Summary:
Fighting off Ba’gamnon. Flying to the floating continent of Lemures.
Llyud the aegyl joins. Adapting (badly) to the new combat system.
The Treasure is the Key - Aboard the Derelict (1-3)
-A warp-pad on the ship spews monsters.
-We get close and “the stone” reacts. I guess the treasure from the Glabados Ruins was just a crystal/stone. Somehow I assumed that was just the case that contained the real treasure.
-The FF scale music starts. The stone changes color.
-This is a summoning gate. I can use it to summon espers.
-Red summoning gates are under enemy control at first. The more units I send, the more quickly I capture the gate.
-Vaan uses his stone to summon something, and an “alraune” pops out. That must be the name for the tomatoes. A lil esper!
-Summoning an esper assigns it to a group led by a main character.
-The description of the summoning gate says it’s a portal to the World of Illusion, used to summon the Yarhi. I don’t know what either of those things is yet.
-I can summon Sylph, Alraune, or Garchimacera. So the espers here are not stuff like Zodiark and Ultima. Or maybe they are, but there are lesser ones too.
-I accidentally summon three more Sylphs. Vaan is way too excited about this.
DUDE. JUST A YEAR AGO YOU LEARNED THAT THESE ESPERS WAGED WAR AGAINST GOD BASICALLY. Maybe don’t take this so lightly?
-The espers I summon are like troops. There’s a lot of them, though a finite number based on my “affinity.” Some are ranged, melee, and flying.
-I wish there were a way to pause mid-combat while I adjusted my gambits and chose spells.
---
Unwelcome Guests – Aboard the Derelict (1-4)
-Scene change to Penelo outside the ship. She’s with some dude.
-She heals up one of the wounded guards.
-Ah, the dude is Tomaj. I vaguely remember him from FFXII.
-Penelo thinks Vaan attacked the guards and she is PISSED.
Angry Penelo sprite is best Penelo sprite.
-Meanwhile, Vaan reaches the ship’s bridge. He and the Kid Brigade are about to take off when BA’GAMNAN jumps out and stops them. Took me a second to remember who he was. I was thinking at first he was Bender, Vaan’s old boss, but no. This is the asshole headhunter who was after Balthier.
-lol vaan: “How many times do we have to kill you anyway?”
-Vaan is ready to rumble, but Filo and Kytes back away. I don’t blame them. Vaan has been through so much shit, and these kids are basically just on their first adventure.
-lololol they bail on him
-The bangaa with him are all family.
The Treasure is the Key - Aboard the Derelict (1-3)
-A warp-pad on the ship spews monsters.
-We get close and “the stone” reacts. I guess the treasure from the Glabados Ruins was just a crystal/stone. Somehow I assumed that was just the case that contained the real treasure.
-The FF scale music starts. The stone changes color.
-This is a summoning gate. I can use it to summon espers.
-Red summoning gates are under enemy control at first. The more units I send, the more quickly I capture the gate.
-Vaan uses his stone to summon something, and an “alraune” pops out. That must be the name for the tomatoes. A lil esper!
-Summoning an esper assigns it to a group led by a main character.
-The description of the summoning gate says it’s a portal to the World of Illusion, used to summon the Yarhi. I don’t know what either of those things is yet.
-I can summon Sylph, Alraune, or Garchimacera. So the espers here are not stuff like Zodiark and Ultima. Or maybe they are, but there are lesser ones too.
-I accidentally summon three more Sylphs. Vaan is way too excited about this.
DUDE. JUST A YEAR AGO YOU LEARNED THAT THESE ESPERS WAGED WAR AGAINST GOD BASICALLY. Maybe don’t take this so lightly?
-The espers I summon are like troops. There’s a lot of them, though a finite number based on my “affinity.” Some are ranged, melee, and flying.
-I wish there were a way to pause mid-combat while I adjusted my gambits and chose spells.
---
Unwelcome Guests – Aboard the Derelict (1-4)
-Scene change to Penelo outside the ship. She’s with some dude.
-She heals up one of the wounded guards.
-Ah, the dude is Tomaj. I vaguely remember him from FFXII.
-Penelo thinks Vaan attacked the guards and she is PISSED.
Angry Penelo sprite is best Penelo sprite.
-Meanwhile, Vaan reaches the ship’s bridge. He and the Kid Brigade are about to take off when BA’GAMNAN jumps out and stops them. Took me a second to remember who he was. I was thinking at first he was Bender, Vaan’s old boss, but no. This is the asshole headhunter who was after Balthier.
-lol vaan: “How many times do we have to kill you anyway?”
