So it’s not a perfect game
After almost a lifetime of waiting (five years in gaming is practically a console cycle) Final Fantasy 13 will finally be released in Japan TODAY. The famed Famitsu gaming magazine has given the game an imperfect score of 39/40.
The only Final Fantasy game to receive the honor is FF12. Fan favorite Final Fantasy 7 earned 38, while the PS2 FF 10 earned a similar 39/40.
Only four games have been awarded this year the coveted “perfect score”. Those include Bayonetta, Super Mario Brothers, Dragon Quest 9 and Monster Rancher 3.
Many gamers are fickle folk who will read heavily into reviews before making a purchase, while others will buy the game regardless if it was good or not based on reviews just as long as it had the franchise name on it (Final Fantasy, Guitar Hero and so on…). So does one point matter?
I think the game will still be hit. Despite many advances in RPGs by Bioware with Mass Effect and Dragon Age as well as Fallout and Oblivion with Bethesda, there are still a lot gamers who still like the linear gameplay and beautiful cutscenes. I for one will still buy the game. Square-Enix has shipped 2 million copies of the game for the launch.
So the game did not get the perfect score from Famitsu. It will still sell millions, just one point shy of the perfect score merely tells gamers that, it’s good ,but not perfect for us, but still good.
But for gamers such as myself, April is still too far away for me. I’ll try not care until then. But here’s a thought, was the international release date pushed to spring just so they can release the Xbox version at the same time? I hope not. Because if they did, I would rather be playing it anyway on the PS3 than to wait for the Xbox version to catch up.
Procrastinating in the Heat 
Personally, I found FF12 a little dull due to its main characters. Great overall storyline, but I felt that the main party did not really need to be involved. Hopefully FF13 will feel a little more relevent.
I agree that the main problem of FF12 was the characters. I couldn’t love Vaan and I think it might have been better if it was told using either Ashe or Basche then maybe. It looks like Lightning is interesting in FF13.