This section is about the anticipated sequel for FFXII coming out on the Nintendo DS in Japan this April. Beware of Spoilers on the ending of FFXII and Balthier's role in this upcoming title while scrolling through this section.

Revenant Wings takes up the adventure right after the second part of the Final Fantasy XII ending, one year after the fall of Vayne and destruction of the Bahamut, which now stands tall and overgrown outside of Rabanastre. Vaan is now a sky pirate with an airship of his own, and Penelo his partner. Together they travel the world seeking adventure and treasure.
But what we really want to know is how Balthier fits into this story? He and Fran disappeared after steering the Bahamut away from Rabanastre, while putting the Strahl under Vaan's care until they come back. And they did! The Strahl was "stolen" and someone left the following message;

"Something more valuable: the Cache of Glabados. I await in Bervenia".
PS. Give this to our queen for me, would you?"

Inside the envelope Ashe found the ring which Balthier had taken as payment for his services.
The names Glabados and Bervenia both appear in Final Fantasy Tactics. The Glabados Church, based after Saint Ajora Glabados who lived in Bervenia Free City, is the leading religious church in Tactics' Ivalice.
However it is hard to fit Final Fantasy XII into the Tactic's timeline so we have yet to see if Revenant Wings will somehow clearly connect to the historical events of Tactics , or if these name are just fun references to the world of Ivalice.

This time it's Ryuma Itou, who worked on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, replacing Akihiko Yoshida's place as character designer. He has simplified the FFXII clothing designs of both Balthier and Fran beautifully without loosing their essence. Balthier's straight lined face and pointy nose in the drawn version below reminds me a little of Cid from Tactics Advance. Just without the facial hair.

More Pictures

At the end of the latest trailer for Revenant Wings, we see a very interesting, and quite shocking, scene with Balthier and Vaan standing with weapons drawn against eachother.

In the voiceovers we hear Vaan asking Balthier in a distressed voice;

"Muchakucha daro! Shujinkou wa konna koto suru no ka yo"
"This is crazy! Does a leading man do things like this?!"

Vaan then strikes Balthier!! The trailer fades as Balthier gets the last line, saying;"Shujinko wa intai da", basically that he has given up being the leading man!

Comments at the moment: W00t?! We can only speculate around what he has actually done and whether Vaan's attack will leave any scars. It looks exciting thus far, and whatever is going on, we'll have to believe in our hero and all the good in him~

Thus far the trailers and images has only featured Balthier's rank 3 quickening Element of Treachery. It looks so cute in it's chibi sprite form!