lined with vibrant color. For this price, how can you go wrong?

After seeing so many positive reviews about this guide, I ordered it, received it, used it, and became utterly disappointed with it. The few great things about this book that other reviewers have already mentioned aren't enough to make up for the many, many, many little things, and some major things, that ruin this book. This is a long, negative review. If you don't want to read it all then skip to the last paragraph.

Final Fantasy XII is a huge game, so it goes without saying that it deserves a huge guide. So is it a huge guide?

Well, uh, the book is thick? No. It LOOKS thick. In fact that was the first thing I noticed when it first arrived at my doorstep. Held up spine-to-spine next to Bradygames' Final Fantasy X-2 guide, it's about 50% thicker, yet they both contain EXACTLY the same number of pages. But I'm just being stupid. It's not about the number of pages a book has.

Content is much more important. I'll start with the walkthrough. With the exception of the boss strategies, I've come to the conclusion that the walkthrough is mostly completely useless. More than half the walkthrough is pure spoilers -- exposition on what you can expect to see during the games many cut-scenes. I mean, honestly, if I'm playing the game, I'm going to see what's happening, so it's really all just a waste of ink.

As for the boss strategies, they're really not all that spectacular. Some are certainly good. But many are little more than a list of attacks the boss might use. And several are so bad that they can be paraphrased into one simple sentence: "Hang in there." How helpful.

The one good thing about the walkthrough is that it adequately prepares you for obtaining the Zodiac Spear (the strongest weapon in the game), by pointing out the treasure chests you should NOT open AS you get to them. This is something I know many people get frustrated over late in the game, so... Good job, Bradygames, for that.

And, I must say, the maps are outstanding (despite the fact that some of them contain minor incompletions). They're clear, and they show the locations and potential contents (they can change) for every single treasure chest in the game. (Although... The map for the Zertinan Caverns seems to be missing...)

But enough of the walkthrough. FFXII is side-quest heavy, so what of the side-quest section of the guide? There's room for improvement.

Mark hunting is the biggest side-quest in the game, so it naturally deserves, and did receive, more text than any other side-quest. And the strategies for defeating them are mostly good. The problem is that -- and this is a surprisingly HUGE problem -- the text is SO SMALL you can hardly read it! Seven pages of size 6 (at the most!) font, and even worse, black ink on a brown background. I don't know about other gamers, but after spending even a couple minutes staring at a TV screen, I don't appreciate having to readjust my eyes to that extreme to be able to read something. WHY they would do something like that is beyond my understanding. If they wanted to save space, they could've cut back on the plot exposition in the walkthrough. If they HAD the plot exposition because they wanted to stretch the number of pages, then they could've used bigger font here to add several MORE pages. It just doesn't make any sense.

As for the rest of the side-quests, they're pretty good. Except for one, which would have been nice if they had mentioned IN the walkthrough that you have to complete half of it at a certain point in the game, otherwise miss it entirely. But that's just one slip-up for an otherwise nice section of the book.

Then there's the item lists. Not bad, but it fails to tell you where you can find most of the Loot, so you have to search through the Bestiary beast-by-beast to find what you're looking for.

So that's it for the content. But really, all that nitpicking I just did doesn't hold a candle to the book's more serious problem: construction. Aside from the ink that smears from just the slightest moisture on your fingertips... I've only had the book a month and already the pages are falling out. I've had Bradygames' FFX guide for about five years now -- the pages are torn, wrinkled, stained, and the cover's half faded, yet not one single page has ever fallen out. I've had the FFXII guide for a mere month, I've handled it with the utmost care, and it STILL fell apart on me.

I know this is a ridiculously long and negative review, but... Bear in mind that the things mentioned within the many 5-star reviews here are absolutely right, but these are the things they missed, which all add up to a waste of money.

Incredibly poor construction, a walkthrough that's mostly plot exposition, and you can find most of the information in this book, and much more, in various online FAQs and whatnot. But if you get the book, all this information is somewhat organized into a nice, pretty package. And the maps are outstandingly helpful. 2 stars, because it's just not worth $16.49 (the current price). If it drops to closer to $10, then I might bump it up to 3 stars.

For the most part, this is a good guide. It includes maps of almost every level (though sometimes the treasure chest markers skew the map appearance), tells you where to go and what to do to trigger the various events, covers all the side quests, and includes tons of other important info. Unfortunately, BradyGames also decided to completely spoil the story in this walkthrough. They describe every scene, within the text, making it hard to avoid having the upcoming story ruined before you get there. It is very possible to write a spoilerless walkthrough, but unfortunately this isn't one of them.

So if you don't want the awesome story ruined, I'd suggest looking for an online walkthrough. I just wish I'd been warned before I wasted my $20 on this guide.

this thing has everything you need if your a cheater who doesn't like to play the game for themselves first. walkthroughs, cheats, bestiary, weapons, shops, etc. good product.

Couldn't be happier with my purchase, it was exactly what I expected it to be.

