Wark Digest #153 - To The Skies Above
Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and this week we’re looking at the prospects of a brighter game in CBU3’s future and a bombshell feature for the FFVII Remake, reviewing The Rising Tide, and looking back to a sky pirate’s first flight.
This week’s newsletter is 2125 words, a 10-minute read.
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Next Steps
Final Fantasy XVI is complete (again) with the finale of its DLC, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s team is already breaking ground on the third installment, but we already have some hints at what lies ahead for the visionaries behind both games.
What they’re saying:
In an interview with the YouTube channel MinnMax, Michael Christopher Koji-Fox dropped a pretty substantial hint about the kind of project his frequent collaborator, Naoki Yoshida, wants to make next:
“Now that I’m at this point, I can look over at Yoshi-P every now and then, and you can kinda tell he’s like, ‘I’m done with dark fantasy, I want to do something light again.’ So I have a feeling that whatever project I get put on next, there’s going to be this kind of paradigm shift in that direction again where I’m going to have to switch everything that I’ve—all this darkness and edginess that I’ve fostered over the past five years or whatever is now going to have to get thrown out the window for something more lighthearted.”
“That’s good for us in the sense that it keeps us on our toes and I’m looking forward to whatever we have to do next. He still hasn’t told me yet.”
Meanwhile, fans with Japanese copies of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Ultimania have highlighted interesting comments from Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura in regards to the final part of the Remake project:
According to the Shinra Archaeology Department’s translation, not only is the third game’s scenario already complete (as previous reported), voice recording will also begin soon
Yoshinori Kitase personally assigned him some “homework,” specifically “the inclusion of a certain very major something that wasn’t in the original”
Nomura recalls thinking “that’s a real doozy of a proposal” initially, but has been thinking on it ever since—and believes if they can pull it off, it’ll be a huge win for everyone
What we thought:
After the heavy tone of FFXVI and the last 2-3 expansions of FFXIV, it makes sense that Yoshi-P wants to shift gears to something lighter
Although… doesn’t Dawntrail check this box already? Are there much darker stakes hiding in the expansion, despite the trailer’s upbeat theme song and scenes of G’raha Tia taking a heckin’ big chomp out of some tacos?
Despite the darker plots both games have gravitated toward, it’s not like they’re without their levity—like Uncle Byron and the antics of FFXIV’s NPC allies, and the interviewer even calls out Koji Fox for his love of puns—but they’re drops of humour in a bigger ocean
Assuming Yoshida’s “next” project is related to Final Fantasy, the series could certainly use something that puts its light foot forward, after having leaned hard on the serious side for the last few major releases
As for the big inclusion Kitase requested of Nomura, I’m stumped; it’s hard to think of a large, singular inclusion that could appease the widely divided fanbase on a huge scale
Just about anything they add from other Compilation media can possibly have loud detractors—adding even more elDirge of Cerberus for example, wouldn’t necessarily win them a ton of goodwill, as the vast majority of people haven’t played it or already decided they don’t like it
Perhaps it’s something that would unify the three parts of the Remake project, or some manner of epic superboss?
Though, if Kitase came to Nomura with the request, that suggests there’s a considerable creative element to his idea, or at least something that would demand FFVII’s de facto creative steward’s attention and oversight
What’s next? Whatever these veteran creators are cooking up, it’s a long ways off. So, let’s at least hope that Dawntrail scratches this tonal itch for Yoshi-P; we’ll see what secrets lie in Toliyollal on July 2.
FFXVI: The Rising Tide DLC Review
Speaking of FFXVI’s DLC, its second installment dropped last week, and now that we’ve time to soak it in, here’s what we had to say about The Rising Tide…
What it adds:
“The Rising Tide” storyline is an endgame story arc, accessible near the “point of no return” at the game’s conclusion
The story sees Clive and his allies invited to a mysterious land called Mysidia, where the Dominant of a lost Eikon is reportedly in grave peril
With its near-dozen side quests and its main plot, the actual storyline is about 4-6 hours of content…but it doesn’t stop there
If you’ve cleared the main game and “The Rising Tide”, Clive will find that a new “mode” has been added to the Aretre Stone, dubbed the Kairos Gate
This is a challenging gauntlet of 20 stages, each with multiple waves of enemies, that must be defeated back-to-back—albeit, with breaks in between to adjust your loadout
Your reward for each stage are components for even better equipment; those playing on Final Fantasy mode will get even better components for crafting the Radiant versions of each Eikon-related sword
You also get accessories that boost certain abilities… but to say anymore would break into spoiler territory
Earn an S-rank on all stages to unlock a secret boss battle, effectively the game’s ultimate challenge
What we thought:
“The Rising Tide,” story-wise, is a fascinating expansion of the lore that successfully manages to avoid damaging the original game’s vision
Once again, they’ve employed thematic parallels to Clive’s own journey that help flesh out his motivations by proxy; the situation in Mysidia is one he cannot neglect for literal and metaphorical reasons
The nature and backstory of the Mysidians is novel, and again, it helps expand the history of Valisthea by retroactively injecting a little more connective tissue
Playing it gives you a richer view of Valisthea and Clive’s journey, but as promised, it’s nothing that needed to be in the base game; the characters’ discussion at the scenario’s helps put everything in context in this regard
Environmentally, Mysidia is a nice new area, though nothing earthshattering
The new enemies, up to and including the bosses, are fun to engage—not only the tonberries, but the couerl and bomb variants as well
That Eikon battle is a perfect endcap for those who (to be vague and spoiler-free) might have wished for more Eikon battles in the original, and it definitely doesn’t play around; it may not be inherently as difficult as Omega from “Echoes of the Fallen,” but there’s one phase that really demands your best performance
Should you check it out? If you loved FFXVI, you certainly should. If you like FFXVI but thought it was missing something in the difficulty department, likewise, you should probably check it out, as the new challenges might be just what you’ve been looking for, and the recent update to the core game has added some welcome changes, so you might change your tune.
