The chances weren’t on my facet. I had a two in three likelihood of dying to this boss, and there was little or no I might do about it.
I’m over midway by means of Fantasian Neo Dimension and with out realising, I’ve stumbled right into a entice inside the recreation. I observed this weird-looking bubble on the world map and went to test it out. It froze time and locked me into an inescapable sequence of occasions, closing out with a boss that felt vastly extra highly effective than my get together.
Yim, the god-like apparition, hits like a truck, bringing considered one of my get together members right down to essential life with every assault. My get together’s velocity stat isn’t excessive sufficient; there’s not sufficient time between her assaults to completely recuperate. Simply once I really feel I’ve the dangle of issues, she strikes again from the sector, splits into three, and commences a mechanic leaving two pretend clones and the actual one for me to assault. Do nothing, and all three clones assault which means sure demise. Hit the mistaken clone, and it explodes, dealing sufficient injury to the get together to make the run unrecoverable. It’s a shell recreation of demise.
I felt under-levelled and under-equipped to take care of this combat. What’s worse, the sport locks you on this part. You possibly can’t go stage up and are available again, or buy extra gadgets if you’re operating low. You wanted to know that this part was certainly a entice going into it, with a view to be ready for it.
A twin recreation
That roughly describes my expertise with Fantasian Neo Dimension, a recreation created by the makers of the Remaining Fantasy collection. It was initially designed for Apple Arcade and launched in two elements in 2022. Late final 12 months, the sport was mixed into one title and launched throughout most platforms. It’s an ode to considered one of my favorite video games of all time, Remaining Fantasy X. It hosts the same turn-based fight system and its core character improve system – which will get fleshed out mid-game – is paying homage to the Sphere Grid in that recreation. By rights, I ought to find it irresistible. However after 70 hours of being ambushed by bosses, I couldn’t wait to be finished with the sport.
Earlier than I delve into the basic points with the mechanics of the sport, it’s value mentioning the way it succeeds as a role-playing recreation and why this recreation is probably so polarising.
Find it irresistible or hate it
Fantasian is a visually putting recreation. As a substitute of choosing high-end graphics, it depends on real-life hand-crafted dioramas for its setting. Characters within the recreation are primarily superimposed onto them. It additionally means areas are pretty well-contained, which for a cell recreation changed into a console expertise is sensible. It’s a murals in its personal proper, however its look is exclusive and will jar with some.
Musically, the sport additionally shines. Composer Nobuo Uematsu has created a incredible rating to accompany the sport’s ranges and encounters. The up to date version additionally offers you the power to swap the unique recreation’s rating with more moderen entries within the Remaining Fantasy collection, fuelling that sense of nostalgia and actually permitting you to edit the music to your temper. The script and voice performing of the sport are additionally on level. The writing of the Cinderella Tri-Stars — who’re principally this recreation’s model of Jesse and James from Pokemon’s Staff Rocket – made me chuckle. The localisation right here had me questioning – regardless of the almost completely Japanese workforce making the sport – whether or not it was written in English first.
Whereas Fantasian borrows closely from Remaining Fantasy, it goals to develop on the collection in its personal manner. Random encounters – the place the sport stops and all of a sudden throws you into fight – have fallen out of favour with the franchise. However they’re again in an enormous manner right here. The twist is that Fantasian’s Dimengeon system permits you to financial institution enemies and combat them unexpectedly in a large battle the place you possibly can finish the lives of as much as 50 unwitting monsters in a single fell swoop. These fights are a spotlight, turning into a recreation of eliminating enemies in a specific order to maximise your turns in fight and minimise theirs. It’s a contemporary and welcome twist on this mechanic, and a enjoyable and frenetic strategy to stage your characters.
The story
The plot is attention-grabbing however maybe performs second fiddle to those different parts. The primary act progresses like all Japanese RPG and is considerably deceptively easy. You’re thrust into the world enjoying Leo, a younger man with amnesia who units off on a quest to regain his reminiscence. He builds a celebration and, like most video games within the style, this ultimately turns into a quest to kill a god. The truth is, two of them.
