Sometimes the Great Walkthrough Debate really can be simple. Usually, one side argues passionately that using a walkthrough can ruin the game experience and cause the player to lose the feelings of surprise and joy that come from discovering new things -- sometimes an integral part of a game. The other side contends that in a busy life with limited time to play games, walkthroughs can save time and frustration and stop a game from being set aside. While playing without a guide can be a satisfying decision, there is one time where it simply isn't an option for many players: when picking up an import game.
Import games can come from all sorts of countries, but the most common imported games are Japanese, written in a language that is notoriously difficult for native English speakers to decipher. With three different writing systems, and very inconsistent use of the three from game to game, players who have almost any sub-fluent Japanese ability are likely to be tripped up at some point. Whether the trip-up is an unclear mission objective, a mysterious menu option, or some arcane game mechanic that requires an indecipherable tutorial, plenty of players need a Japanese-reading helping hand.
Everything from menu translations to mission guides to step-by-step walkthroughs are useful resources for import players, who can get stuck in a variety of ways. There will always be someone who hopes to play a hotly-anticipated game early, assuming it will be possible to figure the game out as he goes along, and then finding out that no, he was quite mistaken and even basics of the game escape him. Some importers of Japanese games can read katakana, the script for foreign words used quite liberally in games nowadays, and can stumble through the game, figuring the gameplay out as they go along, only to get stuck on where to go next or how to proceed because of a kanji-ridden dialogue box.
One recent example is the game Final Fantasy Gaiden: Hikari no 4 Senshi (The Four Warriors/Heroes of Light) and its corresponding message board on GameFAQs. The game had many players fuming because they frequently got lost. Even those who could read some simple Japanese were often confounded on where to go, because the game went back to the old-school roots of RPGs and required talking to insignificant NPCs within towns to get clues to a new destination. Those who had trouble reading lots of Japanese weren't able to sift through the dozens of NPCs and their many windows of dialogue to find the needed information.
Observe the GameFAQs message boards of any popular and recently-released Japanese game. If it has no FAQs, dozens of topics will pop up begging for the same solution. "Help! Stuck on Chapter 4!" "How do I beat the labyrinth boss?" "What does Magic Spell X do?" Answers might come for these questions, but they might be contradictory, poorly written, jumbled, and certainly not gathered into one place.
Enter the Import FAQ Warrior. His walkthrough doesn't have to be complete. In fact, it is often barebones, loosely formatted and contains only the information to help players get from point A to point B. Until the game comes out in English, this single lonely walkthrough might be the only one indexed on GameFAQs, after which its relevance diminishes rapidly. But for that time window between releases (or forever, if the game never makes the jump to English), it is an indispensable tool for the desperate masses.
This is a short salute to those importers who take the time to write a guide, not to inform for the long term, but to aid in the short term, helping the illiterate and frustrated to get through the game they wanted so badly, they'd brave the language barrier to play it. For many people, those guides don't just make playing the game more fun. They make playing the game possible.
