Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

• 1. Introduction

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  Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings began its life with no connection to Final Fantasy XII at all. Producer Eisuke Yokoyama and Japanese developer Think & Feel were building a standalone real-time strategy game for the Nintendo DS. Only after Final Fantasy XII shipped in 2006 and found a large audience did Square Enix fold its world into the project. Vaan and Penelo, the sky pirates from that game, were written into a conflict surrounding a hidden floating continent called Lemurés. The retooled title shipped in Japan on the 26th of April 2007 and led the country's sales charts in its first week. By August 2008, worldwide sales stood at 1.04 million copies. What compelled a team to adapt a genre barely known in Japan for handheld hardware? And how did writing inside a pre-existing world shape a narrative that split critics even as the visuals drew some of the strongest praise the Nintendo DS had seen? Those questions begin with a Game Boy Advance strategy title called Monster Summoner.

• 2. The Ivalice Pivot

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  Director Motomu Toriyama set two goals at the start of production. The team would build a beginner-friendly Final Fantasy for the Nintendo DS, designed to make full use of the platform's touchscreen. Takanari Ishiyama co-directed and co-wrote alongside Toriyama; Akitoshi Kawazu served as executive producer. Square Enix had partnered with Think & Feel because of their Monster Summoner experience, and divided responsibilities clearly. Think & Feel managed data; Square Enix handled story and graphics. Most of the staff working on Revenant Wings had no prior connection to earlier Ivalice titles.

  After the Ivalice connection was approved, Toriyama said he found writing within an established setting enjoyable rather than limiting. Once he had secured approval for the sky pirate theme and the original cast, the team operated with what Yokoyama described as 'free reign', while still answering to the Final Fantasy XII development team. Where Final Fantasy XII centered on noble figures navigating political conflict, Revenant Wings was written from the perspective of Ivalice's ordinary people. Toriyama compared the project to Episode III - Revenge of the Sith: both revealed a hidden portion of an established history. In-game violence was deliberately kept low to broaden the game's appeal.

  For the combat design, Yokoyama drew on two Western strategy games he had enjoyed as a student: Warcraft and Age of Empires. The team also played through Final Fantasy XII and popular Nintendo DS titles to understand what had made each resonate with players. Multiplayer was considered through to the testing phase, but was dropped so the team could deliver a polished single-player experience. Toriyama described the finished system as blending real-time strategy with the command-based elements of Final Fantasy XII, adapted for the DS hardware.

• 3. Espers and Gambits

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  Summoned monsters, called Espers or Yarhi within Revenant Wings, serve as the main fighting force in each battle. Players unlock them using crystals called auracite, earned through missions. Each battlefield has dedicated summon gates, and a menu called the Ring of Pacts handles deployment. Espers come in ranks that determine their strength, abilities, and summon cost. Only one Esper of each type can occupy any given rank. A resource called AP can be spent at those gates to raise an Esper's level. Familiar names appear in the roster: Shiva, Ifrit, and the chocobo all feature, alongside Espers carried over from Final Fantasy XII.

  Combat plays out from a fixed overhead perspective, combining 3D terrain with characters animated as 2D sprites. Players direct units using the Nintendo DS touchscreen and D-pad, selecting individual units or shifting the camera to other parts of the map. The top and bottom screens can swap functions depending on what information the player needs at a given moment.

  A rock-paper-scissors affinity governs unit strengths: melee beats ranged, ranged beats flying, and flying beats melee. Both sides also carry elemental strengths and weaknesses, with leader units' initial elemental assignments set at the start of play. Leader units specialise in either attacking or support roles. Five leader slots are available per deck, and players fill those formations before each mission begins. That loadout cannot be changed once the mission starts.

  Gambits, carried over from Final Fantasy XII, give each unit a single prioritized instruction that fires automatically in combat. Only one Gambit can be active at once; other abilities require manual activation from the player. Leader units can also unlock special moves called Quickenings. An in-game bulletin board posts optional missions alongside the main story, with objectives ranging from clearing enemies to collecting specific items. Completing a mission grants leader units an experience level, and earlier areas remain accessible for repeated battles. After a certain story point, the airship becomes a mobile hub; on board, a shop and an artificer who crafts equipment from gathered materials both become available.

  The objectives on those missions are shaped by a war unfolding on Lemurés, a conflict involving sky pirates and a winged people called the Aegyl.

• 4. Lemurés Revealed

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  The Aegyl, residents of Lemurés, resemble Ivalice's Humes in appearance but carry wings on their backs. Centuries of isolation have drained them of curiosity and the capacity for dreams. Three powerful shards of auracite called auraliths keep the continent airborne, but they require the anima, the souls, of the Aegyl to function. The gradual drain of that anima is what has hollowed the Aegyl over generations.

  Feolthanos created Lemurés in deliberate rebellion against the Occuria, the god-like beings who had long controlled Ivalice. He attained immortality by merging with the final auralith and has since been harvesting Aegyl anima. The Sun-Cryst, an artifact destroyed during Final Fantasy XII, had kept Lemurés sealed from the surface world. Its destruction allowed the floating continent to be reached from below, setting the story in motion.

