Home » RPG Games » Fantasian Neo Dimension: A Comprehensive Review
The world of role-playing games (RPGs) is vast, filled with countless titles that bring fantastical stories, innovative mechanics, and breathtaking visuals to gamers. Fantasian Neo Dimension stands out as a testament to the genre’s potential. Developed by Mistwalker, the studio founded by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, this title revives the magic of classic JRPGs while introducing unique twists that cater to modern audiences. Let’s delve into an in-depth review of this masterpiece, exploring its core features, strengths, and areas for improvement.
Aesthetic Excellence: The Diorama-Based World
One of Fantasian Neo Dimension‘s most striking features is its diorama-based art style. The game’s environments are crafted from over 150 handcrafted dioramas, meticulously designed to immerse players in its enchanting world. Unlike conventional digital landscapes, these dioramas provide a tactile, lifelike quality that enhances the overall aesthetic.
Key Highlights:
Visual Appeal: The dioramas’ intricate details, from lush forests to bustling towns, create a stunning backdrop for the game’s narrative.
Immersive Atmosphere: The blend of physical art with high-definition digital graphics bridges nostalgia with innovation, captivating players of all ages.
Unique Design: The handcrafted approach adds a personal touch that’s rare in modern gaming, making every location feel distinct and memorable.
The game’s aesthetic success is further complemented by the subtle use of lighting and color. Each area’s ambiance is carefully curated to match the story’s tone, from vibrant, sunlit meadows to eerie, shadow-cloaked ruins. However, while the visuals are undeniably beautiful, some players might find the fixed camera angles restrictive, particularly when exploring hidden areas or engaging in battles.
Storyline: A Tale of Dual Dimensions
At its core, Fantasian Neo Dimension delivers a narrative-driven experience that weaves together mystery, emotion, and epic adventure. The game’s story revolves around the protagonist, Leo, who awakens in a strange mechanical world with no memory of his past. As he journeys through the dual dimensions of order and chaos, he uncovers secrets about his identity, his companions, and the forces threatening the universe.
Narrative Strengths:
Character Development: Each character’s backstory is richly detailed, creating a deep emotional connection with the player.
Engaging Plot: The dual-dimension concept is masterfully executed, adding layers of intrigue and complexity to the narrative.
Cinematic Presentation: The story is told through a mix of beautifully animated cutscenes and in-game interactions, ensuring seamless immersion.
The supporting cast shines as well, offering memorable personalities and meaningful contributions to the overarching plot. From stoic warriors to enigmatic sorcerers, each companion adds depth and diversity to the story’s emotional weight. Despite these strengths, some players might feel that the pacing slows during certain segments, particularly in the middle of the game. This could detract from the otherwise compelling storyline.
Gameplay Mechanics: Innovation Meets Tradition
Fantasian Neo Dimension‘s gameplay strikes a fine balance between classic JRPG mechanics and innovative features that enhance player engagement. The game employs a turn-based combat system, reminiscent of traditional RPGs, but introduces modern twists to keep battles dynamic and strategic.
Combat System:
Dimengeon System: This unique mechanic allows players to send weaker enemies into an alternate dimension, reducing random encounters and enabling uninterrupted exploration.
Trajectory-Based Attacks: Players can manipulate attack trajectories to target multiple enemies, adding a layer of strategy to combat.
Customization: Characters can be equipped with unique abilities and upgrades, encouraging diverse playstyles.
Exploration is equally engaging, with puzzles and environmental challenges integrated into various areas. Players often need to use their wits to navigate obstacles, unlocking pathways to hidden treasures or advancing the story. While these features are groundbreaking, the learning curve for the Dimengeon System might be steep for newcomers, and mastering trajectory-based attacks requires patience and practice.
Music and Sound Design: A Nobuo Uematsu Masterpiece
No review of Fantasian Neo Dimension would be complete without mentioning its soundtrack. Composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, known for his work on the Final Fantasy series, the music elevates the game’s emotional impact.
Musical Highlights:
Memorable Themes: Each track perfectly captures the mood of its respective scene, from epic battles to poignant character moments.
Diverse Soundscapes: The blend of orchestral and electronic elements creates a rich auditory experience.
