Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings Reviews

• Could've Flown Higher

  
  By A29BQ6B90Y1R5F on 2007-11-27
  Final Fantasy XII was not a game that was met with universal praise. In terms of fan reaction, it was rather mixed. There were a great deal of people who did not like it for the lack of character depth and change to story telling. Just the same, however, there were some who were quite taken with the world of Ivalice and who loved the political and philosophical intrigue of the original Final Fantasy XII. Even if you didn't like Final Fantasy XII, however, Revenant Wings is so different that it's almost an entirely new game. That also means that if you loved Final Fantasy XII there's no guarantee you'll like Revenant Wings.
  
  Vaan and Penelo are now full fledged sky pirates. In this adventure they're helping the Aegyl people in the land of Lemure. In truth, the story is a lot simpler than Final Fantasy XII. It is also a bit more character driven. This adventure is an all new one, though. It takes place after Final Fantasy XII but even if you didn't finish the original game, it's no big deal. There are a few familiar faces, and a couple of references to the storyline of the original, but you're not missing anything by not having played the original title.
  
  In terms of how the game looks, Revenant Wings stands tall. The cutscenes are some of the best looking the DS has ever had by far. Even superior to Square-Enix's own Final Fantasy III. The game itself also looks pretty good. There is a good deal of unique artistic design here. Those who played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance will be able to recognize the art style instantly. Its also very colorful looking and bright. Revenant Wings also has a strong soundtrack. Much of it being remixed from the original game, but it sounds wonderful nonetheless.
  
  Eye candy aside, how exactly does the game play? This is where it becomes harder to judge Revenant Wings. The game is a Real Time Strategy game that's not really made for the RTS crowd. Needless to say, even if you don't like RTS games, you might still get into Revenant Wings. At the same time, however, the game is a little over simplified. Especially when compared to Final Fantasy XII. Everything is controlled via stylus. You can tap units and move them or you can trace out a box to select more than one if need be.
  
  If you're looking for a deeply strategic and challenging game, you won't really find it with Revenant Wings. It has a lot of what you'd expect from a strategy game. Such as characters who are better as ranged fighers, or better suited for melee. You'll also find that each type has a weakness. What it doesn't have that you'd expect, however, is a lot of strategy. There's a strategic element to the game but you probably won't have to utilize a lot of it. In terms of difficulty the game is incredibly easy. While there will be some missions that'll take you a while, it'll mostly come as a result of the game speed not moving fast enough. Your units move very slowly on the battlefield. You can't speed things up much either.
  
  Along those lines, the game has been simplified a lot. Where as Final Fantasy XII had a lot of complexity--especially with its gambit system--Revenant Wings doesn't offer a whole lot at all. The gambit system has returned but there's not nearly as much tweaking and experimenting to be done with it here. You can only assign one action to characters. On the other hand, you'll probably spend a lot of your time giving orders manually anyway.
  
  Units get bunched up a lot as well. Things can get pretty hectic on the battlefield. But it's no fun when units get bunched up and you're only trying to select one.
  
  It's hard to judge Revenant Wings. It is by no means a bad game. On the other hand, though, its like comparing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance to the original Final Fantasy Tactics. Final Fantasy XII was a huge game filled with a lot of complexity in its story and gameplay. Revenant Wings sacrifices all that. Perhaps simplicity is key in this case, but sometimes its hard to escape the fact that Revenant Wings, like Tactics Advance, could've stood to reach a little higher. The story could've been a little deeper and the complexities to the combat could've been fleshed out and expanded more. Regardless of that, the game is still pretty fun.
  
  Pros:
  
  +A bit more focus on the characters this time around
  +Very simple game to pick up and play
  +Beautiful game--especially the cutscenes
  +Good soundtrack
  
  Cons:
  
  -Combat is slow
  -Forgettable story
  -Far too easy for a strategy game
  
  

