Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is a stand-alone title in the Final Fantasy franchise, a spin-off from the original Final Fantasy XII installment released on the PS2. It's premise is simple enough, being set a year since the events of Final Fantasy XII, Revenant Wings continues the story of the original game's hero Vaan, and his friends. He is now a fully-fledged Sky Pirate, and your friends, some from the original are with you.
Basically as Vaan and his friends, you discover a mysterious airship that has landed on it's own accord somehow, with no-one onboard you and your friends go aboard, and it automatically takes to the skies with you aboard, and takes you to the legendary sky continent of Lemures. A floating continent in the skies, above the world below that has been long spoken about in legend only, and now you have discovered it.
Unlike the Final Fantasy franchise's main element of RPG, Revenant Wings does hold some RPG elements in it's structure, but it's game-play is from an RTS (Real-Time Strategy) prospective. You move your party including Vaan and his friends across a battlefield in real-time, with the use of monsters you can now control and summon from gate-ways on the map - you battle your enemies and explore Lemures.
In terms of game-play, as a spin-off of the original Final Fantasy story, it has taken on a very different approach to it's proven, and tested RPG structure. Now from an RTS stand-point, game-play plays out very differently - requiring quick reflexes as you control monsters, and your actual party members. If I was to compare it to another game of it's calibre on the DS system, I would compare it's game-play to Lost Magic - with it's own RTS functions. Both use the same functions during it's game-play, requiring constant focus on the battle, and always checking your party's health, and using their unlocked abilities and powers alongside their monster's own.
Graphically Revenant Wings is what you would expect from a Nintendo DS title, released back in 2007. It's not ugly, far from it in particular it has some amazing cinematic cut scenes with CGI, and Anime influence they look quite stunning for it's release time on the DS - but to compare it to the more recent 3DS releases, would be unfair. Battles have a very unique SNES-Final Fantasy design, almost paying homage to the game style and design, but in it's RTS function.
As for it's musical score, during heavy-laden battles a strong adventure-action score plays in the background, while exploration has a more lower, softer score that would be expected from a Final Fantasy game.
The Good:
- A strong, unique story-line with memorable characters, from the original Final Fantasy XII.
- The exploration theme of a long-lost sky continent can really add substance to exploring for treasures, and such.
- The RTS game-play is a different approach to the original RPG elements of past games in the franchise, but it's not a bad one - the battles from a real-time prospective can really test your skills, and reflexes but the challenge is a good one.
- A good musical score, but it's to be expected from an official spin-off of the Final Fantasy franchise.
The Bad:
- At times the difficulty of battles can surprise you, and you must constantly keep track of your units, and their powers and abilities in order to avoid being overrun on the field, or outnumbered.
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is a brilliant gem, if I could call it that even as a spin-off of the original franchise, with it's new RTS elements and new story-line, it's a required addition to the collection of Final Fantasy fans, and for those who are hardcore on the series, it's still a fun game with homage and nods to the original Final Fantasy XII in terms of characters and lore, and at this moment in time you can find it for quite a low price. I paid only £6 for it, as pre-owned so I got a good deal - best to get it now before the price rockets, as it becomes rare soon enough.