Famitsu is Japan's GameSpot. The hype machine rules everything.



Bribes don't hurt either...

RE games aren't about the serious storyline anyway.. I thought the entire game's story was clichéd..

RE4 was pretty great but the ending totally brought it down a notch for me. I dunno, I just thought it was so lame.

Wind Waker had so much fresh facets fr. Gameplay to the world to the graphics. I think Twilight will have alot of fresh things but maybe not enough to be perfect. Then again it depends on the 4 reviewing the week and their opinions so whatever.

Really? I mean, I can see where you're coming from, but considering that Wind Waker got a perfect score, I'm leaning towards the idea that they may actually give TP the same treatment.

Though we'll see.

And I agree--RE4 is better than at least two of Famitsu's "perfect" games.

I would never want that.

"at least nothing that we've seen in the trailers"

But WE haven't seen everything in the trailers. I remember Miyamoto (or Aonuma) saying that Twilight Princess still has a lot of stuff that hasn't been revealed (and I'm assuming it has something to do with gameplay). So who knows if it's a reinvention or not. We have only seen like the beginning, some horse riding (from the beginning) and possibly something like the first or second dungeon in the game.

twilight princess wont get a perfect score because it isnt going to have some brand new or really well done gameplay mechanic. think ocarina of time without as much innovation.

so i think ffxii got a perfect score because of its innovative take on the traditional turn based rpg battle system, apparently it works really well in the final version of the game.

I would be very surprised if it didn't at this point.

*Raises hand* I do.

Too good to translate = our brains would melt in front of such a brilliant script. Only the Japanese are capable of handling something so great.

Jeez, I was trying to be nice. :p Yeah, it really was horrible...but considering how confusing the political aspects of the storyline were anyway, who knows whether a better translation would've helped. FF7 wasn't bad at all, but maybe that's because I played the PC version which I heard had made some corrections to blatant mistakes (like changing Barret's "Ungarmax" to "Angermax", for example).

As for FFTA, still think about the enemy names and such. FFT just had some obvious mistakes which you don't see in FFTA, and I don't mean just storyline. >_>

No. It wasn't "quirks". FFT has horrendous translation that made some lines borderline incomprehensible. FF7 was like that at times, but nowhere near as bad as FFT.

That said, I loved the game as well, and I even helped some GameFAQs FAQ-writers test the builds and strategies a bit.

Also, FFTA barely had any confusing dialogue or even that many dialogue to begin with. So it's not a balanced comparison there...

Our ver. of Wind Waker got lessened in siffiucly and two basically whole places got taken out because they though Americans would whine about it. Ironically it's the thrown in quick hiun that pissed Americans off.

And BTW folks, if you never got my subtle hint, I think their love for this genre and series might put it a tad bit higher than we will like..

FFT was badly translated? I loved that game to death and spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on it. I loved the story (and all the FFT-whatnot is why I'm looking forward to FF12 so much.) If it was badly translated, then the original must have just been too good to translate. Never tried Vagrant Story, though I get the impression I'd love it. Problem is I can never find a new copy and I refuse to buy used ones (especially online.) I'm probably screwed then, huh.

But anyway, I was so psyched about FF12 to begin with that seeing that it got a 40/40 really doesn't get me anymore excited. But then again, I've been this excited ever since I heard there was a link to the FFT universe. Is this coming out (in the US) this year? If it is then sweet jebus--talk about a good year for video games.

"which are the worse games that famitsu reviewed? :P"

Madden and Halo :P

>I'll probably pick this up after KH2. So far, I've played FFs IV-X and not one of them has ended up horrible
You didn't play FFX-2?? :P. Now THATS a game were the bad things overshadow the good ones. Well in my opinion anyway... ;)

"I'm sorry, but that's a really dumb question. Who in hell reviews games based on demos? You are aware that FFXII will be released next week, so the game is ready, probably has been for weeks (as they have to make millions of copies of the game and ship them, and that is not done in a day)."

Y'know... you asked who reviews games based on demos, I was wondering the same thing. Just looking at the comments that preceded mine, people were saying that FFXII couldn't have gotten that "perfect" score because the demo was bad. That seems certainly like a review based on the demo if I ever heard one.

