When Fantasian dropped in 2021, I purchased an Apple TV immediately simply to get an opportunity to play Mistwalker’s newest sport. I wouldn’t even say I used to be too aware of their earlier video games, however the pedigree of its founder: Hironobu Sakaguchi. Because the preliminary creator of Remaining Fantasy, listening to that he got here again to make a sport impressed by Remaining Fantasy VI was intriguing. Not solely did it have such a novel aesthetic for an RPG, nevertheless it was additionally teased as presumably considered one of Sakaguchi’s final video games. Sadly, I didn’t actually take pleasure in gaming on my Apple TV for very lengthy. It was additionally tough for me to get engaged in an RPG like this with out voice performing. With Sq. Enix teaming up with Mistwalker to port the sport to regular platforms, I hoped all these points would enable me to push by way of and see how brilliant this hidden gem shined.
Fantasian begins with a younger man named Leo winding up with amnesia after a visit to the Machine Realm. He stumbles again to the Human Realm, and begins tracing his steps again to uncover what his earlier mission was. Alongside the best way in his journey throughout a number of completely different universes he gathers a scrappy group of get together members, whereas a harmful being named Vam the Malevolent has his personal plans.
Initially Fantasian was cut up into two components, with the second popping out months after the primary. For Fantasian Neo Dimension they’ve been bundled along with a few key new options. Voice performing, a brand new (simpler) issue, and new music choices based mostly on fashionable Remaining Fantasy titles. Each the standard and amount of the voice performing was an enormous shock for me. Principally each cutscene in each fundamental and facet quest is voice-acted, and this isn’t a sport that’s gentle on cutscenes. There are even a number of distinctive visible novel-esc segments which can be elevated by the unbelievable voice solid chosen in English and Japanese. Whereas Fantasian’s story didn’t break the mildew for me, it’s splendidly informed and has a very charming solid. With out the good voice performing, it won’t have landed as arduous.
The brand new issue is moderately attention-grabbing, being labeled as Regular with the unique being listed as Exhausting. The unique launch of Fantasian’s second half was criticized for its huge issue spike, so it was most likely a good suggestion to supply some type of rebalancing for newcomers since Neo Dimension can have such a large launch. You possibly can change between every at any second, however to be sincere by the second half of the sport I didn’t discover an excessive amount of distinction between them. As somebody who jumped again between them usually to sate his curiosity, regular continues to be fairly difficult. Anybody fearful it might make Fantasian “simple” has nothing to fret about.
The addition of the choice battle music choices has me conflicted. To be fairly sincere, as a lot as I respect Nobuo Uematsu’s discography, the battle music in Fantasian largely didn’t do it for me. All the environmental and cutscene tracks are up there together with his finest work, however I simply didn’t look after the battle themes. Since more often than not spent in Fantasian is in fight, I made a decision to experiment with the choice tracks out of curiosity. The alternatives on provide are a bit unusual, consisting of choose songs from pixel remasters, VII Remake collection, Endwalker, Dawntrail, and XVI. It will have been extra becoming to get a few of his finest music throughout his time with Sq. than simply the newest Remaining Fantasy releases. Total I believe this elective function was a missed alternative.
Being performed again to again doesn’t actually assist the 2 components really feel extra cohesive, and it’s necessary to let you already know simply how completely different Fantasian finally ends up in comparison with the place it begins. Fantasian pitches itself as one other journey choosing off the place Remaining Fantasy left off with IX. It has some chew to it, however the first 20 hours is a linear and fulfilling story-driven RPG romp. Half 2 turns into a completely completely different sport, opening development and focusing rather a lot much less on its story. More often than not spent in Fantasian’s second half is devoted to dungeon crawling, battling, and managers. It’s really exhausting, and I believe it’d be a good bit of criticism to say extra work may very well be finished to organize gamers for what they have been in for.
Nonetheless, it occurred to show into the sort of sport I actually vibe with. It’s arduous to be upset at this sharp shift in gameplay priorities when Fantasian is such a brilliantly designed RPG. The battle system is a contemporary tackle a properly confirmed set of mechanics. The world is giant in scope, crammed with issues to see and quests to take over a 40-60-hour journey. The additional freedom to do what you need and construct your characters as you see match simply provides much more to that. Each boss appears like increasingly of a puzzle as the sport goes on, requiring gamers to essentially take into consideration methods to make it by way of. Brute pressure will hardly ever work, even when your ranges are increased than your foe.
Not stopping at simply making a big group of participating boss battles, additionally they discovered room to innovate on conventional random encounters. Early on you’ll unlock the power to primarily financial institution random encounters and retailer them in a tool referred to as the Dimengeon. This can help you select to deal with random encounters like regular or battle as much as 50 enemies without delay. It’s much more satisfying as a participant to have bigger encounters much less usually, with bigger rewards.
Whereas the Dimengeon looks as if it might reward grinding, Fantasian curbs that concept as soon as your solid reaches degree 35. At that time of the sport, when the boss battles are at their hardest, combating weaker enemies will massively lower the quantity of EXP you obtain from regular encounters. With bosses being so tough, I respect the sport for not incentivizing grinding to disregard the problem. The problem of this sport isn’t superficial, so it is sensible that it begs you to be taught round what it tosses out. When was the final time a sport made you truly make the most of your gear in particular methods simply to outlive standing results on bosses? Not each boss is an absolute winner in design, however all of them provide a decent problem.