Immersive Audio: High-quality sound effects and voice acting further enhance the game’s atmosphere.
Each character’s theme is a standout, providing auditory cues that amplify their personality and story arc. However, the lack of voiceovers in some critical scenes might feel like a missed opportunity to further immerse players.
Replayability and Value
With a playtime of approximately 30–45 hours for the main story and additional hours for side quests and exploration, Fantasian Neo Dimension offers substantial content for its price. The inclusion of multiple endings based on player choices adds replayability, encouraging players to revisit the game to uncover different outcomes.
Post-Game Content:
Side Quests: Numerous optional missions provide opportunities to explore the world further and deepen character relationships.
Boss Challenges: Hidden bosses offer a rewarding challenge for players seeking to test their skills.
New Game+: Players can carry over progress to a new playthrough, making it easier to explore alternate paths.
Additionally, a robust crafting system lets players create powerful items, further incentivizing exploration and resource management. Collecting rare materials and experimenting with combinations adds another layer of depth to the gameplay.
Accessibility and Platform Availability
Initially exclusive to Apple Arcade, Fantasian Neo Dimension has since been re-released on multiple platforms, including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. This wider accessibility ensures that a broader audience can experience its magic.
Technical Performance:
Smooth Gameplay: The game runs seamlessly on all platforms, with minimal loading times and no major bugs.
Optimized Controls: Both touch and controller-based inputs are intuitive and responsive.
Cross-Save Functionality: Players can sync their progress across devices, ensuring flexibility and convenience.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Stunning Diorama Visuals: Unique handcrafted environments that are visually breathtaking.
Engaging Storyline: A rich narrative with well-developed characters and emotional depth.
Innovative Combat Mechanics: Strategic systems like the Dimengeon and trajectory-based attacks.
Immersive Soundtrack: Masterfully composed music by Nobuo Uematsu enhances the game’s emotional resonance.
High Replayability: Multiple endings, side quests, and post-game challenges encourage repeated playthroughs.
Wide Accessibility: Available on multiple platforms with seamless cross-save functionality.
Cons:
Fixed Camera Angles: Restrictive perspectives may hinder exploration in certain areas.
Steep Learning Curve: Some mechanics, such as the Dimengeon System, require time to master.
Pacing Issues: The story’s momentum slows in certain segments, potentially losing player engagement.
Limited Voice Acting: The absence of voiceovers in key scenes diminishes immersion.
Platform-Specific Controls: Touch controls on mobile may feel less precise compared to traditional controllers.
Final Thoughts: Is Fantasian Neo Dimension Worth Your Time?
Fantasian Neo Dimension is a love letter to classic JRPGs, blending nostalgic elements with modern innovations. Its diorama-based visuals, engaging storyline, and strategic gameplay make it a standout title in the RPG genre. While it has minor flaws, such as pacing issues and the steep learning curve for certain mechanics, these are outweighed by its strengths.
Key Takeaways:
Perfect for fans of traditional JRPGs and newcomers seeking a unique gaming experience.
Offers a compelling mix of story, visuals, and gameplay that’s rare in today’s market.
A must-play for enthusiasts of Hironobu Sakaguchi’s work and Nobuo Uematsu’s music.
High replayability ensures lasting value for players.
Whether you’re a seasoned RPG fan or a newcomer to the genre, Fantasian Neo Dimension is a journey worth embarking on. Its blend of art, story, and innovation ensures it will be remembered as one of the defining games of its era. With its breathtaking dioramas, captivating narrative, and innovative gameplay mechanics, it’s not just a game but a testament to the artistic potential of the medium.
This game went from a fun and different JRPG to one of the most annoying level-check on each late game boss fight game I've ever seen. It is such a shame because the game is overall fun with an interesting story and characters, but the design on the later boss fights is just bad. "Oh the boss has low HP, let the boss spam its attacks where it spawns adds everywhere that enrages while the boss itself becomes invulnerable."
And if that is not enough, sometimes you need a specific character to counter the bosses adds, but the boss can also bind one of your active characters so you are unable to swap them out and forced to take care of that first, meaning that you lose even more DPS on the adds in an already tight DPS-check.Fix the difficulty on the late game areas and this game would be a lot more enjoyable, but as it is right now it forces you to over level every fight on the harder difficulty and that just takes the fun out of the entire game.
