Final Fantasy X World Guide

I mentioned this book in my collections posts, and since I'm dying to know exactly what it is, and since a couple people were also interested, I scanned a few pages from the beginning. So anyone wanna see what we got here? It seems like a Famitsu-published series of short stories about the summoners of Spira, Braska's pilgrimage, and various other backstory-type things. Plus a section on living in the world of Spira, and the monsters that inhabit it. Sounds interesting, no? Here are the scans for the front and back cover, the table of contents, and the first couple pages:

http://www.espritduo.com/ff10_world_guide/

Any takers to translate some of this, at least enough to know what exactly it is and if it's worth translating any further?

Ooooo, now this does sound interesting.

For some reason the title "The tales of no named summoners" actually makes me sad

Okay, I translated the table of contents and the first two paragraphs on the left side here: http://www.espritduo.com/ff10_world_guide/p002-003.jpg

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Concerning the contents of this book
This book provides commentary concerning the world of Final Fantasy X. Walkthrough elements are not included, but it will certainly be an aid in understanding the world of Final Fantasy X more deeply, more fully, and, thereby, enjoying the game more. Moreover, this book has taken the appearance of a Spiran text published decades after the ending of the game. The stories in the main chapter portray Spira as it was 10 years before the events depicted in the game (that is to say, the events of Yuna's journey), while Chapter 2 consists of analysis of the people's understanding of survival during those times, particularly in dealing with fiends.

Furthermore, please be aware that this book's contents are a Famitsu original, and while produced in accordance with material from Square and the game itself, there may be differences with the official data.

Pilgrimage of Vengeance　8
The Boys' Pilgrimage　24
Pilgrimage of Survival　58

The Age of Summoners　114
Fiend Battles　116
Concerning Weapons　118
Types of Weapons　119
Mighty Power that Cannot Be Seen by the Eye　126
Concerning Special Abilities　128
Concerning Aeons　130
Existence of Fiends　132
Concerning Sin　175
Ancient Machines　176

Official Illustrations Collection　180
Promotional Goods Introduction　187


Japanese text:
本書の内容について
本書は、『ファイナルファンタジーX』の世界について解説したものです。攻略要素は掲載していませんが、より深く、より濃く『ファイナルファンタジーX』の世界を考察しており、ゲームを楽しむ一助となることは間違いありません。また本書はゲームのエンディングから、数十年のときを経たスピラで発刊された書籍という体裁を取っています。ゲームで描かれた時代（つまりユウナ逹が活躍した時代）を10年遡り、その当時のスピラを描いた物語中心の章と、当時のスピラでの暮らし、とくに対魔物においての人々の知恵を解析した章の2章構成になっています。
なお、本書の内容に関しましては、ゲームソフトおよび（株）スクウェアからの資料をもとにファミ通独自に製作たものであり、オフィシャルの設定とは異なる場合があることをご了承ください。

復讐の旅　8
少年の旅　24
生きるための旅　58

召喚士の時代　114
魔物の戦い　116
武具について　118
武具の種別　119
目に見えない強大な力　126
特別な技について　128
召喚獣について　130
魔物という存在　132
シンについて　175
古の機械群　176

オフィシャルイラスト集　180
グッズ紹介　187
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Woo, thanks! So it looks like it was pretty much exactly what I thought it was, heh. Pretty cool stuff. So do we want this? Should I try and scan it all?

I think that, given the broad range of translated material already available about Spira and most of the game's main figures (including short backstory segments for main cast and major supporting cast members), this may be a bit more of an undertaking than I feel prepared to take on amidst all my other current projects.

Certainly it's something I would love to see translated and would love to be part of if time allowed, but I know I have too many irons in the fire already.

Well, it's here if anyone ever wants to tackle it. If anyone feels like translating, I guess they can post here and I'll scan as needed. At least we have a good idea of what it is now.

The chapter summaries didn't seem to really give much more insight as to what they are like, but there is a summary of each of the three stories later on:

I am curious about those no-name summoner tales, because from the pictures there are plainly encounters with a child Seymour with Anima and also Jecht, Auron and Braska. I guess since this is ten years in the past, these no-name summoners would be doing their pilgrimages at the same time Seymour and Braska were doing theirs, thus their paths would intersect with the big-name pilgrimages of that time. There are also pictures of a younger, then older Maechen roaming from Zanarkand to Mi'ihen, so he must have something to do with it all as well.

Does the art look like Nomura's doing, by the way?

Nah, it's definitely not any art style I've seen outside of the book. Probably an in-house artist for Famitsu. Still pretty cool-looking though. I like the one with child Seymour summoning Anima against what I'm assuming is one of the groups of no-name summoners/guardians. I scanned some of them and added them to my folder I linked to.

p064-065 shows Jecht, p066-067 shows Seymour summoning Anima, p084-085 shows Maechen, p098-099 shows Belgemine summoning Bahamut, and p116-117 shows the first Battle Gear page, and p132-33 shows the first Haunting Evil Spirits page. The end_credits page is just the back cover credits. The artist that did the images should be listed there, as well as the person who wrote the stories.

I rather like that art style. I can't quite make out some of those kanji on the credits page, though, to identify everyone involved.

The art of Maechen as a young man is curious. I'm guessing Famitsu was unaware that Maechen would be revealed as an unsent who had died as an old man in Zanarkand a thousand years before.

The page with the summaries of the stories mentions that there are a lot of characters who have a connection with Yuna and her guardians.

The credits for the story illustrations say 小沢孝, Takashi Ozawa did them.

Hawkeye said:

I rather like that art style. I can't quite make out some of those kanji on the credits page, though, to identify everyone involved.

The art of Maechen as a young man is curious. I'm guessing Famitsu was unaware that Maechen would be revealed as an unsent who had died as an old man in Zanarkand a thousand years before.

Click to expand...

Did he die as an old man, though? We see via Auron that unsent can change their appearance to look older if they want to, so maybe Maechen did the same. It does show in the image what looks like Maechen wandering from a (non-ruined) Zanarkand to Mi'ihen. There is another image showing a young Maechen running from a chimera while one of the no-name summoner groups watches. Maybe that's how he died? Who knows!

Of course, Maechen being an unsent wasn't something that was revealed until FFX-2...so maybe the creators themselves didn't know he'd be unsent at the time of FFX.

Yeah, without reading the story, I probably shouldn't speculate. I do agree, though, that the developers probably didn't even know he was unsent until they made the next game.

I feel pretty sure he died old, though, since his voice was the same in that sphere from X-2 that was actually recorded in Zanarkand while he was alive.