Summary: Some brief final thoughts on FFXII: Revenant Wings.
Protagonists
Penelo: What wonderful development! She comes into her own. A brave young woman, a cook, a friend to Velis, a friend and romantic partner to Vaan, a sister/parent to Kytes and Filo. A leader.
Penelo by kuri-hime, posted by djinn87.
Vaan: Gradually came into his own as a leader and guide. An experienced sky pirate by now.
Kytes & Filo: So cute! They relate to Penelo and Vaan like how Penelo and Vaan related to Balthier and Fran XII. On their first adventure as sky pirates, learning the limits of adventure.
Llyud: The only new party member. He’s a good ‘un. I would’ve preferred if his lack of emotion were natural rather than induced. Still, his quest to find his anima and save his people made him more than just a budget Vulcan.
Llyud art by salut-hurricane, posted by djinn87.
Balthier, Fran, Ashe, Basch: It was good to see them! I clearly recognized them all as their characters from XII, near the end of those arcs. Especially Basch, at peace with his past.
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Antagonists
Mydia: What a tragic and fascinating character. Similar to IV’s Golbez in how she’s manipulated by a godlike being, and more effective because she wasn’t simply mind-controlled. She sought Feolthanos to fill holes left by her family, her culture, Velis. Alas, he was not worthy..
”Judge of Wings,” by Rosiana.
Feolthanos: He came from an interesting place. Led the aegyl away from the Occuria, left his descendants the means to find him, only to be trapped in the skies that promised freedom. Too bad you make such bad choices when you give up your soul.
Random Enemy Sky Pirates: RW infused these common enemies with individuality, flavor, character, and humor. A small thing that added so much.
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Side Characters
Tomaj: A crafty ‘streetear” and entrepreneur. Invaluable.
Cu Sith: BEST CHARACTER! MY BELOVED PUPPY BLACKSMITH! If all espers really faded, that’s heartbreaking.
Cu Sith.
Rikken’s Crew: A great little comedy trio.
Ba’Gamnan’s Crew: A wasted opportunity. He served such a repetitive role. The worst part is how RW teased a more interesting story where he joined us as a core party member! But no, he reverted to full “I’ll get you next time, Gadget!” mode.
Protagonists
Penelo: What wonderful development! She comes into her own. A brave young woman, a cook, a friend to Velis, a friend and romantic partner to Vaan, a sister/parent to Kytes and Filo. A leader.
Penelo by kuri-hime, posted by djinn87.
Vaan: Gradually came into his own as a leader and guide. An experienced sky pirate by now.
Kytes & Filo: So cute! They relate to Penelo and Vaan like how Penelo and Vaan related to Balthier and Fran XII. On their first adventure as sky pirates, learning the limits of adventure.
Llyud: The only new party member. He’s a good ‘un. I would’ve preferred if his lack of emotion were natural rather than induced. Still, his quest to find his anima and save his people made him more than just a budget Vulcan.
Llyud art by salut-hurricane, posted by djinn87.
Balthier, Fran, Ashe, Basch: It was good to see them! I clearly recognized them all as their characters from XII, near the end of those arcs. Especially Basch, at peace with his past.
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Antagonists
Mydia: What a tragic and fascinating character. Similar to IV’s Golbez in how she’s manipulated by a godlike being, and more effective because she wasn’t simply mind-controlled. She sought Feolthanos to fill holes left by her family, her culture, Velis. Alas, he was not worthy..
”Judge of Wings,” by Rosiana.
Feolthanos: He came from an interesting place. Led the aegyl away from the Occuria, left his descendants the means to find him, only to be trapped in the skies that promised freedom. Too bad you make such bad choices when you give up your soul.
Random Enemy Sky Pirates: RW infused these common enemies with individuality, flavor, character, and humor. A small thing that added so much.
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Side Characters
Tomaj: A crafty ‘streetear” and entrepreneur. Invaluable.
Cu Sith: BEST CHARACTER! MY BELOVED PUPPY BLACKSMITH! If all espers really faded, that’s heartbreaking.
Cu Sith.
Rikken’s Crew: A great little comedy trio.
Ba’Gamnan’s Crew: A wasted opportunity. He served such a repetitive role. The worst part is how RW teased a more interesting story where he joined us as a core party member! But no, he reverted to full “I’ll get you next time, Gadget!” mode.
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Story/Setting
Most sequels (e.g. The After Years, X-2) reuse old zones. I really appreciate that RW built a new area in Lemures to explore.
The old characters it uses, it uses and honors well.
Vaanelo.
Characters get solid development that progress their characters in a way that feels real and effective. It respects these characters (unlike, say, Dirge of Cerberus with Yuffie).
The plot doesn’t just retread the XII plot. It tries something new, albeit well-tied to XII. I especially love the aegyl. It’s not easy to add a totally new race onto an existing canon.
