Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings: Still Final Fantasy Minus a Coat of Polish

Author's Rating:

Pros: Good story, decent premise, great loot, great graphics and sound

Cons: Easy battles, broken economy

The Bottom Line: 
It's what you'd expect from a Final Fantasy title.

Author's Review
I'm usually a sucker for a good Final Fantasy title. Even though I prefer the wide open style of Oblivion style role-playing game, Final Fantasy titles usually produce entertaining battle systems that allow you to do a lot of different things while still maintaining a simplistic accessibility. Still what comes with success comes higher expectations. In that regard does Revenant Wings stack up to its console counterpart? In some respects this is the case, but in others probably not.


Story

The story picks up where Final Fantasy XII left off. Vaan is now a sky pirate complete with his own airship and a crew and navigator Penelo. Their adventure commences with the protagonists defeating an esper only to lose their airship in the process. Later in Rabanastre they sneak aboard another airship and commandeer it, which is where their adventure truly begins.

The setting of the game takes place in the world from Final Fantasy XII derived from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The characters in the game make the plot work. While they do not develop very dynamically, they seem to be complicated characters with diverse motives and complex personalities.

The plot itself is one of the strongest aspects of the game. It really pulls you in like a good novel and drives you to complete the game just to see what happens in the end.


Gameplay

Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings plays like an action role-playing game. Battles play out like a real-time strategy game similar to the Warcraft III smaller scale battles. The purpose of this game is to collect espers which can be used in battle. Espers can be summoned in battle using the Ring of Pacts. Like many role-playing games you travel around visiting towns and dungeons looking for these espers. You fight battles that net you experience and gil (gold). With enough experience you can level up your characters and thus can increase your base attributes. Treasure is also plentiful in this game. In it you can create weapons and equipment that have certain properties. Your airship serves as the home base of operations. It's from there you can plot out your next step in your adventure or customize your equipment. For the most part it seems as if the experience and leveling up really drives the development of the characters rather than the power of the equipment. Still there are some really powerful items out there that are worth a level up or two. Gil on the other hand seems rather worthless. The items available to buy are cheap and you'll quickly amass more money than you know what to do with.

The key to seeing success in battle is to understand the different types of units. There are melee, ranged, and flying units which matchup like a standard rock/paper/scissors match. Espers also fall into four different elemental types: fire, water, earth, and lightning. This adds another element of complexity because a certain elemental type is weak to one element, strong to another, and neutral to the third. Espers can also have a rank of I, II, or III where III is the most powerful but also limits the number of espers on the battlefield.

The computer AI is what tends to sink the battles. To put in bluntly, the computer AI is dumb. Tactically the computer allows you to have your way with it like a drunken slut on prom night. Instead of engaging you in a chess match of wits, it simply tries to ratchet up the difficulty by pitting you against stronger and more plentiful enemies who are still pretty dumb. The fact that you can setup your esper team beforehand is the nail in the coffin here because while the enemies on the surface are tough, they'll walk into your traps and allow you to flank them off the battlefield. Next time Square Enix decides to create a real-time strategy game, they should brush up on their Sun Tzu.

Overall the gameplay isn't bad at all. The missions are engaging and really allow the plot to blossom. The quest of better and more unique items definitely drives the gameplay as well. While the battles are too easy and not very satisfying, there is a hypnotic quality about the chaotic action that goes on during a battle. Yes you know you're probably going to come out of it in the end, but you can do some really fun things in the process.


Controls

The stylus plays a vital role in Revenant Wings, especially in battle. You use the stylus to select and control the movement of your party in battle. In many respects this works well, except it can get a little tricky trying to select espers on the fly. The frustrating part is that the battle system is real-time strategy and the touch screen is built for this to be a success. All Square Enix needed to do is to recreate the same sort of controls from Warcraft II or Starcraft. Yet precision touching isn't the DS's strongest aspect. Selecting portions of the battlefield illustrates this issue perfectly. However instead of using the touchpad the other digital buttons can be used in place of the stylus.


Graphics

Revenant Wings features some pretty decent graphics. The cutscenes look stellar especially considering the N64-quality of the Nintendo DS. The graphics are sprite-based from an isometric point of view. The detail of the environments integrates with itself much better than the isometric blocks that existed in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Another strong aspect of the graphics is that there are many different moving objects on the battlefield yet the action doesn't slow down at all. The animations while not extravagant allow for the action to remain fluid which is much more important in a game like this. There is one aspect of the graphics that isn't positive though. The lack of a rotating camera can be a minor hindrance during battle. Creatures can come at you at a specific angle whereby you cannot see them easily and wish you could manipulate your point of view a little better. Even a small button that rotates the angle by 90 degrees would suffice.


Sound

The music is one of the strong points of Reverent Wings. It is based on the music from Final Fantasy XII and while the technical limitations of the DS are noticable, the beauty of the music is not. The music also changes based on the pace of the game. Non-battle music is slower and more relaxed while the battle music picks up that pace and has more of an urgent tempo to it. Since the music is derived from Final Fantasy XII, Reverent Wings lacks doesn't get any sort of unique theme or song. While not a bad thing given how good the music was in its Playstation 2 predecessor, it does suggest laziness and is a slap in the face to fans of the series.


Replay Value

Final Fantasy titles are typically a double edged sword when it comes to replay value and Revenant Wings is no different. There's a ton of stuff you can do and will keep you busy for about 20-40 hours depending on how quickly you play throughout the game. However, once you're done that's it really. You can replay the game to get weapons and equipment you missed the first time, but it hardly seems worth it unless you're a huge fan of the game. The solid battle system and story does make this game worthwhile to replay if you are a fan. The frustrating points aside, it is like re-reading a good book. Still, this game will not pose much of a challenge for most seasoned role-playing game fans. People who come from real-time strategy backgrounds will also probably not see much lasting value from the game. In fact I can see many not even finishing it because they'll get bored with the half-witted AI.

Overall Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings seems like a game that could be much better if it had another coat of polish. I feel as if the non-console and fringe Square Enix titles just don't see the same level of polish as a Final Fantasy X or XII. Don't get me wrong that this game is fun and engaging. My fear lies more in the trend that Reverent Wings might be setting. While I'm not one to hide my feelings about certain Final Fantasy remakes, it's a shame to me that Reverent Wings couldn't quite reach the same level as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or Final Fantasy Tactics A2. By all means the lack of polish shouldn't allow you to shy away from this title. It is still worthy of your attention, especially if you're a fan of Final Fantasy titles or just Japanese role-playing games in general.