Thank goodness, ive had it paid in full for a few weeks now.

It's street dated, we can't sell it before Halloween. It will be there on the 31st though. We're getting it about a week in advance. And also it is true, preorders for the standard edition ended today, and the CE will end in the next day or two.

My EB store didn't really have an idea about when they'd be getting it though. Every question I tried to ask about shipments coming in before October 31st so it'll be available on the 31st constantly led to the answer: "No, we won't be selling it on Monday or before the 31st as it's not released until the 31st"....:annoyed:

Still I hope the "week in advance" shipment applies to all EB/GameStop stores.

Some more reviews with Play magazine giving the game a 10/10 score with FFXII being the 4th title in the magazine's history to be awarded a perfect score. Game Informer gave it a 92.5/100: "Where this games shines the brightest is in the new path it blazes, not the traditions it revisits".

Also it looks Best Buy have some kind of FFXII bonus in the form of a mini-artbook. Someone over at GAF mentioned how a new SKU for FFXII had been entered in the Best Buy system for a mini-artbook with a RRP of $14.99. There's nothing on Best Buy's website so it'll be interesting to see what it is.

They're probably not supposed to tell you. I really shouldn't be saying anything because then you get morons like, "You have it in the back, so give it to me!" But the store will definitely have it prior to Halloween, trust me.

Anyone going to pick it up at midnight? My store is doing a midnight launch. I requested that I work it since I want the game anyway.

Typical...FFX-2 got 90 scores 2 ,it's just the "name"..but i would give it a 75.

Well, admittedly, the game part of FFX-2 was really solid. I just disliked the content, characters, and storyline so much that I didn't bother playing it through all the way.

The Play review of FFXII is pretty suspect to fangirlism though. The entire review was pretty much spent gushing about how much she loved it and didn't want to beat it because that would mean it was over. Sounded more like a forum post than a professional mag's review. Still love the mag though, they get great content.

I'm still greatly anticipating this game, but some recent ramblings from a friend who downloaded the torrent has lowered my expectations a little. Even though he claims that this is indeed the best FF he ever played, he did list some criticisms that I feel were rather unsettling for a game that's gotten such fantastic reviews.

1. The story is short; much of the game's length is attributed to the long dungeons and exploring. Strip those away and the actual story of the game is actually smaller than it appears to be.

2. Airships are pretty useless; so you get an airship early on, that's great. Unfortunately, you can't use it to travel everywhere. Most of the time, you'll get a line of dialogue that serves as an excuse from using your airship (examples he gave included "the enemy will spot us if we use the airship" or "that area is currently sealed off". he said there were even a couple of times where they don't even bother with an excuse).

3. Lack of diverse areas; he said there was "a forest....and a desert....and that's about it." I told him that I swore I saw a winter area, but he says it was removed.

4. The scene with Penelo and the orcs, along with the Penelo FMV, are nowhere to be found.

These might sound like minor complaints, but for a game that's undergone 4 or more years of development, I can't conceive why entire areas and story bits were removed entirely. It's a bit disappointing, especially if SE decides to release an FFXII: Director's Cut later on. And you know they will.

Actually, the areas are pretty much all different. The are varients of the desert and forest areas, which seems lazy to me, but thats not all there is. The winter area is there, and some volcano looking area for example.

There are tons of different enviorments so don't worry, and there is more gameplay then story but the gameplay is FUN and addicting to where you wanna keep playing.

Agreed. While playing this at DigitalLife, the four days I went, I practically become a License Point fiend, not even actually "leveling" so much as I was hunting down points for the next magick/technick or equipment license.

I thought the scene where Seeqs confine Penelo will be added in the US version, but is it confirmed? Either way, it's a small matter for me, compared with other faults.

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/734/734868p1.html

Aside from everybody elses comments, you can see the winter area in the Preview video of the English build that's up on GameTrailers.com. That and IIRC the area is also a key plot environment and not optional making missing it altogether unlikely.

1: Sure, wanna strip away the gameplay then?

2: You don't get an airship early on at all. You get brown save crystals that can teleport you to other brown save crystals. Way WAY way later you get to use the airship to go places.

3: There's tons of diverse areas. Yes there's a winter area, 3 plains, 2 forests, 4 deserts, and so far like 8 dungeons.

4:

Your friend either has a short attention span or is bullshitting you.

I'm about 60 hours into the game (keep in mind I've been doing sidequests), and this is fairly true. This story is different from the other games, it doesn't seem to revolve around the characters but rather the world as a whole. It lacks individual (melo)drama. The gameplay overshadows the story, to the point where you might not mind.

Where I'm at, there isn't even an airship. The main form of travel is either on foot or teleportation. I don't see why it matters either way. In Final Fantasy X they had already abandoned the concept of flying around a world map in an airship and travel was but a mere menu. The same applies here, pretty much, it's just not by airship.

