Just one day to go now for Final Fantasy fans as the latest game in the series is released tomorrow.  Going around Tokyo its pretty common to come across posters, flags, billboards and drinks reminding you of the big day.  For those living in Tokyo, the place to be will be the Akihabara Yodabashi where the crowds will be gathering early, as is tradition.  Turn up there at the right time and you might even come across the GaijinPot film crew covering it…

One of the differences I noticed  about this Final Fantasy is that the girl characters all stand out as being really strong and that they, for me at least, look much more specific to Japan than any of the previous games with Serah for example really following a Shinjuku fashion style.  Check out the art below, part of a batch recently received by GaijinPot from the good people at Square Enix.

Snow Villers continues the fine tradition of gun-toting Final Fantasy heroes, but my all time favorite character in a Final Fantasy remains Cid from Final Fantasy VII.  Coming from Europe, with a different TV system and various language barriers to cross this was actually the first ever Final Fantasy game I played.

In 2001 Square Enix released the first big-screen movie of Final Fantasy, The Spirits Within.  The movie was a commercial failure, costing $135m to make but only taking back half that at the box-office.  What was noteworthy however was its attempt to make a computer animated movie look and feel the same as a live-action movie.  Something that you can see more and more of in the games.

Living in Shinjuku, I really do get the impression that the above character could of been lifted right off the street.

See what I mean?

Here’s the trailer so you can see it in action. Thoughts on Final Fantasy welcome below…