BradyGames’ strategy guide for The World Ends with You is by far the WORDIEST guide I have ever come across. And I don’t mean that it’s wordy in a helpful way, in that it says, go here, go there, do this, pull that knob, blah blah blah. Instead, it details out entire cut-scenes. You almost don’t have to play the game. Want to know what happens in the game? Just pull out the guide and read it carefully. Trust me, you won’t miss a thing, not even conversations between NPCs.

Unless you’re a great skimmer, you may have difficulty picking up in the mass of words the one piece of info you’re looking for. Fortunately, this game isn’t that difficult to figure out where you need to go. On most Days, Neku is limited to which areas he can visit, and even if one is blocked, he merely needs to tap the guarding Reaper to find out what he needs to do to break the barrier. But if you like reading lots of words, um, twice (once in the game and once in the book) then the words may be more than welcome to you. You’re a strange, strange person.

But all of that is not even the guide’s largest flaw. For those having difficulty fighting the final boss, avoid mass frustration and look online for help. The guide fails to mention one major aspect of the boss (I won’t way what here), and if a gamer (like me) stumbles upon said feature, he or she will have no idea what to do based off of the guide. Switching to Easy mode won’t save you. I tried, and I’m so glad that I failed, because then I was able to beat the boss on hard mode in the end after I found some real help.

The guide is useful for the maps, item appendices, and helping the lazy get through Reaper Reviews, but that is it. If I wasn’t a collector of these things, I would sell this guide in a heartbeat.

Final Rating: 2/5