• Final Fantasy impresses on the DS yet again

  
  By AJKWF4W7QD4NS on 2007-11-22
  Square's flagship franchise impresses on the DS yet again with Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. As the title implies, Revenant Wings is a sequel to last year's PS2 title Final Fantasy XII. Those who played that excellent RPG will remember it as being the best game the series had seen since the legendary Final Fantasy VII, with one of the most engaging stories since the aforementioned game as well. Revenant Wings picks up after the original FF XII concluded, with Vaan and crew being the stars of this RTS/RPG show. In terms of game design, Revenant Wings bears the most resemblance to Heroes of Mana for the DS. Unlike that title though, Revenant Wings won't aggrivate you to death, and instead pulls out some pretty impressive moments to be had. There is a nice amount of depth to be found in item and skills, even though the combat itself is a bit slow and repetitive. The game's presentation though is wonderful, from some great 3-D work to an incredible music score, Revenant Wings proves to be one of the better looking and best sounding games to hit the DS yet. While there's no Wi-Fi connectivity to be found here, Revenant Wings does offer some bonus missions, but the real meat and potatoes is to be had in the game's main story. All in all, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is an impressive excursion on the DS that continues one of the best stories the series has ever seen. Needless to say, if you enjoyed Final Fantasy XII on the PS2 and you own a DS, you should definitely pick up Revenant Wings.
  
  

• Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings.........

  
  By A3GKMQFL05Z79K on 2007-11-24
  Over the last couple of years, Square-Enix has shown Nintendo alot of love. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, because I''m not. I'm quite thankful. The majority of all my DS & Gameboy Advance games are products of the company and I've loved every last one. While I hadn't played FFXII on the PS2, I was curiously drawn to this game from watching some trailers of the game. What I can tell you about it, now that I have it, is that Revenant Wings is like Heroes of Mana in alot of ways. A mission- based real time strategy RPG, if you will, that picks up right after the events of FFXII on the PS2. This story, however, is in no way related to that one. It follows Vaan, Penelo, Balthier, and Fran in a new adventure. Out of all the titles I have of Square for handhelds, this game-by far- has the most CGI FMV I've ever seen in one. The gameplay is addictive(just like FFIII & Front Mission were to me) and the game is absolutely gorgeous graphically. All in all, it is a pretty ambitious game. One that deserves to be in your DS library.
  
  

• Might be hit and miss for some.

  
  By A3DM2TOUOSZRC2 on 2007-11-24
  Picked up FF XII:RV just yesterday and have already clocked several hours into it. Having been a fan of the Final Fantasy series for many years now, I was excited to check out this latest game. Though I don't find it the best, I must say it's very good. Having used a similar battle system like the one from FF XII, it's more real time based them most of the previous titles were with the random encounter system.
  
  The Good:
  -Good story line with humor mixed in
  -New summon system gives you more characters when you go in to battle
  -The Cut scenes are AMAZING, especially for a hand held system.
  -Good use of the stylus.
  
  The Bad:
  -Characters seem to move slow at times while you wait for them to move
  -Sprites are small so it can get hard to find certain characters in a large group
  
  Overall, it's a good game if your looking for either an easy RTS (Real Time Strategy) or generally good RPG.
  
  

• The game sucks.

  
  By A1XQJ45ADQRBHI on 2008-01-18
  This was going to be a scathing review, but the store let me return this for full price - so I'm a lot less angry now.
  
  Let me say that I'm a fan of the Final Fantasy series, my favorite being Final Fantasy Advance Tactics for the GBA. I wasn't crazy about any of the Crystal Chronicles. That said, this game sucks. And I mean badly.
  
  First of all, the gameplay is painfully frustrating. You have to use the stylus to encircle and attack enemies that are often off-screen. It takes so much dragging and swiping to get the screen to move, and when it finally moves, you and your foes are never on screen at the same time. On top of that, the camera view moves so slowly that by the time you and your enemies are meeting, everybody in your team is already half dead.
  
  Then the characters are way too small to see. Break out you bifocal reading glasses.
  
  This game looks and plays like it should cost 9.99 retail. It's very cheap looking and poorly done. Worst game ever.
  
  
• Should be "Final Fantasy Tactics XII"
  By A2MLPRXREBYJPI on 2007-12-22
  I thought that since the game only had the words "Final Fantasy" that it would be a traditional RPG from SquareEnix. Boy, was I wrong! Once again, SquareEnix strays from the traditional RPG path and creates something new that makes this game feel more like Final Fantasy Tactics. The cutscenes are amazing, but that's about it. If you want an action-oriented game that relies more on click-and-point instead of the traditional RPG style, then this game is for you. If not, you should look at another Final Fantasy title offered for the Nintendo DS.
  
