When it was announced that Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu would be the central contributors to a brand-new JRPG from the Mistwalker development studio, the hype train went into overdrive. The godfather of the Final Fantasy series and arguably the greatest video game soundtrack composer in history are two of the titans in the genre, after all. As part of the “dream team” of the halcyon Squaresoft era, they were responsible in no small part for bringing Japanese-style role-playing games firmly into the global gaming audience. The days of “classic” JRPGs which many players wistfully longed for seemed to be back. The title of their new project echoed a certain air of whimsical wonder: Fantasian.
However, the hype dimmed considerably when it became known that the game was only going to be available on mobile devices through the Apple Gaming subscription service. No matter how brilliant Sakaguchi and Uematsu are, a mobile game was not what gamers had in mind when the news came down.
2024 changed all that, when a high-definition “director’s cut” version of the game, now titled Fantasian: Neo Dimension, was released on modern consoles and PC. Gamers could now experience a definitive version of the long-awaited game on the platform of their choosing, and the excitement skyrocketed once again. After completing the game, that excitement has been tempered significantly. Fantasian: Neo Dimension certainly hits some nostalgic notes in gameplay, world-building, and narrative. But that luster is dimmed somewhat because the game becomes a bit too predictable. Overall, it is a charming adventure with just enough depth and novelty to create an enjoyable experience, but it’s not at the level we may have expected from the dream duo.
Fantasian: Neo Dimension is an ambitious attempt to create a very unique visual experience. Background environments in areas like towns, forests, and mountains were assembled physically in real life, and then the characters and creatures of the game were rendered into these dioramas using modern technology. The intent of such an effect could be compared with the HD-2D concept introduced by Octopath Traveler, where characters move and act in areas that stand in visual contrast due to the medium of their design. In theory, this approach would produce an unprecedented view upon a fantasy adventure that would add another level of wonder to the players’ experience.
When it works, it really works well. Areas with greater detail such as certain cities and forested areas really allow this concept to shine, and the effect is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, when this doesn’t work, it’s horrendous to look at. Places like hilly fields and wintry highlands–which don’t have nearly as many objects and specific environmental details–look worse than some pre-constructed background environments on some games for the original PlayStation. Some areas actually look like they are haphazardly covered in a sheet of felt or coarse fabric and then allowed to mold. On the whole, there are more successes than failures in the execution of this visual novelty, which is quite praiseworthy. However, the occasions when it looks awful create a lingering feeling of disappointment, like a nagging “what-if” feeling.”
The story of Fantasian follows the central protagonist named Leo, a young man whom we meet in an entirely mechanical realm following an accident which has caused him to lose his memory of why he came to this machine realm and of the events leading up to that point. As Leo embarks on his quest to recover those memories and rediscover the quest he had previously been on, he has a vision of a young woman who he cannot recall ever meeting before. Meanwhile, the world is slowly being overrun by a mysterious affliction called mechteria, which are malevolent monochromatic particles that consume and negate all organic life. Their blight continues to spread unchecked across the land, and Leo’s personal quest quickly becomes intertwined with the urgent objective of discovering the source of the mechteria and stopping it from destroying the world.
Throughout Leo’s journey, we meet a motley cast of characters. Our party will grow to include Kina, a maiden raised in the heart of a forest by her adoptive father figure; Cheryl, the younger of two royal princesses whose elder sibling mysteriously disappeared shortly after birth; Zinikr, the salty captain of the Uzra, the most famous vessel in the world; Ez, a young engineering prodigy; Prickle, a bulbous robot with an unfailingly helpful disposition; and Tan, a mysterious and caustic man accompanied by a spirit beast named Galf. As it turns out, an evil deity named Yan is responsible for the spread of the mechteria into the world and it’s our job to find him and stop him.
While the “through the power of friendship the party will defeat an evil god and save the world” narrative archetype is a well-worn retread throughout the JRPG genre, there are some additional wrinkles to this trope which lend the plot some desperately needed seasoning. However, those plot developments and lore details aren’t sufficient to differentiate the story from the predictable stereotype. Even though the main story quest line isn’t enough to create a truly compelling experience by itself, there is another layer to the narrative which makes it much more engrossing. The backstories and destinies of the various characters unfold both within and around the main “save the world” quest. Each one has a personal quest line which reveals much more depth to the cast, as well as giving each party member a directly personal stake in the adventure. These individual sub-stories are critical to help the player’s emotional investment and care for the story and the characters, as well as serving the practical purpose of unlocking additional abilities for the characters to use in combat. The world-building, much like the story itself, is quite basic at the beginning but picks up a surprising amount of depth as the game progresses.
