Final Fantasy III for the DS won’t be released until August 24th but it is already receiving a ton of hype in Japan. There are big posters in the local video game stores and shopping malls as you would see in any country, but in Japan you can also put in a pre-order at your local convenience store. At the Lawson (a popular chain) near my house I found a stack of pre-order flyers for the game. It may not be groundbreaking news, but I thought I would scan them anyway.

Click the images for higher resolution scans

The normal retail price of this game will be 5,980 yen (about $52 US), but a pre-order at Lawson will get you a copy of the game for 5,480 (about $48). Some stores also offer keychains or other pre-order goodies that are exclusive to the convenience stores. On the day this game arrives, there will be boxes of them in the back and the spookily-always-cheerful Lawson employees will be happy to exchange your pre-order ticket for one.

You can tell a game is going to be big when non-traditional outlets are selling it. Convenience stores usually only carry a few titles at any given time and they are the games that the stores anticipate will be the most successful. I wonder it this will become the second third party DS game to break the 1 million mark (the only game to do it so far was Tamagotchi Corner Shop). The chances look pretty good. I picked up this flyer in the morning on my way to work. There was a huge stack of them on the counter. By the end of the day they were all gone. Hmm.. Maybe I better pre-order after all.