I was down at the Game X-Change earlier today and I was talking to the owner about strategy guides. When the store opened in 2008 he didn't deal in used strategy guides... but a few years ago he started taking them and I've amassed a decent sized collection since they are only a few dollars a piece and there is no shipping. There are some exceptions of course - if they are the newer, huge hardback ones or particularly rare the price does go up some - but I was kind of surprised when he told me how many guides he actually rejects because of condition. Not that I'd expect him to got into detail on what he's passed up... but I have to admit I'm curious as to what he's seen....

I guess I really shouldn't be that surprised that he does this. When he opened he would pretty much take games even when they were incomplete yet he's tightened his belt on this especially when it comes to PS1 and PS2 games. Since he deals with so many collectors anymore he only takes game incomplete if they are especially rare now.

Anyway, I know I'm prattling here but does anyone here buy the given strategy guide for a given game when they pick up the game anymore? I know internet sites like GameFAQs have generally made it less than mandatory these days - and given enough time a FAQ will probably surpass a professionally published work because it can be updated - but I'm only tempted to buy guides after the fact when (and if) the price is low. I think I remember some people on here saying they were more apt to by them in the past when the were once the main source of a game's artwork... but those days are pretty much over.

However, beyond getting the guides of not, what are the worst and best guides you have run into? Here are mine:

Best Strategy Guide: The Completely Unauthorized Guide to Resident Evil 2 by Versus Books
I believe there are AT LEAST four strategy guides for Resident Evil 2. I have the Prima one (which isn't too common) and I had the GameFan one which I thought was terrible (alteration isn't particularly funny...) but I really like Versus Books work on this one. It's insightful, very detailed and has a great sense of humor.

Good but Flawed Strategy Guide (1): Wild Arms 2 Official Perfect Guide Versus Books
I've seen a lot of people take shots at this one... and I might be a little biased since I grew up with this one... but beyond missing a few treasures, kind of slacking off with the various appendixes in the back (GameFAQs is a MUST for enemy locations) and really offering no boss strategy (...but the game is damn easy...) I really like this one. I know that seems like a lot of drawbacks but... well, I don't really have any further defense for this one.

A Good Strategy Guide That Has Survived Time Rather Well: Brave Fencer Musashi Brady Games Startegy Guide
Anyone that knows me know I love the first Musashi game and make it a point of obtain as many items related to it as I can. I've had this book since the game came out (even though I didn't own the game then) and this one has held up pretty well. The only real piece of missing info is how the amount of time you take to complete the game affects the ending a bit, but otherwise it doesn't embarrass itself. However, I can't really say it is a mandatory purchase in today's world and the game is rather self-contained so making a good guide was a lot easier than it is for much larger and complex games.

Good but Flawed Strategy Guide (2): Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Prima's Official Game Guide
Prima's Silver Star Harmony strategy guide really doesn't have many hitches... but there is a rather big error about when you can purchase the last few bromides. However, I always thought the Bromides were kind of silly anyway (especially to anyone that is old enough that actually has the internet) so it doesn't have much bearing.

A Decent Strategy Guide Made Infamous Through An Error: Breath of Fire III Prima's Offical Strategy Guide
To be honest I had access to this guide when playing through Breath of Fire III multiple times and I never really referred to it. The most useful part is the two or three pages in the back on learn-able enemy skills. However, most people tend to remember this one because the guide mistakenly says that the first fight with Balio and Sunder is winnable when that is not true... the book is actually referring to the second fight with them, but some gamers like to perpetuate this myth despite the fact everyone and their mother knows better.

Strategy Guide That Is Full of Errors But Is Still Insanely Useful: Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light Brady Game Strategy Guide
This guide is riddled with oversights... but it got me interested in the game itself and the item drop rate information in the back appendixes is invaluable.

Guide That Utterly Insults the Abilities of the Reader: Final Fantasy III Brady Games Strategy Guide
This one really gets my goat. I love how the author insinuates that as you get near the end of the game the player must give up on the jobs provided by the Crystal of Wind. I personally proved this to be completely untrue by proving how broken the Warrior's Advance command was and anyone that has ever played the game clearly knows that the Thief class is broken as well. Furthermore, the author states the importance of shields in the final fight but doesn't explain WHY - shields raise the ever important magic defense stat but the game doesn't show this very clearly unless you constantly switch between a few key screens.