The guide presents nice maps, and the license board poster is very helpful. However, as other buyers said, the guide is a mess when you talk about organization! Besides flipping pages back and forward to find stuff, I realized there are some hunts details missing, and some nice side quests as well! So if you love playing FF series by completing it 100% getting all the items available, secrets and stuff, this guide is not recommended for you. I only used it to check license boards, and check treasure chests table.
There are many free guides in internet available that you can follow to complete this game 100%. Unlike this guide, they tell you WHEN you can already get some nice hunts, a lot better battle strategies, list of spells, armors, weapons and items you can have, how to make nice gil and level up. They tell you WHEN and WHICH side quests are already available. When I tried to follow this official strategy guide I got lost like "hey they dont talk about hunts at all, no side quests no nothing", then I had to GUESS what hunts and quests were available and keep turning pages to check hunt guide at the end of the book, plus when I wanted information about rare monsters, it was faster goin to Google than keep searching this guide bestiary! So hard to find them.
Well, in the end I played the whole game with a free strategy guide, and using the pictures and license board map from this guide , then i could finally play it smooth to reach 100% and i had lots of fun =)

The guide is very well done, when one considers merely tthe graphics. Clear and presice, it's easy to navigate and find your way through it.
The guide is helpful not only tot he beginners, barely startign their adventure with the Final Fantasy world, but also to the more advanced gamers, that think they know all the quirks. Sometimes we all miss something.
Thick, filled with colorful images and good advice on the enemies, weapons and growing of the characters, this guide is pretty neat if you're willing to pay the price.

The book is fine and gets you through all of the quests/subquests and general game, however the book construction is crap. Nearly every page of that book has fallen out just from flipping back and forth.

The guide is very well done, when one considers merely tthe graphics. Clear and presice, it's easy to navigate and find your way through it.
The guide is helpful not only tot he beginners, barely startign their adventure with the Final Fantasy world, but also to the more advanced gamers, that think they know all the quirks. Sometimes we all miss something.
Thick, filled with colorful images and good advice on the enemies, weapons and growing of the characters, this guide is pretty neat if you're willing to pay the price.

The book is fine and gets you through all of the quests/subquests and general game, however the book construction is crap. Nearly every page of that book has fallen out just from flipping back and forth.

Brady Games has always been known to be pretty thorough when writing walkthroughs. Take this book as no exception - but only on the walkthrough part. The book covers everything you need to know to finish the game but leaves out large chunks of maps, (Zertinian Caverns, for instance), and leaves many sidequests up to you. The rare monster guide is complete, but lacks the triggers for all monsters, which can leave you wandering around for hours trying to figure out how to find them. Also, the Guide contains many errors - it appears as though they published the book without finishing in page numbers for many Sidequests (see page ???, for instance). Overall, a good buy if you are looking for guidance from Point A to Point B, but you'll have to turn to the internet for help if you ultimately want to get the most out of the game.

Let's face it, Final Fantasy games are great. They are so rich and there is so much extra stuff to do besides the main quest that getting a Strategy Guide is the best way to get the most out of it.

The guide is great for:

1) Having a map handy without having to periodically pause the game by hitting 'Select' and using the in-game map. It's also good to know where regions connect.

2) A resource for weapons, armor, and item statistics. It makes shopping at merchants so much more convenient as you can check out and compare equipment statistics and optimize per each character's strengths; to see what's really worth the gil.

3) Secrets and side quests! One of my only complaints about FF12 is the difficulty in obtaining the Zodiac Spear, one of the most powerful weapons in the game. This weapon can only be obtained if you do NOT open certain treasure chests, but nothing in the game ever tells you that!! Similarly, there are a bunch of side quests and hidden espers (summonable monsters) that you might only know about if you read the Extras chapter.

4) Licenses. The fold out poster shows the whole license board which takes the pain out of character development. You don't have to explore the license board in the dark!

5) Hunt listing. It's handy to have all the hunts listed and their HP so you can decide when your characters are developed enough to break from the main quest and do some hunting. Not to mention save some time on where the heck they are!

Relying on a Strategy Guide too much may take the fun out to some, but it's up to you how much you use it. Enjoy.

Great grapic and a great RPG. You will enjoy the new characters and the adventures. Enjoy the game.

This is one guide with game that is a MUST!! Alone, no matter the expert gamer, no one could possibly find all the side quests and hunts and oh so many many things to do! This game is without a doubt my all time favorite and I am an 'oldie' and I love RPG games. The guide is totally helpful, more than any guide I've ever owned.
Without the guide this game would be only one fourth of what it should be!

If you're looking for a guide that will tell you everything you need to know about FFXII, it's not here. If you're looking for decent maps (except for the great crystal), a good general walkthrough and some side quest information, this is your guide. There is a lot of information on items, weapons, etc. that is left out and the "see page ????" thing just makes it appear to have been rushed to publication without being proofread very well. Is it worth the price? Probably, but expect to look online for in-depth information.

