The characters are only similar on the surface.

Vaan is an orphen from a desert like area, like Luke, but other than that they are compeltely different. Ashe is a princess, Leia is a princess, etc..

I'm pretty sure Matsuno said he got some of his stuff from Star Wars anyways, not like Star Wars is a particularly original set up in the first place. All fantasy epics have pretty much this same thing.

I can't believe I didn't notice that there'd been an internal release before now. Mumble mumble nforce. But talk about timing. If I was to look towards the window right now, I'd probably see my plans of me finally getting around to writing and sending job applications tomorrow as they flew out. Oh well, I'm sure November will be a better month for job hunting anyway. Yeah.

Wait a month after the Japanese release then. Koto and Diamond Select have been doing an exceptional job on getting the figures out on the US market as soon as they can after they've debuted in Japan which is usually around 4 weeks or so. For the FFXII line it doesn't really matter though since it turns out they aren't available in Japan yet and won't be until February 2007.

Yeah I wouldn't count on a price drop as the units are in limited supply as they are and most likely will be out of print soon enough. I mean you can always buy the Fenrir from the Mechanical line but it'll be half the size of the one you get with Cloud.

Anyways getting back on topic, here's some snapshots of the LE casing inside and out that's on display at EBgames/GameStop:
http://rated-m.blogspot.com/2006/09/...-close-up.html

Glad to hear some of the positive impressions from those that managed to get the game before the torrents went down. I just hope there's some truth to those October 24th release rumours...

? I hadn't heard about any rumors, but it wouldn't surprise me. My Gamestop said that they would receive their copies a week prior to the 31st, but they aren't authorized to distribute them until the targeted date. I'm hoping they'll be cool enough to let you purchase the game as soon as it's available.

If not, the game continues to sit comfortably in my PC in case I can't hold out.

The torrents are still up, just check ISOhunt.

Simo, if you haven't gotten a chance to take a look at the casing with your real eyes (which I doubt so), it's a VERY nice case to touch and hold. Check out your local EB/Gamestop and they might have some on display like mine did. I mean, this sounds pretty sad and pathetic, yet none-the-less expectable from a fan boy such as myself, but knowing that you'll be holding the case with the game in 24 some days just makes me go, "okay then!".

this guy seriously need to learn how to proper use a scanner >.<

but it's nice to see a little what the back and inside will look ^^ (a little because really you can't see much on those crappy scan...)

I'm the same way especially the anticipation and days leading up to release, for me it's all apart of the whole experience. I mean I've only been waiting for this game for what, 4 years now? I think I had just moved to the US when the game was officially announced.

I haven't had a chance to see the LE packaging upclose though as I rarely ever head to my local EBgames but as luck would have it I'll be out that way on Wednesday. Maybe I can wrangle some information on the LE guide at that time too. :)

The info I've been hearing is that EBgames/GameStop have been telling customers that those who have already preordered the title will be able to get the game on October 24th while those without preorders can get a copy at midnight openings on the 31st.

To be fair he probably used a camera phone to take the pictures in the store given that EB/GameStop aren't giving them away. :p

Yeah, the pictures posted back a few pages were basically crystal clear. It's almost like a transmission from planet Mars hehehe.

0________0

4 YEARS? I think I only first knew anything about this maybe late 2004, beginning of 2005 with the first few scans up on the RPG forum, and first seeing Vaan and Ashe, I was like...oh, another FFX or something. Man, has it been that long?

When did you first learn about the game? Unless you were just hyped right after playing FFXI or something.

WAREZ WAREZ AWREZ WAREZ WAREZ

I just played it in for a bit. Froze after meeting Fran, here's my suprisingly few complaints

1: goddamnit i can't get the main character off the screen at all again! Damnit! PUT A SHIRT ON THE (male) CHILD!
2: nitpicky, but having to attack first to get my party to attack is a pain. As is having to do so after i use a spell or a skill.
3: Vaan in general. Not only does he need a shirt and a texture makeover, but damnit i don't really care for him at all. I'm more interested in Penelo. She's suprisingly cute! <3

My happy points

1: Another excellent dub. I enjoyed all the voice acting so far, except for one small part of penelo's (It was incredibly lifeless and dull at one point).
2: This game reaslly isn't like the demo at all. God i hated the demo so much. But this feels a lot better.
3: Fran and Penelo <3 <3 <3 cuter than i thought for serious. Fran's voice is love.
4: Hi , what a nice suprise that was :)
5: For a good hour i didn't have to play as Vaan!

Thanks to this download i went from not very interested to another must buy. The demo REALLY burned me on this game, i wasn't impressed then at all. But this.. this i like. gg square.

Seconded. I hope she gets some importance or development beyond "the cute one". Loved the FMV in the trailer that has her dancing with a veil. Plus, she's Vaan's childhood friend who works in a bar and uses martial arts.

where have I heard that before.

That would be awesome. It's a week after my final and other appointments (dental, doctor, etc), I don't work the day after, and it's before Halloween. Make it so.

Too bad she uses daggers (starting weapon), otherwise you would have had a zing.

I've seen her fighting bare-handed, followed by a gun (!?). I guess you can change the weapons to whatever you want.

plus the martial arts thing was listed in her profile, so I think it's a given trait.

She hasn't used any martial arts in the first 18 hours, sorry.

Set your gambits to "Foe: nearest enemy --> attack" and put it under "Foe: party leader's target --> attack"

That way, they will automatically attack the enemy you're heading towards, and just in case they start attacking randomly in a group of enemies, they'll make sure to attack YOUR target in the end.

Haven't heard anything about that, but it would be nice.

I doubt they would release it early, and isn't that rumor from gamefaqs?

I have a quick question for the importers/people who have beat the game already. Are there quite a few sidequests? I heard there where bounties like you have to hunt down a certain monster or something.

Theres a lot of sidequests. The bounty-hunting monsters are hard as hell, and the reward is barely anything, but it's still pretty fun when you try to take them down at a way lower level.

Also, for making gil, you can also set "Enemy HP = Critical -> Poach" as #1 and it's basically the same thing as steal. I use both personally, and I usually have more cash than I can spend, and am only troubled by licenses.

However, when you poach, you don't get exp or LP, right?

That sounds like a big trade-off for money.

I was able to get quickenings for all my characters, three of them have two quickenings but I have a question about those. Do you get any experience if you beat a monster with a quickening. They are incredible powerful and I was able to beat a few bosses with just one combo quickening so I'm just wondering if the downside to it is no exp o-0.

^ i don't know about the XP, but it's not specified anywhere that you loose XP if you use quickenings

btw, i have another question:

do you always use the 3 same characters and don't bother with the 3 others (xp, licenses?)

i have 3 chars at lvl 20 and 3 others at level 10 :( i don't really like replaceing characters in battles (if 3 have vanished) because KO'd characters don't recieve XP i believe ?

How does levelling work? Does all of the characters start on the same spot on that grid thing?

the characters start at the same spot but with a different ability already learned to give you a clue on which route you should be taking I guess.
Only the three characters that you in battle are the ones gaining exp so only those can level up but all the characters still gain lp wether in the battle or not.

I may be going at a slow pace but I switch around my characters often to keep them at an equal level. so far all my characters are at level 18-20. Although keeping only three characters may be a good idea since all of them feel the same :/

Looking at the chart, it seems like there are multiple different areas. Do the characters start with one square in each of the different sections?

no they start of with a few. Like ashe starts with cure vaan with steal and so one.
There are actually two seperate areas to the board though. One for magic, accesories and building up ur characters. the other half are for learning weapons, hats, and shields