That moment when you need a guide..

[LostTemplar]

Still better than most of the linear and boring "dungeons" that get thrown at us today, if you ask me.

[Zoinkity]

I know a certain green-tongued cat that would go bonkers in a rougelike ;*)

Didn't need one for Star Ocean.  To be fair though it would be nice to know ahead of time what the story implications are for given sets of characters, though that was the whole replayability aspect after all.

I don't know why, but I got fixated on making ludicris amounts of FIL crafting and selling instruments.  Was probably trying to get everyone 100% in all subjects; effectively a squad of elite scholars schooling time AND space.

Now Tokimeki Memorial--no point for a guide, but having the script in hand is hilarious in its own right.

Another understandable reference would be any of the recent Pokémon instalments.  The incredibly super-rare ones have some baffling requirements.  Apparently they're alluded to, but knowing you're doing everything right would be gratifying.  Also, knowing which aren't in your game is helpful to say the least.  That said, it's all pretty easy to find out too, so a guide isn't really necessary. 

[Bregalad]

I didn't need a guide for SO either (exept pehaps for some of the thoughest bosses I'm not even sure), but I had to draw maps of dungeons, and this all the time. Because it's really, like, everything in this game is a maze.

[Nec5]

The only game like that I can remembers is Star Ocean, which is like this in the ENTIERE game, and got a glaring 9.2 on GameFaqs. Apparently other people enjoy this.

You would have hated the days of early PC/C64 gaming via Gold Box D&D games or Might and Magic.  Guides were almost essential then.  They're sort of essential now because roughly 25% of all RPG content is virtually impossible to ever figure out on your own.  Therefore, you're paying for 75% of a product and not able to fully enjoy everything it offers.  Ever.

I think everyone here agreed on some other thread months ago that there should never be a single thing in a game that is unknowable to a player without a guide.  If there's some formula to make an item, it should be found in a dungeon or, in the absolute worst case, expensive to buy so you have to raise money.  Unfortunately, that will never be the case.  I'm thankful for gamefaqs because I remember the days before it existed.  I never understood the hate some have for the FAQs there.  It's all free.  What the hell.

[KaioShin]

I don't think anyone hates the FAQs on Gamefaqs. It's the forums there that make genocide on humanity appear like a good thing to consider.

[Zoinkity]

^That.  A million times over.

You know what was great?  Those older games didn't just have massive, usually interesting manuals but they realized that the greatest expense of piracy in those days would be dup'ing those.  So, they always had a couple places in the game where you had to enter info only found in the manual in order to proceed.
Of course, this was also in the days when usenet was all there was and it wasn't like a whole lot of people used that.  Internet pretty much killed off that form of protection.

[Nec5]

I don't think anyone hates the FAQs on Gamefaqs. It's the forums there that make genocide on humanity appear like a good thing to consider.

On many of the other forums I've been on, there was a general feeling that gamefaqs was lame and that all the FAQS ranged from tolerable to worthless.   But maybe that's just the circle I was in.

But yeah, the forums are terrible.

[Next Gen Cowboy]

There is some amazing work put into some of those, just like most everything else; there's sub-par faqs, mediocre faqs, and top-notch work. Wouldn't touch the forums with somebody elses 10 foot poll, but such is life.

On the topic at hand, I use guides when I get truly stuck, the more I care about the game, the less inclined I am to use a guide. I will say the one time I truly felt bad using a guide was on Wild Arms 5. There was a stupid little light and mirror puzzle that I swore I tried everything with. Turns out I must have missed the most basic of combinations because when I looked it up after a few hours it was not guide worthy.

I personally don't like my games spoiled, so for example when I played Xenosaga I was very into the trilogy, but when I'd get stuck I wouldn't look anything up, because skipping too far ahead and revealing the next boss can really kill the intended twist. I do buy guides for certain games, I generally buy them after I beat the game though.