What finally got me into JRPG's was to not use a guide. I feel like modern gaming has us wanting to have direction, you also get the fomo with collectibles and missable quests in older games, but using a guide completely destroys the experience. A big part of older rpg's is the exploration and letting the quest and your story just sort of play out. If you miss stuff, thats stuff you can do on your next playthrough, but if you use a guide on the first it just becomes a checklist as you go from point a to point b to get more story. It legit becomes a slog.

Now, if you get absolutely completely stumped, cautiously look up the solution, but be wary because I had the part I cared the most about in FF8 completely spoiled by doing this. You also ruin the surprise of what's to come, but some older games have some insanely cryptic parts on purpose for thise sweet, sweet guide sales. Other than that, just avoid them like the plague.