My Manuals
Manuals for console games traditionally have fewer than thirty pages (although the page count increases with the number of translations included). As action, sports or puzzle games (genres mostly seen in consoles) are usually simple or intuitive, these manuals are usually short and concise. The smaller packaging of most console games places a limit on the manual's size, especially if the game includes both original and translated manuals.
The manuals for hand-held games are even shorter, and they focus on controls and screen elements. Nintendo's Game Boy series of systems refers to the instruction manual as an "Instruction Booklet" which reflects this shortness. For RPGs, the manual is unlikely to describe items, monsters, spells or much of the plot, since those elements unfold on the screen. In-game text in various places (tutorials, cutscenes, dialogue and status screens) usually duplicate and supplement the manuals.
Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls was an exception in that it provided the names and brief descriptions of the 64 spells in each edition of the game, but the Bestiary and item statistics were only available in-game.