Suffice it to say that Final Fantasy fans have been waiting a long time for the next game in the series. The game was initially announced within hours of President George W. Bush being sworn in for his first term in office. In the intervening five years, it has been delayed numerous times, going from March 2004 to Summer 2004 to April 2005 to March 2006.

Now, with the game's release actually on the horizon, the first signs are emerging that it was worth the wait. The latest issue of Famitsu, Japan's most widely read and respected game magazine, gave the game a score of 40, the highest rating on its scale. The score is derived from the combined 1-10-point ratings of a quartet of reviewers--meaning all four found the game all but flawless.

Final Fantasy XII's 40 rating puts it into a very elite club, whose members include The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64), the original Soul Calibur (Dreamcast), The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube), and, most recently, Nintendogs (DS).

Final Fantasy XII is set to ship in Japan March 16--a week from Thursday. No US release date has been set yet, but GameSpot's extensive previous coverage has plenty of details on the game.