Dubious, seemingly AI-generated Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave guidebooks flood Amazon Japan. Self-publishing system allows anyone to mass-produce “guideslop” with little risk

Nintendo released Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave on September 17, and simply searching for the title on Amazon Japan already yields at least nine guidebooks, none of which are official. Questionable video game guides, seemingly created using generative AI, have been something of a growing trend, and with Fire Emblem belonging to a genre players are more likely to seek out guides for, the issue has once again been drawing attention among Japanese players.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave has some official guide material released domestically, including a guidebook bundled with the December 2026 issue of Dengeki Nintendo, but no standalone strategy book has been published for the game. Nevertheless, a search on Amazon Japan reveals around nine purported guides, seven of which are available for purchase at the time of writing. Their covers appear heavily AI-generated, and none seem to be available as e-books.

The titles use words suggesting comprehensive coverage, such as “complete walkthrough,” “hidden secrets,” and “in-depth guide.” Four of the books have reviews, including one with a review marked as a verified Amazon purchase, suggesting that people are indeed buying them. Unsurprisingly, each review gives a one-star score, with users leaving comments like “Don’t make the mistake of buying this,” and “A completely useless purchase.”

Amazon provides sample pages for the books, but these contain nothing but walls of text, with no images and a notably verbose writing style. This is of course, far from the first time that AI-generated guides have appeared on Amazon, with similar sketchy publications previously appearing for major titles like Slay The Spire 2, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and Pokémon Pokopia. It’s likely that Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service (KDP) plays a role in enabling the trend.

KDP allows individuals to self-publish Kindle e-books and print books for free. Physical books are printed on demand at Amazon’s facilities whenever an order is placed, which eliminates the complications of maintaining inventory. Printing costs are deducted from sales revenue, so publishers don’t need to pay upfront, either. Combined with generative AI, the system makes it possible to mass-produce “books” at little risk.

While Amazon doesn’t prohibit books created using generative AI, KDP’s guidelines require publishers to disclose their use of AI during the publishing process. AUTOMATON could not find any indication that publishers must explicitly disclose AI use to consumers, and none of the nine books appeared to feature any such disclosures.

The result is a system in which even books of highly questionable quality can turn a profit if they manage to sell, and publishers have little to lose by trying. Furthermore, by leveraging the popularity of popular games like Fire Emblem and the demand for walkthroughs that’s sure to surge right after a new release, publishers can achieve significant visibility on the platform.

You might assume nobody would actually buy such books, but as we’ve seen, the reviews suggest consumers are indeed being misled into making purchases. These kinds of fake publications are likely to become increasingly convincing as AI tools evolve, so extra caution is needed when looking for legitimate guides.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is available now for Nintendo Switch 2.

Related: Nintendo Switch’s infamous “Hentai Girls” series gets renamed due to possible shadowban by eshop