I'm not dumb, just asking a logical question. People kept saying that the demo was bad, therefore FFXII isn't worth its score. But if they played a more developed game than the demo showed then what every's said about "the demo this" or "the demo that" really does not matter. They were able to see something we we have not, something that apparently was worth the scores they gave.

I don't think the demo was even an accurate reflection of the final product, the gambit system in the demo had two options: on and off. The gambit system in the final game had a TON of options to configure the AI, perhaps the most extensive customizable AI companions ever seen in any RPG. The demo had no towns whatsoever, even from the gameplay movie shown, one of the towns, Rebanestre was insanely detailed and lively, moreso than any single player RPG to date, and close to MMORPG-level, WITHOUT the massive slowdowns, with an epic story that Matsuno is known for.

"And even if it gets 5/10 or else... the game still gonna sell millions :P"

Pretty much the most true statement in the whole thread. It could get 1/10 and still sell like mad b/c its a mainstream FF title.

I'm kinda looking forward to a new FF, whether with a new battle system or not. Just long overdue in my mind.

And even if it gets 5/10 or else... the game still gonna sell millions :P

*arbitrary number*

Like I said, I actually loved the demo once I turned off the Gambits and had it on Wait Mode. It felt like Grandia but with the ability to run around if I wanted to. Having some extra stuff added to that to make it more complex (such as using XI's skill chains) would be quite nice.

Nice to know we have such a cynical crowd here.

LOL @ Teitoku. Nice comment.

personally, based on the demo that I played and the pictures I saw prior, I could not help but feel it was "Final Fantasy XI: now you can play solo!"

the only tolerable way for me to play was to turn off "Gambit" and all of the other new optional BS. I can only hope the plot is better than the last, and lacking the whiny main character. (curse you Tidus!)

I haven't played the demo, but I doubt it was the same as the E3 2004 demo. I played that one and there were lots of characters in it with names like "Townsfolk #516" and I doubt they would let consumers play something like that.

What is this Edited Wind Waker Version? So we got an easier version or something? I really hope that's not the case, but I bet it is.

As for Final Fantasy XII, the battle system will be the true test as whether people embrace it or push it away. I've got my concerns, but then again, SquareEnix has been revamping the battle system with the last couple of Final Fantasy titles so I think if it's given a fair chance, it could work well.

I think the big thing here 1stly is that we are trying to say these reviewers are on-point WHEN TEY ARE NOT! Why? Because diff. reviewers are very convoluted esp. when so big in saying what is perfect and what not.

I don't believe in game reviews, it's impossible for them to be spot-on. I rather go by the overall vibe of the consumers. And that is what the true greatest games of all time should be chosen fr. the vibe the consumers came back with within the 1st 3 months of the game's released.

Anyways, I digress. FF12 and Nintendogs are 2 arguable thing because of cultural differences and an apprciation of diff. things. Te Jap. play Nintendogs very diff. than Americans do. Appreciate that. And neko, Remember we got the Edit Wind Waker Version ;) ;) ;)

>if a game gets 10 out of 10, it really doesn't mean it's perfect. It just means that the reviewer probably thinks that it has so much great things that all the possible negative things are irrelevant

Hmm i agree with that completely. It's utopic talk to say a game is OMG PERRRRFECT IN EVERY WAY, and even more utopic to say... OMG EVERYONE WILL LOVE THIS GAME.

Btw if you look at my scores in my game collection you'll see a lots of 10, thats because i review with the quote above in mind.

About "reliable reviews", i prefer to go over gametab.com or gamerankings. Ok, the overall score is just that, i just watch the individual scores form various sites, and if the scores differs highly in a bunch of them, i browse them directly and see why.

In that way i think you can get a good view of the critic in general and the game vs your tastes wich btw everyone should know. Then you decide, to buy it or not...

So at least if you believe the third reviewer, the game could be quite hard. I noticed that in the demo, at least when there was more than one or two enemies attacking you.

Yes, very nice that FFXII got top marks. Agree or disagree with Famitsu, just make up your own mind and try to judge the game once you get to play it.