  
• Different but fun =D
  By AB6ATCV8HZMSY on 2008-01-04
  Got this a while back and now I'm at chapter 8 already! I have never played FF12 so I did not know the story at all. But knowing the old storyline didnt matter cuz its way different then the original.. This game made me go buy FF12 for the PS2 though lol! so yeh i got curious about the early Vann & Friends.. lol.. I didnt know it was going to be tactic-action based then the classic turned base.. I didnt expect the change but I adapted to it and I began to like it.
  I liked the cut scenes on the DS, i was really amazed by it. I didnt like how everything was laid out in the field so I knew where the treasure were and everything, exploring maps and encountering random monsters is more fun the having set monsters and knowing what your going to face.. so its like the opposite of FF3 for the DS that was released a year ago.. Also the AI is stupid cuz when I had to protect some Aegis(birdman) they ran off and ended up dying.. so yeh it requires strategy instead of me usually bunching my guys up and ganging on one group of enemies. I would of liked it more if it was like FF3, maybe they could of made FF12 on the DS.. haha o well as long as i got good entertainment im happy =D yeh this game is fun and uh good for beginners i guess cuz it is kinda easier then other FF titles.
  
  
• In for a big suprise
  By ACGBVUZB4X86L on 2008-02-09
  This game is fast pace. However, at the end it really grinds down. At first the enemy being strong isn't a problem until they are 40 levels higher. Which leads to 10+ hours of level grinding at the last chapter which blows. Except for the last part the game is great.
  
  
  
• Thank's God is a rental.
  By ASY8EDCXAURIK on 2008-02-12
  I just rented this game a couple of days ago and even though I have not been playing much I am definetely not impresed at all. THe storyline is extremely bad. At least the story line in Final Fantasy X from PS2 was very good, fight to beat Sin or die. In here the characters are just a bunch of kids that want to be space pirates, that's all, so you go around other worlds collecting treasures, this is kind of childish. Also the fact that you have to use the pen all the time to move your troops is kind of anoying, sometimes I get some of the characters stuck in places and they just don't move until I click on them and move them separately. I really like the FFX games but this one is definetely not for me.
  
  
• A Warcraft 3 game on DS
  By A3ASKICCBP862 on 2008-02-20
  The good:
  - Amazing depth of gameplay, for a DS game. RW manages to perfectly balance the RTS and RPG elements, creating a great experience. In many ways, this game takes a lot of good things from Warcraft 3 and applies them to the FF Universe.
  - Graphics and music are very good. Especially the levels with waterfalls look gorgeous.
  - Game Speed is on the slow side (no Command and Conquer 3 here), but this works well with the limitation in controls. Having to be in multiple places at once is a bit more difficult on DS, so I look at this as an advantage.
  - Game Difficulty varies between Normal to Hard. I am at 83% of the game and overall, all battles felt fair, even if some were more difficult than others. Like in any RPG, the key here is to level up a lot, which you can do with the side missions.
  - How cool is this: You can create weapons - more powerful than anything you can buy or find. All RPG classes are also represented here, even if they have different names. You can also level up your summons, use high level spells that can change a battle's outcome and you can set up a gambit, for automatically using of a spell.
  
  The bad:
  For all its depth, it is rather hard to play this game as intended. The main problem here is the size of the screen. Your summons and characters are sprites and - when it is 20 of them on screen - it is difficult to select the ones you want. In this game, even summons have spells and using them efficiently, can help a lot. While the Y button can be used to select groups, I found myself using just the heroes' spells for most of the game.
  
  The ugly:
  The story starts very, very slow. I would guess that most reviewers that gave up on this game, did it because they got bored quickly. It takes 5-8 hours before you can start talking strategy / RPG gameplay, so be aware that you need some patience in the beginning.
  
  Overall, this is a 5 star game in my book. Despite some minor setbacks, the final package is probably the best RTS/RPG on DS and maybe one in many iterations to come.
  Do yourself a favor and buy this.
  
  
• Pretty cool.
  By A2JHIB1QY08WUJ on 2008-03-11
  This is an awesome game. I've had a lot of fun playing it thus far.. Save the fact I keep dying a lot. I've been so used to playing FFXII and so on, that I'm used to having things like potions, x-potions, ethers, etc, but in this game there isn't. Least not that I've seen. I'm also kind of sad that only Penelo, and.. Kytes, was it? Have any real magic ability. But other than that it's not too bad. Lots of people from FFXII in it again, which is nice.
  