  Llyud, an Aegyl who has retained his curiosity, is ostracized within his own community for that difference. He joins Vaan's crew when they arrive on Lemurés and becomes the group's guide to the island's history. Balthier and Fran, veteran sky pirates from Final Fantasy XII, also join the party. Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca, known as Ashe, has since become queen of Dalmasca. Basch fon Ronsenburg guards the new Arcadian emperor, Larsa Solidor, in the role of a Judge.

  The Judge of Wings, the game's central adversary, is seeking the three auraliths. She proves to be Mydia, a young woman whose lover Velis has been transformed into an Esper. A crystal from the Cache of Glabados is revealed to be the source of her power. Feolthanos's defeat costs Lemurés its anchorage; the continent falls from the sky. The Aegyl, now pacified, leave with Llyud to find a new home.

  Bringing that world to life on Nintendo DS hardware required a deliberate set of visual choices, beginning with character designer Ryoma Itō.

• 5. Sprites and Arrangements

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  Ryoma Itō described his preparation for the character redesigns as 'trading secrets' with Akihiko Yoshida, who had designed the cast for Final Fantasy XII. Itō had also worked on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where his redesigns met with approval from producer Yasumi Matsuno. He said he was pleased to work more extensively with minor characters from Final Fantasy XII, who now appeared in larger roles. For Penelo specifically, Toriyama said the team was emphasising a more 'feminine' image than her 'sporty' look in the original game.

  Isamu Kamikokuryo supervised the art direction and personally designed the player's airship and the game's logo. The team chose sprite-based animation over 3D polygon characters. Sprite work allowed large numbers of units on screen within the DS's hardware limits. Toriyama said the style gave the game a 'warmth and handcrafted feel'. The Salamander summon was redesigned from a lizard into a wild boar to remain visually appealing at DS resolution.

  The CGI cutscenes were directed by Eiji Fujii, who had previously worked on Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001. Toriyama described the movies as built using 'proprietary technology' that used both DS screens simultaneously. Each scene required individual rendering, and achieving the visual quality meant, in Toriyama's phrase, 'cramming as much as possible' onto the DS game card.

  Kenichiro Fukui served as lead composer, with Hitoshi Sakimoto supervising. Most of the score consists of arrangements of Sakimoto's Final Fantasy XII soundtrack, with additional contributions from Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Kimihiro Abe, and Noriyuki Kamikura. Hardware limitations reduced the range of musical elements available on the DS, requiring the team to rearrange the score accordingly. The lighter tone of the story also shaped how those arrangements were adjusted. Toriyama said the team worked 'overtime' to translate the music into the DS environment at high quality. Sakimoto felt the hardware change was not overly restrictive, though he noted some challenges around memory and reverb.

  The game was exhibited publicly at E3 2007, where Square Enix presented it alongside other upcoming titles.

• 6. Charts and Critics

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  A 'Sky Pirates Edition' of Revenant Wings launched alongside the standard Japanese version, bundled with a themed Nintendo DS Lite. Square Enix also published an Ultimania guidebook on the 14th of June 2007, covering gameplay explanations and developer interviews. The localization team was the same group that had worked on Final Fantasy XII. Yutaka Sano and Satoko Kondo co-directed; Joseph Reeder handled the translation, having also worked on earlier Ivalice titles. The Western release was adjusted for players more familiar with the real-time strategy genre. Changes included higher combat difficulty, revised tutorials, adjusted leveling, additional dungeons, and the superboss Yazmat from Final Fantasy XII. North America received the game on the 20th of November 2007. Australia followed on the 14th of February 2008, and Europe on the 15th of February 2008, with Ubisoft distributing in some European countries. Regional sales as of August 2008 totaled 540,000 units in Japan, 220,000 in North America, and 280,000 in Europe.

  Rob Fahey of Eurogamer praised the narrative as a welcome return to Ivalice. Jeremy Parish of 1Up.com called Revenant Wings 'very much his tale', with Vaan more prominent than in Final Fantasy XII. GameSpot's Lark Anderson described the story as 'deep and engrossing'. Bryan Boulette of RPGamer found it fun if fairly simple. Joe Juba of Game Informer called the story a poor excuse to revisit the setting. Mat Miller of the same publication described it as 'a suitably epic follow-up to its source material'. Electronic Gaming Monthly felt the story lacked grandeur. Several reviewers compared the tonal change to that of Final Fantasy X-2, released in 2003. Localization, when reviewers addressed it, earned consistent praise.

  Famitsu praised both the pixel art and CGI cutscenes as high quality. Mark Bozon of IGN called the CGI camera work the best on the platform. Bryan Boulette described the graphics as 'nothing short of beautiful', highlighting colour usage and the blend of 2D and 3D elements. Rob Fahey wrote that the presentation alone placed Revenant Wings among the most impressive titles on the DS. The music drew similar praise, though Boulette noted a lack of original compositions.

  Toriyama described the Ivalice Alliance as intentionally loose, with development teams needing only to prevent overlapping storylines and no requirement for active coordination.