A Terrible Strategy Guide That Only Has A Place In My Heart Because of Nostalgia: SaGa Frontier Brady Game's Strategy Guide
In a certain sense I can't really put all the blame on Brady for this one. SaGa Frontier is a very convoluted creation and there are so many odd things about every facet of the game that a person writing a on-line FAQ would have an insane advantage at discovering every nook and cranny. However, at the same time, if I didn't grow up with this guide it would be insanely disposable. Of course, some people think the actual game is disposable but that's another story.

A Terrible Strategy Guide That Is Only Slightly Saved By Its Appendixes:Final Fantasy Tactics Prima's Official Strategy Guide
My friends and I grew up with this one... and the appendixes in the back on the game's various jobs (about 1/16th of the guide) is the only useful part. I haven't looked at the guide for the PSP version of the game but it has just got to be better even if you are using it when playing the PS1 version and all the strategy may not be applicable because of the changes.

Just Plain, Flat Out Terrible Strategy Guide: Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete Prima's Official Strategy Guide
My friend had this one when we were growing up and so much of the information in it was wrong that I can't even begin to justify its existence in anyway.

The Most Worthless Guide I Have Ever Come Across: X-Men Destiny Brady Games Strategy Guide
It pains me that I actually spent money on this one. Anyone who has ever played X-Men Destiny can easily tell you why you don't need a guide (hint: it doesn't look like a 16-bit beat'em up but has the same amount of depth) but because all the gene pick-ups in the game are randomized you cannot plan which mutant genes you will have at the end of the game. Additionally, while the game allows you to assign any of the three mutant power trees to any of the three characters, the author wrote the book with certain combinations in mind to lighten the burden on himself when writing "strategy" which just amounts to "dodge this" when you see the tell.

Yeah, I hardly ever buy strategy guides anymore, but I make exceptions for SQEX's Ultimania Guides, which are really the best guides on the planet.
They're all of almost biblical proportions and they tell you pretty much every single thing you could possibly want to know, and then some.

Some of the worst guides I've used are from Famitsu, actually.
They also tend to be big, yet often fail to contain the information I really need.

I used to LOVE strategy guides! I had all the old Nintendo Power ones (from the "NES Atlas" through DKC2, at least), and still have my original copy of the FF3 NP guide (bound with duct tape at this point). As time went on I started getting the Brady guides for my favorite games, even though they could be kind of a mess. I used to read those things cover-to-cover, even if I wasn't playing the games. FFVII-X and Chrono Cross were staples, and I remember really loving the Drakengard guide.

Does anyone here remember the FFIX PlayOnline debacle? Basically you'd buy the guide, and it would be like, "To learn more about all the prizes for jumping rope in Alexandria, go to playonline.com and type in VIVIROPE." "Innovation" at its best, hah!

I can't believe I didn't think of this one when going into detail above because it is on my shelf!

Yes, I clearly remember this one... a terrible guide. I think someone has actually backed up that section of PlayOnline on the internet somewhere... but it's not like you'd want to use it.

When it comes to this guide I love to go to Amazon and read the 200+ negative reviews for it... it is rather entertaining.

Here's my favorite, titled "Great for propping up chairs."
I want to give this guide a one star review but it is just so perfect for correcting off balance chairs and tables that I can't possibly do that.

my brother and i used the shit out of the nintendo power magazines for snes games, but i never bought a stand-alone strategy guide for a specific game.
unless you counting issue 1 of playstation magazine which included like 20 pages on FF7.. i believe that magazine is still on a desk shelf in my old room at my parents' house

These days, I regard physical guides as wastes of money, rendered obsolete by the digital age long ago. But back in the day, I loved Nintendo's own player's guides, especially their early works. They contained a ton of additional artwork, trivia, and lore that kept me reading long after I completed the game. Their The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Player's Guide is probably the best example of this and among my all-time favorites.

Versus Books often put together some excellent books, too. All of my friends swore by the FFVII player's guide (which took care to be spoiler-free, seemingly a novel concept for the time), while I kept their Pokemon guides and Street Fighter Alpha 2 guide close at hand. I appreciated the latter for its inclusion of tons of artwork and sketches, and a double-sided poster which is still hanging on the wall today.