I'd like to know what Galactale on DS is. Can any one out there help?

blah dee blah and bloop dee bloop...

just cause it got perfect scores doesn't mean it's a good game...

Speaking of Skies of Arcadia, I'd rather see a full fledged SoA sequel instead.

But I'll call FFXII as "Vagrant Story 2" like it really is.

Blah blah blah, Famitsu scores and perfect games, whatever.

I thought the demo for FFXII was pretty fun - it's not the battle system but the idiots that make me dislike MMOs - but it wasn't quite enough to make up for how all the characters look like a cross between Tidus, Zell, and a Chippendales show. I do like that it appears to have been inspired somewhat by Skies of Arcadia - with a talented dev team, more Skies of Arcadia influence can never be a bad thing - and I also thought that the coherent world was the most interesting part about FFTA, so it's nice to see that returning. But whoever designed these characters needs to learn how to put some decent clothes on them for chrissake.

I'll probably pick it up within a month of launch, just because I don't think the team has it in them to make a truly bad game, at least not with a budget like that. However, I will wait until it gets Greatest Hits status if it manages to have a voice actor as bad as Tidus' and you can't disable it.

I just KNEW there'd be monday morning quarterbacks on the entire "perfect score" issue. But hey, some game reviewers see a 10 as a score for very enjoyable and a well done game. To expect PERFECTION out of a game with the score of 10 doesn't sound very realistic to me

No game will ever be perfect and I doubt any reviewer will view it as such. If the only way to achieve a 10 was to have absolute perfection, no 10 could ever be achieved. In my opinion, a 10 signifies "The highest a team of humans could be reasonably expected to achieve, given the limitations of the industry" with those limitations being things like unlimited funds isn't possible, a limited development time is inevitable, and the hardware is not capable of everything.

Sure, I agree, wolvenone.

But I think gaming nirvana (if you will) can be achieved when the experience of playing the game--and all the amazing things the game does RIGHT--allows the game to transcend its flaws and become greater than them. I would never say that Ocarina of Time is flawless, but I do think that it's as close to a perfect game as I have played.

to hell, i have not played the demo, but after ff7, all the ff games, hasn´t been the same, not counting ffIX, if there is a perfect ff game, that´s FFVI, end of the discussion.

You're banned.

beavis: darkage does not work here. Those that work here have different colored usernames. Look at mine for an example.

Everybody: CHILL. If I allowed images here, I'd put a big ole chill pill picture. Here are your reasons for chilling:

1. It is true that only a few games have gotten a 40/40 in Famitsu, but keep in mind that is four individual perfect scores, not one perfect scores. TONS of games have gotten 10/10 scores in Famitsu. A 40 of 40 only happens when coincidentally four reviewers all give it a perfect. It should be given the same weight as when you see four of the same score listed on GameRankings.com

2. It's Famitsu. Besides being paid for reviews and having to apologize to publishers when they give low scores in the past, their scores simply don't always make sense. In general, they are a good indication of whether a game is awesome, good, or bad. Bad tends to be below 7/7/7/7 because they rarely gives scores below a 5 or 6.

3. It's perfectly fine to disagree with a game's ranking and not discredit an entire publication. Here at GAF, we've given a few perfect scores to GTA games and I don't agree with most of them, among other scores. That doesn't mean I don't trust GAF :P

4. If you still want to hate on Famitsu, I can think of one place online where you can get reviews from ;)

If you work here, darkage, then ban me. There are other sites that allow discussion without threats from overzealous moderators.

As for the demo not being great, I felt it was an attempt at making a turn based battle system feel like it was real time. If I remember right, the boss battle on the beach required me to do absolutely nothing once I engaged him.

"And the ass-kissing of the FF series continues... the demo still sucked though"

Why?

And the ass-kissing of the FF series continues... the demo still sucked though.

well, personally, I'm not terribly interested in Nintendogs. I can see why somebody would give it a perfect score, but I prefer a more active gameplay experience.

Mainly I was arguing that the review wasn't wrong, because it's an opinion. Theoretically speaking, it's kinda hard to get an opinion wrong.

