It really depends on what you mean by "beginner". I started Textfugu as a complete beginner, and did the first 4 seasons before switching over to RTK full-time. Now that I finished RTK a couple of months ago, I'm working my way through the remaining grammar lessons and the vocabulary that Textfugu has, before moving on to Core 2k/6k and (if needed) parts of Tae Kim's grammar guide.
I think that Textfugu really shines in getting you through beginnerhood - maybe the first 9-12 months for most people - before letting you loose upon the wider world of Japanese learning. He integrates grammar, kana, kanji, and vocabulary, and by the time you're done you'll be able to figure out how to learn more on your own. He also talks about study methods, ways of maintaining motivation, and stuff like Lang-8.
I suppose it's spoon-feeding in a way, but for me it helped a lot. There are definitely issues - updates are slow, so don't expect to have lots more content written between when you start and when you finish. And I'd still stick to RTK for learning kanji (though I do like the kanji vocabulary section on Textfugu and think it helps a lot in learning readings of ~350 of the most useful kanji). But I think that Textfugu is definitely worth it if you need a bit of help figuring out how to get started and through the first part of learning the language.
I think that Textfugu really shines in getting you through beginnerhood - maybe the first 9-12 months for most people - before letting you loose upon the wider world of Japanese learning. He integrates grammar, kana, kanji, and vocabulary, and by the time you're done you'll be able to figure out how to learn more on your own. He also talks about study methods, ways of maintaining motivation, and stuff like Lang-8.
I suppose it's spoon-feeding in a way, but for me it helped a lot. There are definitely issues - updates are slow, so don't expect to have lots more content written between when you start and when you finish. And I'd still stick to RTK for learning kanji (though I do like the kanji vocabulary section on Textfugu and think it helps a lot in learning readings of ~350 of the most useful kanji). But I think that Textfugu is definitely worth it if you need a bit of help figuring out how to get started and through the first part of learning the language.