Una carta de amor de Sakaguchi hacia toda su carrera, saliéndose de su zona de confort y dando una increíble jugabilidad fuera del clásico sistema de combate de Final Fantasy.

El sistema de combate saca muchos elementos de la saga Trails, es un sistema el cual existen tres tipos de ataques, los individuales, los que van en línea recta y los circulares, la idea es acabar los combates rápidamente cubriendo con tus ataques a la mayor cantidad de enemigos, se beneficia aún más de este sistema gracias al Dimengion, el cual es una caja que almacena a los enemigos que encuentras en encuentros aleatorios, al llenarse te llevan a otra dimensión para enfrentarte a todos los enemigos que has almacenado, eliminando la molesta interrupción constante de los encuentros aleatorios en el género, también añadiendo la posibilidad cambiar a los personajes en medio del combate, cada uno tiene elementos únicos que no se comparten con el resto, incentiva a usar a todos los personajes dependiendo de la situación.

Me impresionó, si bien amo la saga Final Fantasy, una de las cosas que menos me gusta es lo poco interesante que es el combate, mayormente es una saga que te abre fácilmente a elementos que rompen el juego, ya sea las combinaciones rotas de Materia en el VII, o Ultima y Chainsaw en VI, aquí Sakaguchi decidió abandonar al público convencional ofreciendo una buena dificultad, si bien la parte 1 tiene una dificultad accesible, la cual ayuda a mostrar las bases del combate, donde brilla este juego es en la parte 2, en la que Sakaguchi se soltó e hizo una dificultad bastante desafiante e incluso injusta en ciertos casos, ayuda a hacer más interesante el combate de lo que ya es.

Cada Boss es una pieza se rompe cabezas, cada uno tiene su propio Gimmick y gracias al árbol de habilidades el juego llega a su máximo potencial, dándote la posibilidad de armarlos dependiendo de la situación y darte el acceso a reiniciar el árbol de habilidades para así invertir los puntos como más te beneficie.

También las gemas que son un elemento sumamente importante, ya que será el counter directo de los Bosses, pueden darte resistencias a elementos, anular efectos negativos, etc.

Si bien la historia no sale de lo convencional la cual únicamente se alimenta del chiclé, logra dar momentos memorables, pero personalmente me decepciona lo poco expresivos que son los personajes, mata los tantos momentos emotivos que quiere plasmar el juego. Es el aspecto más débil del juego, y personalmente me decepcionó sabiendo que anteriormente habían hecho Lost Odyssey que cuenta con una increíble historia que juega con el tema de la inmortalidad y como ello conlleva ver vidas acabarse en un parpadeo.

Algo que me impresionó, es como el juego sabe como planearás romperlo, hay un punto que desbloqueas a Tan, un personaje opcional el cual quien tiene acceso a múltiples buffs que si los combinas apropiadamente puedes tener una gran chance de evasión, el triple de daño y mayor chance de crítico a cambio de envenenarte y maldecirte impidiendo cualquier beneficio ya sea más buffos o curación, el cual puedes anular gracias a las gemas que anulan estados alterados, a pesar de tener en tus manos al personaje más roto del juego no puedes romper este juego, ya que el juego incentiva que se vuelva tu principal estrategia para superar los obstáculos, tanto lo sabe el juego que hasta en el combate final se menciona que sus bestias se sienten más poderosas, siendo el único al cual tiene ventaja contra el boss final junto al protagonista que en una misión secundaria desbloqueas un arma con Godkiller el cual aumenta el daño contra dioses.

Lo único que no fue de mi agrado sobre los bosses es el gimmick en el que debes destruir estructuras que cubren al boss antes de que lance su ataque definitivo, se repite bastante, se vuelve cansador, también que hay bosses sumamente injustos como el Infernal Mechteria, que no queda claro su gimmick, le haces un daño lamentable y no pude intuir de que hay que pegarle cuando le levanta la cabeza en su animación, no es para nada obvio, o el boss final que tiene 400k de vida su última fase, es el doble que el máximo hp de los últimos bosses (guardian y la fase 2 del boss final), son combates MUY LARGOS.

Los fondos no son pre-renderizados, sino dioramas reales que fueron digitalizados. Si bien en persona es bastante precioso, al verlo in-game son bastante feos y te olvidas de que son dioramas, en la época de los fondos pre-renderizados fue más impresionante, ya que por las pantallas CRT y su baja resolución los modelos se camuflaban en los fondos pre-renderizados haciendo creer que realmente los fondos no son imágenes, es una técnica magnífica, pero los dioramas no tienen tal impacto, los modelos se ven fuera de lugar.

Dropped after 26 hours because I don't want to keep paying for Apple Arcade. While the physical dioramas are a neat idea, they're no more beautiful or interesting than pre-rendered PS1 backgrounds. And introduce some weird ghosting as characters move behind certain objects and angles change.

I enjoy the FFX style turn system, but abilities that make the combat truly interesting (fast and slow, barrier, AOE) take too long to regularly come into play. The dimengeon device that stores random battles is ingenious. But the dimengeon battles themselves are either really tedious, or complete slogs depending on how leveled you are.

Story is.. present, I thought the writing was generic and very much uninteresting for the game's first half, but got more interesting and punchier as the game went on. Town NPC dialogue was particularly dry and not worth trying to tap my character into place to talk to them.