This game feels like a lost gem. I just wish it would provide an option to scale the UI. Clearly designed for mobiles. At least this game didn´t die like Nier Reincarnation. Damn you mobile gaming.
[b]Fantasian: Neo Dimension[/b] is a huge disappointment which I sadly can't recommend due to the existence of far better games in the genre. The game starts pretty strong though with its unique diorama backgrounds and interesting spin on turn-based combat jumping out. But this isn't enough to carry the weak script and characters.Protagonist Leo in particular is a real bore, and while some of the supporting cast are more fun, during the first half of the game, you don't get to decide who you bring along. You're stuck with 3 characters at a time, regardless if you like them or not, for hours on end. There are some good story and character moments here and there, but the awkward and slow dialogue drains away any emotion those scenes could have had.What kept me playing for 20+ hours was the combat. This is one of the toughest turn-based JRPGs I've played in recent memory and it was fun figuring out how to beat bosses. General mobs can be fought in large packs, which speeds up the process of random encounters. Some special-case enemies though were a real nuisance and I tended to flee from battle whenever I encountered them. Some grinding was required here and there, but nothing too bad.After getting halfway through the game though, the story completely fell apart and I no longer felt encouraged to continue. Everything I had been doing up to that point felt pointless. Worse, it felt like a betrayal. And that would be OK if it made sense, but it didn't. Final Fantasy VI, this is not.Fantasian is not a terrible JRPG per se, but the market is so full of them, it makes this one hard to recommend.
It's hard for me to recommend this game when I can't bring myself to finish it.Starting with the good, just about every core aspect of the game grabbed my attention. The majority of the map design being handmade dioramas is fantastic. The story was fascinating to me from the start, I loved how it presents exposition as a story book and I was engaged with how the plot ramped up. The dimengeon mechanic really cuts down the tedium of random encounters, and the combat letting you aim and curve attacks makes the turn-based more engaging. Heck, even the boss fights tend to put up unique challenges each time. Everything is a pretty solid formula!The big problem is that almost every good aspect has an asterisk after it. Progression is often a drag that it takes about 20 hours for the game to open up. One part of the problem is how often the writing tries to be funny with these awkward running gags, and another is how much linear retreading there is. And once it does open up, the game will heap piles and piles of quests onto you. This is all dragged down further by the fact the game will start gimping EXP gain hard if the enemies are even a single level below you, so grinding gets tedious quick. Every single boss from here on can also steamroll you no matter how overleveled or prepared you are for their gimmick. Pickings for armor equips get slim, and buffs/debuffs barely make a dent in stats. Boss fights ended up being one brick wall after another, so for my sanity I gave up.I like so much about the game, but the difficulty scaling needs a checkup. The game has a hard mode, I don't know why they think normal needs to be this unfair.
In every category of a RPG, it hits that "almost good" mark, but it really isn't ever going to be a good game since it feels like a mobile game.
The story is boring with its lost memory crap. The story telling is thru visual novel segments that is basically low budget attempts of storytelling.
The "storage battle" combat system gets old very quick and very tedious.
The boss battles are just 3d sprites that spew out a lot of damage.
The leveling system is dumb. It added a growth map thing like FFX, but you are limited on how much you can progress in a first playthrough. It's cute that they thought someone wanted to play this more than once.
The music is okay...I don't know why this was made.
Jesus Christ. Some of the cut scenes are so long that I don't care about finishing the game. I just finished one that I think is about halfway through the game and I don't care about anything going on in the game before this. I don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing after getting the group back together. I'll go back and look at the story section, but damn. So much exposition about shit that has already happened and doesn't matter,
Played about 4 hours. You start out as a guy with amnesia, which is probably one of the worst ways to start a story. Met a girl. Went walking in some forest somewhere. So far there's nothing of any intrigue, I'm not curious about the characters, I find them all incredibly unlikable. And like nothing's happened! Another game with a big name behind it but no substance. People who said this game "feels" like a Final Fantasy game are just straight up lying to you, FF games hook you in the first hour. This one doesn't.
