This is a great DS follow-up to XII and only adds to the world and lore of Ivalice. While this isn't a "necessary" play for those who finished XII, it serves as a good continuation of the main cast as they explore a series of new lands and encounter a new race. The 2D sprites are really well detailed and expressive, it made me nostalgic for the DS/GBA era JRPGS. The music is great, although it is just mostly re-used music from XII. Playing this game for the first time in 2022, I really enjoyed the pickup nature of it all with missions taking 5-10 minutes each usually.

With ten playable characters, 81 missions, skirmishes, and an intimidating ten floor challenge dungeon, this is a good 25-40 hour game depending on how much time you invest into doing all the missions. Though fair warning if you do 100% of the missions, the enemies in the final mission are all Level 99, providing an intense challenge. I know not everyone was the biggest fan of Vaan and Penelo in XII but I really do think this game shows their growing maturity and added character depth. Final mission aside (for the completionists) if you've ever been tempted to check out Revenant Wings, I'd say it is definitely worth your time if you want to see Vaan, Balthier, Fran, and the rest of the crew again.