Five years. Five long years since Final Fantasy XII hit the market and the promise of the Playstation 3 was talked about. There is no doubt that Final Fantasy fans have been waiting a long time for this game. First it was coming out in mid 2008, then late 2008. Earlier in 2009 we were teased with a Japanese only demo that came with the Blu-ray Advent Children and finally, at least in Japan the game is now available. So with the English release a matter of months away, what can we glean from the Japanese version, well a lot. And not all of it good for long time fans of the series.

First of all I have to make something clear. I did not finish Final Fantasy XII as I just couldn't get into it and second my understanding of Japanese is far from fluent and as such a lot of the story washed over me. But I did understand the key points to the battle systems and gameplay and so this preview will focus on that. Also our impressions are based on up to Chapter 5, about one quarter into the game, or to put it in length terms, around eight hours.



Link: Tweaktown