  
• Excellent game
  By A2QIXNT86K5OAW on 2008-03-15
  I've felt lately that Final Fantasy games just aren't proving to be the same as they were since the Playstation 1 and prior to that. This game however mixes up the FF formula just enough to prove me wrong. The unique battle system seems simple enough, but adds enough of a strategic depth to it to make it interesting. The missions are mostly rehashes of each other, but the game proves to be fun. With the exception of a few difficult missions (some just plain frustrating) the majority of the game is pretty easy. The story is rather interesting and makes me wish that I ha the background knowledge of FFXII (however, it is NOT necessary to understand what's going on).
  
  
• Snoozefest
  By AK68BXH0IF3AO on 2008-06-13
  I am a devout Final Fantasy fan, and I loved XII, so this games was a HUGE disappointment for me. The plot and character motivations are flimsy, so I'm not really sure why I'm fighting in the first place. But even worse, the combat style is terribly boring! You spend lots of time and energy putting together your own personal army of summoned creatures, but if you think you'll be able to keep them alive, think again. The battles become these big lumps of chaos, and it's difficult to precisely target characters, so healing is a pain. Even your main characters are almost impossible to keep alive for long. And everyone moves soooo slooooowlyyyyyy. This game put me to sleep. Square Enix, you can do better!
  
  
• Great Game, First time FF player
  By A1CT5JOWW8KAXV on 2007-12-21
  This is the first time I've ever played a Final Fantasy game, so I can't compare it to previous installments or even other games in this genre, but by itself, this game is a lot of fun.
  
  I've spent a few hours with it, and so far I love it. I used to be a big time RTS gamer, and though this game is no "Red Alert" or "Age of Empires", I really like how its not turned based. It seems a lot more accessible in this way, but that could just be me. In terms of controls, the stylus driven design works well. Only every once in a while will I have trouble selecting a specific unit, but generally speaking its not a problem.
  
  If I had to name one problem, it would be the camera angle. At times your view can be blocked by pillars, arches, etc. However, this only happens on certain maps, so its not something you are constantly going to have to deal with.
  
  Overall, great game. Easy to get into, and from what I can tell, no extensive FF knowledge is needed.
  
  
• Very Challenging Game
  By A1NFQYKQ49HTR9 on 2008-01-12
  This game is as hard as the Nintendo Power Magazine says. the game has its way of amking you take your time but keep at a fast pace kinda gameplay. It's very challenging and fun to play I am still trying to beat this game. TIP: not all of Tomaj's missions are to be played as they appear try leveling up 10 levels before each mission so that you will have advantage. this game rocks
  
  
• Here's what you need to know
  By A27Q1LRDZK3C76 on 2008-02-19
  First off, i have 30% of the missions done only, so once i finish the game i'll re-do this review.
  
  Anyways, I'm seeing this game get a rating lower than what it should be. If you actually looked into the game before buying it (which is something everybody should do) you would know what it is. It's a RTS game where you summon espers and do battle with other armies of espers and pirates using your stylus. As far as I can tell, the storyline, while not the greatest, is good enough to keep me playing. The gameplay is amazing, but it gets hard if you don't keep up with your leveling. The Ring of Pacts is probably my favorite part of the game, i love unlocking new guys to use.
  
  Don't go into this game trying to compare it to the original Final Fantasy 12. Even though i've never played it, I'm sure this game won't compare. Think of it as more of a stand alone FF game with the same characters from FF12
  
  I'll break it down and go into more detail after I complete the game.
  
