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PreviousFinal Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings First Impressions
DS First Impressions by Simon Parkin
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Using the word Revenant to title this, the first spin-off videogame to Final Fantasy XII's bright universe, seems something of a misnomer. With full-page advertisements in Viz this month proclaiming the original PlayStation 2 game's arrival to Europe, the world of Ivalice has hardly been gone long enough to warrant a vainglorious comeback.
Nevertheless, players who recently uncovered all of Final Fantasy XII's grand mysteries, but were left wanting more, will have no qualms with Revenant Wings so closely following on the heels of its illustrious parent.
But while the characters, locations and soundtrack will all be instantly familiar (the game opens in the Glabados Ruins before whisking you back to Rabanastre's cosy slums) the core RPG engine has been stripped out and improbably replaced with some Real Time Strategy cogs and rubber bands.
This is surprising for various reasons, not least of which is the fact that RTS games are terminally unpopular in Japan, where the game has just launched. Prior to sitting down with a demo of the game, Eurogamer asked the its director, Motomu Toriyama, what on earth the team was thinking.
"There's a lot of excitement regarding RTS games within Square-Enix at the moment," he explained. "With Revenant Wings we're really looking to warm the Japanese up to the genre by making an accessible game based in a universe which they love. I believe there's an ease of play to our take on the RTS genre here. It works really well on the DS but it's certainly been a big challenge making it work elegantly with the stylus."
Of course, coming from this developer, Revenant Wings is hardly an RTS in the orthodox western, Command and Conquer understanding of the term. The game incorporates RPG style levelling for both the core characters and the various summon creatures which aid them in their quest.
Likewise, central mechanics from the PS2 game, such as the license board, mist abilities and gambits all make a return - albeit in modified form.
"We've worked hard to make Revenant Wings sit comfortably alongside Final Fantasy XII," said Toriyama. "But while that game is focussed on the large-scale historical events of Ivalice, this title is an examination of the key characters as they go about their daily lives.
As a result we decided to really focus on Vaan and Penelo, for the story here. They really played secondary, spectators roles within Final Fantasy XII's storyline and this was the perfect opportunity to explore and develop their relationship and story."
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Final Fantasy Revenant Wings - Trailer [0] 5 February, 2008
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings - Cinematic [6] 17 April, 2007
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Comments: 1-27 of 27 in total
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Der_tolle_Emil
28/05/07 @ 08:06
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Looks crap? In what way? Technically it's one of the most beautiful DS games ever. Also there is still a chance that the US/EU versions will be more difficult; At least I hope so.
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why doesn't SE give some rpg lvoe to ninty. only spin offs and remakes
Under which rock have you been? :) Nintendo get's Dragon Quest, the most successful role playing series in Japan. They also get It's A Wonderful World, which is new IP. The sequelitis, remake obsession and spin-off milking is just integral to SE. Look at the PSP library for lots of examples. |
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draogn quest may be big in japan (big in japan.....big in japan (insert notes here)) but it's an rpg with date dmechanisms. it seems crap cause we are allready getting ff tactifcs (which rocks) so one strategy rpg is enough for now (and don't tell me this being real time is a big difference) and i didn't say graphically crap i was talking about gameplay wise. all i want to see is a real ff on ds (like 3 only not a remake/port)
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dirigiblebill
28/05/07 @ 09:46
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I really, really don't like the looks of this but then I didn't really like FFXII either. The strategy looks too simplistic, too 'select-all-then-attack'.
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dirigiblebill
28/05/07 @ 10:37
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York you traitor, can't you see they're trying to morph the franchise into Warioware? Up in arms, ye geeks, ye crazies and diehards- we shall overthrow the dark might of casualdom and restore FF to turn-based glory.
EDIT: Too many 'turns'. The horror.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 28/05/07 @ 11:43
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dirigiblebill
28/05/07 @ 11:39
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Fair enough, but keep your dirty hands off my FF franchise ;)
I'm sure if SE put their minds to it they can make a game which is at once accessible and good for short bursts but also deep if you want it to be, as opposed to being solely the former, which (and I'm being pessimistic) looks the case with this entry. Puzzle Quest is the way to go. |
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trotskyicepick
28/05/07 @ 19:48
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whats the point in final fantasy tactics advance then if this is coming out!
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NegativeZero
29/05/07 @ 01:06
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If this had been a traditional RPG or a turn-based SRPG I'd have been all over it. I loathe RTS.
I wonder if it still has goddamn fucking random chest contents. If there's one thing that I absolutely hated in FF12, it was that chests, the reward for bothering to explore the world in every other RPG ever, hardly ever contained anything worth the time involved in finding them. |
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CitizenGeek
29/05/07 @ 07:01
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I hope they fix the difficulty problem in time for the US release. Square Enix have added in new difficulty levels before (like with DoC), so it's a possibility.
I do think they should have made this into an SRPG, though. Oh well, still can't wait for it! |
Comments: 1-27 of 27 in total
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