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Square-Enix seems to be on a roll with their strategy role-playing games, first releasing Heroes of Mana, following this DS release was Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions on the PSP, and with their newest release, Revenant Wings, coming to North America on November 20th. Revenant Wings is going to be an entirely different kind of game, however; it is a real time strategy, but contains a gambit system similar to that which was implanted in its predecessor Final Fantasy XII. As one might expect, the units are relatively similar to those in Heroes of Mana. There are three types of units: melee units, which are effective against ranged units, these ranged units are effective against flying ones, and finally, these flying units are effective against the melee units. Perhaps gamespy describes this best:

"Its main characters are Vaan and Penelo, but it's not Final Fantasy XII. It has cute 2D sprites, but it's not Final Fantasy II. It's set in the world of Ivalice, but it's not Final Fantasy Tactics. It's exclusive to Nintendo DS, but it's not Final Fantasy III. It's Square Enix' latest attempt to experiment in genres other than RPG, but it's not Dirge of Cerberus -- fortunately, some might add. Then, what is exactly Revenant Wings? The best way to describe it is probably that it's an RTS with some RPG elements. Or maybe an RPG with some real-time strategy touches... We asked Square Enix for a straight answer, and all they said was: "It's not a Final Fantasy XII sequel, but a continuation of it." Puzzled as we were, we decided to spend a few hours on it at Nintendo's latest press event in San Francisco, and we finally started to understand..."

At any rate, Revenant Wings plays in a real time setting, but gives the player a chance to customize the characters and use the gambits to their advantage. There are a number of major characters that you can use in each battle, the characters allowed will depend upon the particular battle, plus a number of generic units fighting on your side. The number of characters, or "group leaders," available for each mission is usually five, plus each character can control up to eight monsters. These characters are also able to call upon espers, the summons from Final Fantasy XII, by using a summoning gate, which requires a prayer, to become active. These summons will often get attacked by the monsters milling about the field, but they can be re-summoned by returning to the gate. Gametap claims that you can have an esper army if you want to! Magic is also an integral part of this game, as it ought to be in any Final Fantasy. Yet, magic is not the only way to cure your characters, there is also food that may be collected from the field. Treasure can also be found on the field.

The requirements to complete each battle also vary. Some battles will even require you to complete the task without losing a single character! Yet, you do not, thankfully, have to worry about controlling each of your fighters individually. You can select the group leader by double tapping on his or her cute sprite, but a single tap will select the whole group under this one character's control. Plus, the character will have one gambit available, and will follow this single gambit unless given different instructions. Characters will be selected using the stylus, and can be selected as a group by dragging the stylus over the characters you want to select, while this may be reminiscent of Heroes of Mana, one of the producers of Revenant Wings, Eisuke Yokoyama, listed Warcraft as a source of inspiration for this game's battle system.

Revenant Wings tags onto Final Fantasy XII's battle system in one more important way. The License Board will see its replacement: The Ring of Pacts, which apparently operates similarly to the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X. There will also be towns available to upgrade your characters further. This may make Revenant Wings sound much more complex than Heroes of Mana was, but according to all previews so far, this battle system is very intuitive and will take only minutes to master, but will command months of respect and love.

Wait a second, we haven't even mentioned a thing about the storyline yet! It would be blasphemous for a Final Fantasy to not have an excellent storyline, and while this game is obviously centered upon the battlefields, its story interconnects with Final Fantasy XII's. It is one year later, Vaan and Penelo are with their friends: Filo, Kytes, and Tomaj, and it is upon this group of sky pirates that the story is focused. The plot begins when Vaan and his friends discover a spaceship. While they are investigating the ship, however, it begins moving and sends them to a floating continent. The strange winged beings on this continent are angered, and afraid, because the barrier that used to protect them was destroyed by the Judge of Wings, who plans to attack Ivalice next. It certainly seems like it is time for Vaan to try to play the hero again. Gamespy relates: "our heroes feel the call for adventure and decide to help their new friends and show them that sky pirates can be nice people too."

With gameplay, and storyline now covered, graphics are next, and this is certainly a category in which Revenant Wings excels. Not only are the sprites as cute as could possibly be expected, but the cutscenes are also beautiful, and take full advantage of the portable's dual screens. The battlescenes will be in full 3D, behind the 2D sprites, but do not worry, just because the sprites are two dimensional doesn't mean that they are lacking in Final Fantasy spirit. They are definitely an ode to the Final Fantasy fans; fans will definitely be pleased throughout with the use of the beloved chocobo, and cactuar, as well as many other loved Final Fantasy elements.

The soundtrack for this game is also excellent considering it is still contained within portable gaming parameters. Anyone who has played Final Fantasy XII will recognize much of the music, though it has been catered to the DS's capabilities.

While the fun gameplay will appeal to casual gamers, the throwbacks to previous Final Fantasies and the inclusion of the well known characters Vaan and Penelo, and the cameo appearances by Balthier and Fran, will appeal to the hardcore Square-Enix fans who cannot get enough of role-playing games to satiate their imaginations.

Sources:
- 1UP
- Gamedaily
- Gametap
- Gamespy

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