Final Fantasy XII Launch

(Updated: June 16, 2013 with high resolution photos)

On Mar. 15, 2006 there was a mini-concert at Bic Camera at Yurakucho where the theme song “Kiss Me Goodbye” was performed and also the theme song from FF8 which I don’t remember the title was performed by the probably half-Japanese singer Angela Aki. There was about 100 people there and it took place at 5 pm. The funny thing is to prevent more people from gathering they had many 20 Bic Camera people holding the rope *by hand* for the 1 hour that this event lasted. Afterwards you could get your CD signed by Aki if you bought the CD, I didn’t because I didn’t feel like wasting more money. Also I had actually recorded the performances on my camera, but I put my camera on mute mode so that there wouldn’t be any sounds from the menus and this also put the microphone on mute, so there is no sound in any of the movies...

The mini-concert.

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There was so much hype prior to the launch of this game, every single electronics store had on its external TV display the preview videos and the same theme playing over and over and over again. And also you could also reserve this game from the convenience store which is on every block of almost every street so you can see ads for this game everywhere.

Hype at Bic Camera.

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On the next day (Mar. 16, 2006), I woke up at 4:45 am and got to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku at 5:50 am to lineup. I knew they were going to start selling at 7 am. When I got there I was maybe the 20th person in line. By selling time the line was about a block long, not bad for a game you could reserve and pick up at any convenience store. I lined up so I could buy the limited edition Final Fantasy XII PS2 bundle, and today it was on special for 24,800 yen. Other stores were selling for 27,800 yen. Plus I got 13% points on my points card, which means I got around 3200 points. I could use these points later to discount my future purchases. 1 point = 1 yen. I’ll never shop anywhere for electronics stuff other than Yodobashi because of the points.

My position in the line.

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Selling counter.

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Lines.

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Good old security guards holding "End of Line" sign, its nice to know they are doing something *so important*.

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The contents of the Final Fantasy XII PS2 bundle that I bought.

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Limited Edition hardware is so cool, comes with cool extras: iTunes Card, Original FF12 "Judge Strap" and game.

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About FF12, the amount of CG is this game is amazing, there is so much, the opening CG was I think 10 minutes long and very epic. Also the in game graphics look more organic than the mechanical movements of the characters in FF10. I only played 2 hours so far and I don’t really understand the battle system yet. Also there is an insane amount of kanji in this game.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The chick is sooo cute!
Doesn't look like that many people in line! Ie. no chaos like when there are line-ups here!

It's funny how you can willingly wake up at 4am to buy a game, yet can't get up by 7am to go to your 8 am classes here.

Kin said...

By getting the FFXII PS2, you will have everyone back home envious. The console looks so cool!

I think I'll pick up FFXII even if it doesn't have a very good battle system. I just hope we didn't look deep enough into it.

Anonymous said...

"It's funny how you can willingly wake up at 4am to buy a game, yet can't get up by 7am to go to your 8 am classes here. "

hahahah so true. but i cant believe u bought another ps2 just to play ff12. remember my initial d ok?

sn