After reflecting on Fantasian for a while, I think it's an easy recommend to anyone who's a fan of orthodox jrpgs of the 90s. It can be an uneven experience, especially when contrasting part 1 and part 2, but I think overall it's satisfying if you have the right expectations.

On the gameplay side of things, you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a superior turn based battle system. It's essentially a refined FFX in the sense that characters can be freely swapped in and out of battle and the turn order can be altered depending on your actions. The growth map is also very reminiscent of the sphere grid, only it allows you to freely take back any spent points and then redistribute them according to your situation. And with the amount of specific builds needed for the various bosses in this game, it's essentially mandatory that you play this way, rather than simply trying to unlock everything in some sort of linear fashion.

Characters have fairly well defined roles but usually can expand into a secondary characters skillset given enough levelling up. I loved the ability to bend magical attacks and hit a series of enemies in an arc. Ez's alchemical abilities are some of the most interesting in any jrpg I've ever played. Being able to place timer mines, or suck enemies into certain spots and set up proximity fields that allow your attacks to ricochet within and take out multiple enemies at once is brilliant.

The Dimengeon system of stockpiling enemies and then fighting them at a time of your choosing should basically be a staple of the genre going forward. Eliminates the constant stop start of random battles and allows you to explore the maps undisturbed for the most part.

If I had to give the gameplay side of things any criticism, its that certain characters end up becoming way more desirable towards the end, while others are relegated to very specific use. What starts as a game that allows for various combinations and strategies, slowly starts to narrow into tightly focused builds that you can't stray from in any meaningful way without getting completely decimated. The difficulty is quite high in this game as far as bosses are concerned so that may put some people off.

As for the story. It's very simple and relies on a lot of tropes, but has the charm of older SNES era jrpgs. This has to be intentional as there's no way Sakaguchi, someone who's fingerprints were all over FFVII and IX, would have accidentally regressed in his story telling prowess to this extent. It seems to me that he wanted Fantasian to feel like comfort food for those starved on 2D era FF and the visual identity of the PS1 titles. This especially makes sense when considering the impetus for making the game in the first place was when Sakaguchi revisited FF6.

With that in mind, if you were to judge the game as this return to the jrpg fairy tale template, then it's perfectly fine for what it is. It's certainly nothing new, groundbreaking or even exceptional when judging it by those standards (and at times it can even be considered almost bad), but I think it is important to keep in mind in order to reel expectations in. There are some pretty solid character moments and banter amongst the party, and I think this is actually where Sakaguchi is at his strongest, more so than plot, world building etc. And as always, theme is at the forefront, even if it is a simplistic one.

My main complaint is probably the unevenness in pacing and meaningful character moments in part 2. The game was much snappier and had my attention a lot more in the earlier parts, but part 2 involves a lot of backtracking and new plot elements that don't really feel interesting or come out of nowhere. Side quests also felt completely shoehorned in, with their one saving grace being that they are generally quite short.

All in all, I think its a solid game worth playing. Its use of fixed camera angles, dioramas, a world map with ship traversal, a likeable party and very engaging battle/growth systems, along with another strong Uematsu score means it ticks way more boxes than it misses.

I’d fallen out of love with RPGs over the years. As the industry has largely distanced itself from turn-based experiences like Dragon Quest in favor of more action-focused takes on the genre like Xenoblade Chronicles or Tales of Arise, I’ve become disenfranchised.

Along comes Fantasian—a phone game, my gosh—created by the “father” of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and composed by Nobuo Uematsu. These two are the team that made the turn-based RPGs I fell in love with as a child! I upgraded my phone for the first time since 2014, bought a $50 Lightning Cable accessory, and signed up for a couple months of Apple Arcade to make Fantasian happen for myself…and it is truly the best gaming decision I made in 2021.

With Dragon Quest XI being a noteworthy exception, I haven’t felt so compelled to not just learn but master an RPG’s systems in years. And I haven’t even mentioned that the entire game is made from hundreds of literal hand-crafted dioramas, giving it a sense of artistry that makes it like almost no other game. At the end of the day, though, I was really compelled to keep playing because it’s got what I feel is my favorite implementation of the traditional “turn-based RPG structure” ever created. If you’ve played any of the old Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest games, you know how random battles work. You’re just wandering around in the world, and suddenly the screen fades and you’re treated to a battle….over and over again, every 3 steps you take, to the point where it kind of grates. Fantasian addresses this annoyance by introducing the Dimengeon, a device that literally sends the enemies you would’ve encountered to a “pocket dimension” so you can face them later. You “store” 20-40 enemies as you freely explore, then you can fight them all at once when you’re ready. And when the fighting happens in this space, you can stack the odds in your favor by making sure your skills or spells activate these crystals that double your attack power for a few turns, or steal an enemy’s turn for yourself. It’s so simple and it’s so satisfying.

As you get into the meat of the experience, though, the boss fights become anything but simple. My proverbial hat is completely off to the group of people that are responsible for some of these battle scenarios. These are some of the most unique, freshest, and unmistakably brutal RPG bosses ever—I felt truly accomplished and like I’d mastered anything any dang turn-based RPG could throw at me after I rolled Fantasian’s credits. It reignited a love I haven’t felt for Final Fantasy since “the good ole days”—and this isn’t even a Final Fantasy game. Honestly, Fantasian is what Final Fantasy XVI should be, to me.