Final Fantasy XIII Arrives In North America On March 9

I'll give it a look. I've been watching youtubes of a lot of VGLs and videogame orchestras lately anyway. Loved the PLAY! orchestra for Chrono Trigger and Cross.

Wow, the amount of whining in these comments is astounding. I thought Siliconera was above this. Can't we all just get along and stop crying one way or the other?

I'm happy the date is getting pushed up.

Woah, that's right. Haha, ouch. I wonder if Atlus will push Megaten back now.

Wow. Congrats on the “Lightning” PS3, Eddie. Let me know what your thoughts are of it's appearance in person.

I don't mean to dampen the celebration but there is technically no reason Square isn't doing a worldwide simultaneous launch for this one. Seems to me it's just more interested in making sure the Japanese audience-which is a minority of its sales-are happy and the foreigners have to wait. Didn't this company go on record stating that it would push for worldwide simultaneous launches like 2 years ago?

Just as a general question, is anyone else confused like hell as to what this game is actually about? Each new promotional video is more and more nonsensical. From what I can gather, the PVs would have us believe 95% of the game takes place in Pulse and involves some kind of war. I sure hope the game isn't that narrow in scope…

W/ this song, heck no, lol

Yeah, March is much sooner than expected, unless the date is in the British format read as September 3rd haha.

Nah, still glad to have made the pre-order and 12/17 just can't come sooner. But I also pre-ordered the US version on Amazon now.. though I really don't like the idea of playing the same game twice back to back, like MGS4.

If you like Mother 3 on GBA, you would love Sakura Note, it's a quirky and light hearted adventure game, though it consists mostly of running around and talking to people to further the story (and it's seen from different perspectives by different characters, sometimes by your pet dog and cat). The Uematsu soundtrack is awesome as well, which was the main reason I got this game, bu the game exceeded my expectation as well.

Oh to be sure there would be a major marketing problem if the game was releasing worldwide next month, but Square could have started marketing the game months ago. Call me jaded, but after living in Japan for a bit over 4 years now, I have seen the gross illogical nature of traditional Japanese companies. Sure this “view” is filtered through my own business understanding -I'm from America- but there is a reason so many foreigners (and nowadays many Japanese as well) don't want to work for a Japanese company here. One of my gaijin friends who DOES work for a domestic company went as far as to say,

“Getting promoted in a Japanese company isn't about good performance and skills so much as it is doing what you are told and staying with the company.”

And indeed he is correct; it is quite rare for executive-level staff to be hired from outside the company (hence Sir Howard Stringer was a double-blow for Sony Japan: a foreigner AND outside of Sony Japan) or for many top ranking officials to be actually qualified from a western standpoint. I've been in situations where I think I'm talking to the boss and yet it's the OTHER person that is the boss, yet said boss has no qualities or skills that would even make you think they are capable of working at their company.

Now I'm not saying Square is like this necessarily (though I could go off on that given I also know people who work or have worked there) but the point is kind of that Japanese companies really don't understand what needs to be done in terms of change, and Square in particular isn't all too interested in taking advice from foreigners (or so claim some of its foreign staff).

BUT yes, to look at the bright side that is a VERY short span of time which, as I said before, is quite impressive considering how things use to be. Heck I remember waiting some 10 months for Final Fantasy VII, and don't even get me started on 8/16-Bit games.

Hmm…I watched this link for the first time just now and…wow. First of all why did we need to watch that nameless actor walk around; it's a videogame so if not the developers then at least have the decency to use game footage; why not have just used a montage of scenes from the FF series?

And the part with the President of SE talking in English was amusing as well. You can see him reading off a teleprompter. I wonder if he can even speak English or if it's “Conversation School syndrome” (the phenomena in Japan where people who can't speak English go to a conversation “school” for a few weeks to help them “prepare” for a speech in a foreign language.)

Square Enix is taking itself WAY too seriously. Where was all the game footage? There is a playable DEMO in Japan, you would think foreign gamers would get to see a bit more.

i understand fully spoken japanese dude «« im just lazy to read it …

youu took this wayy to serious since when did i say the game was gona fail cause it is in english? O_O , im not a him btw «« im a her !
I said this stratagy for me fails ! i dont like it ok ! ME!
For gods sakes dude i played every FF in english before , although i didnt like the dubs i didnt had other choice at the time , this time arround there is choice and they are not giving ,it alllllllllll is os simple just gimmee subtitles , and bboth voice overs to choose from thats all im asking , since i cant do anything bout the song , ive heard it bout 5 times now , and sorry the first part is so not FF ……….. call what names you want i dont really care «« ill be happy with my importversion thank you , and ofc ill buy whan it comes out in europe so i can compare it …. now quit the flame war and be happy!

thats a nice Ps3 XD but im not much for the pink , anywya grats , its really cool !