The first half of the game is fun and interesting. The back half of the game is a terrible slog.I don't know why RPG designers still include the following things, they simply don't belong in modern games:
- forced random encounters
- unskippable cutscenes
- back to back boss encounters with no saveThe forced random encounters wouldn't be as bad if they didn't decide to kneecap your exp gains, so you get to fight (or spend time fleeing from) a bunch of encounters that give you absolutely nothing of value. If you didn't want people to overgrind, at least let them turn the encounters off to stop wasting time.The voice acting is great. The story is decent. The combat system is nice. I just wish the back half of the game respected my time more. There's a lot to love, and if you have all the time in the world and don't mind any of the things I mentioned, go ahead and pick it up. If you rarely have 2-3 consecutive hours to game, I might give it a pass.
could have been brilliant but they made it boring and there are super cringe interactions both in the story and in battle, guy uses "punch" attack and he shoots a beam out of his hand that pierces multiple monsters. ugggh, WHHYYYY
Game seemed promising at the start, interesting combat, nice artstyle, decent writing.But after I while I just grew more and more frustrated with the game.
The pacing is terrible, fights are drawn out, animations are so slow that a simple fight that contains only 10 actions takes over a minute. There's way to many random fights, so either you fight (or flee) enemies every 20 seconds, or you save them and fight 30 of them in a big fight (that lasts many minutes, and doesn't have any challenge).To check enemies health/weaknesses you have to "scan" them (once per enemy type). This really only costs you a turn, and like 5 seconds, but after you've done it 100 times, it kinda wears you down, why is this needed?You also can't choose your party members (at least not in the 18h I played) because they just swap the 2 other than the MC. So if there's characters you don't really like the playstyle of, well, you're stuck with them for like 5-6h. This also limits teambuilding/tactics.Combat skills also don't have much variety, it's just a few simple attacks, and then you get some elemental varieties of those.I want to finish the game since I kinda like the characters and story but I don't think I can.
It seems weird to not recommend a game I've put 55 hours into, but I feel the same way a lot of other folks did who got this far: It's stylish, but the story isn't JRPG nostalgia, it's just generic. The combat system is pretty nice, the landscapes are really amazing, but I can't really bring myself to care about any of the characters, which is a shame because they spend so darn much time exposition dumping. They talk when they enter a new screen. They talk between battles. They talk during battles. They talk after battles. Sometimes you get a 10-minute cutscene that's presented like an illustrated storybook. I like story in my games, but man does it drag.Then there's the infamous "Part 2" difficulty spike. To be honest, I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I've lost a fight to random encounter enemies. The bosses, though, even the mini-bosses or sidequest bosses, feel like constantly ramming my head against the wall. They have absurd amounts of HP, they have very gimmicky patterns, they require you bring a very specific party with a very specific skill map and very specific equipment our you'll spend 20 minutes getting slowly annihilated and then either try again without re-equipping or dealing with a walkback that's too long and sitting through the dialog... again. And then you just have to hope the RNG gods are with you.Maybe this is the right game for someone, but not for me. I don't think I'm going to end up finishing.
I don't know how you get Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu on a project and end up with something so unforgivably bland. Nothing about the gameplay or presentation of the story lands at all. The Amnesia trope is always a huge red flag, and it drags down the narrative in service of a flashback gimmick that somehow manages to suck the life out of even emotional scenes. The "tension" between the characters feels forced and nonsensical, and i just want them to shut up half the time. Started skipping through the spoken dialogue in the first 10 hours and I don't normally do that.
The best part of the battle system gets old fast and then is quickly turned against you, turning it into an unrewarding slog that even grinders can't enjoy. After playing for hours I wouldn't recognize a single song in the game if you played it for me. I was expecting so much more from this but I have no idea what they were even trying to do.
The nail in the coffin is Denuvo, though that's a whole Square Enix issue not specific to this game.
A beautiful, thoughtful, piece of art. You can feel the love and care put into this game throughout its entirety. Sakaguchi hasn't lost his touch one bit and I am so excited to see what he brings nest.Despite some very minor issues which have been fixed with patches - this game is a near masterpiece for me and I suggest it to anyone who loves a classic JRPG.