I remember Playonline and that horrible guide. I didn't much care for IX from the start, but that guide just pushed me one step further to quitting the game. I read that Square was using the guide as leverage so magazines and publications wouldn't write hints/walkthroughs about FFIX, ones that did would get reduced coverage of new Square games.

Incredibly, the guide for Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Bradygames? I forget the publisher) was worse. It has one small blurb about custom combos and all of their combos are literally jump in -> attack -> do super or special. The one for Marvel vs Capcom 2 was literally only movelists and 1 paragraph about how to play a character. In contrast, the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 guide is like a bible of information for anyone even half interested in the game.

Who remembers the Official Nintendo Players Guide? I literally grew up with that thing, it was essentially my English textbook for years. Along the way, I learned all the items and characters in just about every game covered in it. It was just a wealth of information. The SNES guide that came later (in the same set as the NES Atlas and Gameboy ones) was similar. The guides that replaced certain Nintendo Powers issues (SMB3, Ninja Gaiden II and Final Fantasy) were also very enjoyable, I still have all of them.

Best guide of all time is the Unauthorized Final Fantasy VII guide published by Versus Books. Author Casey Loe injected this book with a healthy dose of personal anecdotes, witty insight, and his own idiosyncratic humour, breathing a vivid sense of life and love into it. Is it a perfect guide? No. It's based on a pre-release build, and as such discrepancies exist between information in the guide and what it pertains to in the game (the damage modifier for enemy skill Chocobuckle being a good example, as was the existence of the mysterious dog enemies supposedly found at the bottom of the well in Corel Prison). Enemy HP counts seemed off in the game's bestiary, as did certain information about acquiring Limit Breaks. Overall, though, it was a thorough, invaluable guide for navigating the game. That exclusive artwork, poster, easter egg section, and materia combination section certainly was icing on the cake. I cannot think of a guide that I enjoyed devouring quite as much as this one.

Worst guide of all time easily goes to Brady Game's Final Fantasy IX. Never before has a strategy guide been so completely ramshackle in construction. Square really relied too heavily on PlayOnline for this guide, and consumers essentially paid full price for half a guide. I wonder what wizard thought it'd be great to write an entire guide like this:

"Boss: So-and-So Dragon
Elemental type: Fire
Strategy: Hit the boss until it dies. Heal when your HP gets too low.
For additional details, visit PlayOnline.com, keyword fuckourconsumers"

Shame, too. If there's any game that needed a good guide, Final Fantasy IX is it, especially with people still finding new shit in it.

Most useful guide of all time is probably the Final Fantasy VIII offical guide by Brady Games. Written by David Cassidy, it is a marked improvement over his previous effort on the mildly disappointing Brady Games Final Fantasy VII guide preceding it. To say this book is exhaustive in it's detail would be an understatement. Every nook and cranny is explored, every enemy studied in comprehensive detail, every sidequest reported. It's a thoroughly researched book for a game with an exhausting amount of content. Anyone doing a playthrough could do a lot worse than to consult this guide. Highly recommended.

Most ineffectual guide of all time goes to Persona 3/4 by Double Jump Books. These aren't bad; the level of content rivals Final Fantasy VIII by Brady Games. However, Persona 3 and 4 are both very free-form game experiences, and the nature of a strategy guide, I feel, is born of a desire for something with a bit more of a rigid structure. All of the Social Links are reported, as are the sidequests and bestiary, and in great detail to boot. What's missing, at least as far as I'm concerned, is a sense of cohesion. Many times throughout each game, I had to flip to one section to consult the S-Links, only to have to double back to make sure I had the correct Persona equipped and proper items in my inventory, or to see how many nights I'd have available to study. I had to make use of makeshift bookmarks for each section, and as a result, harvesting strategies from the guides felt like a bit of a chore, so I consulted them for the bare essentials and very little else.

Best produced guide of all time is definitely the guide for Dark Souls, courtesy of Future Press. The fine folks over there made damn sure they would give us a guide worth buying in an age where strategy guides are not only passe, but almost irrelevant. Hardcover, thicker than a steel girder, with all the heft of a brick, the high-res art of the ubiquitous Black Knight ensconced in inky blackness on the cover throws down a powerful, almost intimidating presence. And then you open it up, and discover myriad techniques for dealing with this game's immeasurable hardships. This tome is so big, you could beat a goat to death with it.

