I'm quite well aware of the swap-dics, Elixir, but still, from what I've heard from friends who tried both ways, they say modding is the way to go (when you have the available money, that is). I know a place just in my local Chinatown (wouldn't you believe) that will mod PS2s for about $140 CDN including parts (i.e. the chip) and labor.

I'm curious now how much a Japanese PS2 costs (just pure curiosity)...

Roughly $220 US.

Mod chip for every type of PS2 (JAP, USA, EUR) is the same only installation method is different. 220$ isn't to mych but import cost will be half if not more of this.

I have a friend who imported a white, fat PS2. It cost him roughly $45 NZ in postage, or roughly $30 US.

I'm not too keen on the swap magic system for slimlines, and I'm not too keen on slimlines whatsoever, but importing a console just to play games to avoid a modchip is pretty ridiculous.

I mean, it's no fun to play RPGs and text based games in japanese. And come on, not all games in english are bad.

Yeah, I'd stick with a chip for a few reasons:

1) $140 CDN for the modding is much cheaper than $250 CDN, as any grade 1 student can tell you. Plus it's in my city so no shipping charges and the likes, as well as customs charges if I were to import.

2) Having two PS2s side by side is just weird, especially when friends come over.

"Dude, why do you have two Playstation 2s?"

"One of them is a Japanese one."

"So...why didn't you get a mod chip then?"

>_>

As far as I am informed, the Swap Magic trick doesn't work on the slim PS2, you need to hard-mod it.

Negative.

Their site says slimlines require you to use the Swap Magic 3 + Magic Switch or Swap Magic 3 + Flip Top Cover combo. Neither of this is hard modding, but replacing your cover with the "Flip Top Cover" will void your warranty and is very useless as you might as well mod it for all the good it is.

Man, I want a slimline now. Look at this and you'll see what I mean. You don't need a flip top cover as the slimlines have that. All you do is put those things into place, swap, and you're done. The demo didn't show him closing the lid so I'm not too sure whether it's possible to shut the lid after you've loaded the import, but if so, that's pretty awesome.

I have a slimline + Flip-Top replacement lid + Swap Magic.

It's what I use for all my burned games (including most recently FFXII), and it works great.

The Flip-Top takes about 20-30 minutes to get installed, it's kinda tricky setting up the proper springs and metal bits, but it's very useful. It essentially puts a circular hatch on the top of the lid so you can swap discs without triggering the "open lid" alert.

-Magic Box

:)

Now for the bad news. I truly hope to God that SE USA isn't possibly stupid enough to release FFXII in November. Not only is that a much longer wait from the proposed Summer date, but launching it around the same time as the PS3 is just all kinds of retarded. One of the best looking of PS2 games of all time will suddenly look out of date when compared to a PS3 launch title (well, the ones that aren't just 360 ports). I don't care if it means the game will get some special hi-res boost while playing it on the PS3, it isn't a good idea, just like releasing Zelda:TP along with Revolution is similarly retarded.

Not really, considering FFIX was released around the same time as the PS2 launched and it did fine.

It was recently announced at that event on the 15th that the PS3 will apply various things to PS2 games (for example, AAx4, AFx4) as well as running them at a higher resolution. That's far better than what we got from the PS2, and it's bare bones increased loading and texture smoothing.

BTW, expect them to show CG during FFXII commercials.

Even so....it's a long wait. :(

I know I've asked this plenty of times before, but I still keep wondering; Why doesn't Square begin localization while the game is being made? Why do they wait until after the game is finished to begin translating? It's an archaic process that results in an annoying gap between US and Japanese releases (3 months if we're lucky, 6 or more if we're not). I just wish they acted more like Konami or Nintendo. The only games I've ever seen get a simultaneous release were Kingdom Hearts: CoM (or did we get that first?) and the FFXI expansions.

Who knows? Maybe it makes finishing the game that much harder, with localization folks running all over the place? All I know is that with the massive gap we often see between Japanese and U.S. releases we should at least expect flawless translation and decent voice acting.

And yes... it is a long wait.

Is this a FFXII thread or how to mod your PS2 thread lol? Anyway its disappointing for them to be releasing it so late in the year but knowing their history it shouldn't be a shock they hold their best game for an optimal selling period. I highly doubt PS3 being released will have any effect since the fans will still buy the game no matter what. All i care about is they have an excellent localization and smooth out whatever edges existed on the Japanese version. Like possibly adding Widescreen support.

Who says they don't?

Some high quality vids of the intro and gameplay from ruliweb!

http://ruliweb.dreamwiz.com/data/rul...m=14572&left=b

Just thought I'd give a heads up on the FFXII PSF2 rip done by oddigy/tz, which was originally mentioned in THIS thread.

http://oddigytitanium.com/psf/psfpsf...0XII%20WIP.rar

It's marked as a "WIP" (work in progress) because the tracks still need to be completely timed and tagged, and I think there are some duplicates in there as well. Nevertheless, this is a lot of FFXII music.

Please make sure you read the rules at the bottom of the main page before downloading.

