From its androgynous, spiky-haired protagonist, who starts the game with no memory, to random monster encounters, to turn-based battles with sparkly magic and outsized swords, this is nostalgia-infused fan service so extreme it’s incredible that Kickstarter wasn’t involved.ĭespite the unusual non-CGI surroundings, what you get up to within their confines is warmly familiar, namely talking to non-player characters, shamelessly pillaging people’s houses right in front of them, and accepting oblique side quests from friendly villagers. Refusing to rest on its laurels, Apple is celebrating Arcade’s first anniversary with a slew of new killer material, the highest profile example of which is Fantasian.ĭirected by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, this is very similar to earlier outings in that series. The creator of Final Fantasy helps celebrate the anniversary of Apple Arcade with a brand new game that’s perfect for JRPG nostalgists.Īpple Arcade, the iPhone maker’s game subscription service, has had an impressive first year, with timed exclusives like the excellent match-three battler Grindstone, indie classic Exit The Gungeon, and the comedy slapstick of Sneaky Sasquatch. All that long, layered history is noticeable, even if you're not personally familiar.Fantasian – a different kind of graphical realism (pic: Mistwalker) That you're watching your escapades through a god's eye.Īttention and care is the thing with Fantasian. Teeny tiny creations that you romp through, often in ultra close-up, where the brush-strokes, miniature sprigs of feathery moss and little pinprick clumps of artist's putty are visible, the beauty often secondary to the sensation of it all - that the world is overtly authored, specifically hand-placed. There's a faint sense that these are acting as smart cover for a fairly thin budget (there's a recurring sound effect that is absolutely just a recording of a TIE Fighter, for instance, and a lot of laboured text in place of more elaborate cutscenes). The thing you'll know Fantasian for of course, alongside its director, is its extraordinary use of physical dioramas for its overworlds. It also makes for a kind of self-directed difficulty meter - if things are feeling a little easy, use the machine and fight the random monsters a couple dozen at a time. You can choose to battle them at any point, or you're forced to when it gets full, so the convenience of getting around the world without battles is gained, at the cost of a little mind-game you play with yourself about when to take them all on at once. Likewise the wild encounters, which you just start to tire of before being introduced to a very clever twist called a "Dimengon Machine", a doohickey that bottles up enemies you would've encountered, up to a limit. There are a moderate amount of systems here, and they're introduced in layers: turn-based battles, fine, but then positioning becomes important, and then a bit of very casual mechanics become important, as you learn to "bend" spells to get around blocking enemies or hit several at one. A welcoming kind of "onboarding" is not something I've associated with JRPGs, but - maybe because of its launch on Apple Arcade, with the different, presumably quite specific kind of audience that brings - Fantasian does it well. I have more or less no familiarity with any of this though, having dipped toes in a number of Final Fantasies and reliably found their water a little cold - but I'm sinking into Fantasian quite nicely.
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