FFXII: Revenant Wings flies to DS

By Walt Wyman, GameSpotPosted Sep 22, 2006 7:12 pm GMT

Weekly Famitsu dishes out the details on Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings; producer says DS game is not a sequel, is aimed at new audience.

The PlayStation 2 title Final Fantasy XII, released in Japan this past March, has already shipped over 2.4 million units. With numbers like those, it's no surprise that Square is cooking up a follow-up to the latest in the spin-off-happy franchise, as is reported in this week's Weekly Famitsu. What's more, the new game, titled Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, will be released on Japan's current reigning console, the Nintendo DS.

Famitsu revealed the game would focus on the characters Vaan, age 18, and Penelo, age 17. The DS's stylus and touch screen will be utilized, but the article did not reveal how. However, in an extensive interview with Motomu Toriyama, the game's director and scenario writer, and coproducer Eisuke Yokoyama, some tidbits of the game's creation were revealed.

"The reason we chose the DS was that we had many opportunities to see up close people playing it," Toriyama explained. "We planned to target the game at people who haven't touched games until now. The concept we developed was that of making an 'entry level FF' title."

As a result the game will apparently feature revised gameplay. "We removed anything that would look complicated [to a new player], and built the battle system with an eye towards users who were playing the game for the first time."

Although inheriting the FFXII title, Yokoyama downplayed its link to its PS2 predecessor. "It is not accurate to call this a sequel. We want people to view it as the latest FF game. This is not FFXII-2."

This is not the first time the company has made an "entry-level" Final Fantasy game. In 1992 it published Final Fantasy Mystic Quest for the Super Nintendo, a simpler, less complex spin-off of the series.

125 Comments

  • Nin10doFan44

    Posted May 8, 2007 4:14 pm GMT

    Cool I can't wait till this game comes out!

  • jacnewforce07

    Posted May 6, 2007 2:55 pm GMT

    wow..now i really have to get a ds

  • RubedoXT

    Posted Apr 29, 2007 3:21 pm GMT

    when will the english translation be released?

  • mr_gouda

    Posted Apr 21, 2007 9:45 am GMT

    Dangit! Whenever developers say the words "evtry-level" it usually means "crappy". They're planning to make a simpler spin-off in the lines of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest? That game totally sucked!

    I'll wait till the reviews are out on this one before buying it.

  • rave_n2

    Posted Apr 12, 2007 2:33 pm GMT

    Kool!!! cant wait!

  • Beesond

    Posted Mar 28, 2007 5:31 pm GMT

    Not related to FFXII nesseccarily isnt a bad thing.

    FFXII was the first FF I played, whereI thought the gameplay was the only saving grace. The story blew hard in XII, I was very dissappointed, but the trailer on the SE japan site looks pretty cool, there actually maybe more story in the DS version.

    Either way, my DS is starting to collect dust with my PSP, this game and FFVII Crisis Core need to come out now dammit!!!

    Political Thriller = Garbage

    And entry level..... The games are already far to easy, all of them. The only one with a decent challenge, which made it loads of fun was good old FF Tactics, cant wait for the new version and the sequel to come out for PSP, that will be beyond awesome.

  • JimmeyBurrows

    Posted Mar 12, 2007 4:59 pm GMT

    'The_AI
    It had better be in the states. And it had better be like FFXII. I haven't personally played it, but I just saw it played today by my friends (I slept over at their house). It was SICK.
    Scrap this entry level garbage and make it H-A-R-D like FFXII.'

    FFXII isn't that hard, it's just a fun gamelpay system... I like the look of this game, but the way they keep saying that it's not all that related to FFXII makes me wonder if it will be any good, since FFXII's main mechanic was the gameplay and thats not gonna be the same, and the story really isn't much of a mechanic in FFXII as it is in most other FF's... sooo i dunno i might have to look into this a bit more

  • Cz-100

    Posted Mar 9, 2007 1:37 pm GMT

    Because 1 is the hardest game in the series. At least the NES version is. Well... Ok, 4 is the hardest... but 1 is pretty hard. They should start out with 10, as it's probably the easiest.

  • Fyernix

    Posted Mar 5, 2007 5:23 am GMT

    Entry Level, why not just play Final Fantasy 1 then...and work your way up the series

  • The_AI

    Posted Mar 3, 2007 9:58 am GMT

    It had better be in the states. And it had better be like FFXII. I haven't personally played it, but I just saw it played today by my friends (I slept over at their house). It was SICK.

    Scrap this entry level garbage and make it H-A-R-D like FFXII.

  • one_of_panda

    Posted Feb 20, 2007 9:41 am GMT

    IS this going to be out in the States?

  • nate64

    Posted Jan 22, 2007 3:45 pm GMT

    i hope that they keep in the gambit system and all the same fighting style from the ps2 version.

  • sanderuli

    Posted Jan 21, 2007 7:13 am GMT

    Bah, I hope they bring it to europe as well

  • flanderosa

    Posted Jan 21, 2007 4:47 am GMT

    Toriyama-san, surely by developing a FF for DS you're already targeting 'people who haven't touched games until now'? Anyway, what's there not to understand about FF - some evil guy wants to destroy/take over/eat the world, plucky band of thieves/warriors/chefs try to thwart evil guy and prevent him/her/it from doing said actions, by taking it in turns to beat each other up. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love FF, but when it boils down to it, there ain't a whole lot more to it than that. How can they possibly make it simpler? If you don't get that, go play something else.

    Still hope this'll be good though

  • mariokartguy

    Posted Jan 4, 2007 12:23 am GMT

    how do you not understand final fantasy, the first time i tried it i was owning like crazy

  • KingPhill1234

    Posted Dec 10, 2006 8:16 am GMT

    i hope this game won't suck and i'll probably buy it anyway, but flying around as two airship pirates doesn't sound like FF to me...

  • Beesond

    Posted Dec 7, 2006 3:12 pm GMT

    Entry level....

    I love FF games to death, only problem they are too easy, way too easy.

  • Azurewraith92

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 3:38 pm GMT

    Maquefort I completely agree with you. This seems completely counter intuitive. Despite having built up an enormous fan base over 12 games and countless spin-offs, Square always seems obsessed with reinventing itself and bringing new people in rather than pleasing and catering towards its MILLIONs of loyal fans. i won't be buying this unless I'm really despirate for a new portable game.

  • maquefort

    Posted Nov 15, 2006 6:32 am GMT

    I don't like the sound of this either. The FF series isn't THAT hard to get into anyway, why should they make it too easy? Sounds like it will only bore people out of the entire series.. We want challenges, that's the best part of gaming!

  • Sacif

    Posted Nov 7, 2006 7:57 am GMT

    entry level? I hope that doesn't mean crap

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