[Review] Fantasy, A New "Final Fantasy" Game with Different Charm

After the departure of Hironobu Sakaguchi from Square Enix, who is widely known as the well-known creator behind the Final Fantasy franchise, now he and his developer, Mistwalker, have been involved in a very interesting new JRPG game project. Named Fantasian, this game still carries the classic JRPG-style concept while providing additional unique elements in it. One of the most striking is the art style approach of the in-game environment which is built using the original diorama model, which of course makes the graphics look very realistic.

Now that the game has officially been released exclusively for the Apple Arcade platform (Mac, iOS, tvOS), we’ve spent the last two weeks or so to play the game and experience Sakaguchi’s new JRPG firsthand. The impression we got was enough to be summarized in a review article that further discusses the quality of the game as a whole. Instead of lingering, just take a look at the summary of your review below.

Storyline

In this game you will play as a young man named Leo who one day wakes up in a mysterious place and loses almost all of his memories. Slowly but surely you will realize the situation of the world which is on the verge of Mechteria’s power which threatens the existence of mankind. With the urge to restore his lost memories, Leo finally embarks on a big adventure where he will meet new characters such as Kina who is similar to Aerith in Final Fantasy VII, and also Cheryl who turns out to be a royal princess.

From here the storyline will continue to flow and provide a clearer picture of the situation that occurs in his world, while providing new clues about how Leo can restore his memory, which turns out to also spread to dangerous traps. From here you might be able to get an idea of what kind of story the game is trying to offer.

For us, the story in Fantasian is something that you can find in many JRPG games in general. Not fantastic but not bad either, is probably the best rating we can give, because the story in this game is not finished and only covers 50% portion (about 20 hours of playing time). While the continuation of Part 2 of the game is targeted for release this year and will bring the final conclusion. Our hope for Part 2 is clear that the plot progresses to a more dramatic direction while introducing new characters to enrich the main party combination.

Unique Visual Approach

Before going into the gameplay section, we first want to discuss the concept that feels most prominent in Fantasian, namely the visual quality itself. As we mentioned earlier, the world setting in this game is built on the original diorama model created in the real world. We’re not only talking about the graphics, which look more realistic, but also the different impressions that make the world atmosphere very unique and difficult compared to most other JRPG games.

We also really like the art style approach that doesn’t use a chibi model like Bravely Default or too realistic like modern Final Fantasy games. Therefore there is a kind of balance that makes it more suitable to our tastes, although unfortunately the 3D models of the characters in this game don’t seem to match the artwork made by character designer Takatoshi Goto.

If you look closely, you can also see that there is a kind of style that is more typical of Square Enix games. For example, the design of the main character Leo is similar to the protagonist from Nier (white hair and all black costume), or one of the heroines named Kina who as we mentioned earlier is similar to Aerith from Final Fantasy VII. It’s a nitpick, but we think this is something that some fans who have played the game will definitely feel.

Classic JRPG-style gameplay that is still unique

Another part that we like the most in Fantasian is definitely the gameplay, which is still faithful to the classic JRPG-style concept, but with a different approach to make it more fresh. The party squad in this game is only divided into three characters, where you can replace one of them with other characters who are outside the battle and still have HP. The course of each battle will take you in a series of turn-based systems to choose attack commands and use skills to defeat the enemy. The positioning of the enemy in this game is very important, because you can launch attacks that can hit one or a group of targets at once depending on how you set the placement of the attack area.

We don’t have many complaints about the basic gameplay system which is pretty well built, but there is one problem with skill usage. Because you have to manually set the attack area to hit the enemy, sometimes we often accidentally press the command skill when we just hit the target to just one enemy. This problem then spreads when facing boss battles who always change the camera position to be flatter. This made it even more difficult for us to set the skill attack area because of the more restricted view.

