Sora96's FINAL FANTASY XII: REVENANT WINGS Review

[Sora96 17,256]

FINAL FANTASY XII: REVENANT WINGS is the sequel to the PlayStation 2’s FINAL FANTASY XII which sold 6 million copies worldwide. Set one year after the events of FINAL FANTASY XII, the game was developed for the Nintendo DS by Think & Feel and published by Square Enix and sold nearly 1.5 million copies worldwide. Directed and written by Motomu Toriyama who had directed the FINAL FANTASY X series and was also at the time directing FINAL FANTASY XIII. 

 

Toriyama went about writing the story so fans of FFXII could enjoy the continued story but also have it so people who hadn’t played FFXII could still enjoy the story. And I feel it struck the balance between this perfectly. The story is enjoyable and has a few twists that’ll help keep you interested. It does FFXII’s story justice.

 

Gameplay is also very enjoyable, it’s a real-time strategy RPG and takes advantage of the DS’ touch screen well. I was surprise at how much I grew addicted to the game so quickly. I really enjoyed commanding Vaan, Penelo and co. whilst leading an army of Espers. I enjoy tower defence games and games like Star Wars Battlefront so in some ways it’s no surprise I enjoyed this so much.

 

The game can be quite challenging though, and there is plenty of side missions to attempt. There’s plenty here to keep you busy for a while. There’s also a little secret ending if you complete every single mission. Thankfully it doesn’t suggest another sequel, unlike DIRGE of CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII-.

 

One part of the final boss is very hard, so be warned. In this such part you’re forced to run your entire party off some stairs in a matter of seconds because the boss is about to fire a very powerful attack but the big problem is you also then have to defeat the most powerful boss in the main story. There’s a good chance you’ve suffered a bit of damage. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get a few extra seconds to get them off but either way you’ve got your party on the run, probably low on HP and your structure has been ruined with the most powerful boss in the main story only inches away from you with other monsters. That’s just not fair.

 

The game looks and sounds quite good for a DS game and also includes a few nice FMVs.

 

I’m writing this review and I’m left wondering why haven’t Square Enix done much more with this genre? REVENANT WINGS sold really well and was very well received.

 

I’m surprised they haven’t ported this to iOS & Android yet, I feel like this game could work quite well on smartphones and tablets and as proven by FINAL FANTASY III and IV they’re great platforms to remaster DS games for.

 

We have DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY and THEATRHYTHM FINAL FANTASY, I would love to see division 4 try a FINAL FANTASY game for Nintendo 3DS as a real-time strategy RPG using the same concepts they used for those two sub-franchises. Or to expand on that, a real-time strategy RPG on 3DS with various locations from nearly every game, and characters from nearly every game to choose to from. Just think, having Lightning, Yuna, Cloud, Cecil and Noctis going to Zanarkand to wage a battle against the likes of Caius, Sir. Jecht, Sephiorth, Golbez and Kefka. And you could use summons of course. And can’t forget about multiplayer, being able to face someone online would be a lot of fun. They could even have Think & Feel develop it as well.

 

I’ve kinda rambled haha, but anyway FINAL FANTASY XII: REVENANT WINGS is a very good game to my surprise and one I recommend to all real-time strategy RPG and FINAL FANTASY XII fans. I only wish the final boss was easier or they had a few difficulty modes.

 

8/10

[Sora96 17,256]

Update: After finally wrapping up the game I've decided to increase my rating from 7.8 to 8.0.