Friday, February 23, 2007

Final Fantasy XII PAL and Piggyback limited edition hardcover strategy guide

Well, Final Fantasy XII has just been released in Europe today.

With the local indie game store closed down and the nearest Gamestation some 4 miles away the only choice I had to getting Final Fantasy XII at launch was either at GAME or HMV, both not my first or second choice when it comes to gaming needs, but never mind. I still had this unused gift card. Plus Jenni was chipping in for the game itself through another gift card.



So it was off to GAME then. Along with collecting my pre-order Final Fantasy XII game, the friendly sales monkey offered a free crappy swag pack which contained a Final Fantasy XII double sided glossy poster (featuring renders of the protagonists including Balthier, Fran et al.) and a promotional business card size CD, as well as a "free" mini-guide (actually just an advert to Piggyback's Final Fantasy XII: The Complete Guide...



...which I also obtained):



This Piggyback Interactive Final Fantasy XII hardcover strategy guide is very pretty, but I rather have them releasing a limited edition version of the game like our buddies in North America and Japan got, but then again Square Enix hates Europe. The guide is pretty useful though. No more trawling through those ASCII maps at GameFAQs:



Character info:



Detailed bestiary:



Have only been playing with the new game for an hour. The license board is an interesting concept in obtaining new skills. So far I am finding myself loving the new open battle system and the visual style. Not sure about Vaan's voice acting though.

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8 comments:

RichardAM said...

I haven't got it yet, but it is definitely on my wishlist. I just don't have the time it deserves at the moment.

From what i've heard it's surprisingly difficult?

Anonymous said...

wow! you got more freebies than me! *jealous*

Jon Choo said...

So far it hasn't been too difficult. The restoration of MP when walking really helps liberate the usage of healing spells.

@ Noor, the freebies were crap (note: the strategy guide wasn't free). Should have gone to HMV Oxford Street. They were giving Moogle plushies there!

I would still prefer to get something similar to your US released collectors edition!

Anonymous said...

Moogle toys? Damn

Anonymous said...

I have a piggyback paperback guide book. Are the contents the same as the hardcover version?

Jon Choo said...

They are (I think). ;)

Anonymous said...

Lovely looking book. Too bad it doesn't contain detailed mechanism information that were published in their Ultimania guide book.

(spam removed) said...

If I was not seen it, I would not believe the high and complex level that Final Fantasy has.
I would like to get involved in such a marvelous story, however, I have no time to do it.
It might be when I am retired.