If you're a fan of RPGs, then you'll likely recognise the names Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu, and any project involving the two of them is sure to immediately draw your attention. Even if you're not familiar with the names, you'll recognise their work, as the father of the Final Fantasy series and its composer have created some of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time. Unfortunately, when it was initially released back in 2021, Fantasian was confined to Apple Arcade, denying a lot of people the opportunity to experience it. The release of Fantasian Neo Dimension, a console version of the game with added features to make it more than a simple port, is something of a dream come true. So, let's find out if this is a final answer to the fantasy, or just another quest that drags on.
Fantasian tells the story of Leo, a young man who finds himself with an unfortunate case of amnesia after venturing into the Machine Realm and narrowly escaping with his life. From there he meets Kina, a young woman with her own mysterious past, and the two set out together on a journey to recover Leo's lost memories, and how this ties into the threat of Vam the Malevolent, a mysterious and seemingly omnipotent presence who has taken a keen interest in the two of them. The story unfolds slowly after its dramatic opening as Leo and his allies venture across the land in what often feels like an arbitrary fashion, piecing together his past in a way that feels natural, but is often lacking in urgency or drama despite the dire state the world is in thanks to the threat of the mechteria.
Although it takes time to become a story you'll want to continue for its own sake, Fantasian does a remarkably good job of keeping you invested. This is mostly thanks to Memories: short visual-novel style vignettes that act as flashbacks and flesh out the supporting cast, detailing events leading up to their meeting with one another and providing some background context for the state of the world at large. The lack of cutscenes is a telltale remnant of the game's mobile origins, although it is saved from tedium by the inclusion of an extensive amount of new voice acting. All story scenes and Memories are fully voiced in both English and Japanese, and do an excellent job at bringing the dialogue to life and projecting emotions in a cast that often feels strangely flat outside of the occasional humourous, light-hearted moment between them.
Fantasian features classic turn-based combat, but is a more strategic experience than many of its contemporaries. The highlight of its battle system is the inclusion of Skill Trajectories; for example, standard physical attacks will be projected in a straight line, whereas magic abilities can be curved, and other skills may have a wider area of effect. Before carrying out your attack you'll be able to set its trajectory, allowing you to hit multiple enemies at once, or bypass those which might block or be resistant to it. As you would expect, each of your party members has their own set of unique skills, and although for the first half of the game you will generally be locked into using a predetermined party, later you'll need to consider which party member would be best suited for a given situation. On Normal mode this is more a convenience for clearing out mobs faster, but on Hard mode it becomes a necessity, particularly during boss encounters, which often require a specific strategy to take down successfully.
One of the more ingenious gameplay mechanics is the Dimengeon Machine, which allows you to capture enemies and seal them away to be battled at a later time. You can either wait for the machine to fill to capacity - at which point you will be forced into random battles until you clear it out - or enter it before then and face a larger number of enemies at once. This has a surprisingly transformative effect on the flow of gameplay, as it allows you to avoid random battles almost entirely (the first time you encounter a new enemy you will need to battle them before you can seal them away) and makes the process of leveling feel much faster. Of course, you'll need to be mindful of just how many enemies you can take on at any one time; although you won't face every enemy stored in the Dimengeon Machine at once, new enemies will spawn to replace the old ones almost immediately. This system isn't quite as convenient as one that would allow you to disable random encounters entirely, such as the sliders featured in the Bravely Default series, but it is a good compromise which can help minimize the frustration of needing to stop to battle enemies for a minimal amount of experience every minute, and lower the risk of a sudden game over if you're low on health in the field after a tough battle.
Outside of its combat, Fantasian has a number of smaller sidequests to undertake, which are mostly standard fetch quests, but occasionally lead to some useful rewards that make them worth doing, and are all clearly marked on the map. The game is fairly linear for its first half, but opens up in its second act to allow players a little more freedom in their actions. Although the difficulty increases slightly here, on Normal this does not feel especially unmanageable, and it remains a fairly accessible title for those new to RPGs, whilst providing adequate challenge in Hard for experienced players.
Fantasian's visual style is one of its more striking aspects, as the game's locations are made up of stylized dioramas that are strongly reminiscent of the PS1-era Final Fantasy titles. Elements in some areas feel as though they have been simply upscaled from the original mobile title and are unpleasantly blurred (this is most notable on foliage) but the overall level of detail here is absolutely stunning. Despite being static backgrounds, each area you visit has an added feeling of depth as the camera angles will frequently change as you're exploring to give you a different perspective, and there are plenty of hidden items to uncover.
As beautiful as the diorama landscapes can be, navigating through them is sometimes made unnecessarily difficult. The shifts in camera angle that occur are not always accompanied by a change in the direction you need to push the control stick to continue forward momentum, and you will often need to push it in a different direction to the one you want to move in. I frequently became stuck on scenery or went off in an entirely different direction for a moment when the camera angle changed, resulting in a stop-start momentum that felt unnatural and awkward. It's an inconvenience that is lessened significantly by the Dimengeon Machine, as you won't be stopped frequently by unwanted random battles, but it can still become disruptive at times.
The UI of the game also still retains some of its mobile aesthetics, and can look a little unpleasant when docked, but is a natural fit for handheld play. The larger text and simple menus are quick and easy to read and simple to navigate, and there are some useful added shortcuts to battle menus that allow you to have the Skill window open automatically at the start of your turn if you choose. You can also adjust the battle music to fit your preference in the middle of combat, and the game has a number of songs from various Final Fantasy titles included. Although you can't select specific tracks, the ability to swap between them at will is a nice feature despite this. The original soundtrack of the game, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, is of the consistently high quality you would expect, with an excellent variety of orchestral and synthetic pieces that perfectly set the scene and enhance the atmosphere of each location.
Fantasian manages to hold its own amongst the Switch's heavyweights in the RPG genre thanks to some inventive and enjoyable gameplay innovations that break up the traditional grind, making its otherwise by-the-numbers turn-based combat a more tactical and engaging experience. Its diorama-style visuals are delightfully refreshing, and highly nostalgic if you've ever played a PS1-era Final Fantasy title. Although not quite an entirely new dimension of fun, Fantasian is a welcome breath of fresh air that is more than worth your time.
8/10
A copy of Fantasian Neo Dimension was provided by Square Enix for the purpose of this review.
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