Revenant Wings Turns 17
After the long development time of Final Fantasy XII, Square Enix made up for the delays by quickly releasing a direct sequel on the Nintendo DS. But, as is often the case, this follow-up left most of the original conventions in the dust. On the 17th anniversary of its release in Japan, let’s examine the legacy of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings.
What it was:
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings released in Japan on April 26, 2007—not for the PlayStation 2, the system where Final Fantasy XII originally launched, but on Nintendo’s newer, hotter handheld, the DS
This came only 13 months after the original game’s launch, which is an incredible turnaround for a sequel to a game that was once bordering on “development hell”
This release schedule followed suit in other regions, with North America getting RW on November 20, 2007 and PAL on February 15, 2008 (both near a year after their original release of FFXII)
The project was helmed by Motomu Toriyama, who wrote and directed it despite having no direct involvement on FFXII itself
Coincidentally, Toriyama was directing Final Fantasy XIII simultaneously, and had previously directed Final Fantasy X-2 (and would go on to direct XIII-2 and Lightning Returns)
In gameplay, Revenant Wings was a drastic departure, shifting into a full-blown, real-time tactical RPG (complete with a Fire Emblem-like system where unit types have (dis)advantages against other) and heavy support for the DS stylus
The story focused on Vaan and Penelo a year after the events of FFXII, having obtained their own airship and struck out as Sky Pirates, only to get caught up in a conflict involving a race of winged people called aegyl
RW reviewed pretty well, and sold over a million units worldwide in its first year (including some with a limited edition DS console in Japan only, featuring artwork of the main cast)
What we thought:
If you’re making a sequel to a Final Fantasy and you want things to get a little weird, Toriyama just might be your guy
Revenant Wings corrected one problem many people had with FFXII: making the traditional pantheon of summons (ie. Ifrit, Bahamut, etc) canon in the world of FFXII’s Ivalice, instead of just relegating them to the names of airships
It was genuinely surprising back then that FFXII was getting a sequel for multiple reasons—so quickly, revolving around the least popular characters, in a different genre, and on radically different hardware?
In retrospect, knowing his MO better now, Toriyama’s prominent involvement should have tipped us off to the kind of things we could expect
Yet, it was also a pleasant surprise to find out it was… actually pretty good? Not Tactics good for me, per se, but still better than I expected, and the eventual inclusion of the rest of the FFXII cast was worth it
Since its release, it hasn’t been re-released, or really touched upon at all; it sat out when Nintendo was adding DS games to the Wii U’s Virtual Console
It seems like RW has largely gone forgotten in the grand scheme of things
People didn’t like Dirge of Cerberus, for example, but they still have things to say; it’s still remembered, even if it’s not exactly in a positive light
Which begs the question: is it better to burn out or to fade away?
What’s next? The Zodiac Age wasn’t followed a year later by a remaster of Revenant Wings, unfortunately, and the most likely place to see it get ported, the Wii U, has gone dark. Given the heavy importance of the stylus, and the Switch’s imprecise touch inputs, it’ll likely be a while before RW sees the light of day anew—without a drastic facelift, at least.
Around the Union
It’s been a while since we last gave you all a peek behind the curtain of FFU, and so, an update was in order. In “The State of Final Fantasy [Union] 2024 Update,” Darryl talks through some of the big events and projects we have in the works, as well as some team and funding updates (and the prospective return of a former feature which may excite some of our longtime followers)!
Meanwhile, the gauntlet of dastardly foes is still going strong in “The Complete Evolution of Superbosses (Part 3)!” In this installment, we look at the optional uber-challenges from Final Fantasy XII through Tactics A2 (and yes, that includes Revenant Wings, in timely fashion). How many of these herculean hurdles have you overcome so far?
And lastly, in this latest installment of our premium newsletter, the Kupo Chronicle, we’re diving into one of the biggest inspirations behind Final Fantasy: Dungeons & Dragons. How exactly did it shape the original Final Fantasy, and therefore the series? Support us by becoming a paid supporter and find out at the link below!
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