Okay, yes it can be done, I know this too well. But when it comes to movies and videogames, very hard for an opinion to be wrong.

What's the nekofrog argument this time? From what I've read it looks like he is right here. His opinion seems to be Famistus doesn't always score games perfectly while the opposing view is "Nintendogs was perfect and so is Famitsu and therefore FFXII."

Oh, and I'm in the FFVI camp, since Squire brought it up.

giving a game a score all comes down to personal opinion. personally, i wouldn't have given ocarina a 40/40. and personally i would give mariobros.3 a 40/40. asking what game you'd give a perfect score just boils down to how much you like the game, and it would seem that the people at famitsu all liked ff12 equally.

Mario Bros 3, I'm not sure of myself. I feel it to be one of the best titles for the NES, and I wanted to include something from every major generation, but the Mario games, while fantastic, are probably not quite deserving of an perfect score.

Dragon Quest 8, I would have given a perfect score, if the environments for the second half of the game were larger, or if the plot near the end hadn't been quite as anti-climatic. Fix either of these problems, and I feel the flaws left would have become insubstantial.

Mmm... games I would give a 40.

Well....

Ocarnia of Time
Chrono Trigger
Super Mario Bros 3.... MAYBE.

I'm actually very strict about perfect scores. Though there are plenty of titles I'll give near perfect scores.

Dragon Quest 8
Final Fantasy 7 and
Half Life 2

being examples of games I'd give 38 or 39 out of 40.

I still haven't picked up Ratchet: Deadlocked(that's the NA name), but have an interest in it. I've heard bad things, but I just enjoyed R&C3 far too much to simply ignore it.

R&C3 builds on its predeccesors in every way possible. Every tiny flaw has been addressed, from a fine tuned, nearly perfect control scheme to weapon and health upgrades that go for 8 levels on each weapon(5 on the first run, 3 more on the Challenge mode, which is the same game, only you start with all the same stats as you ended and it's much harder), to an incredibly funny storyline. The controls are so well done, I've never felt more in the shoes of a character than any other game. No storyline has drawn me in as much as that perfect control scheme did. I didn't so much move the character as I thought about what to do and he did it, it's that intuitive and well crafted.

Even though you didn't ask me, I feel like sharing anyway.

The games I'd give a 40:

Ocarina of Time
Ratchet and Clank 3
Phantasy Star IV
Metal Gear Solid 3

Those are the only 4 games that I'd give the highest score possible. Doesn't mean they are perfect, but they are amazingly good.

"the graphics look decent,"

Well that's an understatement. :| FFXII looks amazing, you really can't deny that.

And I really don't understand what's the problem with the fighting system? It's like ATB, but real time. You choose the thing to do, the character does the command after a short wait. It's just like in older ones except the random encounters are gone, all enemies don't even attack you if you don't attack it first. If you choose the wait mode, you can order all your team members well (almost as well as in the older games, not quite as well, but almost).

So you can do everything you did in the older games, BUT you don't have to suffer from random encounters. It makes the playing more fluent. It also removes the "X-mashing". The fighting was also harder, if you had more than two enemies attacking you.

So all the new things it brings are positive things (harder, more fluent, NO RANDOM ENCOUNTERS).

Of course you have to remember that the demo had a very limited version of the final battle system.


Also, nekofrog, if a game gets 10 out of 10, it really doesn't mean it's perfect. It just means that the reviewer probably thinks that it has so much great things that all the possible negative things are irrelevant. So yeah, it's 100% sure that at some point you get bored at Nintendogs. All the Famitsu reviewers still thought that the long or short time you play it is so fun that it deserves 10/10.

If 10/10 was a score for a perfect game, there wouldn't even be games that should get it. Ocarina of Time certainly isn't perfect. It has its share of little problems.

Don't freak out yet. Final Fantasy is a g reat game, but Nintendogs got a 40, and look at it. The game died a week later.

Yet another topic regressing into opinion pushing and witty comebacks. *Rolls eyes* Is it just me, or does a fair portion of GAF members think a little too highly of their own opinions?

