A Real-Time Strategy sequel to the thigh-bitingly popular RPG Final Fantasy XII, released on, of all platforms, the Nintendo DS in 2007. Once again set in Ivalice, Revenant Wings is one of the few direct sequels to a mainline game in the series, and stars the same characters.
A year after the events of Final Fantasy XII, Vaan and Penelo are invited by Balthier to explore the Ruins of Glabados, which is said to contain the legendary treasure of the Eternal. When they arrive at the place, they find out that the famed Cache of Glabados is actually two mysterious auracite crystals, which Vaan and Balthier divide among each other. Taking the Cache causes the ruins to collapse, resulting in Vaan losing his newly-bought airship and being back to his old life in Rabanastre.
This was not to last, however; a few days later, a huge derelict airship lands just outside Rabanastre, drawn to the crystal Vaan took with him. Vaan decides to raid the airship and take it for himself, dragging his younger friends Filo and Kytes with him. Between a run-in with Ba'Gamnan, and Penelo eventually entering the airship with Tomaj in an attempt to stop Vaan, he manages to activate the airship with the auracite, causing it to fly away from the Royal City, and he discovers that the auracite in his hands can also summon monsters to aid him.
The airship heads for the Lost Purvama of Lemurés, a place hidden in the Mist. After doing a first reconaissance of the place, Vaan and Penelo meet Llyud, an Aegyl and local of Lemurés, which is being invaded by Sky Pirates since Ashe destroyed the Sun-Cryst in the previous game, causing the Mist barrier around the continent to fall. Deciding to help the Aegyl protect their home, Vaan and Penelo soon become embroiled in a chain of events that may end up threatening all of Ivalice...
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings provides examples of:
- All Swords Are the Same: Averted. Vaan's swords are shorter than Basch's, and the two can not use each other's swords.
- Anti-Grinding: The final boss and his mooks will be at Level 99 if you do all the sidequests.
- Apathetic Citizens: The Aegyl on board the Galbana when the Sky Saloon is opened. The Sky Pirates who joined fall under this, too. They get better after Chapter 8-2. They don't try to help, though. It turns out their souls have been fed off of. Several Aegyl go unexpectly revenge driven when emotions they've never felt suddenly overwhelm them.
- Artificial Stupidity: Don't expect your allies to show initiative, move forward with everyone else, or use their abilities with any intelligence. Don't expect Squishy Wizard/White Mage Penelo to take the initiative on healing when you're actually in combat or avoid charging into melee. Do expect her to just stand there staring into space when you try to withdraw her from melee, rather than running as quickly as possible, then watching the boss fight become unwinnable because your healer died.
- Ascended Extra:
- Kytes, Filo, and Tomaj were originally bit part NPCs in Final Fantasy XII, while Revenant Wings promotes them to playable and/or supporting characters.
- Ba'Gamnan was also a relatively minor villain in the first game. In this game, he plays a bigger role, and even unexpectedly becomes a Guest-Star Party Member.
- Ax-Crazy: A lot of the Aegyl become this after Velis releases their anima.
- Black Magic: Auracite drains the anima of whoever uses it whenever used. The aegyl are an example of what happens when this is used too much.
- Big Bad: The Judge of Wings is shunted out of this role by Feolthanos, becoming The Dragon instead.
- Bonus Dungeon: Midlight's Deep. Doubles as a reference to Final Fantasy Tactics.
- Boss-Altering Consequence: If you reach 100% Completion before fighting the final boss, then its level will be raised to 99.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Espers usually change color depending on if they are fighting with you or are enemies.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Frequently happens in most levels; the computer can summon more Yarhi/Espers than you can produce without summon gates.
- Crutch Character: Ba'Gamnan has a few more levels and better equipment when he's forced to join the party. He leaves it as soon as he can, of course.
- Dead All Along: Velis.
- Disposable Woman: The Feol Viera are an entire race of disposable women.
- The Drag-Along: Penelo and Tomaj at first, but they get used to it.
- Empty Shell: The aegyl, thanks to Feolthanos' auracite.
- Expy: The Aegyl visually resemble the Vartans from Tactics Ogre, which was directed by Yasumi Matsuno. Although he did not have a hand in this game.
- Forced Level-Grinding: Becomes essential fairly quickly; luckily, there's plenty of ways to level grind your way to the recommended level.
- Global Airship: Obtained by the end of the first chapter; the Galbana can at first only travel on Lemurés, but can later travel to Ivalice and The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
- God Is Evil: Feolthanos.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Rinok, Bwagi and Gijuk, later joined by Ba'Gamnan.
- Green Rocks: Auracite.
- Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: The art style is seemingly recycled from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and later used by Final Fantasy Tactics A2, although the cutscenes are more similar to the style of Final Fantasy XII.
- Heroic Resolve: This is how Vaan (and presumably, the rest of the party) prevent the auracite from draining their anima.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Llyud.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Based on the context of what the Foul-Mouthed Moogle says to Fran, people in Ivalice apparently say "fuck you and your chocobo, too" instead of "fuck you and the horse you rode on."
- Immortality Immorality: Feolthanos has kept himself alive for centuries by draining the aegyl's souls.
- Infinity +1 Sword: Anastasia, obtained when Velis transforms into it. It can be powered up by completing Midlight's Deep and defeating Yiazmat, gaining ten in each stat every time you do so. One player actually managed to give the sword 1000 in each stat. By the time you do something like that, though, why would you even need the thing?
