A JRPG that will go under MANY radars this year Fantasian Neo Dimenson gives us a glimpse into an alternate universe where Square Enix never went the route of MMOs. A Classic JRPG experience that feels like old Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, which it SHOULD with the father of final fantasy in charge. Fantasian really surprised me! a port of a mobile game have never looked SO GOOD. A Great soundtrack from the LEGENDARY Nobuo Uematsu. With fun and endearing characters and a story that doesnt reinvent the wheel, but was enjoyable none the less

My only complaint: this game is TOUGH AF, Like....TOUGH tough. This is not Baby's first JRPG this is not intermediate level, this is ABSOLUTELY for hardcore fans of the genre. It will test your patience and you WILL be expected to grind a bit. I was able to play about 40-50 hours on HARD to give myself a little challenge but that changed once i had most of the characters in my party. Even after i swapped to NORMAL, the easiest difficulty. I was still tested and challenged at EVERY boss.

I would highly recommend this game for those who want a challenge and i wish you good luck!

One of the most enjoyable and satisfying jrpg experiences I've had in a long time. Sakaguchi and the folks at Mistwalker put their years of experience into crafting a complete, unique, and thoughtful adventure that goes to some hog bonkers wild places. This game has so many amazing qualities: enjoyable characters, a soundtrack that offers some truly beautiful and even haunting at times music, a unique combat system that respects that I have decades of jrpg experience and demands that I use my brain else get stomped, and it even has a FF6 style "gathering of the buddies" section. Play this game. Enjoy the music and wonderful digitized dioramas. Swear at a boss or two (I sure did). This is the real deal folks.

Works beyond perfect on Steamdeck too.

I completed this game when it was on the Apple Arcade service and I am very glad it is now available for all to experience!

This is the perfect homage to those classic PS1 RPGs ala FFVII-IX, Chrono Cross, Legend of Dragoon, etc and it is created by the guy who was behind a lot of them - Mr Hironobu Sakaguchi - the father of the legendary Final Fantasy franchise!

As mentioned, I finished the game on Apple Arcade and I have sunk another 34 hours into the new release of it (as of the time of writing...I am not done!), so it is needless to say that I absolutely love this game.

What I loved:

All the environments in this game are handcrafted! Beautiful Dioramas are your gateway into this beautiful fantasy world. Lovingly and carefully crafted for your viewing pleasure. It's hard not to stop and stare every screen transition just to admire the hard work that has gone into them. Such a cool, unique and pure idea.

I would hope most reading this are already in agreement that turn-based battle systems are STILL the best battle systems out there and we need MORE of them! Well, not only does this game have you covered, but it offers a brilliant why-has-nobody-thought-of-this-before twist to the mechanic. In this game, you have the option to "collect" the random encounters/Monsters as you traverse the environments and then you can proceed to battle the collected Monsters at the click of a button, all in one go! This is all done using the Dimengeon Device.
You do have a limit to the amount of Monsters you can collect (starting at 30) and if you overflow, the battle with all of them will automatically start, which is good because it encourages you to maintain strategy and to not get careless.
You can choose to turn it off and just do battle as and when you come across a random encounter still, but another benefit to fighting them within the Dimengeon is due to what the game calls "Gimmicks". These gimmicks are things like Attack Boosts and Turn Steals, which allow for your characters to get a significant hand as you take on a hoard of collected Monsters - keeping it balanced. Such a brilliant feature that makes "grinding" feel fun and refreshing!

That's right, the composer for most of the classic Final Fantasy Games returns for one final, full soundtrack. And you won't be disappointed. You will hum these melodies like you have heard them before in your favourite RPG games from the late 90's! The tunes gave me most nostalgia and familiarity with his previous works with FFVIII and IX.

This could be a small negative for some, it depends on your outlook, but the story is exactly like one from the late 90's of RPGs. It follows many similar tropes and cliches. BUT...if you are playing this with that yearning for the times when RPGs were charming, not-too-serious, etc, would you want it any other way? It's not as complex as some of those late 90's stories found in FF, for example, but there's enough here to emote with or just simply reminisce with.

It feels like they thought of everything here. Sometimes you will think "it would be cool if you could..." and then later, you will discover you can due to a newly introduced mechanic! And none of it feels like throwing everything at the wall and hoping some stick, they all feel carefully thought out and all add to the existing package.

What I was mixed on:

Now don't get me wrong, this game is brilliant from beginning to end, but in the second half, after the amazing gameplay twist/reveal after collecting a certain Key Item, a lot of it revolves around backtracking and doing extra side quests or hunting rare items/enemies. It's not dull by any means, but it can feel like padding.

And that's it for my "negatives"!

Honestly, try this game. If you loved Sakaguchi-san's previous works whether it was the earlier FFs or his other works like the amazing Lost Odyssey, you will absolutely adore this title.

I hear Mr Sakaguchi-san is working on another new game and is not retiring after all and I couldn't be more excited with this information!

His works are legendary and Fantasian shows he's still a man with a lot of ideas and bite!

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