Summary
In the early 2000s, Hironobu Sakaguchi left Square to create Mistwalker. Leaving behind the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Sakaguchi sought greener pastures in creating JRPGs for the Xbox 360, before later moving mobile-exclusive titles: 2021’s Fantasian was one of the most impressive results.
The launch ofFantasian Neo Dimensionmarked a homecoming for Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu. The two creators, inextricably linked with Final Fantasy, were finally working with Square Enix again. And though the game is a glorious callback to the PS1-era JRPGs that mark Square - and Sakaguchi’s - golden age, it nevertheless has some nonsensical decisions. Hey, it’s a JRPG, there’s bound to be some silliness in between: it’s part of why we love the genre.
8Flat-Footed Heroes
Why Won’t They Just Walk Forward?
The mobile version of Fantasian is an incredibly hard game, so much so that the inclusion of an easier difficulty setting was deemed necessary. Tellingly, the new difficulty is called Normal and the original is called Hard. Whichever difficulty you play on, you’re still going to die several times to the game’s unforgiving bosses.
The weird thing is that our party is playing along with them. There is no reason, for example, when a dragon boss is repeatedly blowing you back and threatening to push you off a cliff, that you wouldn’t walk forward, much less move aside. But it seems our heroes respect the conventions of turn-based combat too much - distracting the dragon is fine, but recouping lost ground isn’t.
7A Plot Device That’s Just A Device
Maybe In Fantasian 2?
Ostensibly, Fantasian Neo Dimension circumvents the frustration of a high random encounter rate by introducing the Dimengion, an in-game item that banishes enemies to an alternate dimension. you’re able to battle them at your convenience, but you’ll be forced into facing them if the device gets too full.
The Dimengion has way too much potential to just be a gameplay gimmick. There is an entire JRPG plot waiting to be written around it. Forget Fantasian’s own story, we want to know more about this portable dimensional rift Leo is carrying around. It’s like a Pokeball with 50 times the capacity, yet Leo treats it like no big deal.
The Dimengeon starts with the capacity to hold 30 monsters, but this can be upgraded to 50 later on.
6The Protagonist Is The Weakest Character
But Don’t Tell Him That
On paper, Leo is well-suited to the role ofprotagonist for a Square Enix JRPG. He has the looks and the stats; when he gets arrested, his inmate number reads ‘pretty boy.’ Yet in actual combat he’s just… there. You would think the main character would get the best attacks, but Leo never does. He can’t curve his shots like the other characters, and his attack power is easily outmatched by Zinikr.
Luckily for Leo, his party members never let on that they think he’s weak. As long as he holds the healing items, Kina and Cheryl take care of the attacks. We don’t think this was intentional, but it sure ended up this way: the piercing mechanic is far more important than Leo’s straightforward slashes.
5The Fortuneteller In The Sewer
Still Raking In The Dough
Fantasian’scity of Venceis just one of many gorgeous towns rendered in diorama, and for the most part it’s an amusing romp where NPCs welcome you into their homes and tell you to take their items - thus circumventing one of the oldest JRPG tropes. It’s nice to see Fantasian making sense of things that JRPG fans take for granted.
You’ll get to appreciate that for all of ten minutes, because you’ll soon solve a water puzzle and find out there’s a fortuneteller living in the sewer. And judging from her house, she’s doing very well for herself. The people of Vence must be very desperate if they’ll go into a sewer to be part of her clientele.
4An Unwarranted Arrest
The King’s Cover-Up
Prince Garland may not be themost evil monarch- though he does share a name with Final Fantasy’s first villain - but he engages in some surprisingly dark hobbies. When Zinikr and Leo come across him snooping in his daughter’s wardrobe, he promptly has them arrested and thrown into a gladiatoral death battle.
Neither Leo nor Zinikr planned on catching him looking around his daughter’s room, and by that point the stakes were high enough that they wouldn’t have cared. They were just passing through the palace while looking for their comrades. But Garland can’t let his moment of anime-esque comedy be - instead he consigns them to a brutal fate. Moral of the story: don’t be in the right place at the wrong time.
3Inglorious Battlers
Are We The Only Ones Who See Something Wrong With This?
Zinikr and Leo’s arrest truly is the strangest episode of the game, because the tone gets surprisingly dark while the situation is still presented as comedic. A lot of the prisoners-turned-gladiators are just as naive as our heroes, and they insist upon their innocence. Yet they’re pitted in fights to the death against each other.
When the crowd demands more blood, monsters are introduced into the mix. This is meant to be the kingdom Leo and Zinikr are trying to save: a population that will gladly see them killed by monsters, and for what? Because they caught the king with his hand in the underwear drawer.
2Money Plants
Early in the game, Leo and Kina come across a tree that generates bags of gold coins and hurls them as weapons. Kina, expressing a surprising knowledge of gamer slang, says they should farm the tree for money. We are to assume this is the first time anyone in their town thought of this.
From the clay houses, dusty backdrop and humble dishes, the town of En is implied to be quite poor. Yet they have a tree that can print endless money right in their backyard. That’s got to be bad for the economy, we suppose: En’s hyperinflation is the entire world’s hyperinflation, so they opt not to take the easy way out.
1Leo’s Security Measures
The Boss In The Toybox
Forget about the final boss, the hardest battle you’ll fight in Fantasian will be against theworld-ending monstrositiesguarding Leo’s sentimental goods. This guy has an entire series of unholy monsters that could easily be the final boss for other JRPGs, guarding stuff like old photos and toys. There are some so strong you can only hope to beat them in the post-game.
When the party is attempting to jog Leo’s memory and he accidentally activates these bosses, they let it go with an, ‘Oh, Leo.’ Oh Leowhat?Where did he get these monsters from? How does he keep them in the chest? Why do they obey him? Is Leo way stronger than he’s letting on?
