Star Ocean 4 Out Today in Japan. Commence Jealousy.

If you live in Japan, or are import savvy, you probably have your hands on a copy of tri-Ace and Square Enix's Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope, which released today in the region. Though those of us in North America have another 5 sleeps before release, we can take a minute to be happy for our friends on the other side of the Pacific.

To commemorate the release of the game, Square Enix is holding a Release Commemoration Campaign. Gamers who picked up the game already can trot over to the official SO4 website to check how to register their game and get entered into a draw for some official SO4 swag.

50 people will score a nicely bound art book signed by character designer Katsumi Enami, 5 people will receive the game's official original soundtrack signed by composer Motoi Sakuraba, and 2 people will receive a full script of the game signed by the voice cast. In addition, another 1000 people will score an 11-piece SO4 poster set (one for each main character), and 1000 more will score SO4 faceplate stickers.

The registration is unfortunately only available to those with a Japanese address, so even if you imported the game you aren't eligible for this draw. Which kind of sucks.

It would be nice if a similar draw were opened for North America, but since we don't even appear to be getting a limited edition, I would say such a possibility is very near zero.

Though not much condolence, check out the final Japanese commercial spot for the game and take whatever comfort you can in the fact that you only have to wait 5 more sleeps. (Unless you're waiting for the European release, in which case, I am truly sorry.)



Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope is available today on the Xbox 360 in Japan. The North American version will be available on February 24, 2009, while the European version will be available on April 24, 2009.