Biggest surprise in the form of a guide goes to Millennium's Metal Gear Solid official mission handbook. When I bought this, it was just to pad out my collection a little bit. I honestly expected nothing more than a boss guide, mission maps, and maybe some artwork that I'd already seen. I get home, rip the shrink wrap off and am treated to what is essentially a bible for Metal Gear Solid. It contained a foreward by Hideo Kojima himself, a brief history on Alaska, extensive character dossiers written in a kind of faux-military prose to get the reader immersed in the game before they even pop the disc in. Near the back of the guide are insightful interviews with the lead people involved, like Hideo Kojima, So Toyota, and Yoji Shinkawa, not to mention the page dedicated to laying out Metal Gear's history all the way back to the MSX. All of this inlaid over top a solid guide, consisting of excellent maps, wonderful page layouts detailing item and guard locations, thorough boss strategies and a wonderfully complete list of secrets and easter eggs. You can feel the enthusiasm the authors had in every page of this unobtrusive-looking guide.

Biggest turn-around in quality goes to Prima Publishing. Once regarded with repulsion by the collective gamer community for their unreliability, shoddiness, lack of effort and general unprofessional look, they have since made a massive turn-around, publishing several amazing guides, artbooks, historical records, and more. To say that they've taken an immeasurable leap forward in overall quality would be selling them short.

Most bewildering guide of all time can be none other than Brady Games' Suikoden V offical guide. Holy hell, what a mess. Following this guide rigidly will make you miss out on certain characters and scenes. The screenshots are tiny, low-res messes of pixels, the page layout is absolutely horrendous, there's absolutely no maps, descriptions of where to go and what to do are tenuous at best, and at worst, downright f---ing insane. Consider the following example, taken from page 210, regarding the strategy for the recruitment of the character "Oboro". I'm not making this up, this is what's written in the guide, absolutely verbatim:

This is the type of thing you want to be doing. When and if you have the time and the inclination for such things. This is a great idea. Sometimes a pony gets depressed. Get a load of this view it's the best in the west. All the young dudes carry the news. This is the type of thing you want to be doing. When and if you have the time and the inclination".

What the actual f---

I prefer physical guides to FAQs just because it's nice to lay them out when I'm looking for items I missed. A huge wall of text in a FAQ isn't terribly helpful. As such, I'm a bit sad that guides are steadily going the way of the dodo. I definitely would have bought a nice guide for Bravely Default to help keep track of the job system and best combinations, but there isn't one. Fortunately, most of the game websites published mini guides which were suspiciously detailed (read: likely provided by Nintendo/Squenix PR), so I guess I can squint at them on my phone if I must.

Two guides I found extraordinarily helpful were the guides for MGS4 and Peace Walker. The former has a lengthy section explaining the plot of the entire series while the latter makes selecting loadouts before missions a breeze. While I didn't really need the MGS4 guide for the game itself, Peace Walker would have been way more tedious without it, and I had a much better time with it at my side.

I was able to score of copy of their Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow strategy guide. To be honest it looks very comprehensive and impressive... but I'll have to give it a closer look though.

Edit:

Can anyone tell me, is Double Jump based somewhere in Europe? I've never seen a Double Jump book for sale in the states and words like "armor" have their extra, tell-tale "u" in them.

This may sound unbelievable... but I just got this guide for a measly $3.95. Yeah, there's no poster and it is pretty warped, but I think I'd spend a lot more for this on eBay since this is much harder to come by than the Brady guide.

I got Versus' FFVII and...

Brady Games Official Bushido Blade
Brady Games Official Final Fantasy VIII (which is definitely a step above the FFVII one as you said)
Versus Books Official Dino Crisis
GW Puplishing Duke Nukem: Time to Kill
Official Hardcore Gaming Tekken 3

...for $25. Not a bad deal. That trip to the gamestore definitely wasn't wasted.

Edit:

Oh yeah... as for that Double Jump Dawn of Sorrow guide: if you like and own the game I would HIGHLY recommend nabbing it. It's that good.

Edit Edit:

Has anyone noticed there are AT LEAST three variations of the FF8 Strategy Guide? I know the first print had a shiny cover, the second print dropped that, and then there is a KB Toys variant of that one? Interesting.

Actually, looking at the book there is a small note here that says Type 0 was removed (or was going to be removed) from the English version of the game... so I can't really fault Versus for leaving it in when they gave ample warning that it probably wasn't going to make the transition.

