Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

Final Fantasy XII was not a game that was met with universal praise. In terms of fan reaction, it was rather mixed. There were a great deal of people who did not like it for the lack of character depth and change to story telling. Just the same, however, there were some who were quite taken with the world of Ivalice and who loved the political and philosophical intrigue of the original Final Fantasy XII. Even if you didn't like Final Fantasy XII, however, Revenant Wings is so different that it's almost an entirely new game. That also means that if you loved Final Fantasy XII there's no guarantee you'll like Revenant Wings.

Vaan and Penelo are now full fledged sky pirates. In this adventure they're helping the Aegyl people in the land of Lemure. In truth, the story is a lot simpler than Final Fantasy XII. It is also a bit more character driven. This adventure is an all new one, though. It takes place after Final Fantasy XII but even if you didn't finish the original game, it's no big deal. There are a few familiar faces, and a couple of references to the storyline of the original, but you're not missing anything by not having played the original title.

In terms of how the game looks, Revenant Wings stands tall. The cutscenes are some of the best looking the DS has ever had by far. Even superior to Square-Enix's own Final Fantasy III. The game itself also looks pretty good. There is a good deal of unique artistic design here. Those who played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance will be able to recognize the art style instantly. Its also very colorful looking and bright. Revenant Wings also has a strong soundtrack. Much of it being remixed from the original game, but it sounds wonderful nonetheless.

Eye candy aside, how exactly does the game play? This is where it becomes harder to judge Revenant Wings. The game is a Real Time Strategy game that's not really made for the RTS crowd. Needless to say, even if you don't like RTS games, you might still get into Revenant Wings. At the same time, however, the game is a little over simplified. Especially when compared to Final Fantasy XII. Everything is controlled via stylus. You can tap units and move them or you can trace out a box to select more than one if need be.

If you're looking for a deeply strategic and challenging game, you won't really find it with Revenant Wings. It has a lot of what you'd expect from a strategy game. Such as characters who are better as ranged fighers, or better suited for melee. You'll also find that each type has a weakness. What it doesn't have that you'd expect, however, is a lot of strategy. There's a strategic element to the game but you probably won't have to utilize a lot of it. In terms of difficulty the game is incredibly easy. While there will be some missions that'll take you a while, it'll mostly come as a result of the game speed not moving fast enough. Your units move very slowly on the battlefield. You can't speed things up much either.

Along those lines, the game has been simplified a lot. Where as Final Fantasy XII had a lot of complexity--especially with its gambit system--Revenant Wings doesn't offer a whole lot at all. The gambit system has returned but there's not nearly as much tweaking and experimenting to be done with it here. You can only assign one action to characters. On the other hand, you'll probably spend a lot of your time giving orders manually anyway.

Units get bunched up a lot as well. Things can get pretty hectic on the battlefield. But it's no fun when units get bunched up and you're only trying to select one.

It's hard to judge Revenant Wings. It is by no means a bad game. On the other hand, though, its like comparing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance to the original Final Fantasy Tactics. Final Fantasy XII was a huge game filled with a lot of complexity in its story and gameplay. Revenant Wings sacrifices all that. Perhaps simplicity is key in this case, but sometimes its hard to escape the fact that Revenant Wings, like Tactics Advance, could've stood to reach a little higher. The story could've been a little deeper and the complexities to the combat could've been fleshed out and expanded more. Regardless of that, the game is still pretty fun.

Pros:

+A bit more focus on the characters this time around
+Very simple game to pick up and play
+Beautiful game--especially the cutscenes
+Good soundtrack

Cons:

-Combat is slow
-Forgettable story
-Far too easy for a strategy game

Over the last couple of years, Square-Enix has shown Nintendo alot of love. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, because I''m not. I'm quite thankful. The majority of all my DS & Gameboy Advance games are products of the company and I've loved every last one. While I hadn't played FFXII on the PS2, I was curiously drawn to this game from watching some trailers of the game. What I can tell you about it, now that I have it, is that Revenant Wings is like Heroes of Mana in alot of ways. A mission- based real time strategy RPG, if you will, that picks up right after the events of FFXII on the PS2. This story, however, is in no way related to that one. It follows Vaan, Penelo, Balthier, and Fran in a new adventure. Out of all the titles I have of Square for handhelds, this game-by far- has the most CGI FMV I've ever seen in one. The gameplay is addictive(just like FFIII & Front Mission were to me) and the game is absolutely gorgeous graphically. All in all, it is a pretty ambitious game. One that deserves to be in your DS library.

Picked up FF XII:RV just yesterday and have already clocked several hours into it. Having been a fan of the Final Fantasy series for many years now, I was excited to check out this latest game. Though I don't find it the best, I must say it's very good. Having used a similar battle system like the one from FF XII, it's more real time based them most of the previous titles were with the random encounter system.

The Good:
-Good story line with humor mixed in
-New summon system gives you more characters when you go in to battle
-The Cut scenes are AMAZING, especially for a hand held system.
-Good use of the stylus.

The Bad:
-Characters seem to move slow at times while you wait for them to move
-Sprites are small so it can get hard to find certain characters in a large group

Overall, it's a good game if your looking for either an easy RTS (Real Time Strategy) or generally good RPG.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 55 reviews  3.4 out of 5 stars