Multi-genre titles are prevalent in the videogame market – that’s a given. Revenant Wings, however, is one of the more intriguing hybrids to come down the pipe. Its inherent simplicity makes it slightly too un-technical to make it a full-fledged real-time strategy game, but it sports few of the features that would place it squarely in RPG territory. The game is a little of both, actually: It’s got the vibe of an RPG but the workings of an RTS. And even still, it’s something entirely different.
What’s especially interesting about Revenant Wings is the fact that it shares surprisingly little with its predecessor. Exploration, in the traditional sense, is out, since the game is episodic; instead of traveling on foot to various locales and battling baddies along the way, you have an airship that you fly on an overworld from mission to mission. Combat, furthermore, is a far cry from FFXII fare – what was once nearly an action-RPG battle scheme is now something that resembles a system straight out of an RTS. For example, you now have control over espers, which are monsters that you summon to fight for you, so it’s not uncommon to have 20 units under your command at any given time. Revenant Wings is essentially FFXII, true, but mainly in the sense that our familiar protagonists have returned, we visit a few places we recognize from FFXII,
"It’s got the vibe of an RPG but the workings of an RTS. And even still, it’s something entirely different."
|
and the good ’ol gambit system is back (albeit more stripped down than we’d wish – each character can employ only one gambit at a time, and only Magicks and Abilities can serve as gambits). Spiritual stuff. Once we see that Revenant Wings is pretty much a new breed compared to FFXII, we notice that the game seems to have stepped into another genre altogether.
But while Revenant Wings feels like an RTS, it’s by no means as complicated as RTS games tend to be. Strategy, for the most part, is pretty simple. There are three types of espers: melee, flying, and ranged. These types act in a rock-paper-scissors relationship, with melee strong against ranged, ranged strong against flying, and flying strong against melee. You’d take that fact into account, along with the fact that some espers of certain elements (fire, rock, water, etc.) are weak against others, to give yourself the upper hand against your enemies and their espers. Then during battle you’d summon espers from summoning gates to take out your enemy.
It’s a refreshingly simple system, which means more time to deftly position your forces and crush your enemies. The only thing that’s disappointing is that the fun and novelty wears off after having to do the same things over and over again. Crushing your enemies is fun at first, but a while into the game you realize that the only sort of strategy required is building up a large army and attacking en masse. In fact, in most missions that’s the only way to complete your objectives, since proceeding otherwise will leave you overpowered by your enemies due to insufficient force. Over a 30-hour game, the rinse-and-repeat cycle feels excessive.
"The only thing that’s disappointing is that the fun and novelty wears off after having to do the same things over and over again."
|
There are also, unfortunately, downright annoying missions. Gamers have long despised "protect person X" missions ever since GoldenEye and the infamous Natalya, and Revenant Wings has a few of them. It’s irritating having to protect Penelo because she is suddenly unable to walk and doesn’t stay with the entire army, and it’s irritating not being able to stop and heal because you have to protect Fran, who keeps walking into enemies by herself. Then there are other frustrations. It’s irritating having to complete a stealth mission when Revenant Wings is clearly unsuited for that type of gameplay. It’s irritating being forced to level grind by having to complete side missions that re-use old levels and make you complete inane mission objectives. And it’s irritating having to constantly slog through mind-numbing "defeat all enemies" missions that make you wonder if they were included just to artificially lengthen the game.
"...the game has very impressive production values."
|
Possibly the biggest letdown from Revenant Wings, though, is that the game could have been a far more engaging experience. The well-conceived rock-paper-scissors esper relationship could have made for some elegantly challenging gameplay, if only levels were designed to take advantage of its strengths and limitations. There are a few levels in the game that are absolutely dynamite, such as a "soul crystal" level in which you have to destroy your opponents’ crystal before they destroy yours. In such a level, Revenant Wings becomes an intricate game of strategic warfare and an exhilarating bout of juggling priorities: protecting your multiple weaknesses, sending just the right amount of troops to attack the enemy soul crystal while leaving enough troops behind to defend your own crystal, taking out specific targets in calculated attacks. This is exactly the kind of mission that makes Revenant Wings shine, and it’s unfortunate that the rest of the game isn’t up to par. Once you’ve had a glimpse of the enormous potential contained in the game, it’s hard to go back to the brute force, surround-the-enemy gameplay that constitutes the vast majority of the adventure.
To its credit, Revenant Wings looks mighty fine on the DS, especially with its gorgeous FMV cutscenes, and its soundtrack – though much of it is from FFXII – is great. The localization is excellent, as is to be expected from Square, and the game has some of those moments that Final Fantasy games are famous for. The only thing that subtracts from the mix is a confusing storyline that isn’t particularly stimulating, but all in all the game has very impressive production values.
And we’ll leave it at that, because Revenant Wings is a game that deserves to go out on a high note. It’s a title that dared to do something different even though its results weren’t exactly spectacular, and it should be commended first and foremost for that alone.