- Intangible Theft: Revenant Wings shows where all the that Level Grinding from XII went, as Vaan can casually steal concepts and attributes from an enemy, up to and including their sense of time, and make use of it himself. He steps it up by Final Fantasy Tactics A2, where he's essentially become the most incredible thief of Ivalice.
- Interspecies Romance: The Feol Viera are the result of an aegyl/viera cross.
- Also, the Seeq sky pirate and his viera wife.
- Hinted quite strongly that Balthier and Fran are (or have been) an item. When Tomaj tries to woo Fran, she tells him Balthier's methods of wooing her were quite different.
- Item Crafting: This is Cu Sith's entire role. It's essential to obtain the best equipment for everyone who isn't Vaan.
- Jumped at the Call: Vaan, Kytes and Filo do this when the Galbana crashes just outside Rabanastre.
- Kid Sidekick: Filo and Kytes.
- Kid with the Leash: Anyone who uses Yarhi/Espers becomes this, as roaming Yarhi/Espers wander around, attacking randomly.
- Also Tomaj when he hooks Ba'Gamnan up to a device that allows him to be manipulated with a remote control.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: At one point there's a huge text dump explaining who the Occuria are. They were a major plot point in XII, and while they're not directly involved in Revenant Wings, they're very strongly related to Feolthanos' motivation.
- Lethal Chef: Penelo. Yes, who is unfortunately also the Team Chef, though she improves.
- Lethal Lava Land: Roda Volcano/The Feol Warren.
- Life Energy: Anima.
- Limit Break: The Quickenings, gained by doing optional side missions. You gain them mostly by having you and your Espers take damage, so throw Vaan into the middle of a cluster of enemies, and watch him decimate them all with Pyroclasm.
- Last of His Kind: Mydia. Due to her own actions, at that.
- Love Makes You Evil: Mydia
- The Man Behind the Man: Feolthanos was behind the Judge of Wings.
- Mêlée à Trois: Happens at the end of chapter 6 with Vaan and co. vs. Ba'Gamnan vs Balthier and Fran. It's actually possible to lure one enemy toward another, let them duke it out and take out whoever remains.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Llyud, who is regarded among the Aegyl as 'a curiosity'.
- No Hero Discount: Tomaj creates the Sky Saloon on the Galbana around a third of the way through the game; it is justified, however - the weapons/material shops are the only way he has to make money, which he uses to buy more weapons and materials.
- And even then, he's taking a loss. Chatting with one of the NPCs in the Sky Saloon reveals this, and that evidently the stuff he's selling/you're making would make the people at Draklor Labratory jealous.
- One-Winged Angel: It wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game without the final boss pulling one of these.
- Out of Focus: Ashe and Basch are nowhere to be seen until near the end, where they unexpectedly join your party.
- Post-Final Boss: Once the party beats Feolthanos' One-Winged Angel form, they have to fight his human form with Vaan alone. Naturally, he is outmatched, but shortly into the fight every other playable character rushes in, averting Arbitrary Headcount Limit for once. Feolthanos doesn't last much longer after that.
- Pretty in Mink: The Shiva summon has a fur boa.
- Proud Warrior Race: The Aegyl, when the Sky Pirates invade Lemurés and when they discover they can travel to Ivalice after their anima is released.
- Regenerating Mana: Spell uses restore over time.
- Required Party Member: You are forced to use certain characters in the missions in which they obtain their Quickenings. Also sometimes done for story purposes, occasionally.
- Respawning Enemies: Happens frequently. In missions such as the fight against Zalera, the enemies spawn faster than they can be killed with a normal level party. They could be seen as useful for level grinding, but the amount of experience each battle gives is fixed and can't be increased by killing enemies, instead making maps that are quick to complete better for that purpose.
- Side Quest: There are as many optional missions form Tomaj's board as there are in-game missions. They tend to be quite a bit harder, but give much better rewards and the optional Espers. Doing them is required to keep up with the escalating levels of the enemies.
- The Stoic: Aegyl in general. Justified, due to Feolthanos taking their anima. They also become less stoic as his grip on them loosens.
- Stripperiffic: Unlike the original game, Penelo's outfit is now one, followed with Fran and Ashe as usual. Averted with Filo.
- Summon Magic: A fundamental part of the game; all of your minions have to be summoned, and you can forge pacts with the high-level Espers by completing optional missions.
- Tactical Superweapon Unit: The tier 3 Espers. Very powerful, and each can easily obliterate armies of tier 1 and 2 Espers by itself. However, you can only summon one of each at a time, and you need to unlock them from various sidequests first.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Melee beats Range, Range beats Flyer, Flyer beats Melee.
- Took a Level in Badass: Vaan, who even gets a god blade forged from Odin's soul and goes a few rounds one on one with Ivalice's (arguably) most powerful being. He loses, but still, you got to give him points for trying.
- Vapor Wear: Penelo, whose new outfit does not seem to involve underwear at all.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: If a gigantic temple floating in outer space doesn't give you that impression, few other things will. Bonus points for being the first view of space in an Ivalice series game and having a kickass view to the planet below.
- Victorious Childhood Friend: The game finally shows Vaan and Penelo kissing each other... in the secret ending.
- Where It All Began: You can return to Ivalice in the latter half of the game - you can go to the Cache of Glabados, too.