If anything it does make an interesting side note... one that would have been pretty much unknown to us westerners until the days of YouTube.

That guide would definitely be my favorite (I own the gameboy one).

I think I have 3 guidebooks for Ocarina of Time. lol. The Gamestop one was the worst.

Ordered the JPN complete guidebook for Super Mario Sunshine. The picture layout looks a lot better than the Prima one. Anyone else do comparisons of Japanese guides versus American ones?

I ran into a pretty good guide not to long ago and it was pretty surprising. Prima (of all Strategy Guide publishers) did a pretty good job with their PlayStation guide for Diablo. However, this is kind of offset by how pricey the damn thing is these days. The one I have is kind of falling apart and I got it for a steal... but another noteworthy guide IMO.

I'm probably being somewhat of a loyalist here, but Japanese strategy guides really remind me of Japanese soundtracks. They usually go the extra mile with things like paper choice and go all-out with the artwork that I kind of think they'd be better by default - especially if the game was created in Japan. SO many American guides feel thrown together... although this is more of a problem with older guides than newer guides.

Still, getting a stack of cheap strategy guides and looking through them and seeing which ones are good and bad is a blast for me. Way more bad guides than good however....

As far as I'm aware and based on my observations of other people's game/game-related item collections (the ones that publicise it anyway), I probably have the largest Japanese game guide book collection in a non-Japan country.

When it comes to collecting, some people specialise in hunting down select super rare items, some people have, for example, Super Famicom complete-in-box full sets or full sets in general and some people have big game music CD album collections or figurines or whatever. Me? I have a Japanese game guide book library. That's library without quotes because I'm not exaggerating: it's a castle with walls of books high enough to repel invaders.

Anyway, I specify "non-Japan country" because it is easy for a resident of Japan to acquire Japanese game guide books: just walk into a brick-and-mortar store and go on a buying spree. The only limitation is vacant space back at home (granted, space is a premium in Japan compared to other countries). The rest of us have to import it because the chances of a local seller (whereever you live) having a decent selection of Japanese guide books to choose from are slim to none. Books are heavy which means the shipping costs are massive. That's one reason why few people have a significant quantity of Japanese game guide books in their collections. The other main reason is of course most people don't understand the language so the price to utility ratio is pretty low.

Back to me: I own about 400 Japanese game strategy guides and the games covered include retro ones all the way to current generation ones and every gen in between, and are the games that I'm interested in. Of these, about 30 are the "Ultimania" books which are relatively renowned on the Internet, though the other 370 are not to be sneezed at either, content-wise. Actually I own more than 400, it's just that those games I'm only half to three-quarters interested in, so they don't qualify to be placed in my official personal collection.

To answer one of your questions, back in 2006 or earlier, I decided to start collecting American PrimaGames/BradyGames published game strategy guides. I got to about 20 before I decided to resell it. I haven't really done any direct comparisons between English and Japanese game guides but I think it can be said that Japanese ones are superior 99.90% of the time. One of my early English guides was PrimaGames' Valkyrie Profile Official Strategy Guide. At the time, in comparison with other English game guides, it was very above average in terms of explanations and the covering of game content (which makes sense since VP is a complicated game). The funny thing is that in 2013 (7 years later), I obtained (one of) the official Japanese VP guides. The reason the English VP strategy guide is so good is because it uses the Japanese VP guide as a template or in some cases copied (the maps and map icons are pretty much copy-and-pasted from the Japanese guide).

Anyway, Ask Me Anything.

Very true. The only Japanese books I have are The Essence of SaGa Frontier (which is part artbook) and the BOF Official Complete Works.

This is pretty much what I was expecting someone with knowledge of the subject to say

What do you think is the best Japanese magazine in terms of content? Style?

What is the overall aesthetic that describes Japanese magazines? What is the layout and color scheme like compared to the American counterparts?

What do you think of the JPN magazines covering American games?

What notable inclusions are in the Japanese magazines (interviews?) that are missing in the American ones and vice versa?

I don't collect Japanese game magazines (Famitsu etc), just Japanese game guide books (hereafter referred to as JGG) and artbooks so I don't know. When I said "Ask Me Anything", I meant anything in regards to JGGs and English game guide books (hereafter referred to as EGG). The closet thing to magazines I have are Famitsu DVDs which have a decent amount of, and possibly unique, content (e.g. interviews, footage of Japanese video game trade shows e.g. Tokyo Game Show). Magazines and magazine-related goods aren't a priority in my collection at the moment.