I hate giving a negative review on a turn based game, but this game is just..... not good. The difficulty spike in the second half of the game is ridiculous. It's one thing for boss fights to be challenging, its another for them to be completely obnoxious. This game leans in the absolutely obnoxious territory to the point that boss fights are not even difficult, just outright unfair. I'm 5 level's above the current recommended level of a certain boss fight and near the end of the fight I have two enemies even with damage down hitting me for nearly 3k back to back and 2500+ group wide damage with a roster incapable of doing a group wide heal.The mediocre story isn't worth the headache that is the boss fights in this game. There is ZERO reason for the boss fights to be as obnoxiously difficult as they are. It's a cheap way to force you to grind levels in a game that is not very long. (oh and after level 35 they significantly reduce the amount of EXP you earn.....because reasons.....)
If your like me and grew up playing the original Final Fantasy Nintendo Entertainment System cartridge and you have been looking for a modern game that brings back that feeling, then look no further.
I was so excited for this game. With nostalgic memories of Lost Odyssey, I couldn't wait to play it. To avoid spoilers, I didn't delve into the game's origins. I wanted to approach the game with as little prejudice as possible and what it returned to me was pure disappointment.A positive point to mention is the lovingly crafted world, which was created from dozens of handmade dioramas and gives the game its very own charm. However, after 53 hours of playtime, it's the only thing I can still enjoy.The story unfolds very predictably and without any real depth. Or events occur that had no hint of what was going on beforehand... it's just the way it is, without any prior character development.
Example [spoiler] The moment when Zinikr realizes that he really loves the unemotional elf-woman, because it's always been that way. At some point. In his previous life. Or so... [/spoiler]The character design is rather generic and the characters themselves are copies of stereotypes.
Particualry lazy is that all the women have the same idle animations and sometimes just stand around motionless with their fingers spread out in a weird way. How can so much love be put into the background and the main characters don't even get "natural" posture?The music in the game, unfortunately, isn't something that you will remember. Usually, good game themes stick in my head for months or even years, but Fantasian Neo Dimension doesn't have a track like that.The combat system is actually quite fun at the beginning of the game. Attacks can be maneuvered around corners and can be blasted through groups of enemies, all depending on the character's weapon and skill set. The idea of "storing" enemies in a dimension to fight them in large numbers there also felt good. Unfortunately, the random encounters eventually become so intense that you feel like you're progressing on the world map for 20-30 seconds and then fighting a swarm of 40+ monsters for 5+ minutes. Some of you might be thinking, "Oh, then leveling up must be easy." Sadly, not at all. The game decided (I think it was at level 35) to introduce a soft lock on experience to ensure that enemies below your level no longer give you experience. And that's even if they're only one level below you. For many quests, you repeatedly run through the same areas, where the monsters obviously don't get stronger over time... so you constantly waste 5+ minutes in dimensional battles, with no real benefit but more "high-quality" gameplay. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love grinding in games, but in this case, it's just a waste of time.Speaking of waste of time, the boss fights in this game are, on the one hand, simply HP sponges that spam one or more random status effects, leaving you with almost no chance of winning the first time you encounter them. On the other hand, you're forced to watch their cutscenes again after killing the game with ALT+F4 in order to escape the fight. There's no way to skip a cutscene or reload the game from within combat. You always have to play until you see the "game over"-screen before you are allowed to use the "load game" option.
I also think that gimmick bosses don't have much to do with skill or difficulty. Once you see what status effect they use, you equip the corresponding "immune gems", and the fight is over for them.
So the game isn't difficult per se, just annoying.
And for you achievement hunters: To get all the achievements you need a NG+ run, which means even more pointless grinding up to level 99.I have to admit, I really tried to like this game because of Lost Odyssey in my heart, but... I can't recommend it.
This is a great tribute to the older Final Fantasy games. The story is engaging, maybe a little predictable if you're well versed in JRPGs, the characters have individual stories and are likable. The level design is nice to look at. Runs flawlessly on Steam Deck.
TL/DR: It's pretty but boringIt has been a long time since I have experienced this level of self indulgence masquerading as "nostalgia". Games have come a long way since the 8- and 16-bit JRPGs of the last century, it's a shame Mistwalker couldn't come with them. There are things to like here: the overall art design and the 3D rendered backgrounds are great. The ability to bank random encounters is a good idea, but lacking in a game where you seem to rack up a random battle every three steps.