  
• A Sequel with Zazz
  By A3KS1LD9KY2N26 on 2008-02-27
  One year after the events of Final Fantasy XII, Vaan and his partner and friend Penelo meet with Balthier and his partner Fran to seek a lost treasure. This treasure though, ends up starting a new adventure to a lost continent in the sky. Not only that, but this continent is in danger of being destroyed by somebody called the Judge of Wings. The story it self promises new friend's, old ones, epic summons and equally epic battles.
  Now, if you were a fan of FFXII and it's combat system, prepare for a totally different monster. The action/Gambit/MMORPG based combat system is COMPLETELY replaced with a strategic RPG gameplay. Through some strange tre3asure hunting events, Vaan and the others get a hold of the power to summon espers at will. With this power, the go on to stop wayward sky pirates, bad espers, and eventually the Judge of Wings. The game TRIES to incorporate strategic element by making a very pronounced rock-scissors-paper formula with melee-range-flying (respectively). Truth is, for the first half of the game you can just rush an enemy with overwhelming numbers. Later on though, you might actaully need to use some strategy to assist you. All the Hero character's you use can control a certain number of monsters and can eventually have a wide variety of buff, nerf, and powerful attacks. A true strategen will find plenty of ways to assault a mob of enemies, but mostly, you can just buff yourself a little and charge the group.
  I personal found that the black mage character Kytes, (a small role pickpocket from the VERY beginning of FFXII) can pretty much handle most battles by himself do to the fact all his special attacks are high damage , large AOE magic attacks. Later in the game, when he get's a buff spell so his attacks do more damage, he is just overpowered. Other character's, Like this new one named Filo, are just too weak to consider using sometimes.
  All in all, you will find a very rich game here. The pacing here can be a little much near the later levels, but it's not a terribly long game in the first place. Like most FF's exploration and doing sidequests are rewarded, just try not to tackle the entire game with =out leveling a little, or you will pay when you come to a boss, which are unforgivingly high leveled when you get to them. I would recommend this game to anoyone that beat the first to see what a l;ittle more of Vaan's dream as a sky pirate. If you were satisfied with nthe ending of FFXII, don't worry, this game does nothing to really change that ending.
  
  
• Another great additions to the Series
  By A3QQGPI3CTV9SX on 2008-03-30
  Just another enjoyable game in the long Final Fantasy series a good game for my liking anyway.
  
  
• High Expectations
  By on 2008-06-18
  After purchasing and beating Final Fantasy III, I was excited to finally buy this one. I figured the storyline would be along the same line as Final Fantasy III, but it was confusing and totally different. They constantly introduced new parts of the story, and even at the end of chapter 9, I have no idea why I'm still battling. The graphics are crap compared to Final Fantasy III. Square Enix should stick to designing the characters as 3-d chibis, not pixeley squares designed to look like characters. Also, the controls are whacked and the things ment to help you don't make sense at all. Overall, super research the next final fantasy game you plan on buying, because you never know what you're gonna get.
  
  
• Unimpressive Piggy-Back Title for the DS
  By A3LHZ2BBDFPEFP on 2008-08-02
  I'll admit it, Square has an interesting idea here, brining a Real-Time Strategy title into The FF series. However, original ideas take time and money to develop fully, and it is obvious from this outing that Square has cut all the corners it could in this title, and again fails to take the DS seriously as a platform.
  
  I have a deep love for all things Tactics on any platform, finding the character crafting and battle system to be deeply engrossing, allowing an excellent level of control and customization. I was excited to try out a Final Fantasy title that owes so much to tactics and even includes a crafting system for custom weapons! Boy was I in for a surprise...
  
  The critical flaw with this game is that Square hasn't taken the time to fine-tune the RTS system. In an RTS game, the player needs to feel like a commander - the more accurately commands can be given, the better the game feels. RTS games have come a long way from the days of Warcraft I, but FF12RW is a serious step back. Nothing can turn you off a game like poor character AI, and nothing is more frustrating than watching your most powerful units (which are also the largest and most cumbersome), get stuck behind a couple of grunts, or watching your healer wander off to heal someone on the other side of the map - right into a group of enemies. I'd say about 90% of the time I found assigning units to separate tasks far too unwieldy and just used the all powerful 'X' (select all) button to get things moving.
  
  I will admit that the crafting system is fun the first couple of times you make an item - and the 'questions' involved are downright hilarious. However, the only real choice for crafting items is in using low/medium/high quality ingredients - this determines the amount of stat bonus - and nearly all the items crafted are also readily available for good 'ol gil at the store. There's nothing about this system exciting enough to get you out hunting for ingredients most of which you just happen to come upon in the course of completing missions.
  
