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Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is a video game for the Nintendo DS. It is a spin-off of the popular PlayStation 2 video game Final Fantasy XII. The characters in the game are mostly from Final Fantasy XII, and the story begins shortly after its events.

Gameplay[]

Worldmap[]

The worldmap consists of various land masses hovering in mid air far above the continent of Ivalice. These various islands in the sky can be accessed via Vaan's new airship, which you name in the beginning of the game. On each island there are a variety of different locations in which your missions will take place. After finishing a mission, you'll be able to return and partake in different battles to gain extra experience. Occasionally on the notice board you'll be able to invest your time in side quests - missions that aren't required though will heavily reward you if completed.

On the ship you'll find shops where you can purchase items and other similar places. You can converse with your crew, rename your ship and check the notice board, as well as depart and head to other islands.

Combat[]

VaanRW

Vaan in a CG flick.

Before each battle, you'll choose which five leaders you'll bring into battle, and which five types of Espers will join you (note: while there you can just bring five different species on the battlefield, multiple members of each species will be featured in each battle). On the worldmap you're allowed to make three separate groups of Espers that you can alter at any time. The three different groups are there so that you can choose which Espers to bring into battle quickly. You're also given the ability to upgrade your characters' equipment with new weapons, armor and other materials that you find during battle or in the shop. These different weapons will upgrade the players' statistics, as will leveling up. Leveling up is done by completing missions, where each of the leaders will gain a certain amount of experience in the end. Even leaders who didn't participate in one particular battle will obtain experience points, albeit it not nearly as much as the ones who did.

In the beginning of the game, you won't have access to many Espers - just ones that are stationed at stage 1 (there are three stages in all). To add more Espers to your list, you'll have to find special stones called Auracites that you can use to, in a way, purchase more Espers. The amount of stones an Esper will cost depends on which stage its at - Espers at stage one will cost one stone, two will cost two, and three will cost three. Their level during battle will be determined by what level your leaders are at, though they can be increased during battle by using the summoning gates' Astral Power. Summoning gates are commonly held by enemies (and they'll use them as well), though after defeating the surrounding enemies you can easily take their gate and add more Espers to the battle and fortify them. Viewing the queue will see which Espers are awaiting to be summoned, and how long until the next one in line will take until it is released (the more powerful Espers will take longer to summon). If you wish to, for whatever reason, dismiss an Esper during battle, then you are given that ability.

Actions during battle[]

During battle, you're able to move your army in various ways. One way is to drag your stylus on the touch screen to create a box. Once you lift the stylus, all of the characters in your army within the box will be selected. After this, you can choose where you want them to go or what you want them to do. Another way to choose characters is to either press the X button, which will select every member of your army, or individually select them. One other way to select a particular unit is to select its emblem on the top of the touch screen, though this only works for the leaders. If you wish to deselect a unit, you can simply press the red x at the top of the touch screen.

After selecting your units, you'll be able to perform a variety of actions. One of the actions, and the most basic, is to simply move. To do this, find a place on the map (if you can't see the area you want them to go to on the touch screen, you'll have to use the d-pad to move the camera) and select it with the stylus. Note that this only refers to ground without objects you can't interact with. If you wish to battle an enemy, then after selecting your units press the enemy, and they'll start attacking once they're close enough.

RWscene

A battle scene.

A few units have the ability to heal. While they'll automatically heal the players by using gambits, an occasion may arise when you want a particular unit to be healed. To do this, you'll first have to select the unit that has the ability to heal. Following this, simply select the unit that needs to be healed. If done correctly, a box with a red outlining and a heart in the middle will be shown near the player that needs to be healed. After this, the healer will start to use cure on that character, or if the gambit is selected use an even more powerful magic if available.

As in all the games in the series, magic is pivotal in the game. Each unit has special magic. After a unit uses a certain type of magic, it'll start to regenerate. While it's regenerating, the unit can use his or her other magic abilities. For example, if a character casts fire on an enemy, it'll have to regenerate. While the fire is regenerating, the same character can cast an ice attack on the enemies.

