My collectors Edition of the guide arrived this morning so I thought I'd share my thoughts.
First impressions: The collectors guide (at least) has a very nice hardback cover with a nice shiney version of the logo on. Flicking through the guide without reading any, the pages are all well laid out, but there was none of the usual rare artworks until the bonus pages that the special edition guide gets. So right away I was pretty disappointed. Instead they just took a lot of screen shots for their headers.
I thought I could kinda forgive the lack of art I'd never seen before though if the content was good..so was it good? I read the strategies for the bosses that took me a few goes as I was curious to see if they had any good tips for me. I was disappointed to see that my own end strategies were about the same as theirs.
So I went to the back wishing I wouldn't be let down again, but I'm afraid the back (where they put all the extra/hidden/endgame stuff) was a let down too. Some of the stuff was pointless and some was even repeated! I get the funny feeling not everything was even included..they didn't even have a treasure map for the Chocobos :/ I know they move around a bit, but they tend to be in roughly the same places so would a map have been so much to ask for? It was one of the things I wanted most.
I loved all the other Piggyback guides. I have them from FF8-13. The previous ones all had great tips and told me plenty I didn't know, but this one was just a big let down. I hardly learned anything new with this one.
I'd only buy this guide if you're a collector (if you're a collector mostly for the art then get the special edition, but that has gone up miles in price already since only a limited amount were printed) or really having a lot of trouble with the game. The most helpful part is the maps for the missions, but even those could have been better since they only show you were the missions start and not where the mark is.
At some point I'll probably play through using the guide to see how it is exactly as it goes along. If that changes how I feel about it then I'll let you know