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Review: Final Fantasy XII – Revenant Wings (DS)

SquareEnix may be more open to making sequels to their hit Final Fantasy titles in the post-Sakaguchi era, but most of these sequels make most folks wonder if it’s worth the bother. That’s largely because whenever a sequel is made, SquareEnix seems determined to change the genre of the game.

Final Fantasy X-2 featured a very different battle system, and of all the sequels made so far from Final Fantasy VII have strayed into areas like action games, shooters and just about anything but what made the original Final Fantasy title from which they sprang so successful. In other words, not one of the sequels has been a true RPG.

Final Fantasy XII – Revenant Wings for Nintendo DS is no exception. Rather than a traditional RPG, the game, which revisits the corner of Ivalice that is home to Vaan, Panelo, Balthier and Fran, is a real-time strategy title. While the storyline is worthy of the Final Fantasy moniker, the Command-and-Conquer game play feels out of place in a world full of chocobos and red mages.

The game is divided into 10 chapters, each consisting of about five battle maps, so the Ivalice of this sequel has plenty of open, residential and commercial real estate to take place on. The maps sport a good deal of variety and graphic detail.

The real problems begin with the game camera; it’s hard to manipulate and rarely at the best angle to see everything you need to see from a strategic standpoint. Also, the game ramps up the difficulty level extremely early on, tossing a level of challenge at gamers who may not be RTS veterans into a very deep, frustrating level of challenge.

The game has some aggressive AI as well, so Final Fantasy XII veterans who grew accustomed to only being challenged during boss battles may not be completely at ease with how smartly opponents challenge him or her. Although released on a very mainstream platform, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is a hardcore gamer’s delight, something that may scare off many mainstream gamers.

Of course, the graphics are as good as one would expect from SquareEnix and make just about all other DS titles seem weak efforts by comparison; that said, the game looks only like an average PSP title.

In the final analysis, some RTS fans may dig the hardcore RTS aspects of Final Fantasy XII – Revenant Wings, but that is a small portion of the audience who fell in love with the series’ PS2 swan song title. While not a failure on the level of Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, one can say with relative confidence that Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for Nintendo DS is not the kind of thing most fans of the original PS2 title were expecting, nor is it a game most of them will want.

Review: Dragon Quest Monsters – Joker (DS)

When I say “monster breeding game,” most people will immediately think of Pokemon. After that, “Monster Rancher” is usually the next franchise to pop into gamers’ heads. Maybe a few older gamers will remember the Tamagochi devices. And then it gets hard.

One franchise almost completely forgotten about is Dragon Quest Monsters. More of an RPG, like Pokemon, but lacking the fun CD-swapping character generation engine of Monster Rancher, Dragon Quest Monsters has always been big in Japan, but never quite caught on in the US; in fact, the last time one of the titles appeared on North American shores was six years ago on Game Boy Color.

DQM: Joker, the most recent outing, is therefore a welcome reintroduction to the series, at least among US gamers who may feel inclined to throw wedding flowers in its general direction. Or not. Either way, the game is a shot in the arm of freshness to the niche genre that’s been sadly lacking in recent Pokemon and Monster Rancher releases.

The game is decked out in its return to North American shores. It now takes place in a fully-realized 3D world, hosts over 200 unique monster designs, and, of course, a fun monster-breeding system. The real weakness is the battle system, which is a bit simplistic to hold most gamers’ attentions considering the amount of leveling and dungeon crawling the game requires.

Set on a chain of seven islands – none of them huge, but with a fair amount of exploration to be done on each – the game casts you as an aspiring monster breeder jailed for trying to get into a battle tournament without a license. Fortunately, your dad pulls the strings that got you in there, and he pulls them again to get you out, so that you can spy around the tournament on his behalf. Win, and you get your first monster, a JetSki and the game really picks up pace.

Those expecting a full-blown, epic follow up to Dragon Quest VIII: Legend of the Cursed King, this isn’t the game you’re waiting for. Level-5 is not the developer behind this title, and although a decent job was done on it, it’s not quite epic in scale. Rather than a world-saving storyline, the main push – as with most monster breeding titles – is collecting all 200 monsters.

Still, it’s quick-paced and fun and certainly deserving to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Monster Rancher and Pokemon. Considering the amount of recycled content in those two titles, Dragon Quest Monsters may, in fact, deliver a breath of fresh air for fans of this niche genre.