-Vaan is ready to rumble, but Filo and Kytes back away. I don’t blame them. Vaan has been through so much shit, and these kids are basically just on their first adventure.
-lololol they bail on him
-The bangaa with him are all family.
FFXII Revenant Wings – Part 2: Real Time Strategy (continued, 2/?)
-One of the bangaa, Bwagi, is like a polite Scottish pirate.
I like her.
-Seems the three bangaa want out of the headhunting business, and they’ll use killing us to buy their way out. (Maybe?)
-Ok, battle time. I have to defeat the four bangaa with the help of my espers.
-Game over. Even on this early fight, I have no idea what I’m doing.
-At least the game restarts me at the battle. I don’t have to go through that cutscene all over.
-The fight starts up again and I still have no understanding of the controls. This is getting super frustrating.
-I try approaching it a bit more tactically and having the flying team attack the melee bangaa, the melee attack the ranged, and the ranged attack the flyer, but we got obliterated quickly.
-I try it once more. All my party members die and Vaan is on his last legs, so I have him run and kite Ba’gamnon while I summon a crapload of the ranged espers to whittle the boss down.
-It’s early, but I’m really hating this combat.
[Later edit: I see in hindsight that I forgot the rock paper scissor order. I was having ranged attack melee. My bad. Still dislike the combat.
This dislike reflects my personal feelings for the genre more than a knock on this particular game. I’d argue that Revenant Wings is a scaled-down RTS, a real-time strategy game like Starcraft or Warcraft. The genre requires fast clicking, fast thinking, resource/army management and fast micromanagement in combat. I’m not good at those things and don’t particularly enjoy them.
It’s partly why I adored the untimed and deliberate pace of FFX, and why I’m a bit sad to see how the series has sped up since that.
I don’t currently plan to quit Revenant Wings and will do my best to learn and adapt.]
-The bangaa flee. At least the dead party members get xp.
-The ship starts to shake. We head to the bridge, and Penelo finds us.
VAAN: “[We’re going] on our next adventure!”
PENELO: “What kind of answer is that?” RIGHT?
-The ship takes off. It glows white now and sheds the grime that had stuck to it.
-AND THEN THE SHIP SPROUTS WINGS, COOL
Looks vaguely insectile.
-Chapter 1 complete!
---
Chapter 2: Distant Skies – The Sky Continent of Lemures
-The ship soars high through red sparkles. The sunset hitting clouds? Looks more magical than that.
-There’s the floating continent. I wonder if Vaan is actively driving or if this thing is self-navigating.
-Kytes and Filo are so happy. They’re on a real adventure! Penelo is more grounded.
-Ah, so the ship’s on auto-pilot. That’s… unsettling.
-One of the bangaa, Bwagi, is like a polite Scottish pirate.
I like her.
-Seems the three bangaa want out of the headhunting business, and they’ll use killing us to buy their way out. (Maybe?)
-Ok, battle time. I have to defeat the four bangaa with the help of my espers.
-Game over. Even on this early fight, I have no idea what I’m doing.
-At least the game restarts me at the battle. I don’t have to go through that cutscene all over.
-The fight starts up again and I still have no understanding of the controls. This is getting super frustrating.
-I try approaching it a bit more tactically and having the flying team attack the melee bangaa, the melee attack the ranged, and the ranged attack the flyer, but we got obliterated quickly.
-I try it once more. All my party members die and Vaan is on his last legs, so I have him run and kite Ba’gamnon while I summon a crapload of the ranged espers to whittle the boss down.
-It’s early, but I’m really hating this combat.
[Later edit: I see in hindsight that I forgot the rock paper scissor order. I was having ranged attack melee. My bad. Still dislike the combat.
This dislike reflects my personal feelings for the genre more than a knock on this particular game. I’d argue that Revenant Wings is a scaled-down RTS, a real-time strategy game like Starcraft or Warcraft. The genre requires fast clicking, fast thinking, resource/army management and fast micromanagement in combat. I’m not good at those things and don’t particularly enjoy them.
It’s partly why I adored the untimed and deliberate pace of FFX, and why I’m a bit sad to see how the series has sped up since that.
I don’t currently plan to quit Revenant Wings and will do my best to learn and adapt.]
-The bangaa flee. At least the dead party members get xp.
-The ship starts to shake. We head to the bridge, and Penelo finds us.
VAAN: “[We’re going] on our next adventure!”
PENELO: “What kind of answer is that?” RIGHT?
-The ship takes off. It glows white now and sheds the grime that had stuck to it.
-AND THEN THE SHIP SPROUTS WINGS, COOL
Looks vaguely insectile.
