Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings Preview

With still a long wait ahead of us for the North American release of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, we’ve decided to give you readers a little preview by way of firing up the Japanese version we were lucky enough to nab. While none of us over here can understand Japanese (and the game is pretty much heavy on the text side of things), we’ll just run a finely-toothed comb over the gameplay bits, and see if Squeenix’s latest venture into a new genre actually works or not.

The full preview after the jump!

For those of us unable to wait until the US release of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the Nintendo DS, here’s a small taste of things to come as we fire up the Japanese version. For those of you worried about spoilers, fret not – I’ll try to keep it as spoiler-free as I possibly can, and just give you an overall idea of how the game plays and looks.

As with any high-quality Squeenix title, the game draws you in with high-quality graphics, character art and the smooth, almost photo-realistic FMVs – and even on the Nintendo DS, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is no exception. The intro clip plays smooth as silk, and the music clear as crystal (use headphones for better quality, as the DS speakers don’t quite do the soundtrack justice).

The character sprites are small, but detailed enough that you can easily distinguish one character from another. The in-game character portraits are something to note, bearing a soft and unique style that’s more than just easy on the eyes.

A key draw in the graphics department is obviously the environments – which perhaps contains some of the best 3D rendering on the DS I’ve ever seen. Looking at the in-game structures and buildings, detailed down to the cracks in the marble tiles of the floors, leaves no doubt that the game is indeed a Final Fantasy title.

Now to the gameplay itself. The game starts you off with Vaan as your only controllable unit, and takes this time to teach you how to use the stylus to select particular units and make them do what you want them to do. Remember the basics of any RTS game and you’re all set.

Click on a unit and then click anywhere else on the map to make them go there. If you want that unit to attack, click on the unit, and then click on an enemy. To select multiple units, just click and drag a square over the units you want to select. Simple, and with the Dual Screen’s touchscreen capabilities, it’s executed flawlessly.

Despite Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings having RTS elements, it does retain a healthy amount of RPG factors – characters still level up, characters have special abilities you can use in real-time like healing, a stronger attack or magic spells (handled very well, and handy in clearing multiple units in one fell swoop).

One complaint I have however is that your units move slowly in battle – it kills the rather epic soundtrack that plays whenever your units encounter monsters. To be fair, though, there’s quite a lot of action going on, and the maps are designed just so that you never get lost on where you need to go (the top screen doubles as a map, showing enemy positions as well).

Outside of battle, you have the cutscenes and the FMV sequences, all of which are quite fun to watch. The small, pixelized sprites convey their emotions convincingly and animatedly, and the FMVs bring about the same sense of grandeur and awe that you get when playing any of the previous Final Fantasy titles. No mean feat, considering it’s on a handheld.

And from what little I could understand of the dialogue (read:nothing), it seems that Vaan and company are dealing with ruins and crystals, using them to summon monsters you can enlist into your party. Beyond that, well, we’ll just have to wait for the US release. Expect a review from yours truly when that time comes – that is, if my fellow QJ writers haven’t fought me off for the chance to write one up, anyway.

Final verdict time! Squeenix may have just found another genre they could easily dominate in. The game’s controls are intuitive and newbie friendly (remember that this is the Japanese version, and even with the language barrier, I was able to play reasonably well).

The graphics are clean, the environments nothing short of spectacular, the FMVs smooth and Squeenix-licious. And do keep in mind that I’ve only cleared the first few missions – which begs the question of what lies ahead in the later parts of the game. A must buy? I believe so. Keep it posted right here for more developments on all things Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings!