Others say...

"Good guide"
it is an excellent guide, but sometimes is hard to understand and it does not have any directions on how to get where you need to go.

"Lack of clarity and unhelpful info"
This book was a bit of a challenge. There are some times when it helps and a lot more when it doesn't. I would like to know when the Limits increase, how to learn more Enemy Skills, and about Chocobo breeding. This book doesn't cover these things. It gives you a walkthrough, the plot and some battle tips, but not much else that you can use. (As soon as I figure out how to change the stars, I'm putting it down to a 2-star rating.)

"FF7 Strategy Guide"
This strategy guide is good for people who don't want to miss parts of the storyline or the best items, etc., while still having to do everything yourself. However, for people like me who just wanted to be told exactly how to get everything in the game, it was dissappointing.

"Misunderstood Intent"
I think a lot of people over look the difference between a strategy guide and a walkthrough. If you want to be walked through the game step by step theres tons of free FAQ's on line. This guide is the same as every other official guide for a game. It's a GUIDE, its meant to help you along while you do most of the work. Thats what a guide is.

One thing I heard a lot of people complain about is that this book is full of spoilers. While that may be true, its your own fault if you let it spoil you. Don't want to be spoiled? Then don't read ahead of the part of the game you're in.

Another thing I heard a lot of complaints about is wrong info and typo's. While I haven't read through the entire book so far, I've yet to come across any wrong info. As far as typo's, I may have seen one or two but I wouldn't go as far as to say this book is "loaded" with them.

Yet another bad thing I've heard about this book are the maps. I think the maps are fine. The world map is the last page, makes it real easy to be able to flip to it while holding the page you're on. Also, the towns and areas are lettered and in the order that you have to visit them. For instance, Midgar is lettered "A" and the second town is "B" and so on. As for the maps of the towns and dungeons, I'll have to admit they sometimes get a little hard to read. But if they confuse you and you can't figure them out, you should consider going back to school. I think the game itself is some times confusing, when you're on a certain screen sometimes it isn't clear right away which way you need to go (where entrances and exits are) and the maps match that. I'm going to stop referring to them as maps because they're actually screen shots of the game itself.

This guide is perfect for some one who hasn't played through the game before. One thing I really liked about it was it gives you steal suggestions. For example, it suggests to steal a certain weapon outside of the first town instead of buying the weapon upgrade in the town. Not only do you save the money, but its a stronger weapon. Better yet, the weapon is available to buy in the next town so you saved on buying two items and had the stronger weapon all the while. Another example would be the guide suggesting to steal a certain armor while in a dungeon. Its stronger then what was currently available and better yet free.

I don't give the guide 5 starts because I feel it could have been better, but this isn't a bad guide at all. It could have had a better explanation of materia to beginners, and might have been a little weak in some other explanations. But all the info you need for anything is in the game itself. This is how an RPG works, you have to talk to every one. If you're upset that this guide doesn't hold you hand and tell you how to do everything step by step then I don't know what you're doing playing an RPG game. Half the fun of an RPG game is discovery.

If you're playing this game for the first time and you want something to help you when you get stuck, then this guide is for you. Its also nice to look over an area after you've completed it to see if you missed anything. I recommend it to anyone playing the game for the first time.

Please remember the difference between a guide and a walkthrough ;)

"Great game, terrible guide."
As much as I love this game, the guide was of no use to me.

9 times out of 10, an item was misplaced from one dungeon into another.

And the thing that really upset me was the Side-Quest tasks.
No where does it give an in depth description of the All American Creatures. Now I know that's part of the challenge is figuring out how to defeat them. But if Cassady's intentions were to put them into the guide in the first place, he should have at least gave more than what he wrote.

In addition, the Chocobo raising guide is bleaker than a rainy Sunday. Sure it tells you how to achieve the infamous Golden Chocobo. Though does it tell you to race 9 times to reach class S? Does it tell you the possible great prizes to be won for dominating races?

Another interesting thing is the amount of cool materia that is shown in the back, yet half of them aren't even expressed in the guide.

It's pretty sad that I had to go online to find out where to obtain some of them.

For those of you buying the guide, I'd advise against it. Invest ten dollars on bubble-gum.