One of the weaker aspects of Fantasian: Neo Dimension is the on-screen movement of the characters as you navigate through the areas of the game. While you maneuver your party leader on screen across the preexisting dioramas, the camera angle will suddenly change as you move to different parts of the environment. These perspective changes are quick and can be very jarring, especially since they usually incorporate a rotation and/or an elevation change in the camera view. Additionally, as you hold a direction on the left stick to move your character across the screen, the movement scheme changes to de facto “tank controls” when you hit the edge of the on-screen area. This unhelpful switch persists unless you release the left stick, which causes the movement scheme to revert to a normal state.
Normal enemies are battled in random encounters, but there is a very novel mechanic which changes this completely: the Dimengeon. A fusion of the words “dimension” and “dungeon”, this device does what its name suggests: when active, any monsters which would normally be fought in random encounters are added to a running total in a “pocket dimension” where you can fight them all in a longer battle. This turns random encounters off completely, and is definitely a useful tool that quickly became my preferred setting. The monster total does have a set cap, and if you hit that ceiling the Dimengeon Encounter will begin immediately, which is something the player must keep in mind while using it. This cap can be increased via sidequests, and turned out to be a very welcome innovation that made story progression and level grinding much more convenient and efficient.
Battles are fought by the party in a pure turn-based system. This system functions in an almost identical fashion to Final Fantasy X, in which characters’ and enemies’ turns to take actions are delineated by a listing on screen. The turn order and frequency of turns are both determined by the participants’ Speed statistic, but it can also be raised or lowered via buffs or debuffs. The player can also switch active and inactive party members on the fly without losing any turns. This format allows the character great freedom in planning out their moves while removing the urgency of a time mechanic like Active Time Battle from many other Final Fantasy games.
The abilities used in battle are fairly basic: physical attacks, magical attacks, restorative spells, support spells, and item usage. The use and targeting of these abilities is one place where it is obvious that Neo Dimension is a port of a mobile game, as the design favors a touch screen rather than a controller. Still, this doesn’t really impede gameplay, although it does make the player aware of the game’s mobile roots. Each character also has a certain selection of abilities available to them, making each party member useful in certain situations, which can be lacking in many JRPGs. The more advanced abilities are acquired through a skill tree which, strangely enough, doesn’t become available until about halfway through the game. One particular drawback to the game is that only one character has access to a truly full retinue of support abilities and they become indispensable in all of the more difficult battles, especially towards the endgame. (This lack of party flexibility is additionally irritating to me because the character in question is easily my least favorite party member, and essentially being forced to use them is not fun.)
The world map is another component of the game that is a clear indicator of the game’s origins on mobile platforms. It’s very small and there is very little exploration to do, so players in search of a sprawling adventure in a vast overworld will be disappointed.
One of the most hotly-anticipated components of Fantasian was the creation of a brand-new soundtrack by the legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu. Considering that his body of work is almost universally beloved in the gaming community, anything new from the great man is always greeted with a wave of great enthusiasm. His soundtrack for Fantasian: Neo Dimension is very good; indeed, it is a high point of the game. The various tracks evoke familiar feelings of whimsical fantasy and well-placed emotional gravity, and the music feels appropriately tailored to the circumstances and locales. Forests are met with peaceful melodies accentuated by bright tones, dark caves with lower notes of foreboding, towns with lively rhythm and battles with urgent sequences. While none of the tracks stand out as singularly memorable on an individual basis, the work as a whole is very well done, as one might expect. One extra feature added to Neo Dimension is the option on the main menu to change your battle theme to a track from one of many different Final Fantasy titles, including many classic entries as well as newer games like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth and Final Fantasy XVI.
The game is not fully voice-acted, but all of the most prominent narrative scenes are voiced as well as all the battles. The acting is very good, but the effect of the cast’s talent is limited somewhat due to occasions when the writing doesn’t quite make the desired impact. Still, the performances of the cast members are very good and never feel overdone, which can be a pitfall for RPGs in general.
Fantasian: Neo Dimension is certainly a throwback to the days of the JRPGs of yesteryear, in that the core mechanics of the game are simple to learn and get used to. The turn-based combat is particularly friendly for players who don’t want the pressure of having to make time-sensitive decisions in battle, and the number of combat options will never prove to be overwhelming. Neo Dimension added another difficulty option for players who want their experience to be more or less difficult, which is a welcome change from the mobile game. The one criticism I have in the accessibility department is the lack of in-game language support aside from English and Japanese.
One sticking point for many players of the initial version of Fantasian was its high difficulty, particularly in boss fights. Neo Dimension attempts to remedy that by including multiple difficulty options. Normal mode is the standard difficulty setting from the original mobile version, while Easy mode makes enemies less powerful (and potentially less frustrating). I played Neo Dimension on the Normal difficulty setting and while I had my fair share of wipeouts in boss fights, I was never overly frustrated or overwhelmed by the game. The challenge level feels appropriate for a highly experienced JRPG player, and as such, the feeling of satisfaction from defeating tough enemies is higher than it might be otherwise. Mistwalker should be commended for responding to fans’ thoughts about the difficulty level and adding the option to lower (or increase) the difficulty of your experience, a setting which can be changed at any time.
