FFXIII-2: Game Plus mode, perfect Famitsu score, 1 million shipped

There's lots of new Final Fantasy XIII-2 news for you today: perks for Final Fantasy XIII players, a rare perfect score from Famitsu, and some shipment numbers. Let's stop wasting time and get you caught up on all the awesomeness below the break.

In a Dengeki PlayStation interview (via Andriasang), FFXIII-2 producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama revealed that there will be perks available to those who still have save files from Final Fantasy XIII.

One is a bonus which gives the player special monster decorations, another provides a higher success rate when gambling.

The magazine also has word that each episode in the game will last around the three hour mark, and an auto-save feature has been implemented as well.

Also, if you finish the game and want to play it again, a Game Plus mode has been added which includes extra unlockable items and new monster decorations.

For those wondering how well the game is scoring with reviewers, Lens of Truth (thanks, Deacon) has word that Famitsu has given FFXIII-2 a perfect 40/40 score, which is really rare for the Japanese magazine. The other two games given a perfect score this year, were The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. So that bit of news might sway you.

And Finally, Andriasang is reporting that the first shipment of the PS3 version is at 1 million units, which is just a bit under half of what Square shipped for the original FFXIII in December 2009. Shipment figures for the Xbox 360 version weren't provided.

FFXIII-2 releases in Japan on December 15, the US on January 31, and in Europe on February 3.