Instead, I'll continue answering the questions in regards to guide books if it's of any use to anyone.

When it comes to content, the obvious can be said: The Ultimania game guide books are the gold standard. It is the perfect mix of standard game information and everything non-gameplay (e.g. interviews) about the game. It was only last year that the Final Fantasy IX community discovered an obscure "secret" (without quotes to English FFIX players, with quotes to Japanese players) that was hidden in plain sight in the Final Fantasy IX Ultimania, albeit, behind a language barrier of Kanji. In this day and age of Internet Final Fantasy game fan scrutiny and hackers, I just assumed everyone knew about it already.

That said, what about non-Square/Square-Enix games? The next best alternatives are usually, but not always, called "完全" (complete), "必勝攻略" (Sure Victory Walkthrough) or something similar, and are self-explanatory: they're complete, or close to. If the books weighs 500 to 750 grams (or more), and is chunky enough (2-4cm thick) to be a doorstop/paperweight, then you can't go wrong. My largest JGG is The Last Remnant (Xbox 360) at a little over 5cm. Of course, if it's a non-RPG game then there's not much to say so it will be smaller but no less informative. Exceptions do exist: my largest non-RPG JGG is Dairantou Smash Bros. X (Nintendo Wii) is about 5cm, for whatever reason that it warrants a book that thick. In some cases, game guide books are split into two (i.e. 上 and 下) or three volumes (usually one for the main walkthrough or "scenario" + maps, and one for "data" [item lists, bestiary etc]).

As much as I love Ultimania series of books, sometimes the Japanese/Asian-website-style of information bombardment is overwhelming. There are lots of text, different fonts of text, different sizes of text, and different rows/columns of text. All on the same page. Sometimes I prefer something more simpler so I have a soft spot for Nintendo Super Famicom game guide books (or games from that generation). However, like EGGs for this generation (but to a lesser extent and still far superior to English ones), sometimes the information is not as complete as I would like it to be, e.g. no Prime Blue/MagiRock list for Tenchi Souzou/Terranigma (SFC) and no Ancient Cave side-quest guide for Estpolis Denki II/Lufia 2 (SFC). I think this is just an exception though, and most Super Famicom games have worthy guides written for them. Even game guides for the original Famicom are chock full of information and graphics.

By aesthetic, I assume anything in relation to visuals. If I could describe JGGs with one word, it would be "text". Loads of it.

The vast majority of JGGs are A5 size (i.e. slightly smaller than your standard A4 sheet of paper). Heck, most Japanese books in general (e.g. manga etc) are A5. Japanese novels, needing no graphics, are even smaller. As mentioned in my previous post: home/apartment space is a premium. EGGs on the other hand, are almost always, I think, A3 or A2 - basically bigger than A4. This is ironic because EGGs (last time I checked) has a lot of empty space and/or copy-pasting of useless artwork and has large readable font. Japanese game guides could benefit from at least A4, due to having small screenshots (good luck trying to read text inside the screenshot), large amount of information, and occasionally, dangerously-eye-damaging small font sizes that practically need a microscope to be read. Doubly so due to the myriad complex pictographs (i.e. Kanji) being all compressed into a small font size. An example is one of the several Grandia Xtreme (PS2) guide books come to mind (Come to think of it, considering the small fan base of this game and relative unpopularity, I'm sure there are currently unknown secrets waiting to be discovered in that book with its myriad pages and small font text).

EGGs in the past, like English game instruction manuals in the past and present, were often black and white, probably to cut production costs. The Secret of Mana guide with its plain white background and annoying entirely italised text comes to mind, in addition to sparse interesting images aside from game screenshots. Or Breath of Fire with its similarly boring white background and black text with monochrome screenshots and its only feature being its full colour world map and bestiary. In comparison, the Seiken Densetsu 2 (SFC) game guide comes in two volumes (or maybe three), and does the game justice with a proper walkthrough, item lists (with unique artwork), bestiary, and magic lists (even level 9 super-magic screenshots).

