A great game that expands upon the world of Ivalice for those that want more.
FFXII: RW is a direct sequel to FFXII although the adventure is all new, the characters return to the world of Ivalice, or more specifically the sky. Vaan returns in the lead role by taking control of an ancient airship that crash lands in Ivalice leading him on a surprising trip to the legendary sky continent of Lemurés and a quest to stop the mysterious Judge of Wings from harming the bird people that live there.
Pretty much all the cast from FFXII return at some point, both friend and foe, along with a cast of new characters to contend with on the way, this time however the game plays very differently. FFXII: RW is a srpg, rather then turn based. Your characters lead groups of espers ( summoned monsters) to fight with, each has a rock, paper, scissors class of strength though in flying, ranged and melee having strengths and weaknesses depending on who they face, meaning you have to think carefully before engaging enemy characters or Espers. The amount of espers you can have at any point is limited depending on their class, but you can continue to summon as many as possible even if they die up to that limit and replenish the ranks. This is done from summoning gates located on the battlefield though some maps you will have to do without and enemy characters can also use them to summon more espers so controlling the gates is crucial.
Each esper is assigned a class of 1-3 depending on it's strength. For example Bahamut is a class 3 that while hugely powerful, there can only be one class 3 on the map at any point where as a class 1 chocobo while weak, cost almost nothing and have no limit so can be used to swarm enemies. Which strategy to use will depend on the battlefield and enemy types as there are a good 30 esper variations of different type and elemental weakness so all are useful at some point.
Espers and characters are not the only way to attack however as each character like in FFXII has access to their own quickenings which will often turn the tide of battle, this could be something simple like a heal spell or black magic to a special attack. One quickening can be set to be used automatically but they take time to recover so timing is vital when you choose to use them.
Each mission / battle is started once you arrive there on the world map either with your airship, on foot when you land or even briefly by canoe. There are quite a few victory conditions to contend with, sometimes you have to wipe everyone out, either through summon gate battles, using and protecting a crystal that revives your characters should they die and destroying the enemies to defeating a level 3 summon, protecting someone and even one time sneaking Vaan on his own past a horde of enemies. I found the variation never left me wanting for something else.
The battles are largely controlled using the stylus to round up groups though you can easily select one character, a character and his espers or everybody at a touch of a button. Occasionally when the screen gets really clogged up with espers in a huge battle it's hard to select the unit you want with the stylus but i found this a rare occurrence due to being able to use the character tabs to the same effect.
After each battle is finished your characters gain experience which seemed to vary depending on their actions in battle, the espers also have their own levels and abilities though they go up with your characters.
Between battles you can take control of Vaan and explore around the airship in which there is a surprising amount to do from talking to your allies, reading the ship log book, buying items and making weapons in the bazaar not to mention taking on many side quests for extra items, additional character development or simply leveling up.
Graphically this game is one of the best looking games i have seen on the DS so far. Each battle field is rendered in 3D and looks fantastic choked with detail and colour bringing the world alive. Pretty much everything you expect from SE now days.
Music wise the game once again fares just as well and may sound familiar to you as most of the soundtrack is taken straight from FFXII and used again though this to me certainly wasn't a complaint as i loved the music.
FFXII: RW took me about 65 hours o finish, however i did every quest including the side quests in which there are about 80, as well as leveled everyone up to max level and item hunted for weapons so if you are only playing through the key missions i guess it would last 25-30 hours.
To finsh, this game is very simple, do you like FFXII? Do you like SRPGS? If there is a yes in response to either or both of those questions then you should give this game a try. I don't think you will regret it.