-Chapter 1 complete!
---
Chapter 2: Distant Skies – The Sky Continent of Lemures
-The ship soars high through red sparkles. The sunset hitting clouds? Looks more magical than that.
-There’s the floating continent. I wonder if Vaan is actively driving or if this thing is self-navigating.
-Kytes and Filo are so happy. They’re on a real adventure! Penelo is more grounded.
-Ah, so the ship’s on auto-pilot. That’s… unsettling.
-omg tomaj tied up ba’gamnon.
Is he just gonna chill as our prisoner?
-We get to name this ship. I’ll go with the auto-picked name, the Galbana.
-I have inventory, gear, equipment, the works.
-Looks like the Sky Continent of Lemures is our world map, our main area.
-Tomaj will stay aboard the ship. He seems like he’ll be in a helper role rather than a core party member.
-Before we leave, Penelo asks us to really think about what being a sky pirate means.
-Vaan backs her up here. Kytes and Filo are all “YAAAAY ADVENTURE,” but even Vaan knows there’s weightier shit involved.
-Penelo makes everyone keep a log about what being a sky pirates means to them.
It’s kind of hilarious how unenthusiastic the kids are about this, but she makes a scary face and they agree.
-We can wander the world map a bit, but not much to do outside a named zone.
-First zone available is the Bosco Pampa.
---
The Winged – Zephyr, the Windward Isles (2-1)
-There’s immediately a treasure chest with a “musty old book” in it. What if it’s the book from FFTA?
-We see some antlions chasing a winged human too.
-I send all my party members and this faceless army of antlions and save the dude.
-Berries on battlefields function like potions.
-The warrior is Llyud. He’s an “aegyl,” and Lemures is their home.
-We see his companion in trouble across the map, a pink-haired aegyl. This mission is to rescue her.
-Maps have material nodes. This map also has treasure chests with some gear. More and more like an RTS, complete with nodes and point capture.
-My main strategy is to roam the map as one unstoppable mob, and when I approach an enemy I have its counter move out in front. Flying groups move to the front against melee, etc.
-Tons of rewards for mission completion! Looks like crafting supplies along with some gear.
-Llyud tells us that those attacking him… were sky pirates. No wonder he’s been side-eying us.
-The sky pirates drive the “Yarhi” to frenzy. A barrier once protected this island. No more.
-A rush of Mist blasted away the barrier a little while ago. That must’ve been from FFXII.
-We offer to help out. #NotAllSkyPirates
---
Next time: reviewing the primer, equipping, and taking out some sky pirates.
Is he just gonna chill as our prisoner?
-We get to name this ship. I’ll go with the auto-picked name, the Galbana.
-I have inventory, gear, equipment, the works.
-Looks like the Sky Continent of Lemures is our world map, our main area.
-Tomaj will stay aboard the ship. He seems like he’ll be in a helper role rather than a core party member.
-Before we leave, Penelo asks us to really think about what being a sky pirate means.
-Vaan backs her up here. Kytes and Filo are all “YAAAAY ADVENTURE,” but even Vaan knows there’s weightier shit involved.
-Penelo makes everyone keep a log about what being a sky pirates means to them.
It’s kind of hilarious how unenthusiastic the kids are about this, but she makes a scary face and they agree.
-We can wander the world map a bit, but not much to do outside a named zone.
-First zone available is the Bosco Pampa.
---
The Winged – Zephyr, the Windward Isles (2-1)
-There’s immediately a treasure chest with a “musty old book” in it. What if it’s the book from FFTA?
-We see some antlions chasing a winged human too.
-I send all my party members and this faceless army of antlions and save the dude.
-Berries on battlefields function like potions.
-The warrior is Llyud. He’s an “aegyl,” and Lemures is their home.
-We see his companion in trouble across the map, a pink-haired aegyl. This mission is to rescue her.
-Maps have material nodes. This map also has treasure chests with some gear. More and more like an RTS, complete with nodes and point capture.
-My main strategy is to roam the map as one unstoppable mob, and when I approach an enemy I have its counter move out in front. Flying groups move to the front against melee, etc.
-Tons of rewards for mission completion! Looks like crafting supplies along with some gear.
-Llyud tells us that those attacking him… were sky pirates. No wonder he’s been side-eying us.
-The sky pirates drive the “Yarhi” to frenzy. A barrier once protected this island. No more.
-A rush of Mist blasted away the barrier a little while ago. That must’ve been from FFXII.
-We offer to help out. #NotAllSkyPirates
---
Next time: reviewing the primer, equipping, and taking out some sky pirates.