To digress from the topic a bit, the English Secret of Mana guide (SNES) had an entirely "story" type of walkthrough so instead of "Go here. Do this." it becomes: The curious Randi slowly approached what looked like a sword lodged in a stone. "What on Earth is that doing here?" he wondered. "Well, there's no way I can get past that dense wall of weeds without something sharp to mow them down with so I guess this is convenient." Using both hands, he grabbed the hilt of the sword and gave it a hard tug! ... or something like that. While pretty unusual for an English game guide, it's not so unusual for Japanese ones, though in the case of the Seiken Densetsu 2 guide, it's more a story preview/"post"view in addition to the standard vanilla walkthrough.

The layout of JGGs usually follow the same 1-2-3 formula: game system explanation (e.g. advanced instruction manual), scenario walkthrough, then maps then data (item lists, bestiary), or data then maps. It's about the same as EGGs.

How about some problems with JGGs. I can think of mainly three:
1) Japanese alphabetical ordering of item lists instead of by, say, attack power (for weapons) or defence (for armour). See Espolis Denki II/Lufia 2 (SFC) guide book. I'm sure the Japanese alphabet order is as natural to Japanese people as the roman Alphabetical order is to us English speakers, but to my non-Japanese mind, it isn't.
2) A5 means I can't spread the pages of JGGs without ripping the book up so bookmarks have to be used. EGGs doesn't have this problem.
3) Books with small text. Yes, you can read the Kanji by tusj gkimmins eht lveralo ehaps (niveg hnouge exposure), eht eams yaw uoy nac dear hnglisE nvee hhougt eht tirsf dna tasl setterl eavh neeb deverser, but it's still a strain on the eyes.

Finally, these days, EGGs, like video games and music, are increasingly going digital-only while also facing stiff competition from the free GameFAQs. Japan, bless them for being one of the few first-world countries in the world for relatively not caring about desktop/laptop PCs hence, their march towards a digital goods world is slower than the rest of the world, don't seem to show any signs of stopping the publishing of proper books and I hope it stays that way.

One final difference is that some games have like a "beginner's guide" which only covers part of a game (see Xenosaga, Shadow Hearts II). Sort of like the promo guide books that sometimes come with English games (e.g. Gurumin PSP). I guess it's for casuals who just need a little bit of help in the beginning.

JGGs of American games? I don't have any so I can't say. Does Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest (SFC) count as an American game? Because I have the guide book for that.

JGGs often have extra stuff not found in your average EGGs, and these can include:

1) Game staff interviews (e.g. game directors, music composers), even interviews with less important, or rather, less publicised/promoted positions (e.g. game events coder, FMV movies creator, CG background artist, etc). See: Any Ultimania book etc.
2) Music sheets. See: Chrono Cross Ultimania etc.
3) Manga (e.g. prologue to the game). See: Ys: The Ark of Napishtim game guide.
4) 4-koma (4 panel) manga. See: Vandal Hearts game guide.
5) Art gallery (e.g. development art, sketches, etc). See: Any Ultimania.
6) Novels/Short-stories. See: Final Fantasy VII Ultimania, The Essence of SaGa Frontier etc.
7) Other random stuff.

JGGs also seem to, compared to EGGs, favour correlation charts (相関図): how every character relates to every other character; visual representations of a character's attributes via "ability stars" (I don't know what they're called in English) and/or line graphs (on a level by level basis); and game event flow charts.

Sorry about that. Yes, I did mean to write guides (this is what happens when you get timed out after writing a post). Thank you for that detailed response.

I am more curious on the non-JRPG games. How is the layout generally for non-JRPGs like Devil May Cry and Smash Bros?

What do you think of the color scheme and pictures in the JGGs? Take this Japanese link: http://ghiaccio.sakura.ne.jp/F-ZERO_GX_interview07.html
The light blue as the background color on Captain Falcon's answers is distinct and very pleasing. It's striking to read that old JGGs were in black and white as that seems like punishment for a country that has such exquisite use of colors. I have some old StarFox64 guide that is in black and white and it really is quite drab.

Perhaps I should have first mentioned in my previous post that, often, publishers of the JGGs have their preferred way of laying out their guide books and the designs to be used. The Ultimania books for example are all published by Studio Bentstuff/Digicube (formerly known as) and hence the organisation of its contents are pretty consistent. For example, Characters -> Game Staff Interview -> Battle Gameplay Analysis -> Game Staff Interview -> Scenario Walkthrough -> Game Staff Interview -> x Secrets(where x = any number) etc. Likewise, Konami (Gensou Suikoden, Akumajou Dracula etc) has their owned preferred method and so does NTT Publishing (publisher of pre-FF7/pre-PS1-era Square game guide books).

