Bring Back Game Manuals

I've found joy in retro gaming these last couple weeks, playing a lot of Skies of Arcadia. It was one of the first games I played for hours on end on my Dreamcast back in the day. It's an iconic JRPG first released on Dreamcast and then re-released on GameCube. Now that game design is my full time job, I was analyzing the presentation and mechanics of the game in a new light. For one, why does this relatively complex jrpg not have a tutorial level or area? Technically, one could argue the starter area of the game that can't be revisited is the tutorial. However, there is no step-by-step walkthrough of what each component on screen does or is like in modern games. You have to figure it out and/or it's clear from its iconography and usage. For example, one of the player options in battle is S. Move but what the hell does the S stand for? I don't need to know, because I can understand what it does by selecting it as an option in game. I kept thinking where would I have learned what that…