Er yes... Well, no. Kind of. I can recall a few cave like areas, some mines, some forests, deserts, and the inside of buildings and airships. There was a snowy area, but it's farily small compared to a lot of other areas. Not mindblowingly diverse but not all that repetitive either. The idea behind them is that they're more so "dungeons" -- places to explore and sort of get lost in while fighting monsters.

I dunno what this is. But there aren't a lot of FMVs and most of them aren't that interesting besides the first few. They are generally short and mostly involve airships flying around, but I recall some battle scenes early in the game. But I haven't seen anything really mindblowing, like the cast surfing down ropes (Final Fantasy X) or a city being decimated by Sin.

It's funny that people are upset about this, because I swear I recall hearing a lot of people complain that the past few games have had too many FMVs.

Overall this game emphasizes its own "gameplay" than it does story. It's very fun (why do you think I have 60hours on it), but at the same time, when I stand back and try to look at the game objectively, I personally see quite a few major flaws. I would never give it a 10/10.

I really don't like the Gambit system. This battle system is a step up from annoying random battles, but at the same time I think a game that plays itself is not what video gaming is or should be about; on the contrary games should be finding new ways to involve the player more deeply, not remove them and leave them as button pushers. Even though I realize that the Gambit system is perhaps a dumb idea, I can't deny the fact that I have enjoyed battles quite a bit. I could easily understand someone, even a Final Fantasy fan, hating this game for a bunch of not-even-superficial reasons.

@Ashton: The Penelo FMV SOLDIER is referring to is from one of the early FFXII trailers where Penelo is dancing with a veil in a forest similiar to the image for her promo poster:
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/272/vispenelopm9.jpg

I can also confirm that the other cutscene in question is at least present in the US version thanks to a GAFer.

Also there's a Fall Toy Fair going on in NY with Koto in attendence which means the FFXII lineup, among others, were on display:
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/6...4resizecf8.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/7...0resizecp2.jpg

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/146...7resizefl3.jpg

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/734...1resizezj7.jpg

I won't post the rest but you can see more HERE. Scheduled for a Q1 2007 US release.

I'm about two and a half hours into the game and I must say it's seriously awesome. I have never experienced something like this on my PS2 and yes I have played Resident Evil 4. The cutscenes are astounding and what really makes me happy is the difficulty of the game which is not too easy but also not too hilariously hard like Valkyrie Profile 2. I really enjoyed it so far and I'm sure it's gonna be the best game I've ever played :)

After two hours? Lofty claim there ^^

I'm about an hour in and I really like what I see so far. A few things take some getting used to (the license system caught me off guard at first), but the adjustments generally don't take too long and ultimately things are playing well. It's dang good right now, and I hope it stays that way throughout the game.

No, but adding more of the story equals a longer game in total. After rushed stories that would've been far better had the extra time and emotion had been added (XSIII), I dreaded hearing that FFXII may fall under the same category. My fears quelled somewhat when the same person said that storywise, it was around the same length as FFT. But still, it's always been a habit of Matsuno to add more game than story, and I'm not saying that's immediately a bad thing, but it remains to be see if it works (Vagrant Story) or doesn't (FFTA).

I'm glad the bit with the orcs remains in the US version at least, simply because I'm against entire scenarios being removed completely.

So those scenes with Penelo were added back in? What the hell? Why did they leave them out in the JP version in the first place? The trailers told us that they were all rendered and voice acted.

And damn shame that the Penelo FMV is still cut. Here's a screenshot of it from the E3 2005 trailer.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c1...neloE32005.jpg

I didn't know they called the Seeq's orcs, but whatever. It's not even bad, and I'm like 99% sure it anything in the US version regarding this was in the JAP version because the story would not work at all without that part of the plot.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c1...neloE32005.jpg

Yep, that's the one. It's still a big letdown this isn't included, as it's a pretty gorgeous FMV, as is all the FMV for this game (as little as there is). I was also hoping this would've ended up as a fun albeit insignificant moment in the game (like Squall and Rinoa's dance number).

In the Japanese version, they only mentioned in voiceless text by one of Vaan's pals, the actual scenes with Penelo and the Orcs voice acting and animation were cut.

I guess the scene handcuffed Panelo is in captivity was cut because it could make us think of a raping incident or something and then SE couldn't release FFXII JP for all ages. Indeed, Kawazu admitted it in this interview.

As for dancing Panelo...

Sweet, much better shots. Also these are set for Feb 28, 2007 in Japan, so we can expect to see them about a month or two after the Japanese release (probably popping up in the January issue of Previews). The Judge is definitely a must have, so detailed!

I'm still wondering if that was the original intention (wouldn't be the first RPG to imply rape), or if it was wrongly interpreted that way. I don't want to delve too much because I don't want spoilers, but it still would be a pretty controversial moment in the FF series if it was even hinted at.