The moment that Japan has been awaiting for over half a decade may finally have arrived today, thanks to a teaser and some Internet Matlockery. A Japanese Youtube flash ad had been teasing the reveal of Final Fantasy XIII's release date today, and a few impatient kids decided to dig a little deeper and find out ahead of time.
All they needed to do was change the word "before" to "after" in the ad's URL in order to come up with the image you now see before you -- a banner bearing Final Fantasy XIII's Japanese release date of December 17. At the time of writing, Square Enix has neither confirmed nor denied the release date, but weeaboo importers may want to contact their local dealer.
Who knew? Looks like a full version of Final Fantasy XIII might see the light of day somewhere in the world before this year is out.
[Update: The release has now been confirmed by Square Enix at an event in Tokyo. Japanese gamers (and not-so-Japanese importers) can get their hands on the game December 17 for 8,800 Yen!]
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Contest:
5:50 AM on 09.08.2009
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The game is looking good, the dubbing is really high rate. It sounds better than the JP voices imo. Regardless this isnt a game I would import, no matter how desperately I wanted it. It is a story heavy game~
On its own merits though getting into combat seems speedy and efficient which is generally my reason for not playing many turn based JRPG's because of how slow combat loads are and how static it loooks visually. Even if your not directly controlling your characters, adding al lthat motion makes the game "feel" faster and less like taking turns.
Can't wait to get it in the UK on that day because another console didn't come along and delay the game for the west...
OH WAIT!
Not that it means I'm buying it.
I've played every FF since 7 courtesy of a brother who is a huge fan, I just couldn't like the games. I've given each game a more than fair chance to grow on me but it just doesn't, don't think I'm deciding I don't like them without playing them, I'm not. ;)
Gold medal? So . . . you do like it?
Personally, I just hope it washes the taste of XII from my mouth. That sour, lasting-three-years taste.
(Please do not count X-2...)
I doubt the US release will have japanese audio, but the english voices sound really good so far, even better than FF12's great english dub. Troy Baker is playing Snow(Kanji from Persona 4, Alec from RF: Guerilla, and Yuri from Tales of Vesperia), so you know Square is using talented actors for both their english and japanese dubs.
As for "down-graded" graphics, I really don't care. I've seen how the demo looks - it looks good enough. As long as FF keeps pushing the graphical edge (as in, as long as the next game looks better than the last), then I'm happy.
Ah, well there's your problem. The FF series really went downhill starting with FF7. I thought FF7 was a great game, but I don't really think any of the PS1/PS2 FF games matched up to the quality of the SNES ones. That may be my retro-goggles speaking though.
I will never ever!
Honestly I want to play it with the native language and english subtitles. Don't want cheesy voice overs when the mouth don't match... no more horrible jacky chan dubs ; ;
Guess i'll have to wait extra 2 or 3 months for 360 release.
Better not spoil myself from the videos and reviews until the eng. version comes out.