The battle system appears like a contemporary iteration on Remaining Fantasy X, the place you have got a solid of characters every with a significant function to play that may be constructed the way you see match. There are three lively get together members in battle, and they are often switched out and in on a whim. With how a lot stress enemies will placed on you, with the ability to swap up your crew dynamics and technique on a whim is nice. The true gimmick right here to make issues spicy is how one can manipulate assaults for optimum crowd management. Assaults can both be angled in a straight line, curved across the enviornment, or have an AOE circle. The act of curving spells was all the time entertaining in my playthrough, particularly for regular encounters.
That is used to fantastic impact within the boss fights, which at their finest design round aiming your photographs round obstacles to land injury. I used to be bowled over to search out out that on this turn-based fight system with out an Lively Time Battle gauge to maintain you dashing, there have been encounters the place I needed to be taught particular timings on assault. A boss would have a barrier with particular home windows that stored altering with the extra injury I dealt, which ultimately required me to vary my perspective and the way I dealt assaults or what character was capable of go round that defend.
My solely actual challenge with the battle system is a Nintendo Change-exclusive flaw, the place loading occasions to get into battles are unreasonably lengthy. At worst I counted load occasions of round 10-12 seconds, and this kills the move most of the time. Your Dimengeon fills sooner and sooner the additional you get, so this solely causes the difficulty to compound as you attain the tip. Even the five-second load occasions I’d encounter early on have been rather a lot, and that was earlier than I started to really love Fantasian’s battle system.
Whereas initially impressed by Remaining Fantasy VI, it stylistically pulls from the unique PlayStation period of Remaining Fantasy probably the most. With tech having superior to this point, the selection to depict 3D character fashions on high of pre-rendered backgrounds is successfully a factor of the previous. That had the good impact again within the day of permitting these video games to look bigger than life, offering a shock to gamers with out taxing the consoles too arduous. To adapt this to the trendy period, you couldn’t simply take screenshots of 3D fashions.
The selection they made to maintain the novelty alive was to construct over 150 hand-painted dioramas to characterize the world of Fantasian. Each considered one of these was intricately designed, and the price range for this endeavor is obvious simply by them. Each map within the sport is made up of a considerable amount of photographs to attach them, with impressive-looking digital camera positions to transition the completely different views. Not solely is there loads of selection to go round with the areas you’ll end up in, however the quantity of element put into each area is commendable. I used to be particularly appreciative of all the cities, with distinctive dioramas constructed for each home and room discovered throughout them.
Nonetheless, I believe it is a bit the place the Change port falters, and the place points from the unique sport persist. The backgrounds are sometimes beautiful to have a look at however have been usually low decision on this model of the sport. There wasn’t that a lot consistency in what was going to be low decision, and you possibly can nonetheless make out what they have been imagined to characterize, however that inconsistency did begin to trouble me. The opposite challenge comes from the character of the digital camera needing to shift usually to completely different views, inflicting points in your management scheme.
I’m unsure if it’s simply that the unique PlayStation’s Remaining Fantasy video games simply had fewer sudden digital camera cuts between areas or if the controls simply weren’t as fine-tuned on this sport. There have been a handful of moments the place I discovered Leo awkwardly operating backwards and forwards between two cuts with out making an attempt, simply because the definition of “shifting up” fully modified and I simply so occurred to have shifted the thumbstick ever so barely. I want this had been adjusted for Neo Dimension, or perhaps added the power to help you play the sport with tank controls. I obtained used to it, nevertheless it felt like I used to be reigning in a wild animal at factors.
On high of all of that is that regardless of the backgrounds being all pictures, the sport has a really inconsistent body fee. It targets 60 frames per second, however stuttering is widespread and it appears to leap between 30 and 60 relying on the dimensions of the map you’re on. The extra 3D property that must exist in scenes or in battles, the much less secure it will get. As of some days after launch, there hasn’t been a patch to deal with this, so those that are delicate to inconsistent body charges could wish to play this on one other console.
I actually can’t be mad at Fantasian Neo Dimension, even when its huge issue spike in Half 2 brought on me to get mad extra usually than I might rely. That anger was one thing I miss from many fashionable RPGs, and it was splendidly refreshing to play a sport that demanded I grasp the battle system. I haven’t needed to spend as much as an hour on RPG boss battles in fairly a very long time. This isn’t an off-the-cuff RPG, and that may disappoint many who both aren’t into hardcore RPGs or simply don’t wish to meet it midway.
Fantasian Neo Dimension received’t work for everybody, however for the handful it does click on for they’re seemingly going to discover a new all-time favourite. It largely labored wonders for this reviewer, however the Nintendo Change port’s points detracted extra from the expertise than I had hoped. When you do love basic RPGs or particularly basic Remaining Fantasy, this contemporary evolution of these knocks it out of the park. Within the final yr, there have been loads of throwbacks to the ’90s period of RPG to financial institution on nostalgia, however Fantasian has a long-lasting and timeless attraction most of them lack. It is aware of who it seems to be to attraction to and makes a sport only for them.
Model Examined: Nintendo SwitchReview copy supplied by Sq. Enix
