Who bought Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings?

[Yeargdribble]

I'm enjoying it so far. It's a nice mixture of the RTS games I'm used with a very FFT feel. I can't think of any other game that combines quite the same elements as this one.

I have to say that the graphics look a tad sloppy at times and while I'd be tempted to write it off as system limitations, I didn't see the same problem in FF III DS, which seemed to be a much larger game and more graphically intensive. You can also see some laziness in sprites that were obviously stolen directly from FFTA (though made to look much more grainy and awful). Music is also a direct rip from FFXII, though much worse in quality.

That doesn't matter so much though. I'm no graphics whore. It's expanding on the FFXII story (which was weak to begin with) in a good way (unlike the way FF X-2 did so). Overall, I think it will be a wholly enjoyable experience.

I think we often set out expectations too high and judge games only as they compare to other games or (worse) to our favorite games. While that is a reasonable way to look at games, you have to look at the other end too. There are far worse games coming out right now than FFXII:RW. I think this one is definitely worth owning.

[Roto13]

The graphics are definitely a letdown. Well, the sprites, anyway. They're tiny but the game insists on zooming in on them constantly. The environments are very nice.

[Dragonsoul]

Roto13 have you done all the hunts and the melee battles that are available to you so far? The strategy guide lists all the melee battles and the hunts also. What's your exact time and the mission you just completed?

Yeargdribble this rpg subgenre is new, check out Heroes of Mana, it may be very similar. Also, the graphics may have to be small since there are many units on the screen. For the music they selected the best songs from FF XII and also added some new songs. Depending on what's happening, you'll hear different sections of each song. Also, this is written and directed by Motomu Toriyama. I notice a huge difference since the team is different. The story has positive influences and Vaan has a lot of story and Penelo also. Yea FF XII: RW is great. I don't know if there are people so far that really don't like it. Some people aren't picking it up but many people like this game a lot. The reviews are high for this game. They could get higher points if they get used to the battle system maybe? I'll have to read the reviews and find out what flaws the critics showed. Yea the FF XII world is expanded, this is great! I think I'm beating this game too fast. My next game to beat is Alundra 1 but my relatives might buy it for me for Xmas.

Yea the sprite graphics I've been told should be higher resolution but is that possible or will the game slow down? I think the sprites are good but not super great. I'm not worried, I like the monster/character designs. I'll post more info soon about this.

Each battle has me with my ranged Rank I healing esper White Hare, four of them, with Penelo. I've upgraded them to Carbuncles though. Kytes Blizzaga is powerful. I really like this game! It could end up being about as good as FF XII. One thing is that the story in FF XII: RW is much better so far than in FF XII I think. FF XII: RW's story is written by Motomu Toriyama(director FF X, FF X-2, FF XIII). FF XII's story is written by Yasumi Matsuno and Daisuke Watanabe and Miwa Shoda.

[Roto13]

I thought Melee Battles were just what you find when you go to an area without a mission. Can't you do them as many times as you want?

[Dragonsoul]

Melee Battle is this...

You beat a level/mission and sometimes(not all the time) a "Melee Battle" is unlocked. This means that you go back to that area and complete a battle there, which doesn't have a story. You get experience, items, equipment, materials, auricite, and gold. You can do these Melee Battle's as many times as you want once that specific one is unlocked. Not all areas/missions will unlock a "Melee Battle" there. Also, sometimes there is more than one version of a Melee Battle in that area. You need to complete the Melee Battle atleast once if you are going for a 100% completion of the game. So far almost all the melee battles are in an area where you just completed a mission there that's part of the story and after that the melee battle(s) there are unlocked. I think there has been two places where there are melee battles and there wasn't any story for that area I think.

Melee Battles are done along with Tomaj's hunts. As you beat a mission/area, sometimes a hunt from Tomaj is unlocked. You go to an area and there is a story for this "hunt" there and you complete it, and it adds to the story. That hunt can be only done once but if there is a melee battle in that area you can go there as often as you want. There are like 40 hunts or something.

The game is great! I've spent some time recently on it and I've taken the DS to work to play with it during my breaks. All three people I've shown the game to(Uncle, coworker 1, coworker 2) all said that the game had very impressive graphics. I only showed them the opening movie 1, title screen, and opening movie 2 though. I'm pretty happy about FF XII: RW as you can tell. I think it could be better than FF XII possibly. The main reason for that so far is that I really like the story in FF XII: RW so far and I think it's better than FF XII probably.

Who else has this game besides me? Post your thoughts and what do you think of the story?

[Roto13]

The more I play this game, the less I like it. It's like I spend half of my time arguing with my characters to get them to do what I want. Penelo refuses to use Curaga even though it's set to a gambit, Vaan likes to run off ahead and get himself killed faster than I can revive him, and what's-her-face (the new girl) is... pretty much useless. She breaks like glass at the slightest bit of impact.

Speaking of gambits, why is it that in a game where you control 30 characters at the same time, I only get one incredibly basic gambit for each leader? Why do I have to manually cast all but one spell for my black mage? If I don't give him the specific command to use another spell while his gambit spell is recharging, he just sits there shooting pathetic little fire balls.

On top of that, it's repetitive. It's like trance music in video game form. There are lots of different objectives, but they basically all boil down to "Wander through the level swarming everything with your giant mass of ugly-ass monsters." The little variety that IS there usually means you have to protect some npc that's too stupid to know what's good for it. I actually went through a mission earlier today where I had to keep two aegyl warriors alive, but one of them would just fly off ahead of the rest of my party (where the only one with any chance of following him is Llyud, the only flying character I use if I can help it) to take on, like, five monsters by himself. Of course that never works.

Since I don't care about the story, the only reason I can think of to continue is the fact that I spent $40 on this game.

