Final Fantasy XIII: Complete Official Guide - Collector's Edition [ハードカバー]

This is the first and apparently complete guide on Final Fantasy XIII. For your money, you get over 270 glossy, 8.5x11", full color, beautifully illustrated pages that, as far as I can tell cover EVERYTHING that you'd ever want to know about the game except for most of spoilers - the assumption is that you do NOT want to see spoilers.

The book is divided into six main section and an Index:

- QUICKSTART - things you need to know as you start the game and for the first few hours of play.

- WALKTHROUGH - the bulk of the book (over 120 pages). It has all the maps, all the scripted encounters - and much of FFXIII is tightly scripted. It's a good thing to have whenever you get stuck and discouraged. The authors promise that spoilers were kept to a minimum.

- STRATEGY AND ANALYSIS - here you get hints on tactics and strategy, hidden games mechanics are covered, everything there is to know about the Crystarium and Paradigm features. It's page after page after page of illustrated data that help you get insights on how to develop your character and how your team is likely to perform under various paradigms. I can't say that I understand all the graphs and charts at this time but I expect to visit the chapter more and more as I advance deeper into the story.

- INVENTORY - every item you equip affects the outcome of the battle and this chapter has it all, complete with tips and with the mind-boggling charts where dozens if not hundreds of items are analyzed and evaluated. In addition, each character's weapons are analyzed separately.

- BESTIARY - If you didn't know, it turns out that there are 240 monsters you are likely to meet and here you can see exactly what they look like and what their strengths and vulnerabilities are.

- EXTRAS - it's a checklist of side and optional quests. There are also a few pages on trophies but, most interestingly you get the actual story of the 13 FFXIII days, all followed by a few more pages dedicated to 'analysis and speculation'. And, if you are someone who bothers to actually read 'the signs', you get a Cocoon-to-English alphabet decoder.

I am VERY pleased with this book. It's unlikely that I will ever read everything but I will definitely read the first and last chapters, refer to the Walkthrough section when in trouble, read 'strategy and analysis' maybe minus most of the stats, check the monster listings and and the inventory section when curious about enemies or items.

I've seen a lot of different guides for games and this company Piggyback is the best I've seen so far. Nothing is missing from this guide. It's got everything you need, like an encyclopedia for FFXIII. The words are intelligent and descriptive and they think of anything you may need to know at any given point in the game. They even have spoiler warnings and an index, as well as an intermission mid-story to get you prepped for the rest of the game. It has an excellent strategy and analysis section that teaches you everything about the way the game functions, as well as tables for every weapon, accessory, component, dismantles, EVERYTHING.

A+ best I've seen in about 18 years of hardcore gaming.

The Piggyback Complete Official Guide for Final Fantasy XIII covers all the bases the Brady guides for Final Fantasy XII did and goes one step further. If you're familiar with these guides, you'll be happy to know that Piggyback seems to have looked at all the complaints of the Brady guide and addressed them well. Spoilers are avoided as much as possible. Instructions are clear to follow, with the occasional sidebar to underscore the point. I haven't beaten Final Fantasy XIII yet, but so far the advice appears to be very useful. Better still, a concept isn't dumped on you all at once, interrupting the flow of reading: instead, you're given the information you need to know at the point in which you need to know it, with a promise that more will be given to you at the appropriate time. There are a lot of passages in the walkthrough like, "You don't need to worry about the rest of that for now - we'll come back to it later when the time comes that you need it", or "We'll go into detail about this later on--in the meantime if you still need more, see page x."

That said, this guide still carries forward all the things that were good about the Brady guide: there is beautifully-printed artwork, thorough documentation, well-organized sections with easy-to-find page tabs, and an emphasis on teaching you without talking down to you. The only thing I find lacking is that some features might be more useful as tear-out references (or fold-out maps, as the skill table in FFXII was managed in the Brady guide) If you want a companion to your gaming experience, I recommend the Piggyback guide: they got it right.