Square Enix and Mistwalker’s 2021 RPG Fantasian is finally escaping the confines of mobile and making it to new platforms as Fantasian Neo Dimension. Having played the game on PlayStation 5, I feel RPG fans have something to be excited about — but a ghost of handhelds past may end up haunting it.
Those who know me best will agree that I’m not the biggest JRPG player in the world. It’s not that I dislike the genre — far from it. I know what these are about. You start by rolling out of bed at your parents’ house, fast-forward about 100 hours, and you’re body-slamming god through a fold-out table. Trust me, I get it.
Dance to my beat
To be clear, my enjoyment of JRPGs mostly hinges on how well they “vibe” with me. There are many games in the genre I played for some dozen or so hours and dropped. But in comparison, there are others I’ve completely devoured. For every unfinished Dark Cloud, there’s Skies of Arcadia, which I’ve heaped praises on for decades. I couldn’t get through Ni no Kuni, but you better believe I did everything in Tales of Vesperia and fulfilled my destiny by, yes, piledriving its god through a fold-out table.
My time with Fantasian was brutally short, but I’m thrilled to say that, save for one glaring issue, by the end of the demo I was rocking out to its rhythm. And I can sum up the primary reason with one confounding word: Bowling. Yes, bowling, which I’ll explain shortly.
Playing the classics
For those who don’t know, Fantasian is a turn-based RPG that launched in 2021 for mobile via Apple Arcade. A Mistwalker game, it involved two legends of the genre. The game’s writer is none other than Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy. He’s paired with composer Nobuo Uematsu, who was behind the music of Final Fantasy for more than a decade. If you, ever in your life, have listened to “One-Winged Angel” on repeat, you can thank Uematsu. It should come as no surprise that Fantasian feels like an echo of the past.
The game’s story revolves around Leo, a young man who was viciously bludgeoned by an RPG trope. Suffering from amnesia, he’s led by a lingering memory to find himself and save the world from a mechanical virus. Naturally, he’s joined by fellow warriors of all types, whom he gathers as you make your way through the game.
The demo I played included such a chance encounter. It was early in the game, and I found Leo paired with the white magician Kina and Cheryl, a spellcaster with mastery over ice magic. I walked through the world for a short while before finding a man under attack by someone with two wolf-like enemies called Wolzas by his side.
I’ve seen this one before
Pleasantries be damned, we decided to help the man being attacked. The game split the party, allowing me to use the stranger against the Wolzas. His kit was certainly interesting. Partnered with a spirit beast, his most powerful abilities drained not mana, but his own life bar.
Fantasian boasts traditional turn-based combat with weapon attacks and magic. I used Leo to slice away at foes, while Kina supported him and the stranger with healing and holy magic. There were only two enemies, allowing me to focus on one at a time. We easily won the fight, as it wasn’t meant to be any kind of boss battle. The man took off, and so did Leo and friends.
Taking it all in
The post-battle respite gave me some time to soak in the game’s environments. I wasn’t acknowledging it before the fight, but the visuals of Fantasian Neo Dimension struck me during this moment. I thought things looked a bit odd at first. The characters were typical polygonal models, but the environment had a surreal, dream-like quality. It was as if I was manipulating toys in a miniature movie set. I wasn’t far off.
Fantasian Neo Dimension utilizes hand-made dioramas blended with polygons and CG to showcase its world. I’m not sure how well it worked on a mobile device, but the effect was stunning on the larger monitor I used. The tan trail, looking like it was comprised of sawdust, was fenced off with blue and magenta bushes. Large boulders dusted by green paint appeared to be made of clay. I could see places where they were scraped by tools.
As an upgrade, Fantasian Neo Dimension supports up to 4K on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. I don’t believe I experienced it during my preview, but I can only imagine just how much more impressive the game can look at that aspect ratio. Fantasian Neo Dimension may end up having one of the most beautiful visuals I’ve experienced in games. It’s quite breathtaking in motion.