There are just a few attention-grabbing twists with the story, however the plot is considerably by-the-numbers. It doesn’t fairly hit the highs of tales informed by lots of the Remaining Fantasy video games it attracts inspiration from. As the sport was designed to run on cell, epic set items and cutscenes are few and much between. There’s nothing mistaken with a paired-back recreation, nevertheless it’s telling that 1997’s Remaining Fantasy VII has an even bigger sense of grandeur with its pre-rendered scenes and general tells a bigger, extra nuanced story.
A shot from the ultimate cutscene within the recreation. I promise, I completed it!
The story is a two-act affair. The primary is extremely linear and, because of this, properly stage-managed. There are just a few surprises and tough bosses, however nothing too tough. In Act 2, the sport opens up. You possibly can teleport wherever you’ve been and use a ship to traverse the world map. Every space is given an indicative stage to assist point out the place it’s best to go subsequent, however you possibly can typically do issues in any order.
Act 2 is enjoyable, although
It’s not simply the gameplay fashion that adjustments in Act 2. You steadily unlock a brand new improve system for every character, and the degrees that you simply earn typically begin to imply much less and fewer. Not that it tells you this, however as the sport progresses, your character’s gear really turns into more and more essential and may usually be the distinction between surviving a combat and dying to it. Previous stage 35, the sport additionally begins to make levelling more durable. Going in opposition to enemies of a decrease stage means you obtain considerably much less expertise factors, nearly punishing you for doing areas out of the designated order. Ultimately, that unbelievable Dimengeon mechanic begins to turn out to be a chore because of this, when slaying 50 enemies underneath your stage nets you a handful of things and principally nothing else.
Janky mechanics, like what was described earlier with Yim, additionally start to look. Some bosses begin to use objects as shields that require you to assault them on the proper time or have your transfer deflected. That is significantly painful when mixed with mechanics that require you to wreck the boss a specific amount to keep away from a wipe-worthy assault. Different bosses unleash strikes that afflict standing results that cripple your complete get together, however then you must burn your turns to take away these afflictions one after the other. Your character’s toolkit doesn’t enhance consistent with these mechanics. Certainly, your greatest manner of countering them is to know they’re coming and equip gear – forward of the combat – for them. And therein lies the rub: too usually Fantasian depends on shock as a crutch for issue. It’s like designing a flawless Mario Maker stage then inserting an enormous Bowser on the finish of it to kick it up a notch.
Essentially the most enjoyable available is with the second half of this recreation – until you actually love repeating 20-minute fights – is with a information telling you the way to play. No less than on your first playthrough. Such guides will possible instruct you to have sure gear outfitted, have sure strikes learnt, and a sure get together composition too. It’s telling that such guides are written for the unique Fantasian – not Neo Dimension – and that lots of the bosses have had their whole well being and assault energy lowered from the bottom recreation, however nonetheless pose a big problem. I believe these authentic values now sit inside the recreation’s non-obligatory exhausting mode. Kudos to you if you’re keen to take it on.
Price the price?
This all being stated, there’s nonetheless loads of enjoyable available with Fantasian Neo Dimension. After a variety of struggling, you do get to some extent the place your get together feels unstoppable, and that closing boss battle is – like most JRPGs – fairly epic. However the problem isn’t the one factor that had me questioning this recreation: For a cell recreation ported to console, it’s retailing for over $80 AUD.
It’s a protracted recreation, and there’s a variety of worth available right here when you determine to interact in extra content material and the non-obligatory new recreation plus. However many indie titles as of late are a fraction of the value and are arguably a lot tighter as an entire package deal.
The 2-part design side of this recreation has broken it. I don’t thoughts the thought of Fantasian Neo Dimension as a AA recreation, and maybe that is an applicable worth level. However its mobile-first design has considerably cheapened it as a console expertise, maybe eroding my notion of its worth.
Like I stated, a lot of my favorite video games are JRPGs and have related turn-based fight. I’ve usually puzzled what they might be like if there was a tough mode or they ramped up the issue. Fantasian Neo Dimension gave me my reply and a brand new appreciation for any designer that may make a tough however honest recreation.
Reviewed on: Ps 5
Price making an attempt when you like: The Remaining Fantasy collection, Octopath Traveller, Persona, Metaphor ReFantazio.
Out there on: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, Xbox Sequence X and Sequence S, Microsoft Home windows, Steam.
Harrison Polites writes the Infinite Lives publication. Observe him right here.
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