Final Fantasy XII Finally Featured

Square Enix’s long-awaited addition to its Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy XII, has finally been released in Japan. As was expected, the FF faithful were forming lines before stores were even open. To kick off the launch, Akitoshi Kawatsu, the director of Final Fantasy XII and Square Enix president, Yoichi Wada, made an appearance at a retail shopping center where the title was being released. Among this collection of heavy-weight personalities at the launch was Taro Kakase, the music composer of the game, via video link, and the game’s main title singer, Angela Aki. Kawatsu said, "When we originally announced FF XII's development back in 2000, we said it was going to be an online game…[but] it changed into an offline title during its development, and now it's finally completed. It took a lot of time and developers to create this game and it can truly be considered a large-scale title." This switch over from FF XII’s online status to game console status was most likely due to the reaction to Square’s release of Final Fantasy XI online. The PS2 online version of the game offered a special edition package in which the game, internet connection hardware, and hard drive were included to play the game. The online game required a monthly subscription fee, and the game itself, received generally mixed reviews. The majority of Final Fantasy fans passed on the online version and probably, in doing so, influenced the decision of Square to make FF XII console based instead of online. The planned shipment schedule for FF XII will be 2 million units in Japan. Expectations are that all of these games will be sold within a month’s time. The North America release is planned for November, which is the time of the PS3 and Revolution next-gen game console launches.