The character design is poor, at best. From the amnesiac protagonist to the snarky kid to the magical girl with the mysterious past...we've seen all this before. Over and over again.
The battle system is not good. Aside from the encounter rate being ridiculously high the boss battles are just tedious. They are HP sponges, often with stupidly implemented ways to prolong the fight for no reason other than to prolong the fight. When a boss who I can only actually damage half the time starts healing itself it's time for me to move on to something that respects my time a bit more. Like doing my taxes or making a dentist appointment.
This game is an example of what happens when story is just a series of events and the characters have no actual character. There's no meat for me to sink my teeth into, it's just shallow interactions and every potential mystery gets explained almost immediately with blatant signposting or exposition. Not to mention fights are long slogs, even with the Dimengeon feature, and boss fights especially so. I'm a little over halfway through the game and I don't feel any stronger in a fight than I did 20 hours ago, particularly when after Level 35 the game implements an XP reduction for fighting any enemy lower level, even 1 level lower, so fights are not only long but there's no point to them since you're getting barely anything. It feels like the game is trying to make me play longer through all the worst QoL methods, as opposed to because it's fun or interesting.
Story is your typical, anime/jrpg type: [spoiler] boy wakes up with no memory and have to recover it during the game, because villain said he is "the one" and wants to kill him. [/spoiler]
Combat is turn-based with some twists on the targeting mechanics, to keep you interested. If you like old school turn-based, you will probably like it here.
They created a mechanic where you can "delay" random encounters, putting the monsters in some sort of dimensional bag, but you must eventually fight all of them at the same time later. Useful when you don't really want to keep fighting all the time.
Gear/equipment is quite basic with one slot for armor, one for weapon and one for accessory.Overall, I would recommend if you enjoy older, turn-based jrpgs. Game is very slow paced at the beginning but it caught my interest after the first hour.
I want to like this game but it just doesn't want to let me like it.I want to get through the story of this game. I'm really enjoying it but I have had this game for over a month now and while I've clocked about 50 hours in it, not including the time spent in the demo, my actual save file, which does include the time spent in the demo is only at 35 hours.15 hours of time spent not actually making any progress. Some of that is because I've been suffering some crashing issues intermittently which are not the game's fault and I've lost some progress there but I'd estimate that only accounts for 2-3 hours.Over 10 of over 50 hours spent in this game has been spent retrying boss fights over and over. They are so long, and they are so tedious and almost every single one has an instant party wipe mechanic that you discover 10 or 15 minutes into the fight that you probably weren't prepared for.And this is on the Normal difficulty. If there was an Easy difficulty setting, I would have switched to that by now because I feel like this game is not respecting my time.
I find it difficult to pick this game back up. I really wanna like it, but it's just... It does so little to endear itself to you. The characters and their designs and side quests and story beats feel perfunctory instead of personal, dramatic, novel... Not only is it going through the motions, it's performing each motion with exceptional blandness.Depth-of-field effects aren't applied to characters against unfocused backgrounds, undercutting the playable diorama conceit... The anime-style characters clash with the cozy, crafty environments... The visuals are poorly conceived and poorly executed.The story starts slow and takes a [i]long[/i] time to ramp up. The dialogue's clunky and unaccommodating to voice acting. Voice direction's bad, too. Turn voices off.Battles are super satisfying. Love the mix of AoE fields and line-target attacks. Boss fights are surprisingly tough. Definitely play on Hard mode.
fun game , great sound track with nice visuals and a well built universe and story.the game start out as interesting , it's remind me a lot of the Playstation one era of final fantasy but
yet it's missing something , the pacing is bad , leveling up just to keep yourself at the recommended level feel like a chore and the boss fights in the later part of the game are tedious , all work on some gimmick and are unfun.the XP grind is obnoxious, the only way to get a decent amount of XP per fight is to stack monsters in a pocket dimensions so you end up with fights with like 30 monsters in a row , which mean each fights are long,the boss fights rely too much on gimmicks rather then having the players come up with an overall decent strategy , like in one of the fight you have to use taunt or else you just lose the fight because the enemy does a specific attack that slowly push your group away and cause an instant death after a specific amount of hit.
once in a while would have been fine but it's happen too much often and it's annoying.at least most Final Fantasy kept the challenging boss fight in the optional segments of the game unlike Neo Dimension that just put them everywhere.so close to hit the spot , yet so far.
