With a host of friendly faces Vaan and Penelo will do their best to defend the Aegyl's home from unbridled destruction.
The presentation of FFVII:RW is fairly ambitious. You will instantly be treated to a pleasant CG cutscene as soon as you start up the game. Sadly, such cut-scenes are rare throughout the game. Thankfully, the in-game graphics are good enough to keep most content to continue playing. Conversations occur through comic-like bubbles that include a portrait of the character speaking. Portraits don't change to convey emotion but they do a good job of keeping you in touch with who's who. The dialogue is strong enough that you can generally understand exactly what each character is feeling. Every character is distinct and unique, an important aspect of any RPG.
This is a real-time strategy game (RTS). You will control several characters simultaneously in an indirect fashion. Party members will attack on their own, but can also be issued specific commands as needed. First you will have to set captains which consist of the main characters of the game (Vaan and Penelo for example) and then each captain will be assigned (by you) a cast of henchmen. The henchmen in this game are called espers. Espers should seem familiar to anyone experienced with Final Fantasy lore. You will start out with lower level espers such as goblins and bombs and obtain level II and III espers as you progress through the game. Level III consist of the most powerful espers in the game and many of them will be obtained by defeating them in battle and unlocking them. You can only use one level III esper in a battle so your party is subject to some limitations. Specifically you're allowed one level III, maximum of 3 level II, and maximum of 5 different types of espers. When the battle starts the espers you picked are matched with captains that have the same type of general ability (Melee, Flying, or Ranged). There's about 50 different espers available in the game.
The strategy works in a fairly straight forward manner that is merely complicated when you are presented with a heavy mixture of opponents. Melee units (your frontline fighters) have the advantage against ranged units (typically your magic casters), Ranged units have the advantage against flying units, and flying units have the advantage against melee units. To complicate this you also have some different elements to take into consideration including fire, water, lightning, earth, healing, and non-elemental unit types. For most of the game you can usually match your units to the advantageous type and element and have little difficulties. It's not until later in the game that you will be facing some more complicated armies with a mixture of elements.
The actual battles themselves take place on a restricted battlefield. Battlefields or battles occur in a couple of different ways. On occasion you may need to defeat a specific leader, destroy a crystal (before the enemy destroys yours!), stealthily sneak to a specified goal area (really you just run for the finish and hope you survive), eliminate all enemies, or capture a specified summoning gates. Summoning gates allow you to summon additional espers (works the same for your opponent). There's a limit to how many espers can be on the field on one time. For the most part battlefields are purely aesthetic. There are no hazards to worry about from the field itself. There is, however, an issue of navigation. You will often want to be cautious in 'how' you approach a specific portion of the map based on the surrounding opposition. The strategy in this game usually ranges from simple opponent-clean-up to an insane war-like mob with little in the middle. The moments where there's a mob of opponents can be kind of entertaining so long as you have the advantage. If you're struggling though it can be hard to select characters and give the right orders because there are simply too many characters packed in one area. In those cases you might just be along for the ride. This is the primary gripe I have with the game. Either you're usually winning without question or being dominated. It's very difficult to recover from severe losses. The difficulty of the game can be a bit misbalanced at times. Most of the battles will be rather easy with just a handful proving very frustrating. The typical answer to this is to change your strategy and, most of all, level up your leaders. Thankfully, there's plenty of missions (45 primary missions across 10 chapters) and you can more than double it with side missions and free battles. The game will take anywhere from 30-50 hours to complete.
The controls are extremely well adapted to the DS. The lower screen shows the battlefield and the action with the top-screen displaying a map and unit information. Music is particularly good in this game. Some of the best instrumental tracks I have heard on a DS to date. Sound affects are fairly good, though they do not stand out or feature much impact. The plot, overall, is well done with plenty of twist and interesting insights. What seems as a broad, simple, plot becomes very intimate and heart-grabbing by the end of the game. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings does a good job of introducing a set of characters that are, for the most part, likeable and unique. The plot becomes more entertaining after you progress through the game a bit and the gameplay is fairly fast-paced and engaging. FFXII:RW is not without its flaws, but overall an enjoyable experience. I concur with Gamespot's review score of 8.5.