  If this were the only obvious place I could see square taking shortcuts, I might be able to forgive a poor RTS system - so much of a FF game is in the graphic and storytelling. However, these also fall far short of Square's usual standards. The video is beautiful, of course, but I began to realise about halfway through the game that there is no video at all of either the "judge of wings" - the main bad guy, or the aegyl, the new race that story revolves around. Of course, there is plenty of stock footage of the characters out of FF12, but the only new model Square's team has put together for this is the titular airship, which is of course featured heavily in much of the promotional material. The rest of the game smacks heavily of repetition as well. You will find yourself fighting the same boss (under different names) half a dozen times at least, and the sprites for most of the enemies look like they were pulled directly from FF Tactics Advance.
  
  There are some cool fearures to the game, and it is definitely fun to see all the references to Final Fantasy 12 thrown in there, but in the end, this game feels like Square trying to squeeze a little more mileage out of Vaan, Balthier, and the rest, rather than the broad epics they usually produce. If you're looking for a DS game that lives up to the usual standard of Square quality without relying on their past successes, check out "The World Ends With You." It's clearly designed from the ground up for the DS and has a great story that will keep you guessing!
  
  
• Completely Broken Combat
  By A9ADIHKP80L8C on 2008-08-07
  I have to say that I only got a few hours into this game, and that the gameplay may improve later on, but the basic fundamentals are clumsy, unintuitive, childish, and, above all, lacking in any kind of strategy. It's like an RTS for 6 year olds; all you do is pump out disposable monster units, select your mob, and tap a spot near the enemy. If you want a real RPG get final fantasy III or IV; if you want a good strategy rpg get tactics ogre advance or FF tactics. Stay away from this, please.
  
  
• Not what I expected, it grew on me
  By A379S7DO0I9N1K on 2008-09-01
  I was just aimlessly looking at a video game wall and noticed this new Final Fantasy. I loved most of the other ones and thought this would be good.
  
  OMG. This wasn't FF, this was a war game in FF clothing!
  
  I was so sorely disappointed, but then the story line kicks in and you get used to the battling. The game became quite fun.
  
  Now I think I may try one of those full blown computer war/magic games now that I can kinda play one. lol.
  
  
• Nice Game
  By A24NALH6B5C6I5 on 2008-09-04
  First of all this game is beautiful!.. I can't believe that it would look so good on the DS especially the cutting scenes and the characters look like they're from PS3 system!
  This is my first time playing final fantasy tactics and it was a little intimidating at first. However, the instruction is so easy and the pace of the game is superb. I was never bored with the game and play non-stop. Some of the level is a bit challenging but it makes you feel so good when you beat the boss and go up to the next level.
  I give this 5/5 stars. Must have for Final Fantasy/ legend of zelda lovers.
  
  
• Love final Fantasy
  By A2KURT7MBRQ87H on 2007-12-17
  As any other Final Fantasy game, it sucks you in and you just want to cintinue playing!!!
  
  
• Good Game but Lacks Story
  By A28131U1QNMTHP on 2007-12-25
  I got this game a few weeks ago and have had a decent time playing it but there are a few things that I can complain about. The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of five are for a couple of reasons.
  The most component in a game, especially an RPG and on top of that, a Final Fantasy game, is the story. I am only about 35% through with the game but, as like other newer Final Fantasy takeoffs, i.e. Chrystal Chronicles, the story lacks a bit compared to older FF games.
  The other problem is that, although the gameplay is very fun and, for the most part, intuitive, it could have been improved a bit. The reason for this is because of the mix between RTS and RPG. Square Enix did a good job but sometimes it is hard to control specific characters and things get crazy during larger sized battles.
  Other than these reasons, I have enjoyed playing this game and am glad to see a more mature catalog on the DS. Hope to see more Square Enix games on Nintendo both on DS and on Wii.
  
  
• Disappointed
  By A19EZL6EJ3MMYT on 2007-12-28
  I was somewhat disappointed with the beginning of this game. It seems that all you do is go from one battle to another using the rock,scissors,paper rules.I'll try a little further and see if it get's any better. Right now it gets a 2.5 out of 5.
  
