news: final fantasy xii rumblings: potion captured on video, perfect score from famitsu

March 08, 2006, 01:34 AM

by tim, via -
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'wwwwwww' is japanese internet-speak for 'OMG', only it's more versatile because you can just hold down the 'w' key as long as you want for emphasis -- that, and it doesn't STAND for anything; it just resembles a squiggle. kind of. Final Fantasy XII is released here in Japan next Thursday -- on a Thursday, not a Saturday! In other words, Square-Enix is denying the game any Dragon Quest-like explosive selling power. Surely, though, it will sell at least 3 million copies (I'd say 2.5 million in a month -- call it a hunch). The advertisements, et cetera, are out in full force. The game can be preordered at any convenience store in the county. The limited edition etched Final Fantasy XII black PSTwo is all preordered-out in Akihabara. Perhaps among Yasumi Matsuno's many reasons for stomping off the project was the scary thought of some bumpkin on a farm getting the game at 7-Eleven, playing it for ten minutes, and then deeming it not as good as Final Fantasy X-2, and then just watching "Final Fantasy VII Advent Children" again instead.

I mention the above scenario because it's likely to happen -- if you look at this list of Famitsu readers' top 100 games of all time, you'll notice Final Fantasy X at #1, and Final Fantasy VI sitting just beneath Final Fantasy IX, which is rather shocking.

The most exciting bit of Final Fantasy XII promotion is the "Potion" drink being sold by Suntory Beverages. You can see the odd little commercial for it here. As you can see, it is clearly being marketed to "people who like this sort of thing." And the people have responded in droves -- witness this fan outpouring of contemplated idiocy (thanks to the Professor on the MMCafe BBS). Here you can see things like the Potion bottle being compared to a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka, or mixed with miso soup.

Me and my friend Matt went out and drank Potions last night. We made videos. In the videos, mostly I moan about how the Suntory Whiskey bottle is beautiful in its craftsmanship, and how the Potion bottle is lazy in design, and a mere cash-in. Why not make a good beverage? If you watch these videos, you'll hear me thinking aloud (it's a hobby): Why not just put Cherry Coke (or Cherry Pepsi, as Suntory owns the Pepsi name in Japan) into the bottle and call it a "Potion"? Does it matter if it's good for you? I get more of an enthusiastic feeling after drinking a Coke, I swear.

Part One.
Part Two.

The verdict: it tastes like grape aftershave, something that might make someone in your office say "you smell vaguely and stupidly exotic today." I guess it has minerals and stuff in it, anyway.

The Potion costs 200 yen. In the original Final Fantasy, a Potion was 60 Gil. This gives us our first-ever real-world exchange rate for classic Final Fantasy currency: .3 Gil to the yen. At the day's exchange rate, this makes $1 US equivalent to 35.3124 Gil. This means that the Silver Sword we saved up 4,000 Gil to buy in 1987 is worth only approximately $113.27. I would assume the silver is not real.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XII has scored a perfect score of 40 -- all four reviewers scoring it 10 out of 10 -- from Japanese gaming bible Famitsu. It joins the club of five perfect-scoring games, one of which is a fighting game with a sequel that's better (Soul Calibur), two of which are Zelda games (Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker), and two of which (Nintendogs and Vagrant Story) didn't even make it onto Famitsu readers' top 100 list.

insertcredit.com will review this game -- guaranteed. What I've played so far of the finished version (burn the demo disc) is shockingly good. I won't jinx it by saying too much before I play more.