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Final Fantasy, one of the most respected titles in the world today from one of the best gaming companies in the past 20 years. Revenant Wings one of the latest creations spewing out of the doors at Square-Enix. The game combines real-time strategy adventure with the pace of a fast thinking action RPG all neatly packed into the tiny Nintendo DS cartridge.

Unlike almost every other FF game circumventing the globe today Revenant Wings breaks the conventional RPG rule and throws the turn-based traditions out the window for a more streamlined and instant action setting.

Revenant Wings breaks the conventional RPG rule and throws the turn-based traditions out the window...

Now the essential need-to-knows: Revenant Wings is the sequel to Final Fantasy: XII set in the world of Ivalice a year after the events that came to pass in FF: XII. Every action in the game is controlled with the stylus from traversing the world map to equipping your merry band of sky pirates. You control your characters and summoned minions (a.k.a Espers) by simply pointing and clicking for all actions. Click on an enemy to attack, click on a chest to open it or click on a rock to mine from it, simply put everything works the way you expect it to. The game control and mechanics are extremely user friendly and the simple pick up and playability of the title will draw in even the worst A.D.D gamers out there.

If you never had the patience to play through Final Fantasy XII or simply never got the chance the beginning of Revenant Wings may seem slightly confusing but it will have no lasting affect on the overall story and game play. The game starts off with 4 of the main characters from the previous game exploring an ancient ruin looking for treasure, as sky pirates do. A few tutorials and a boss later and you find yourself in possession of an ancient crystal later found to be named “Auracite” which is used to summon your Espers to your side to help you during your adventures. Acquiring new monsters is one of the best features of the game, by using the “Ring of Pacts” from your menu screen you can bring up a cog-looking wheel with circles around it (Think FF:X Sphere Grid) by using the Auracite you find during missions you can form new “pacts” with monsters, essentially adding them to your army.

At the start of the game you will “apprehend” an ancient sky ship which conveniently lands just outside Vaan's home city Rabanastre Using your newly acquired flying hunk of ancient metal you travel to the ancient (everything in this game is ancient) sky continent of Lemures . Soon enough you hook up with the local riff-raff and set about discovering the mysteries of the world and as any typical Final Fantasy game will go, saving it from certain destruction or evil-doer.

Suffice to say Revenant Wings doesn't push the boundaries of the DS. However the game is without a doubt expertly crafted with beautiful looking 3D environments and masterfully drawn 2D characters. The magicks (That's magic to me you and Siegfried and Roy) boast almost no animations and are at most times either dull or just non-existent, this doesn't downplay the fun in the slightest but it feels very lazy at times. Most of the music is recycled from FF: XII which again feels very lazy and the sound effects are very low quality midi (think NES). The game play in most cases is solid but usually you can just pass each mission by brutally clicking your enemies to death and watching TV in the meantime.

In the end Final Fantasy Revenant Wings provides a sound real time adventure with some favourite characters from the extensive Square-Enix library. Due to the games shortcomings and sometimes repetitiveness it might not suit everyone's ideal game but for any fan of Final Fantasy games or anyone looking to enhance their DS collection this game will be a happy purchase.