


     " Makes me want to give the designers a big fat monkey kiss (no tongue but plenty of teeth and gums). "

      Title: Final Fantasy Chronicles Strategy Guide by Brady

      Format: Hint book for PS One

      Reviewing Monkey: Simi N.

      The Hype: Complete walkthroughs of FF2 and Chrono Trigger, Bestiaries and guides to weapons, armor, items, and magic, secrets to access every ending, everything you need to successfully guide you through your journey.

      What This Monkey Thought...

      Layout: The fist thing that strikes me about the layout of this book is that for both games the weapons, items, and spells are all listed, along with their effects, at the beginning of the guide. In my experience those things are usually at the end. But it doesn't take long to get used to this. The book is great looking with full color pictures and it handily has the chapter content written on the sides of the pages for quick access to the section of interest. But the coolest feature is that being that this is a guide for two games, they made each guide read into the center of the book. That sounds funny I know but picture yourself holding the book in your hands...the front cover says Chrono Trigger on it. Now instead of flipping through the pages until you find the FF2 section, you simply flip the book over (top to bottom, front to back) and now you're at the beginning of the FF2 guide. This is the kind of trickery that makes me want to give the designers a big fat monkey kiss (no tongue but plenty of teeth and gums). 5 of 5

      Usefulness: Whether you just need a little help with a boss, or a puzzle, or you don't want to have to figure anything out for yourself, this guide will help you do it all. There is a ton of useful information, everything from Boss strategies and treasure locations, to what characters to have in your party for each area. And believe me there are plenty of bosses (especially in Chrono Trigger) that will have you tossing your remote and yelling at your TV as you try to figure out why its so damn hard. 5 of 5

      Desired Content: So you finally beat a boss in Chrono Trigger and you have no preset direction, you seem to be able to choose whichever path you want to take, but you can't deal with having to make that decision all by yourself, I mean what if it screws up you whole game! Well luckily you have the strategy guide. This will tell you what you need to do to advance the story, and how to do it really well. There have been a couple of cases where I have heard of people complaining that this book doesn't go far enough with some of the optional quests, but only once or twice. 4.5 of 5

      Accuracy: The book is pretty accurate for the most part, but there are a couple of sections that I noticed before I even got halfway through that really stand out in my head. Both were in the Chrono Trigger guide. One part says that only if you are found innocent in the trial you will have a chance to gain an almost unlimited amount of mid-tonics, but in reality even if you are found guilty you have the same opportunity, the innocent scenario just gives you more to start off with. Also the boss strategies are sometimes a bit misleading, the guide might tell you that you have more time to prepare for an attack than you actually do. These are small errors though and the rest of the information seems to be very correct. 4 of 5

      The Verdict:

       This book tells you just about everything you could possibly want to know about these two games and most of the information is accurate. Couple with that an easy to take in layout and a great presentation and you have yourself a hell of a hint book.

      The Good: Great presentation, good layout, tons of info.

      The Bad: There are some little things left out, and sometimes the guide and be a bit incorrect or misleading.

      The Overall Ugly: A very good hint book that anyone who wants to find all of the secrets in the games should pick up right away.

      What it's Worth: Definitely worth market.

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