At first i wasn't too impressed with the opening and etc. But slowly it's kinda nostalgic feeling when i played more time. it's kinda like of LOD ( Legend Of Dragon ) in terms of music and graph. The Vibrant city, character remind me of the old era of classic RPG back in 90'.
What kind of mental issue do the dev have that they refuse to add widescreen resolution to any of Square Enix games?Love the game but my review is not recommended until I see widescreen support!
Fantasian blends old-school jrpg conventions(particularly from Final Fantasy considering the pedigree such as Sakaguchi and Uematsu) with some unique features. The game was ported to pc and consoles due to the help of yoshi-p of FF14/FF16 renown. You can definitely tell because half of the guest battle tracks are Soken OSTs.The first thing that'd strike you is that the environments are constructed entirely of dioramas. The game was originally an apple arcade exclusive i.e. a mobile game and it shows in the UI and battle system. In this case, it's neat having to aim attack and spells. Fantasian also allows you to 'store' random encounters in a device known as a dimengeon where you can fight the stored enemies all at once. Finally the elephant in the room, the second act in the game is so tightly tuned in the original difficulty(hard) that it's refreshing having to consider your all your options and manage your party members to this degree that's rarely necessary in other turned-based rpgs.Some issues that can be off-putting is that the game starts off really slow as the first part is a long tutorial. There are systems simply missing until you get until the second part such as party switching (a la FFX) and the growth map. The encounter rate is still a bit high even with the dimengeon. The last positive I mentioned could be a double-edged sword because most of the second act boss battles put pressure on you and you could easily get stuck on one of them. Alas, this could be mitigated by the normal mode added to the port.Finally, the cast of fantasian are all so charming and funny especially with the voice acting that was added in this version. My favorites are kina and prickle. Just fun interactions all around. The game also has these cute vignette sections that added a bit of flavor to the plot which overall gave me a funny smt vibe. Overall, this game was a pleasant surprise for me.
Fantasian Neo Dimension - 2025 Review - Chaos or Order? All that matters is this gem is freed!Sometimes after legends create their legacy, they decide to go off into the sunset. Sometimes they try go build more of their legacy, yet fall into the darkness. Sometimes they prove why they were called legends all over again, and for that reason is why we are talking about Fantasian by Hironobu Sakaguchi.Hironobu Sakaguchi, the godfather of Final Fantasy, had left to create his own studio Mistwalker which developed games such as Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and The Last Story. In 2018, after replaying Final Fantasy VI, Sakaguchi felt the passion burning again to create an emotional role-playing narrative. Bringing in longtime partners, such as Manabu Kusunoki (The Last Story) as the artist and composer Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), this project began to be developed. Both Sakaguchi and Uematsu had the same mindset that this the game may be their last large-scale project due to health issues at their age. Apple quickly made a deal for the project knowing this could bring business to their apple arcade platform. Outside the game needing to run on Apple operating systems and platforms, Mistwalker was given complete creative freedom. Eventually the game was released on April 2021 (Part 1, then Part 2 released on August 2021). Then comes December 2024 for the release of the high definition port on consoles and PC. This was the first time that Sakaguchi had worked with Square Enix since leaving the company in 2003.Art Style:
The environments were created using real-world dioramas, including designs by veterans of the tokusatsu industry. Tokusatsu is known for the use of miniature sets. Miniatures are placed from the camera's perspective to create the illusion that the characters are larger than they are.This game is an absolute work of art. The way these dioramas were created and even just the angles of the pictures taken were clearly carefully considered. The world is vibrant and definitely has a Chrono Cross vibe to it while also at times giving off NieR world. Somehow while not being a prerendered background, this game gives off immense nostalgia for Playstation 1 lovers. It brought me back to the PSX Final Fantasy games while taking it a step further and more detailed. Truly something special that I hope is used again in the future.Cast of Characters:
