This game seems like an odd one. Final Fantasy XII is certainly a fan favourite, but the sequel for the Nintendo DS seems like a bit of a blindspot for many. Many fans of the original game I’ve come across online seem a little too self-serious to have interest in its portable companion. When the thing they’re proud to shout is how FF12 is a “serious fantasy game” a more cartoony looking sequel might not be of interest.
Being a different genre doesn’t help either. Nobody came to Final Fantasy XII for a real-time strategy game, so it’s not a surprise that they didn’t fancy the follow-up. It’s not a genre I’m interested in, mostly because I’m terrible at them. However, my curiosity in what a sequel to FF12 looks like pushed beyond that and I liked… parts of it.
I don’t know if this is because I often look too much into who makes a game, but I could really feel that Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings came from a different team than its predecessor. The credited director on this was Motomu Toriyama who was also responsible for Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy XIII, and more recently Final Fantasy VII Remake (as one of multiple directors). Many of his games have recurring story elements.
They usually take place in a world that’s very set in its ways. Spira in Final Fantasy X is an example of this, as the people there were stuck in a routine of battling Sin with a very specific method that wouldn’t stop harm to the world, without trying any alternatives. Eventually someone comes into the world, and through forging strong relationships helps to change the state of everything. This is much like Tidus from the same game. While he wasn’t the lead director for that, it lays a framework that’s seen in his other work. To me it’s clearly demonstrated in Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
The world Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings takes place in is Ivalice, an already established setting, but for this game Vaan and his friends are sent off to an isolated continent of islands in the sky. These are populated by the Aegyl, who have been summoning monsters in order to help them in battle, at the cost of anima, a resource found in the soul that helps control emotions. These monsters were summoned so that the Aegyl could defend themselves, but by doing so allowed even worse creatures to eventually take form, leading to even more self-defence summoning. This ends up in a cycle where the Aegyl drain themselves of all emotion.
What leads to this cycle breaking is the arrival of Vaan and friends. Through working together with Llyud (one of the Aegyl), they manage to defeat the godlike being who has set all of this in motion, and end the state of this society by literally destroying the sky continent. Because of this the Aegyl regain their emotions, but they’re left to find a new life somewhere else.
It’s a very hopeful ending in that they finally have their freedom, but Ivalice doesn’t have much in the way of that. The ending of Final Fantasy XII puts a big emphasis on how the systems of the world carry on even after the day is saved. The friendlier, cartoony tone of Revenant Wings doesn’t seem to sit with this well.
Even though this is a solid framework to build a story on, what lets it down is the lack of interesting characters. There’s no new memorable ones, and those returning from the original game don’t have much to add either. Ashe, Basch, and Larsa are present but have little presence, as everything they say feels a little too functional. This all made it very hard for me to connect with the game’s plot.
After all of that, I’m still interested in what happens next with the Aegyl, and I’d also like to see it handled by the same director. In Final Fantasy X-2, he proved fully capable of handling a game about what it’s like to rebuild a world once the day is saved. I’ve enjoyed enough of his works to know that there’s still potential in it.
While I did have mixed feelings on the narrative, the real-time strategy battles that make up most of the game actually ended up being fun once I got used to them. They work on two layers of rock-paper-scissors, with three types of units (melee, ranged, and flying), and four elemental affinities (fire, water, lightning, and earth). I had a good time building teams to suit each battle, and deploying them in the right formations to deal with certain enemies ended up being enjoyable. There were times where the small screen became cramped enough that it became more difficult to micromanage certain unit types, which was annoying but mostly manageable.
The more annoying parts were significant difficulty jumps as a result of the game’s levelling curve. If you stick with only the game’s main missions which progress the story, the party will always be underleveled, which at times made this one of the most difficult games I’ve ever played for this blog. To get my levels to match, it seemed like a considerable amount of grinding needed to be done. It’s that or maybe I am even worse at real-time strategy than I assumed.
This game ended up feeling like a bizarre mashup. A real-time strategy with RPG growth mechanics. A story in Ivalice with a plot that fits elsewhere. It doesn’t quite mesh together perfectly but I can’t hate the effort. They didn’t seem to make another Final Fantasy RTS after this either, but I’d like to see another attempt.
Screenshots sourced from Mobygames.
Pixpen 