No one can force you to like a game. However, you can certainly be influenced if you keep an open mind. Famitsu has reviewed thousands of games, so they've got a bit of experience. If you agree with most of their reviews, then chances are you can trust them on FFXII. If you tend to disagree with most of their ratings, then you probably could care less about their reviews.

It just boils down to how much credit you give Famitsu, and their "perfect score". A perfect score doesn't mean a perfect game, it just means the reviewers liked it a lot. There are two extremes: "Wow, Famitsu gave a perfect score! That means this game is a must buy"; and "Yet another undeserving perfect to a piece of trash. I won't buy it just because it got a perfect". I think it's safe to be in between--it might not be the best thing ever, but it's probably pretty good.

The bottom line, though, is that the only way to "prove them wrong" is to play the game yourself. And should you (gasp!) disagree with Famitsu's review, you can certainly lower your trust for them, but no need to bash other people for trusting Famitsu or agreeing with their reviews.

I should've done some research before I said that. Apparently, it got a 39. Boy, where the hell was I?

40/40 scores in Famitsu are given to games which do everything they had the potential to do.

Now, why ddon't you ass***es talk about something important, like METAL SAGA DS?

Okay, A: you state that Nintendogs is tech demo and not an actual game at one point, and state that it's a pet-sim "game," at another point.

You cannot have it both ways, it's either a game or it isn't.

B: You state that there's already a lot of pet sim games out on the market.

While this may be true, it could be argued that there are a lot of survival horror games on the market as well. A lot of them are quite crappy in my opinion, but that by no means has any bearing whatsoever on the quality of Nintendogs.

C: My Girlfriend lost interest in it therefore the game is low quality.

You do realize that just because your girlfriend likes cute things doesn't mean she'll like the game right? Everybody has different tastes and different attention spans.

Okay, now I'm going to throw in responses to arguments you didn't even make, cause honestly you didn't make very many here.

D: Simulators are not real games because they lack the basic criteria for gameplay, whether it be flight sims, life sims, or pet sims.

Okay, what exactly is the definition of a videogame? I don't have a dictionary on me, but I imagine the definition would read something like....

Interactive electronic media in which you must accomplish goals in order to progress.

Now, yes, the goals in sim games tend to be less defined then the ones found in more traditional videogame media. After all, in every Mario game it's readily appearent to those that play that the goal is to reach the end of the obstacal course, where as in sim games you almost have to set your own goals.

However, even if you have to set your own goals in sim games, the goals are still there. Furthermore, the titles are still interactive, and a certain level of intelligence, persaverence or skill is useually required to reach these goals.

In that respect, Sim games differ little from traditional videogames. Infact the "sim," label could be applied to several traditional genres with little effort.

E: My critical thinking skills are crumby.

I beg to differ, but that's really beside the point. Attacking another persons intelligence isn't typically conductive to a good debate.

Furthermore, there's no reason for you to be so defensive. Game reviewers all have different tastes, Famitsu's taste obviously doesn't match up with yours and that's that.

I'm not arguing that your opinions are invalid, I'm merely arguing that people are allowed to have thier own view on things, and that includes game reviewers.

So if you don't like Famitsu's reviews, keep looking until you find a reviewer with tastes similer to your own and that should be the end of it.

I believe Nintendogs got a 40/40 because it was the first game of it's kind. Instead of just raising some cyber animal, you actually interacted with it.

I own Nintendogs. I don't play it all that much anymore because it did get repetitive. But, I don't see it as a waste of money. I had fun with it while it lasted.

It was innovative. It is a Touch! Generation game that deserves the score Famitsu gave it. Besides, it is their OPINION. Just as it is your opinion, Nekofrog, that it doesn't deserve that score and that it isn't a game.

Famitsu seems to be getting soft lately. Don't get me wrong, FFXII may really is worth its salt. But even DOA4 and Sengoku Musou 2 have gotten really high scores on recent Famitsu.

The first FF game to get a perfect score. Not bad.

Most likely, the reasoning for high scoring probably wasn't based totally on the gameplay, but the story.

When did I ever say it didn't deserve it BECAUSE a game I liked didn't get a perfect score?

Your critical thinking skills aren't that well developed, are they?