To be more specific about why the battles are much more challenging, you can’t simply bum rush your adversaries with attacks and win through brute force alone. You must take advantage of elemental weaknesses and use debuffs to give your party an extra edge. Similarly, making use of support skills to buff your party isn’t a novelty, it’s essential. Exploiting elemental weaknesses and using status effects are central to every fight, not just the odd occasion. The reason why all these strategies are necessary is simple: the enemy forces will definitely be doing the same thing against you. Status effects are liberally thrown at your party and their debilitating effects are not to be trifled with. For example, if a character is poisoned and you don’t cure the negative effect quickly, the afflicted character could easily die within a couple of turns. Another illustration of this is when a character is struck with an elemental weakness effect: if a character is struck with a vulnerability to fire, the enemy will target that character with fire attacks and the threat of being killed in one or two hits is very real. The player must keep their attention sharp, doing everything in their power to keep the momentum in their favor while keeping the party as healthy as possible. It could take many attempts to defeat certain bosses, but victory is pretty satisfying, as it should be.
One stumbling block for players who wished to replay the original Fantasian was needing to maintain a subscription to the Apple Gaming service, which obviously requires a monthly fee. Another obstacle was its release in multiple parts, meaning that until the next segment of the game was released, players could only complete partial sections of the game. Neo Dimension obviously fixed this by making the complete game available at once for $50. This makes it just as easy to replay the game as it would be for any other title.
The developers also included a New Game+ mode in Neo Dimension, giving players an additional incentive to replay the game. All of your character levels, skills, equipment, and items (minus those which are unlocked through story progression) are carried over to the start of a brand new journey through the story. The enemies in New Game+ are also more powerful than ever before, which is an excellent way to give players the benefit of keeping the fruits of their grinding and hours of quest completion while steering the experience away from being a quick breeze.
The one factor which detracts from the replayability of Neo Dimension is the aforementioned lack of viable strategic options in the more difficult boss battles. You’ll essentially be forced into using a few characters for the bulk of your battles because their abilities and roles become integral to being able to survive, let alone win. Some characters will only be swapped in to perform one specific action, like tanking an extremely powerful attack, while others will basically become obsolete. This is especially true towards the endgame, and it really dilutes the experience. This doesn’t change at all in New Game+.
While Fantasian: Neo Dimension looks and feels like the JRPGs of bygone years, there are some aspects to it which distinguish it from games we’ve played before. Some of the tropes and themes are very much alike to past games, such as assembling a motley crew of characters to defeat a god attempting to end the world and using the “power of friendship” to save existence. The central protagonist is an amnesiac sword-wielder and the party includes a nature-dwelling “magical girl”, a sheltered yet rebellious princess, and a gruff ship captain. These character archetypes are definitely not groundbreaking. Without spoiling any major plot points, suffice to say that the reasons why said god needs to be defeated and why existence needs to be saved are not particularly novel, either. There’s just enough additional flavor provided through the character stories and world-building to make it more than a retread of the “oldies but goodies”. Some gameplay elements, like the Dimengeon mechanic, are very unique and certainly add something to the experience. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough features like it.
I always ask myself a couple of critical questions while playing through a game. Do I genuinely care about the characters, the in-game world, and the events happening therein? Do I care about seeing this adventure through to the end? In short: am I personally invested in this game?
Fortunately, the answer to all of these questions is “yes”. The tale of Leo and his comrades doesn’t grip me in the same way as other games due to its predictability, but I still became attached to the characters enough that I wanted to see their development, guide them to victories in battle, and see their overarching conflict resolved. The writing is simply decent, but the voice acting and music are both of a high standard and they provide a necessary elevation of the player’s emotional involvement.
Fantasian: Neo Dimension is far from an all-time great in the history of JRPGs, but it is still a highly enjoyable game that is definitely worth the time. The world is interesting, the characters are endearing, the battles are challenging, and the story is one that you will want to explore to the fullest. It may not be the true spiritual successor to Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but it’s a great time in and of itself.
JRPG fiend turned Twitch streamer, Mystraker (Myst for short) turned his childhood love for role-playing fantasy adventures into the driving passion of his life! You can find him on Twitch, usually waist-deep in a sprawling epic tale with more than a few anime tropes thrown in. His love for RPGs even inspired him to earn a degree in religious studies, so you can also expect some deeper thought on his favorite games as well as an appreciation for references to real-world cultures and connections.