Despite the 4K support, Fantasian Neo Dimension still bears the marks of mobile gaming. The characters are tiny on the screen, and the icons in the UI are large. That’s not a huge issue, of course.
Out of control
But there is one lingering remnant that is. Since you’re meant to use a controller, you manipulate characters via a thumbstick instead of tapping a location on a screen. Moving characters using the latter method means that the camera has to relocate to support new perspectives, showing you more of the environment. But the thumbstick doesn’t match the sudden swing the camera makes.
The effect made moving around feel like I was stuck in a pinball machine. I even got lost a few times after my viewpoint suddenly shifted. It frustratingly broke any immersion, and I ended up feeling a bit sick to my stomach. I hope it gets improved ahead of launch.
Despite bouncing around like a metal ball in a can of spray paint, I was still able to progress more in the demo. As per the norm, you can fight enemies in random encounters. But since I always feel a tad rushed when playing demos at events, I ended up running past a lot of fights. Well, that decision eventually caught up with me.
It’s a dungeon dimension, get it?
Fantasian Neo Dimension includes a unique system called a Dimengeon, which is a portmanteau of “dungeon” and “dimension.” Every time you avoid a random battle, the enemies are placed into the Dimengeon. If it reaches maximum occupancy, you’re unceremoniously pulled into the dark world where you must fight all the baddies you ignored. The arena fills up with enemies with a counter on the top-right of the UI showing how many you need to fight to survive. It sounds oppressive. But you know what? I loved it.
This is where I return to my needlessly befuddling mention of bowling from earlier. Scrolling through the list of spells, you can see icons of which spell hits one enemy and which will pierce multiple. On mobile, using powers like magic spells required you to drag your finger to create a path toward enemies. With piercing shots, you can manipulate the spell’s trajectory to blast through as many baddies as possible. The system works wonderfully on the controller. You pick a spell, move the thumbstick to create a straight or curved line, and let it fly!
In my first Dimengeon fight, I happily abused my piercing abilities at every chance. Gimmicks, shown as glowing icons, also appear in the Dimengeon and are often placed on the ground between your party and enemies. Hitting them with an ability grants a special power-up like increased damage.
I got into a groove. Enemies would plop onto the field en masse and I’d arc a blast of magic through a Gimmick before hitting up to five foes at once, killing several while injuring the others. It’s just so much fun! I didn’t even mind how much time I spent tearing through Mecha Jellyfish. The game also allows you to see many upcoming turns (up to 12 by my count) at once, allowing you to plan far ahead.
It’s incredibly easy and intuitive and, yes, does kinda feel like bowling. The way enemies cluster together on the screen is not too unlike pins you can knock down with a heavy strike. Every time I fired off a spell that devastated a line of helpless foes, I wanted to let out a small cheer. It’s incredibly satisfying.
The battle wore on, but eventually, the enemy spawns slowed to a stop, allowing me to continue the demo. There wasn’t much left to do, sadly.
Don’t touch the merchandise
We soon stumbled on what I assumed was the reason we were here in the first place. My party located an old, injured man, who immediately warned us not to touch the nearby “golem” lest it wake up and beat everyone to a pulp. Leo, clearly understanding the assignment, waltzed over and touched the golem after trying to pull an item out from under it. The golem woke up and completely dusted my party in about three moves. Thanks, Leo.
The party wipe heralded the end of my time with Fantasian Neo Dimension. Despite my concerns over the controls, the demo left a strong impression. The game is beautiful and runs smoothly, and while standard combat feels rudimentary, the Dimengeon system adds a strong gust of fresh air.
Fantasian Neo Dimension doesn’t have a release date yet, but it is scheduled to arrive in the winter of 2024. If the movement controls get smoothed out, I may happily add another to my shortlist of beloved (and finished) turn-based RPGs.
Published: Sep 12, 2024 04:48 pm