Ughhh, yes.. absolutely. From a recent experience with Tales of Hearts R, no less.

I appreciate the work that went into devising those sidequests, which are generally good in Tales games, but at some point backtracking is a major chore.

The last time I got a playing guide was for a Gamecube pokemon game that had XD in its title. Honestly I never used it since then. I prefer to play games as blind as possible. Especially if its from a developer I trust. I have a bad of habit of looking ahead to "prepare " what going to happen only to spoil everything.

So no I don't buy guides. I very rarely use internet ones expect for some old games like NES Final Fantasy games or Ultima.

sometimes I use guides, it really depends on the game.

I bought a guide for FFXV and don't regret it. It's nice to look at and beats the free ones on the internet simply by ease of use alone. Places like Gamefaqs and stuff are okay, but they're just walls of text and it's hard to navigate as quickly as you can with the book.

One huge issue I ran into though was that I became a stickler for all the sidequests listed on the maps and got sick of them. I never ended up finishing the game.

Nice book though.

Really depends on the game. I don't use them for anything other than games like Phoenix Wright (and even then I'll only use them when I'm absolutely stumped.)

I loved reading the Pokemon ones when I was younger, but never actually used them for strategies, I just enjoyed reading them and looking at the illustrations.

Back in the day, I liked them for the art. The times I do buy them now it's just because of a series or game I really want to support. In a game like Botw, it might be easier to look up the Shrine name in the guide than look all over the map as I tend to miss it somehow over and over.

Haha, if you asked me as a kid, I would say I absolutely despise them and would shun those who did, but nowadays, I don't really mind. I don't have the time to wander aimlessly to try to find some hidden secret for hours, so if I get stuck, I just look it up. I try to avoid doing this though, as part of the joy is discovering these yourself. The only time I'm against them is for mystery solving games like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, as solving them yourself is the point of those games.

i used a few final fantasy ones, but that's it. i usually check online if i'm very stuck in a game, but that's all. in very rare case, i did that for AC2 and another one, when i feel i want to do evrything that the game has to offert, i've check for free online guides, but only after i beated the game. so i'm not replaying it, just looking for bits i missed.

I avoid them until the end, when I want to get 100% of the game. In some ocassion when I get really stuck I used them, but that's the exception more than the rule

You try finding all the star coins without a guide...