  
• Uneven but still a joy
  By A1AISPOIIHTHXX on 2008-01-03
  Final Fantasy XII, the franchise's last installment on the Playstation 2, was sort of hit-and-miss as it had a completely immersive world, a better battle system and graphics but with it went at times a meandering and confusing storyline, characters you couldn't empathasize with a la Celes or Rydia and a rather forgettable soundtrack. Its sequel, Revenant Wings is similarily flawed but its not as disappointing and while there's several gameplay aspects and features that aren't as impressive or well-done, it's still quite a joy to play and should appeal to fans of its epic big brother.
  
  Story: Taking place after the events of the first game, Vaan and his companion Penelo are sky pirates who stumble across an old airship that takes them to the floating land of Lemures populated by the aegyl, humes (humans) with wings on their back. But such a wondrous and highly talked about land of legend means others want to exploit and so Vaan, Penelo as well as new friends and old buddies try to stop those who wish to use Lemures treasures for their own.
  
  Graphics: The graphics might invoke more a combination of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and the Mana series rather than the first game which is fine and all since the game's quite colorful but then again, characters look more younger despite it being a sequel and there's on occasion some slowdown but when you have just as impressive FMV's as the remake of III, all those nitpicks kind of get thrown out the window.
  
  Sound/Music: The first soundtrack without series mainstay Nobuo Uematsu, XII's soundtrack was epic and grandiose in its arrangements but rather forgettable in its melodies which made Uematsu's music such a pleasure since not only was it well composed, but it was hummable at the same time. Revanent Wings is pretty much the same soundtrack as XII's but sometimes it's more welcome here. No voice acting to speak of.
  
  Gameplay: The battle system was refreshing in XII since gone were the random battles and its place was a MMORPG-inspired system with attacks requiring a certain amount of time before they're activated. The battle system in the DS game is similar but it's mission-based a la Tactics and characters roam the field fighting, healing and other such stuff. Aiding in your quest are espers, enemies that you "summon" into battle to help you fight the legions of baddies in a given level. Taking over an enemy's summon gate allows you to touch the gate and call even more espers which range from melee, ranged, and flying. It's a fun little system and while you can use different esper groups to battle different foes, it's best to just make everyone unleash on the enemy at once.
  
  Which comes to one of my two nitpicks: the field can get crowded with not only your members (up to 9 main characters but 5 in a field) and a certain limit of espers not to mention the large amounts of baddies that can populate the field, it's hard to pick a certain member of your team to cure your fighters or to get a party member out of the way lest they get knocked out. The other is the way you level up: what made the original funner at levelling up was that you could go around the level and just stomp enemy after enemy without having to leave the screen, get the fanfare and your spoils etc but now that's back and it makes exp gaining slightly tedious since you have to keep replaying Melees to get your characters up in levels. Not to mention the game's difficulty is unbalanced at times with a fine cruising pace then all of a sudden the enemies seemed to level up faster than I do or I just got overwhelmed.
  
  While the story is a bit more simplistic than XII's political-intrigue filled narrative and the gameplay is unbalanced, fans of the series would be good to give Revenant Wings a go.
  
  
• Awesome
  By A2RYF1B2TQTI3E on 2008-01-12
  Brought this game as a present and the person I brought it for really loves it.
  
  
• FFXII: FUN
  By AEZWIR83VV9W8 on 2008-01-14
  I didn't expect a strategy RPG like this, but as my first strategy RPG I love it! It took a short while for me to get used to using the stylus almost entirely to control the group, but after I got the hang of it it felt like second nature to me. I would really like to play more games like this. It is a very engaging method of playing and I haven't felt this "in to" a game since I played FF: 3 & Chrono Trigger on the SNES.
  
  
• Not quite like the PS2 FFXII
  By A30K4BO9GEUPDM on 2008-01-23
  Maybe it is my expectation-mismatch to blame, but this is not what I thought it would be. I loved FFXII on PS2, but this one is just too kiddo-ish, and instead of journeys and story modes you have individual "fights" or campaigns.
  
  The only way to level-up is to do side hunts and go back to already-fought campaigns and fight them again. Hmm. Not quite the same spirit of exploring a wide world. The whole gambit thing is overkill for this game. FFIII on DS Lite was better in terms of game play.
  
  Graphics- cutscenes are beautiful, in-game characters are laughable.
  
  The wait for FF13 on PS3 is simply too long. Before then, I will save my bucks for the FFVII Crisis Core on PSP, where the games are slightly more catered towards teens, not what feels like age 5 and up.
  
  

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