Go through my posts. I've documented well the reasons, technical and personal, why Nintendogs did NOT deserve a perfect score.

It was a crappy pet-sim game in a genre that is CHOCK FULL of them.

There was nothing to do it in except watch your puppy do things, throw something and watch it react the same way every time, or take it for a walk in which you have no control and just have to watch it.

This is not a game. There is no objective to it. It did not deserve a perfect score by any means.

Care to debate actual points yet, or run and hide?

WOW!! I can't wait for this it's been too long since the FF X.

nekofrog's "girlfriend" got bored with Nintendogs. Therefore, it does not deserve a 40/40.

Come on people! It's common sense!

Nekofrog, you do realize that every reviewer goes about reviewing with a different methodalogy correct?

So you may not agree with the scores Famitsu gives out based on thier methodalogy, so what? That doesn't make these scores any more or less valid.

As for Nintendogs. I can see it getting a 40/40 based merely on the level of interactivity and creativity abundant in the title. Yes the genre has been done before in virtual pets, but it was never as interactive and fully featured as Nintendogs.

Will some people put the game down after a week? Of course, not everybody has the same attention span. When the entire virtual pet craze hit, I knew people that bought a virtual pet and gave it away two days later, while others were obsessive over the things for months.

I imagine it's the same deal with Nintendogs.

OH and FFVI is superior by the way. Just letting you know where I stand in the great debate between VI or VII. :) They should make a game called VI vs. VII and make it a World of Warcraft type game and watch the madness ensue. I'd play that.

Vagrant Story deserved a 40 based on the story alone. The timing-based/skill-based battle system, complex weapon creation and beautiful graphics/sound pushed the game and kept it there.

Seeing as how FF12 has the same writer, I'm sure it'll be fantastic. I actually really enjoyed the demo (it almost felt like Grandia while in Wait Mode) so whatever they've added to it should be great.

Nintendogs just shows you how different the Japanese are. It's a video game in that it's in a cartridge for a video game system but it's really just that the Japanese explode when a cute puppy barks at them. It gets boring for adults fairly fast, but my brother bought it for his kids and they love it and still play it quite a bit.

Yeah, I agree with nekofrog for once. And the same thing happened to me. I bought an entire DS and Nintendogs for my girlfriend thinking she would never put it down because she goes crazy for kind of cutesy stuff like that, but after about a week she just gave it back to me because she didn't play it anymore.

The demo for FFXII left me more than wanting more, and simply put, I was pretty dissappointed.

But a perfect score from Famitsu? Yeah, I'm definitely going to be playing this.

Wow. Not what I expected at all, after playing the demo. Either they really polished the demo since then, or it was misleading, or the story is 'oh my god' awesome. I dunno.

I wasn't really wanting this game after the demo...but now...hmm.

I know Final Fantasy X got a 39/40 and Final Fantasy IX got a 38/40, does anyone remember what VII and VIII got?


Note: XI doesn't count.

I cant wait!

vagrant story got 40/40 too?
i gotta start playin again ive been neglecting it

@ ninx- are you abbreviating a three letter word?

@ all-
I would say that all the games on that list deserve their score, even without playing FF12. Their past track record is impressive to me.

It took people awhile, but most people who gave Zelda: WW a chance ended up loving it. Nintendogs is purely perfect for what it is, regardless of wheter you appreciate the genre or not, and vagrant story is on of the PSone era greats from square.

Soul calibur is a no brainer, I don't know what your thinking denying that one Neko

Vagrant Story kicks ass. One of my favorites ever.

The way I see it, Square has divided up FF fans into two categories:

1. People who disavow FFXI as a "true" FF game and never touched it.

2. Those who embraced FFXI.

The 2. people are going to feel right at home with FFXII battle system (hell, all the beach level needed was a dialogue box with shouts for raises and PL's and would have BEEN the dunes.)

The 1. people are going to be put out by the new game system.

With regard to Famitsu's scoring, as has been shown on this forum it's nearly impossible to claim that the "perfect score" games are bad, without invoking "personal opinion". Which leads me to beleive that the Famitsu has done an amazing job a giving out perfect scores to games that on a technical and categorical level truly deserve it.

