"Final Fantasy" VII Official Guide: v. 1 (Brady Games Strategy Guides)

The bad points come to light if you're looking to do all the extra quests. For a start it doesn't tell you exactly when things are available...

It doesn't go into detail in how to defeat the Emerald and Ruby Weapons.
Nor does it tell you when the its best time to visit the crashed Shinra Submarine (you can miss out on a not-too-vital fight against Rude and Reno otherwise!)
If you want to get all the Enemy Skills then you need to keep checking the bestiary - rather than telling you when the skills are first or easily available! Not helpful if you've missed your only chance to collect a skill!
It's not very detailed with betting on the Chocobo Racing - where you could get the Sneak Attack, Gil Plus, EXP Plus materia!

If you want to complete this game to it's fullest, then you need to know exactly when side quests are available, when to gain Enemy Skills, when to do the chocobo racing and gain a Gold Chocobo - otherwise you could miss out on many smaller elements to the game. The EXP Materia, for example, is a time saver when it comes to trying to Master all your Summon Materia, so you can gain the Master Summon Materia... and so forth!

It's quite annoying that the official guide isn't that deep. I do feel rather let down that the games creators have created something so shoddy. Thankfully the game is ten years old and this guide has been banging about the same time - the wonders of the internet and all FFVII fans have taken their time to create indepth guides freely available to download!

For the sake of a tenner, you might as well buy this, and then print out the other information from the internet. Then you can truly say you've completed the game for 100%!!


Really Helpful and Very Indepth Information   January 24, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I have completed this game a few times before, so i thought I would get this guide and see what sorts of things I had missed in the game. You wouldn't believe the ammount of hidden items, secret areas and such. This book in no way spoils the game, it adds to the pleasure of playing. I would recommend anyone who has played this game before to buy this book.


Final Fantasy VII Strategy Guide   December 21, 2005
Tom H (Manchester, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have completed the game several times but yet never found all the hidden items.When I saw this guide I thought yeah why not. I can honestly tell you it is well worth the money. It go through step-by-step walkthrough of the game and provides tips and hints for difficult parts.
The only downside is that when you have completed the game and think that you have completed all aspects it goes on to tell you about things like coloured chocobos and how to fight the weapons. Overall this is a fantastic guide and would recommened to anyone!!!


Final Fantasy VII Guide Book   October 8, 2003
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

I bought this guide book after completing the game twice without it, and I am very glad that I did...

Nothing compares to going through a game with no guide the first time - it feels great when you solve a puzzle or discover a secret for yourself, and also there is no temptation to read a few pages ahead and find out what will happen next. I guess I am weak-willed!

The guide itself looks a little dated inside, and there are some missing bits of info. However, it will tell you everything you need to get the Golden Chocobo, defeat Ruby and Emerald Weapons, and get everybodys' ultimate limit break and weapon. I also find it much better than printing a guide from a website, as it is a lot easier on the eye, and contains some basic background info on each character.

As an additional note, this is a much better guide than the FFIX guide, which constantly suggests people go to playonline.com to find the games secrets. The FFVII guide is generally complete, and a great addition to any gamers library.