With just two short months left to the Japanese release of Final Fantasy XIII-2, it’s pretty much crunch-time for producer Yoshinori Kitase and his team. It’s the one final spurt to smooth out any rough edges still remaining, and they’ll need all the help they can get.
Lots and lots of help. From fresh perspectives. In the form of beta testers. Such as Final Fantasy XIII fan Yuko Oshima, who appeared on an Final Fantasy XIII-2 television special last month to give her thoughts on the TGS build. Yes, that’s right, the very same Yuko Oshima whom you can date or cruelly reject in Namco Bandai’s AKB1/48: I Fell in Love With an Idol in Guam. Oricon Style reports that the AKB48 star is the face of a new Final Fantasy XIII-2 commercial that will air in Japan from October 15.
Entitled "I’m an official beta tester", the ad will show Oshima walk into Square Enix’s offices in a pants-suit, greet the camera before receiving her official beta-tester namecard, and walking into a booth loaded with Final Fantasy XIII-2. It may be a commercial, but Oshima’s not just "pretending" to be a beta tester, she’ll actually be one. I’m not kidding – look, there’s even a manifest!
In the hand-written manifest, Oshima says that she and 12 other official beta-testers – collectively known as "Judge XIII" – will post their honest thoughts and brief previews of the game as they play through the final version, on a special campaign site.
Oshima hopes that fans of the series will check out the campaign site and – if they found the posts interesting like them on Facebook. She goes on to explain that if enough Facebook likes are generated, then as a sign of gratitude Square Enix will hold a meet-and-greet session – with Oshima appearing in Final Fantasy XIII-2 cosplay – to commemorate the game’s release.
The Judge XIII campaign site will open sometime in November, and Final Fantasy XIII-2 is scheduled for a December 15 release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan.
