Japan! I need your help! ~FFI Famicom Question~

Dead & Grateful · 04-05-2008, 10:42 AM

Hey everybody,

I need to know: Did Square or Nintendo ever publish an official Japanese strategy guide for the original Famicom version of Final Fantasy under their own brand name (either Square or Nintendo)? I can't find one on ebay, but I can't exactly narrow down the search either.

Thanks in advance,
Drew

**LocoColt04** · 04-05-2008, 12:42 PM

Well, it's highly unusual for developers and publishers to put out the guides themselves, though Nintendo has been known to do so way back in the day -- but that was only for their first-party games. I don't think a Nintendo/Square guide ever existed for the game; you'd have to check third-party guide publishers from the time period... man, I can't even remember who was doing guides back then.

Dead & Grateful · 04-05-2008, 12:58 PM

Actually, a lot of companies publish guides for most of their games, but for some reason, these guides are much more rare than guide-publishing companies like Prima in the USA. In the case of Nintendo, I know Nintendo Power published an American guide for Final Fantasy. And as for Square, most of the early Final Fantasy games had guides printed by them, and they had the "Square Brand" or "Square-Brand" logo in Japan. However, I can't find one for Final Fantasy. The later games in the FF series had guides printed in the Ultimania series in Japan, which is also printed out by Square (Square-Enix).

On a side note, Enix also printed guides for some of their series- including Dragon Quest- with the "Enix" logo printed under the "e" seal on the cover of these guides (Japan only).

I'm asking specifically for Japanese guides published by companies that produced the games because in my experience, these contain great info and artwork, compared to guide-publishing companies (like Prima) which tend to be subpar in their gaming info, compared to something like a GameFAQ guide. I'm not interested in anything like V-Jump guides. Thanks anyway though.

**LocoColt04** · 04-05-2008, 01:03 PM

Did they? Well, if that's the case, a lot of them never made it Stateside. I knew Nintendo and NP put out guides because I own some of them, but I was unaware of any third-party developers putting out their own guides. It's a shame they don't do that any more.

Silver · 04-05-2008, 09:50 PM

http://www.animebooks.com/finalfantasy.html

This page has the covers for the wonderswan colour remake of Final Fantasy. It has a complete guide and an adventurer's guide I believe.

Though a quick search by me revealed nothing, I do believe I have a book for the Jap Nintendo FF1 + FF2 cart somewhere, which leads me to believe they're around, just hard to obtain. The only reason I have that one is a love of all things Final Fantasy. ><
I was a collector, though now I just get all the games and other things if I come across them easily.

I do believe the original did have a guidebook published by Square, but I myself have never had the pleasure of owning an original guide for the original NES FF. I'm guessing they'd be worth something now...

**Cain Highwind** · 04-06-2008, 11:23 PM

Well FFX was the first to feature an Ultimania (like a huge, thick strategy guide with EVERYTHING about the game including extra stuff) As for Mooks, as they're generally called, I don't know.

And yes the original did have a small guidebook for the US version. I had it, too bad I wasn't good at collecting stuff and keeping stuff intact as a kid. One of my biggest regrets, EVER!

Dead & Grateful · 04-11-2008, 08:08 PM

On the topic, does anyone know a good method of purchasing Japanese gaming guides besides ebay? Finding the Ultimania's are easy since they were only published in Japanese, but for the earlier games (I-VI), almost all results returned are for english guides. I'm having the most trouble with I & II (both for the seperate games and for the DoS combo) *(and yes, I know it isn't called DoS in Japan, I'm still having trouble finding the guide).

Silver · 04-12-2008, 01:48 AM

I just play around with a search engine personally. You just need the name of the game, whatever they called the guide, and to use words such as 'import' and 'imports'. Just interchange the words, link them together with " and ", e.g
Search: "Final Fantasy" "strategy guide" Famicon
Eventually with enough tries you find something.
And NEVER hesitate to check around ebay or well known import sites. Occasionally they get something.

Dead & Grateful · 04-18-2008, 11:53 AM

Arrgh! I can't find a guide for the original Final Fantasy on the Famicom ANYWHERE! Not even by a publisher besides Squaresoft or Nintendo!

**Cain Highwind** · 04-19-2008, 08:52 AM

Why are you so determined to find one? Of course a guide that's been out of print for YEARS is going to be near impossible to find.

Dead & Grateful · 04-19-2008, 02:04 PM

I don't know how to explain it.

It's like, I want legit guides for my legit games. It's like how even though a lot of people emulate games, they own the original carts. For me, it's good to know that I can play the actual game if I feel like it, and good too to know that I can read the original guide by Square. Plus the later Ultimania editions are packed with cool pictures and info, and the earlier ones have great art.

I'm a crazy.

Silver · 04-19-2008, 04:55 PM

Nahhhh, you're a collector. I'd be hard pressed to say eccentric let alone crazy.
I feel the same thing though and if I were to see a guide for sale...
Yeah...

Just keep at it. It'll take ages before one turns up, but there's always a seller eventually, be it an ex-collector or someone getting rid of his/her 'junk'. Also ex-collector's items tend to be in better condition than most other's items which is good to keep in mind BUT if the item is rarer you may not have the luxury.

**Cain Highwind** · 04-19-2008, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dead & Grateful

I don't know how to explain it.

It's like, I want legit guides for my legit games. It's like how even though a lot of people emulate games, they own the original carts. For me, it's good to know that I can play the actual game if I feel like it, and good too to know that I can read the original guide by Square. Plus the later Ultimania editions are packed with cool pictures and info, and the earlier ones have great art.

I'm a crazy.

Sorry I should've known you were a hardcore collector. I have a few special guides and mooks myself (I'm personally more of an art book guy). It definitely is nice to have for the artwork.

What I mean is, you shouldn't beat yourself up over something that came out YEARS ago. Continue searching, but don't continue to bump this going "Arrgh! I can't fiiiind iiiiit."

But here's a question for you: If you'd like a legit guide, why does it have to be based off the Japanese Famicom version? I mean personally, as I said above, I'd KILL to have those Map, Monster, and Inventory charts that came with the original as well as the mini guide. And there's also the official Nintendo guide for the original NES game too.

Dead & Grateful · 05-07-2008, 04:30 PM

What's up guys?

For anyone wondering, I finally found the guide I was looking for on ebay- Final Fantasy I & II guide (for the Famicom cartridge containing both games), published by Squaresoft. Thanks for the tips on patience!