Uniquely, this game also provides a kind of “job” for each character, although from what we see there is no automatic job system that makes it feel like a gimmick. Of course, each character still has a fighting style to different types of skills that really play a role in controlling the course of the battle. Your character will gain access to new skills upon reaching a higher level, which have been adapted to the fighting style to the weapon the character uses.

In addition to grinding to reach a higher level or hunting for equipment with the best stats, you can strengthen your character by using Gems that give a buff effect. It’s just that at the beginning of the game the effects of Gems mostly include the Elemental Resistance buff, which is actually less needed because at the beginning of the game there are not many enemy with elemental types.

Dimengeon Battle Until a Challenging Boss

The gameplay element that sets Fantasian apart from most other JRPGs lies in the system called Dimengeon. This system allows you to save the “Random Encounter” obtained when exploring various areas. Because there are many players who don’t like Random Encounter (including us), this is certainly a very helpful system in many moments, including when they are having fun trying to continue the progress of the story.

One thing to note that Dimengeon only allows you to save and does not eliminate Random Encounters. So when you reach the limit of 30 monsters with expandable capacity, you can access Dimengeon to battle against all the stored monsters. This is also a more practical way to get a large amount of EXP at once, especially with the help of buffs in each battle arena in the form of floating objects that can be destroyed.

We also feel like we have to discuss the boss fight in this game which must be admittedly very difficult. Yes, most JRPG games often feature bosses that can test patience, but for Fantasy, we have felt it since the boss in the tutorial section. In addition to having high attack power and thick HP, each boss also has a phase that is too “scripted” which makes the battle last longer if you don’t pay attention to some conditions.

For example, how the boss in the tutorial section can be defeated after dropping a tower, which turns out to be only targeted after you have successfully passed a special phase. We continue to encounter gimmicks like this in other bosses, which even though they make each battle feel unique, the freedom to play is automatically taken away and it also affects the difficulty level.

Leo as the protagonist unfortunately does not have a special ability that makes him more “OP” than other characters. We even think that Kina and Cheryl are tougher than Leo especially thanks to their high damage potential, while Leo relies too much on physical attacks and Steal skills to get items from enemies. Leo roughly reminds us of Zidane from Final Fantasy IX, except that Zidane has higher damage potential and even has a power-up mode that really sets him apart from other party members. We hope that Leo’s role can become more prominent in the second game later, not only in terms of story but also his ability in battle.

Conclusion

JRPGs have been our favorite genre since childhood, so our expectations are always high for every new game we try. Fantasian is no exception, despite its status as a mobile game, it manages to offer quality that is worth juxtaposed with some of the latest JRPG releases such as Bravely Default II for example. The unique visual concept, the classic turn-based gameplay that is still preserved, to the Dimengeon system which really helps us in avoiding Random Encounters, these are just some of the other attractions that can be found in Fantasian.

Unfortunately, this game is not yet perfect, because we still find flaws that might interfere with the playing experience. One of them is the awkward skill attack area setting system with inconsistent camera positions, and how every boss always brings a gimmick that makes every battle feel scripted (already updated) and indirectly also makes it more difficult to beat.

The first part of this Fantasy for us already offers an exciting and quite satisfying playing experience. Without having to raise expectations too far, we hope that the continuation of Part 2 of this game can fix the problems we encountered or at least bring the story content more dense with the plot to a satisfying conclusion.

Excess	Lack
The storyline is quite interesting	Boss battle with gimmick that is quite annoying
Amazingly beautiful original diorama visuals	Awkward skill attack area settings, especially when the camera angle is inconsistent
Exciting turn-based gameplay mechanics
Very helpful Dimengeon system

Final Score:

8/10

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fantasy

Developer: Mistwalker

Release Date: 2021-04-02

Mobile Games, iOS

Fantasian is the latest JRPG game by Hironobu Sakaguchi who is the creator behind the Final Fantasy franchise. In addition to carrying a turn-based gameplay system that is strongly attached to classic JRPGs, this game brings its own uniqueness through a world setting built with original dioramas.