My favorite part of it was the story of the Exiled, the Feol viera. What a heartbreak..
Feolthanos.
Another thing I like is the scope. Yes, the world was technically at stake, but the action was largely confined to Lemures. It functioned like a short story in the Ivalice collection.
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Tone: The Ivalice games present a wide tonal spectrum. FFT is dark and serious. XII is similar, if somewhat lighter. FFTA is brighter, more humorous. Revenant Wings is a good balance, leaning mostly towards the FFTA side. It carves its own niche.
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Gameplay
Ok. Look. Even the best real-time strategy games are not my thing. If you enjoy being challenged to make many quick decisions and click fast, and that’s a skill you possess, you may enjoy Revenant Wings! These are just my opinions.
*deep breath* This was… bad. I hated it. I rarely felt comfortable, and even when I knew what I was doing it was unenjoyable and clunky.
Combat: Send this mass of 15-25 units at that smaller mass. Watch them plod forward. Summon some more units when my units die.
I know, I’m not being quite fair. You could choose gambits. The rock-paper-scissors esper mechanic had some promise too. When combat begins, you can send counter unit groups to tank - e.g. send my flyers out to engage a melee pack.
But for the most part, it felt like an awful version of an RTS like Starcraft when I don’t even like good versions of the RTS genre. Sort of like how I don’t like shooters and so I didn’t like Dirge of Cerberus, but even if I liked shooters I probably would find it a bad example of the genre.
Experience for Losing: One minor positive. I wish other games would incorporate this mechanic. Let me try a tough fight, lose, and start back at my last save point or right before the fight with some experience for my troubles!
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Music
Solid. Mostly XII music, which I like even if I don’t rush to buy the unavailable soundtrack. I especially liked some of the piano tracks! Some favorites:
“A Sky Pirate”
“Theme of Love”
“Air Castle”
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Art/Visuals
Mixed. I love the cartoony FFTA portrait art but hated the normal combat graphics. It was grainy, hard to distinguish. Maybe that’s just how the DS games are, in which case I can’t blame it. But then why stuff the screen with dozens of badly rendered sprite you can’t tell apart?
The constant stuttering and slowing when sprite armies clashed (which happened often) only exacerbated things.
[Later edit: after finishing this write-up, I checked out a video of someone playing Revenant Wings, and… it looked way smoother! I used my emulator’s default settings. Found a video explaining some optimization tips which helped a little bit, so take all of this section with a grain of salt. The graphics and slowness may be my fault.]
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Length: Final played time is around 50 hours. A bit on the long side for what the gameplay had to offer.
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Replayability: Low. The gameplay repels me, and I’ve explored most non-Midlight Deep content.
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Lore Questions!
There are a bunch of lore questions/theories I’m still puzzling through.
1) The Occuria made the espers, who rebelled and lost. Why do we see the likes of Cuchulainn and Ultima as Feolthanos’ creations? Is it because he used the power of the auracite to create copies?
2) Who made the auraliths? My best understanding is that Feolthanos used them to make the island float, but then somehow the Occuria turned them into a prison for the aegyl, but then (again, somehow) Feolthanos used them to steal aegyl anima. And along the way he became an auralith? Idk idk.
3) I feel confident that either Rozarria became the world of FFT or FFT became Rozarria. The timing is still up in the air for me, but that FFT thing about machinists discovering the past makes me think FFT is in the future.
4) WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THE CACHE OF GLABADOS? Where does Saint Ajora Glabados fit into the timeline? Where does he fit with the likes of the espers, with Ultima and Zodiark and the Occuria? What’s the relation of those rebellious espers to the Lucavi, if any? What about his city that vanished or whatever?
Saint Ajora Glabados, by povelar.
5) What does Feolthanos have to do with Ajora/the Church of Glabados?
Most of these are rhetorical! I assume FFTA2 will answer some others, and that some just don’t get answered. That’s totally fine!
However, if the game has clearly answered them and expects me to know that clear and obvious answer by now, let me know!
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A Brief Ranking of the Side FF Games I’ve Played It’s Just One Small Opinion Please Don’t Kill Me
I’ve done this for the main series games before only. This is my first time attempting it for the side games. It’s tough because the side games in corporate so many more genres that it’s even MORE subjective, so don’t read too much into this.
1.Tactics Advance
2.X-2
3.IV: The After Years
4.Tactics
5.VII: Crisis Core
6.II: Soul of Rebirth
7.X-2: Last Mission
8 .XII: Revenant Wings
9.VII: Dirge of Cerberus
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Final Thoughts
An interesting story, cute and expressive portraits, solid character development, fantastic new lore in Lemures and the aegyl, an innovative esper tree.
The ring of pacts.
All turned to crap by its combat and gameplay mechanics.
Seriously! There were so many wonderful things in Revenant Wings, none of which I have interest in re-experiencing simply due to the battle system.
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Next time: a new game! I’ll start Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift next week.
