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.
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.