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Yep, Theatrhythm got me all nostalgic. So nostalgic, in fact, that I had to select a
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Final Fantasy from that collection you’ve doubtless seen pictured on the twits or the
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bookface or what have you, and get my classic JRPGing on. Only I did nothing of the sort.
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Instead, I grabbed Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings, a curveball so weird it leaves the
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PS2 original entirely, pulls a hard left, and ends up as a DS real-time strategy game.
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That’s right, it swung so hard back through the admittedly Tactics-influenced source material
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that it became a unit-grouping, target-designating, tech-researching, reinforcement-building RTS.
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When we last left our heroes... well, I don’t want to spoil XII itself for you so let’s
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just say everything’s hunky dory and Vaan and Penelo are trying their hand at being
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super awesome sky pirates... just like Fran and Balthier over there. While investigating
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(read: stealing) the Glabados Cache, they accidentally trigger a landslide, what swallows
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up Vaan’s brand-new airship and really puts a damper on his plans for sky piracy. So Balthier
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and Fran go off and continue to be awesome while Mr. Who Let Me Be A Protagonist Anyway
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slinks back to the Rabanastre slums, until he hears tell of a massive, ancient, abandoned
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airship that docked itself nearby. Being the most interesting thing to happen in milliseconds,
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Vaan grabs a couple nearby accomplices and sets to the task of investigating (again read:
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stealing) the derelict. And all this is done through the use of point-and-click RTS controls,
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which actually feel quite comfortable in the hand. The primary resource throughout the
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game is summoning portals, which can be turned to your side and used to produce henchmen
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to serve under and fight alongside your up-to-five lead characters. These summoned creatures
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are separated into tiers, with tier 1 being the cheapest peons, tier 2 being your Tonberry-level
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hitters, and tier 3 being your familiar Final Fantasy summons.
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It seems a strange, strange concept, but there’s enough RPG in this RTS to make it comfortable
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to fans of the series, while RTS fans will find the game fairly challenging (if a bit
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rudimentary). The tech trees (read: the progression of pacts you buy to obtain new espers to summon)
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are rather shallow, though the Flying-Ranged-Melee balance of power means that you’ve got several
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options in each of the four elements (as well as neutral and healing units). There’s a
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healthy game here, especially near the end where you’re getting five and six Grand
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Malboros thrown at you at regular intervals. But you’ll keep pressing on, trying to unravel
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the fate of this mysterious floating continent, and whether or not Balthier has beaten you
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to the good spoils. Because, let’s face it, Balthier is the Gary Oak of Final Fantasy.
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Just check the sign welcoming you to Nalbina. Do it.