Final Fantasy VII: Reunion

A post in Square-Enix’s Japan Product Blog today unveiled the Final Fantasy Trading Arts Mini vol 2 set, giving the photo below:

Cute, aren’t they? They’re due out in hobby stores nation-wide (in Japan, of course) April 18th, for a price of ¥330 each (about $3.17 USD), ¥346 tax-included ($3.33 USD). It’s unknown if they come in blind boxes. Each figure stands about 6cm high.
The Japanese release includes (from top to bottom, left to right) Ashe (FFXII), Basch (FFXII), Auron (FFX), Squall (FFVIII), and Tifa (FFVII).

I noted that’s the Japanese release, because the US Square-Enix Product Blog also announces these little guys, but it looks like the US is only getting 4:

Tifa, Squall, Auron, and Ashe will be online sale exclusively at the US Square-Enix Online Shop sometime mid-April for tag of $16.99 for the whole set of 4.

Both blogs were keen to note that although the figures are small in size, they’re big on detail. From the pictures released, they certainly look like it.

Source: FF7AC Reunion and SE Product Blog

By now everyone knows you can get a Shinra UMD case when you preorder Crisis Core (only at GameStop, EB Games, Game Crazy in the US, and Amazon.com). But if a special-edition piece of silicon isn’t enough for you, you could always preorder at Best Buy and get this holofoil-edition cover art case which is similar, if not identical to the cover art/case of the version of Crisis Core that came with the Japan-only Crisis Core PSP bundle.
(ok, I cheated and used the JP cover art, but they ARE identical, aside from the US having the “T” rating in place of Asia’s “Cero B”. Not sure if both the US and JP versions of this cover art are holofoil, though. Can anyone confirm?)

If you want something useful, I’d stick with the UMD case preorder. But if you absolutely MUST have every version of everything ever made ever (like me), grab the Best Buy preorder. (It’s worth noting that many Best Buys are not taking in-store preorders until February 25th for a min. $5 deposit, while online orders have been open since the announcement of the promotion). Or grab the Best Buy if you just like shiny things.

Let’s recap:
Japan got:

• earbuds
• limited-edition individually numbered silver PSP slims with custom graphics
• buster sword phone strap

the US gets:

• silicon UMD case with Shinra logo (better suited for a BC port, imo)
• shiny version of the JP special edition cover art

Is it me, or does the US *always* get shafted for kickass release goodies? (anyone remember the US “collector’s edition” of Advent Children and Japan’s Advent Pieces? Yeah.) Europe and Australia, you’d probably be lucky to get postcards.

At least our (US) release date is still set for March 25, 2008. *knocks on wood*