[Yeargdribble]

While I won't disagree with the flaws cited by Roto, I'm still enjoying the game quite a bit. I'm less concerned about length as I notice the % gauge filling up at a much slower pace as I go. I feel like I'm starting to get into the meat of things. I understand the system better and the battles no longer allow me to simply zerg rush all the time. I actually have to be a bit active and much more concerned with strategy including picking a good troupe of espers that are appropriate.

Another criticism I have as it goes on is the story. It seems to attempt to one-up the childishness of FFTA. The characters speak to one another as if they were 5. Often it feels like filler text with a rough outline of some type of moral you'd expect to pick up from some young children's programming. "As long as we're together it will all be okay! I hope things never change!" ... please gag me. The story seems to have some potential when I manage to look beyond that.

[Dragonsoul]

Yea the game has some flaws but I believe at it's core it's extremely enjoyable for me and the flaws it does have don't bother me too much. The rpgamer review came out and it's a pretty extensive review.
RPGamer > Staff Review > Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings



EDIT:
Cool! Which are you going to beat first?

I'm 20 hours into FF XII: RW and it says I completed 50% of the missions/hunts/melee battles. I'm spending too much time on this game I'm playing it 2.5 hours a day right now! I'll be done after 40-45 hours(yea it's a long DS rpg!).

So far for FF XII: RW I give it 10/10 scores each for Graphics, Sound, Story, and Characters. For Controls and Battle System I give them each 8/10. If you want to add more points to the review then I have more. For "Polish" I could give it 9/10 and for "Length/Sidequests" I give it 10/10 so far. I've given you a basic idea of the high quality of FF XII: RW!

[Renmiri]

I've had the japanese version for a while. FMVs are great, gameplay is just too kiddie like for me

[Dragonsoul]

I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!
So far, about 24 hours(60%) into it...
10/10: Story
10/10: Characters
10/10: Graphics
10/10: Sound
8/10: Controls
8/10: Battle System
9/10: Polish
10/10: Length/Sidequests

I'm immediately before the start of Mission 7-4: Aegyl Uprising - The Skies Of Lemurés, and this great quote was stated, and I love it!...
Cu Sith, Master Artificer: "This Nono...I do not like him. He thinks he's so cute with his wings and his pompom. Hrmph! He makes nice with Master Tomaj, but I see through his web of deception! If he thinks he'll get away with this, he doesn't know who he's messing with!"

I've been thinking about it, and I think that FF XII: RW is nearly as good as Final Fantasy XII was. That's an incredible accomplishment!! Remember that Final Fantasy XII is as bigtime as rpg's get, was on a console, was over 200 hours long, had a five year developmental cycle, and had the Yasumi Matsuno team developing it. FF XII: RW is a Nintendo DS rpg which was developed partly by Square Enix and partly by Think & Feel Inc, a company with less experience developing ultimate rpg's. I just finished Chapter 7(of 10) of FF XII: RW and it's an amazing experience! I suggest everybody drop what you are doing and get this game right now, you won't regret it!

[Roto13]

Even if you still like the game, you have to admit, the controls suck balls :P

[Yeargdribble]

I have to say that the controls are slightly too cumbersome for an RTS. You just can't possibly get around the controls fast enough and much of each character's potential is lost because they are sitting around doing stupid things (hi2u Kytes).

You either need to be able to control the special moves of your leaders more quickly, or more gambit options should have been added.

This doesn't really destroy the game for me and it's still fun. It's just frustrating at times when I know I could've won a battle if I'd just had better control options.

[Dragonsoul]

Yea the controls/battle system need a little improvement but for me it's not huge. I'm extremely happy with the story and characters, which is very important.

Here's a quick tip. You have gambits set up for each character. Right now I have these gambits enabled during an attack...

Vaan - Dual Attack(Big single enemy attack)
Penelo - Curaga(Heals allies in range, yea it's supposed to be Curaja!)
Kytes - Blizzaga/etc(Big area effect magic)
Filo - Sonic Wave(Big area effect attack)
Lluyd - Jump(Big area effect attack)

But when there is no attack going on, you don't need to have attack gambits on, just change them to gambits that boost your status, like these...

Vaan - Sprint(Increase movement speed)
Penelo - Mystic/War Dance(Increase Faith or Bravery respectively)
Kytes - Charge(Increase power of next magic spell)
Filo - Glide(Increase group's movement speed)
Lluyd - Vanishga(Make all allies in range invisible)

Right before a battle, change the gambits back to the other version. This strategy works good. If you try to manually select the abilities and then select a target, it takes longer and it may not work if the target is too far away. If you just change the gambits, it works automatically and it takes less time.

Don't forget to target enemies with your proper units(Melee Water, etc). Don't forget to pull back allies if they are low on HP. Also, make sure to use "Fortify Esper" and keep summoning Espers! I've gotten used to the battle system, I like it! Also, don't forget to use your quickenings and to revive your leaders immediately if they get KO'ed!

[Roto13]

See, that stuff is all really really obvious. :P The thing is, you shouldn't NEED to constantly be changing your gambits like that. Hell, if there was even one more gambit for character, the game would be so much more fun.

I'd rather just set my gambits as attacks and use support abilities manually, if I can't have them both set at the same time, though.

EDIT: Ugh. I just gave the game another try for the first time in days. I'm definitely trading to selling this thing to someone.

[stingus078]

just finished chapter one, I know haven't seen much to give it a proper review, but the characters seem to take more of an active role in this game by way of the programmed bubble dialogs. The story seems to be really strong in this game. Yes, the sprites are tiny, and the movement somewhat slow, but I still enjoy this game a lot...maybe because I just realized I wasted good money on call of duty ds only to beat it within a day...great graphics with a meat head story line.