My fiancee is a big fan of Final Fantasy games, and especially of digging through every last little bit of content in each game. In the past she has used online guides to help her find everthing, and I had hoped that a hard copy strategy guide would come in handy. It has do a degree, however, there are plenty of problems with the book. For one, the pages fall out easily, which is something less than convenient. She has mentioned quite a few times that inforation was inaccurate. In one case, a side quest stated to "look at map on page ??????". Yes, the question marks were part of the actual text instead of the page number. And it turned out that the name of map was something totally different. The book could have used a lot more proofreading/editing.

All of the information in the book which is actually useful can be found online ... not much point in buying this book if you have a computer with a net connection.

Still working through the walkthrough. Can go forever completing the game. But very good description and helpful hints and tactics.

As far as RPG / Strategy Guides go, this one is one of the biggest, most informative published to date. There are charts, maps, etc.. all sorts of details for just about everything in the game. I give it a 4 out of 5 because it covers just about everything - but not everything. The Great Crystal at the end of the game received almost no coverage in this guide - a couple of very small, undetailed maps, almost no stategy besides a walkthrough of storyline, not of the great items and other stuff to find there. Also there are a few errors as to the labeling of chests, but only an insignificant few. All in all, I wouldn't recommend playing the game without this guide.

Fantastic was exactly what my son wanted and very speedy delivery right to my door.

The game guide for FFXII is informative and well done. Most useful is the inventory descriptions for weapons, armor, and such since the license system doesn't really tell you anything about what you are getting accept a name. It's also very beautiful and fun to use.

As near as I can recall, this is the most worthless strategy guide I have ever used. In virtually every instance, I have found it easier and less time consuming to figure out the problem without the guide. For instance, last night I fought a tough fight against one of the hidden espers. But I couldn't find the esper because I didn't know it was an esper. Since the word next to the health meter said BOSS, I therefore looked for a BOSS and couldn't find it. While I was fighting the guy (whose name sounds like a sneeze to me) my girlfriend took up the task of finding the guy. She eventually figured out the guy was an esper, but by then I had already figured out what worked and didn't work, so it was moot.

Yes, this guide is chock full of (probably) every piece of information you could possibly need. However, the guide is poorly organized and finding the information you're looking for is often a more daunting task then trying to solve whatever the issue is in the game.

The worst of it comes from BradyGames being too lazy and sloppy to bother with page headers. Instead, the reader is forced to scan through each and every page of a given section looking for sub-section changes.

For instance, the bestiary is organized by the appropriate section in the game, and the order of those sections seems to be either random, or loosely based on the game time line. While this may seem a perfectly natural method of organization to people making the game (as well as to lazy writers of strategy guides), it is cumbersome and aggravating at times to look for a particular monster in the absence of page headers.

If the book were designed for USERS and not the WRITERS, the bestiary would have been organized ALPHABETICALLY. You see the monster's name in the game, and flip to the page. Quick and easy, right? But alas, that would require more work in writing the book. Okay, fine. So they're too lazy (or too stupid) to alphabetize. Fine. Then the order of the area sections should be alphabetized so you could at least easily flip to the right section before you have to start scanning the page. Nope. No luck there either. Okay, then at there should at least be headers on each page to show you wich area is represented on the particular page. You know, like in a dictionary! Right? Well, no, again. You have to scan every page looking for new section names. It's ridiculous! The whole book is organized like this.

The main walkthrough is fine, provided you are the type to follow the guide all the way through the game (how boring is that?). If you aren't, then you will have problems similar to those described above. Scanning every page looking for a new section. What makes this more difficult is that many of the area names are not easy words that flow off the tongue (maybe it's just me, but names like Bur-Omirsace, Bhujerba, and Tchita don't stand out like, oh, I dunno, say East East Franklin), which is fine, but many people may forget the names of the sections they are looking for and have to keep checking to game (or use a notepad). It's very tedious. But at least the main walkthrough is linear so you have some guidance there.

Such is not the case with the side-quests section. Same as above: no useful organization and no page headers.

Also, throughout the book, the writers cross reference related sections on other pages, but were too lazy to fill in the number. As a result, the references say: (see Page ????). That is incredibly sloppy and unprofessional. Gee thanks for the help guys.

Most of these problems could be manageable if not for another problem, which is this:

NO INDEX!

...and with only the most rudimentarily table of contents, the only way to make effective use of this guide is to turn off the game and read the book for a couple hours (probably making use of several dozen sticky tabs and spoiling the ENTIRE PLOT in the process).

In short, this guide is not a guide at all but dump of information bound together with a $20 price tag. The writers seemed interested in only two things: (i) putting in lots of pretty pictures; and (ii) being able to say "oh look at how much information is in here." Of no concern to them is the ability to make use of the book. Since that is the primary purpose of any GUIDE, this one fails to serve its purpose and is therefore WORTHLESS.