How about providing links to the original reviews, translated or otherwise. I think people put too much emphasis on the final rating, rather than what the review text might be saying.

I really can't say too much about the score for FF12, but I do know that without the demo, I would still have serious reservations about whether the FF series would still have a place in my heart. FF12 was the absolute last straw for captivating me on the series. When games with much more intriguing battle systems such at Shadow Hearts and Tales of ... came along, I pretty much lost my passion for the series.

I am really excited about the change to the battle system and the overall look of the game. I know I am in the minority, but I can't wait. Besides, if the game is half as good as all the delays would warrant, then it should be darn good.

Replay value in Nintendogs? There were only two activities: walking your dog around the block and contests. It was easy to get to the highest ranking in the contests if you were moderately good, and walking the dogs gets seriously old. The game was fun for about a week, then I realized how boring it was becoming and stopped playing it.

VS had great graphics and story, but the gameplay sucked IMO. I think that's probably what happened with FF12- the graphics look decent, and the story seems pretty solid, but I absolutely hated the gameplay of the demo.

Pertaining to the claims that the game would be bad just according to that demo:

Wasn't the demo something SquareEnix had originally put together for E3 over two years ago? If that's the case, they'd have plenty of time to revamp some of the flaws in it. Not to mention the fact that the demo *was* combat only, so it's not like it should be taken as a display about how the entire game is going to be. The story was especially turning out to be awesome.

Reviews have never influenced me into buying anything. My tastes in games could be completely different than those that are reviewing it, so I don't really care what a game scores.

Out of the other 40/40 titles listed, I have only played Ocarina of Time. And those disagreeing with 40/40 scores, that's your opinion, the reviewers obviously felt different about the games.

Does Famitsu define what a 10 means? Some use "perfect" but others consider a '10' to be "outstanding" or something to that effect (i.e. their highest regards vs no flaws). I would take the latter for Famitsu, plus you have to have 4 reviewers all come to the same conclusion to get a 40/40, not just one source. Children of Mana got 2 10's but also 2 8's. You never know that with 2 different reviewers, it might've gotten all 10's - or all 8's!

I'm looking forward to FFXII and respect the reviewers of Famitsu. They back up their scores with valid reasons, be it a 10 or a 4.

man, nekofrog. you're clearly a smart guy with some good insight, but you sure do get a kick out of disagreeing with anything and everything.

just curious - what games would YOU rather see on that list?

in my honoest opinion ocarina didn't deserve a perfect score either.

I think that reviews are subjective to a few things.

1. Technical Merit at the time.
2. Completeness of game concept in both presentation and implementation.
3. Reviewers opinion at the time on the quality of the game based on their own personal standards.

That said, I would say that I think every game that has recieved a perfect score from Famitsu's main magazine over the long history of the magazine has deserved it.

Take for example, Vagrant Story. Vagrant Story has an amazing battle engine, top notch presentation for its time and I still consider it to be one of the more impressive games on the PS One and at the time, it was a technically superior game. As for game concept and implementation? I think the battle engine was rather well done and the concept of the game worked extremely well. Now, I happen to really like Vagrant Story. I would give that game a perfect score or close to a perfect score. Others may disagree; but that's just how reviews are.

The FFXII score does not surprise me at all. Wise decision for no-one else to release anything in the same week as this, and I can't wait to see the sales figures for it.

Famitsu perfect score ever (from Wikipedia):

* The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, for Nintendo 64)
* Soul Calibur (Namco, for Dreamcast)
* Vagrant Story (Squaresoft, for PlayStation)
* The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Nintendo, for Nintendo GameCube)
* Nintendogs (Nintendo, for Nintendo DS)
* Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix, for Playstation 2)

Keep in mind, that Japanese have a different kind of taste when it comes to "KAWAIIII!!!!111111!!" things.

:P

f*** me.

I want it. I think the 40/40 was given since it eliminated the random battles ^^

Hot damn! Now there are two Matsuno titles in their perfect scores list. This really makes my day. I mean, I'd like to say I'm not extremely surprised, but... this is a sight to see. I'm so happy. Knowing this makes the wait for the game even harder.