This cast felt very Final Fantasy like, in both pros and cons. Clearly Sakaguchi brought a part of Lost Odyssey into this game with the way of short stories. Each character had their own smaller story, and I felt like they were quite enjoyable. Definitely had my favorites like Zinikr and Valrika, but each one had a special part with some more screen time than others. Leo was your typical amnesiac main character, but I am glad that it wasn't the main focus of the plot. Clearly when this game was getting advertised it seemed that it would be the main plot point, and while for the first half it was, it didn't take over. I felt like this game did a great job highlighted other characters over the main character which is a breath of fresh air. So many games like to prey on the amnesiac who actually is someone more important then they realize.Gameplay:
Fantasian is a turn based combat that has random encounters for enemies. The creative thing is after you start you get an item called a Dimengeon, a space capable of holding up to thirty enemies. After it fills up you fight all 30 enemies in a space that spawns special bonuses and attack boosts. It is a very creative addition to battles that makes your standard random encounters a lot less annoying. There is also a growth system based on a grid similar to Final Fantasy X, yet one for each individual character. Now every game is not perfect, and my biggest issue comes here in gameplay. I believe there is a fix in the works but as it stands there is an issue where everytime the camera changes, your joystick does not adjust and your character moves in the direction you were going before the camera angle changed. This can cause some janky movements that you then need to release the joystick and move again. While not a big deal, it did pull you out from the experience which is an issue. The other "issue" which isn't nearly as much of a big deal for me was the difficulty spike. The original game was made in two parts, and its pretty clear as the second half of this game is MUCH much harder than the first. What I did appreciate about this game is the jewel system. These are accessories that have stat bonuses, resistances, and special attributes. I'll be honest, in most games I never, I mean NEVER use resistant equipment.....except for this game. It truly did make a difference and changed the battlefield against some bosses. I will mention that being as this game was originally on mobile, most scenes that were being shown that happened at other times besides the present were done in a storybook type manner. The artistic work was fantastic, but I do know this bothered some as there was a large amount of them and it pulled them from the story. Personally I didn't have a huge issue with this but I do see where they are coming from. It does make sense though as this was a mobile game and it would be quite difficult to make everything active sequences.Story:
A short synopsis would say this story "revolves around Leo, a young man who becomes amnesiac after entering an alternate universe known as the Machine Realm. Various characters join him in his quest to recover his memory and discover who he is, while also confronting the mysterious Vam the Malevolent along the way."....and while there needs to be some sort of explanation while staying away from any deeper details, this is not what this games story is really about. This story is about decision making, choices we make for ourselves that could affect loved ones which are then followed by decisions for those same loved ones. Its about what we would do for those we have lost, how do we remember them? Do we hold on tight to all the joy we had with them, or do we carry forever the burden of what we did or didn't do to them. I won't go into spoilers, but this game is such a more in depth story than what the actual plot is. Its utter brilliance, and through each character story and plot point it starts showing itself more and more. Love is not always found where we think it is, and what will we do when that love is lost? There were moments after playing this game that I just wanted to hold my wife and kids close, call my parents and tell them I love them, and think about memories of my grandmother who is no longer on this earth. Clearly I felt something from this game, and I hope this review gives you the desire to play it and feel it too.Soundtrack:
Well after all that what else is there to say........except HOLY UEMATSU! If this was going to be his finale, boy did he put an orchestra together! I've seen some reviews saying this OST is "decent but nothing like his older stuff" and I think, that's just cray cray (yes I said cray cray - fancy for saying "that's wackadoo"). Some of these boss battle themes are unbelievable and hit so so hard. Then boom you get the opera chants and vocals, its so intense! The last couple fights were just unbelievable and I'd say you will stay in the end game boss battle longer to hear the music (but I can guarantee you that you won't have to because that battle is no 5 minutes in heaven).In closing, this game was everything I could have asked for. It made me feel like a teenager playing Final Fantasy IX all over again (actually oddly exactly like that even with the settings both quite different). This game was so clearly a passion project, as Sakaguchi put his whole heart and soul into this game. If those janky controls get fixed, this game is an absolute masterpiece.If you liked this review, feel free to check out my others on: https://www.backloggd.com/u/InVincible_Time/