You can get the PSF/PSF2 plugin for Winamp here:
http://www.neillcorlett.com/he/

Somewhat true I suppose but there was also some "damage" to an extent considering between FFVII-X-2, FFIX had the lowest with sold units in the US with only 1.66 million copies sold compared to FFVII's 3.9 million, FFVIII's 2.34 million and FFX's 2.69 million copies. Even X-2 sold more copies in the US than FFIX.

I'd imagine FFXII would get hit harder given the hype and worldwide launch and limited numbers for the PS3 making it more sought after for the holidays. Besides how many casual gamers will really pick up a PS3 and go "Wicked, I got my PS3 so let me now put aside launch titles and get FFXII to really show off my system".

A summer launch would of been more beneficial for not only SE but gamer's wallets too.

Awesome. Thanks for the heads up, Kaleb.

FFIX followed two massive titles (FFVIII riding VII's coattails for it's sails) and provided a mediocre game. FFX was the first final fantasy for the PS2, so high sales were expected.

Seriously, 1.66M isn't bad, especially given that this game has almost as much hype as TTZ: The Twilight Princess and it's the first original FF in 5 years (FFX way back when). It'll do fine, and with the PS3 souping it up, it'll provide more incentive for those who want to buy the game.

People that are going to get the PS3 are going to get it, same thing goes for those who want FFXII. The latter costs far less and the first group (even a fraction of it) easily fits into the second. Casual gamers have never shown much interest in RPGs, so why would this game suffer simply because the PS3 is launching in the same month? There will be enough avid gamers buying the game to secure decent sales.

Nah, it wouldn't. It'd give them less time to localize and hype and plant them in the slowest time of the year for the industry. Releasing it during the holiday season broadens the market due to more people willing to spend more, or non-gamers buying them as gifts for the people that actually play the game.

Honestly, on the whole, it's a good move.

you know that you can't compare sales of any FF with the sales with FFXI because the game first came out here on the PC not the ps2 and two: it's a a MMORPG with a montly fee wich it's not everyone that can afford that...

And how much money does the average gamer make? They're either flipping burgers or working in a supermarket. It's not like people are made of money, and you're basically forced to prepare for the launch.

It's all very well to take into consideration that people will buy XII with the launch of the PS3, but there's still going to be the majority who stick with the PS2 and just buy XII for itself. It makes no sense to play a last generation title on a next generation console; when you've payed for game/s on the PS3.

I don't suppose the PS3 is going to enhance XII in any way, eh? It is released the same time, so I can't say no.

I would say the average gamer will be begging for it to be a Christmas item. Look at Ebay and the rediculous prices of the 360 when it was out. People will sacrifice an arm and leg for what they want.

And lots still do play their PS1 games on the PS2 due to the graphic enhancements and disc speed. It'll go the same with the PS3 on PS2 games I'm sure. Either way, it's fun to play the classic games that we remember years ago. It's good fun.

Isn't the PS3 going to allow you to play PS1 and PS2 games as a high def? 720p or whatever I'd say. Be interesting to see how that all works when we do get the PS3.

Trust me on this, high definition on old games makes them look like rubbish.

Take Capcom vs. SNK 2 for example. I can play this on my monitor thanks to a VGA adaptor, but the characters are sprites, and it's pretty bad. I think all games which aren't 3D look pretty bad on VGA.

Why I'm talking about VGA is because having a 1028x Dreamcast game being played on your monitor is basically the same as what HDTV is. It may not feel like it, but the Dreamcast was the only console which you can use a VGA adaptor on. The upscan works by itself.

If you used a VGA adaptor on the xbox or PS2, it would probably look like crap. It's one thing to play games on a monitor, it's an entirely different thing to get quality out of that game, via the monitor. And seeing as how most PS1 games are 2D, if the PS3 plays them in high def, they're going to look like crap.

It's like Mortal Kombat Deception on the 360 all over again. *cringe*

The overwhelming majority of gamers are 18-34 and male. While some may be flipping burgers, I doubt most are in such shitty jobs given the growth of the industry they must have quite a bit of disposable income.

While the PS3 and it's games will be hot stuff, there will be quite a few duds at launch. Why not play a game you've been waiting nearly 5 years for, especially with the benefits the PS3 gives older titles.

Weren't you in the PS3 thread? It was already announced that the machine will apply a considerable amount of post-processing (such as much needed AA, AF, texture smoothing, etc..) and then output them at 720p/1080i/1080p. If you've owned an HDTV for any amount of time and played PS2 games on it, they look bad, but the uprezzing doesn't hurt them as much as a complete lack of anti-aliasing, progressive scan and whatnot.

An incredbile example would be SotC, a game that is almost unplayable on my 720p HDTV. It has no AA, and it shows. If it even had one level of it applied, it'd make a difference, let alone 4.

But will that work with XII? If it does, well, good. Actually, bad. Because then there would be a portion of games on the PS2(like you said; SotC) which won't be playable. If you're prevented from playing certain games due to the increased quality, it isn't worth it.

Which is more important, quality or games themselves? I'm going to say games themselves, because quality can only go so far. I don't have a HDTV nor will I ever, but I won't be interested in the PS3 for that.

The whole thing that gets me with the PS3 is the backwards compatibility. If they're going to enhance PS2 games, how will they manage to enhance ones like SotC?