In all, there are three basic types of attacks, including melee, ranged, and flying. The three types of attack act in a relationship similar to rock-paper-scissors. Melee works well against ranged enemies, ranged enemies work well against flying enemies, and flying enemies work well against melee enemies. All are vulnerable to a certain type of attack and all prevail (usually) when battling the other. When battling the same type, it evens out. All of the attacks in the game, dealt both by leaders, Espers and enemies, all have nature that is associated with the attack. The different nature include fire, water, lightning, earth, healing, and no nature. Certain types of nature works best with other types. For example, water type attacks are most potent when used against fire based enemies.

During battle, you may come across special plants that you can forage to reap their benefits, which is always HP recovering vegetables. Only party leaders can forage these plants, though if a party leader does in fact eat one, then all of the Espers in his particular group will also be healed. Party leaders can also scavenge by using picks to find valuable treasures in stones, piles of wood and ice. Finally party leaders can also open treasure chests to get whatever is inside of them.

During some battles, a soul crystal will be present for each army. During these rare missions, the goal is usually to destroy the opposing member's soul crystal, and guard your own. These soul crystals are used to revive party leaders of both sides - the opposing members is always red while yours is always blue.

Plot[]

The game follows the events of Final Fantasy XII, which was only released for the PlayStation 2.

Characters[]

  • Vaan - A young Rabanastran who is new to being a sky pirate
  • Penelo - Vaan's best friend who worries about the group
  • Kytes - A young black mage who idolized Vaan
  • Filo - Kytes's friend from Rabanastre who rides a flying surfboard
  • Balthier - A dashing sky pirate who has unclear intentions
  • Fran - Balthier's Viera partner who is silent but very wise
  • Ashe - The queen of Dalmasca who fights for her people despite her royalty
  • Basch - Ashe's loyal bodyguard that she met in the events of Final Fantasy XII
  • Llyud - An Aegyl warrior who wants to find out more of his mysterious race
  • Ba'Gamnan - A Bangaa bounty hunter who hunts Balthier and is tricked into the party
  • Judge of Wings - A mysterious and heavily armored character that seeks to destroy the world

Reception[]

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator Score
GameRankings 79.67% (based on 46 reviews)
Metacritic 81 (based on 44 critic reviews)
Review scores
Publication Score
1UP 8/10
Edge 6/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly 7.17/10
Eurogamer 8/10
Famitsu 32/40
Game Informer 7.5/10
GamePro 4.5/5
GameSpot 8.5/10
GameSpy 4/5
GamesTM 6/10
IGN 8.3/10
Nintendo Power 7.5/10
Official Nintendo Magazine 91/100
Wired 8/10

Development[]

The game was directed by Motomu Toriyama and was aimed towards players who are new to the series. While the game is in no way easy or simple, it does abandon many of the complicated elements that are featured as the pinnacle of some of the series' main games. The director went on to direct Final Fantasy XIII.

Similarities with Tactics Advance[]

There are many similarities in Revenant Wings to the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance video games, which also includes Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for the Nintendo DS. The similarities include the following:

  • The enemy sprites are exactly the same - little to no changes have been made.
  • The game is separated by missions. Other than the primary missions you can also partake in side quests.
  • The game takes place in Ivalice, the most revisited location in the entire Final Fantasy series. Like Final Fantasy Tactics A2, the game is part of the Ivalice Alliance.
  • Vaan, the protagonist of this game, is featured as an unlockable character in Final Fantasy Tactics A2.
  • Both this game and the Tactics series are dramatic departures from the traditional Final Fantasy games. In both games, you'll control a nice size army.

Staff[]

  • Director - Motomu Toriyama
  • Producer - Yasuhito Wantanabe
  • Art director - Toshitaka Matsuda
  • Music composer - Hitoshi Sakimoto, Kenichiro Fukui
  • Background and character design - Ryoma Ito

See also[]

External links[]

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