As far as those games are concerned, I do have Studio Bentstuff's/Famitsu's デビルメイクライ解体真書 (Devil May Cry - Dissection Book). Just very briefly, the colour scheme is not surprisingly, black, red and white. The contents are mainly divided into Advanced Instruction Manual -> Bestiary -> Walkthrough -> Miscellaneous. I also did a quick comparison with BradyGames' Official Strategy Guide. The EGG uses a lot more screenshots in the walkthrough section - The JGG uses a box and text event flow diagram, the EGG uses screenshots instead. The JGG's bestiary is more impressive though: it has bigger and better monster graphics and it is also more detailed - it has enemy move lists plus the attack power of the move - something the EGG doesn't have. The EGG does have some Japanese game staff interviews which the JGG doesn't have, though I'm show they exist elsewhere (DMC has multiple guidebooks written by different people/publishers). On the other hand, the JGG does have a random misc. item: screenshots of the Japanese DMC television commercials. The JGG also has a "Devil May Hayai" (Devil May Quick/Fast), a time attack walkthrough. I can't remember if EGGs care about time attacks (or as most people call it these days: speed runs), but JGGs often have them (SR walkthroughs). Even in games where you don't expect to do one (e.g. "The Complete of SaGa Frontier" guide book).

Now for the other book: Dairantou Smash Brothers - Fighting Masters Guide. It is an A5 size book, has exactly 800 pages and weighs close to 1.4kg (or whatever number it is using the imperial system of measurement). That's huge. A little more than half of the book is devoted to the character gameplay analyses (move lists, move descriptions, strategies etc). Most of the remaining half are stage walkthroughs. Really though, I don't pay attention as much as you do to "colour schemes" and "layouts" and "pictures". I'm mainly here for the wealth of information and if I wanted pretty pictures I'd buy artbooks (and I do occasionally). So I'm finding it hard to talk about said subject apart from this book being conveniently colour-coded on the page side (opposite the spine).

Having said that, I did notice that the covers of Namco's/Famitsu's Tales of... series guide books are very aesthetically pleasing. All of them are consistent: a picture of a non-game related natural landscape/scenery (e.g. sky, sea, trees) in a single-colour (different colour for each game) filter. You'll know it when you Google and see it.

To be honest, I don't really see the big deal, it's just a simple background fill. Not that there's anything wrong with simple.

But viewing that page brings up new material for me to talk about: セリフ.

セリフ means dialogue or script. In a game, in particular, RPGs, that refers to the conversations of the characters within that game. For example, it could be fixed automatic story-progression dialogue or it could be optional ones (e.g. the myriad townspeople that inhabit a town). JGGs heavily encourage the exploration of every セリフ/dialogue branch and provides the information you need to view that dialogue. If you're a casual gamer and you go from the beginning of the game to the end of the game in a straight line, then you'll miss out on a lot of optional dialogue. Even if you're a completionist, you'll still miss out on some of the dialogue because some of them are very time-sensitive and/or you really need to go out of your way to view that dialogue (see the FFIX secret in my previous post), and even if you do view it, you don't get a reward (like an item). To Japanese game developers, or at least, the JGG writers, the viewing of that rare dialogue IS the reward. And they'll how to get it.

Here's a simple example. In Final Fantasy VII which I'm sure you have all played, the first boss is the Guard Scorpion. When it raises its tail, it will trigger a dialogue between Cloud and Barrett. Unless you completely suck at games, then chances are that you entered the battle with both of them alive and hence, the dialogue you view is the same dialogue most other people view. But if you enter the battle with one of them dead (or you kill one of them before the dialogue trigger/flag happens), then Cloud's words will slightly change (if Barrett is dead) or it will be Barrett who does the talking (if Cloud is dead).

This is considered a secret and categorised as such in one of the FFVII Ultimania books.

Unfortunately, I don't remember saying that (that old JGGs were in black and white). Even Nintendo Famicom JGG books were in complete colour (Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest series, Rockman series etc). They're also a bit expensive.

That is a very interesting way of looking at things. But yeah, I don't think EGG would consider a small bit of dialog much of a reward if one at all. Personally I kind of like small things like that and when attention is brought to them.