''A NEW FANTASY AWAITS''
Developed: Mistwalker
Published: Square-Enix
Genre: RPG
Release Date: December 5th, 2024
Platforms: PS5/Xbox Family/NSW/STEAM
*Review copy provided to me by Square-Enix
© MISTWALKER/SQUARE ENIX
Fantasian Neo Dimension is the latest RPG to hit the market in this stacked 2024 year, and it is developed by Mistwalker and published by Square-Enix. With this title having gotten a mobile release prior, the team over at Mistwalker and Square decided its time to give the rest of the gaming a space a piece of the action and release it on PC and consoles. But is this title worth porting? or was it best left to be stuck on Apple Arcade for all eternity? only one way to find out, so lets go!
''Sand. It gets everywhere''
GAMEPLAY:
Created by the legendary Sakaguchi, who if you do not know, is the father of Final Fantasy, alongside good ol TaruTaru man himself, Nobuo Uematsu, both together aim to bring us as players a familiar memory of games of the past, but also attempt to innovate a bit and give a fresh new lease on life to the RPG genre as a whole. Before we continue, in case you're confused why I called Nobuo a TarTaru... well a TaruTaru is a playable race in the online game, Final Fantasy 11, which I played at one point for a decade straight, and the reason I call him a Taru is because he sort of looks like one. Which isn't an insult because that just makes him freaking cute and cements him forever as MY TaruTaru for life. Hes awesome. With this title being touted or believed at least, to be his last full fledged work on an entire soundtrack for a video game, that alone peaked my interest because some of my favorite music of all time is made by him that I still listen to till this day, even if they've been around for 20 years plus - such as To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy 10, which is another title I'm needing to review if time ever permits me to... and then Aerith's theme from Final Fantasy 7. Sure that's only two examples but if I were to make a list of all my favorite songs by him, this would be a 10 hour compilation, so that's out of the question. Best I can give you is three hours. Fantasian Neo Dimension almost feels like a return to form in a way that adds a modern twist to the mix that aims to keep gameplay itself entertaining and fresh, but also acts like a tribute itself to the tried and true classic formula of the JRPG games of old. Which honestly shouldnt surprise you as Mistwalker have previously put out bangers before such as Blue Dragon and its head banging battle theme that makes you say ''you know, screw this I'm not even fighting, ill just idle to this dang song'' and then the TRUE Final Fantasy 13 with Lost Odyssey. Try to change my mind, it aint happening, Lost Odyssey clears Final Fantasy 13 in characters, story and gameplay, fight me. Please dont fight me.. Chicky help!.
Story wise, the game itself follows a character named Leo, who is our amnesiac hero as we take a journey in his shoes through this multi-dimensional universe in order to reclaim his lost memories and thoughts. This has a striking resemblance to a similar plot point from Lost Odyssey, which had another character getting story bits and memories by discovering them as well, so.. that definitely bodes well here. Unlike Final Fantasy 13 which its best character of Sazh, had a freaking baby chocobo living in his hair. You dont get any more cool than that. Well unless you're me in a Hot Dog suit, but that's a topic for another day. The enemy in this title are mechanical infections known as Mechteria, not to be confused with Final Fantasy 7s Materia that our girl Yuffie so loves to go on and on about. While that might not seem like anything super amazing on the surface itself, at its core, the story that unfolds for you actually has a fair amount of depth to it and an emotional appeal to your ''feels'' that you've come to know and love throughout the years with all of Sakaguchi's work. The man definitely knows how to get us emotionally invested, thats for sure. Just... don't give me anymore Celes jumping off a cliff moments please, my heart cant handle it. What adds to the story this go around that makes it different from its Apple Arcade counterpart is the addition of actual voice overs this go around in both English and Japanese, which from the outside looking in probably has you thinking ''yeah? so? big deal, everything has voice acting nowadays''. While that is true for other stuff, yes, however here, if youve already experienced the story before, voice over free and just text, you will now feel an entirely new layer of immersion that both enhances every characters development, as well as emphasize more clearly, key moments in the story that will make players, new to the genre or even veterans, resonate with more events that take place. Way more than just making a female Cloud and calling her the best character ever. Ok Ok. I'll stop my Final Fantasy 13 slander, I need to let it go and just replay it to see how it holds up years later. Ehh on second thought, never mind, I'll just boot up my Xbox 360 and play some Lost Odyssey instead, that way I don't have to endure ''MY HANDS'' song once again. But were off topic, lets get back to Fantasian.
''A dioramic world''
Before we get around to the combat of this title, which will be the bulk of what you partake in, I just have to quickly point out the visual presentation for this game and how it absolutely blows me away. Is it the best looking game out there? no I cant really say it is, but its definitely up there in the most creative category alongside indie titles like Harold Halibut. In Harold Halibut, the set pieces and characters themselves were made with miniatures and clay and scanned into the game to give it a unique look and implement stop motion. Fantasian Neo Dimension takes this step as well by having the team behind it create over 150 hand crafted dioramas as the games environment backdrops, which are then used and scanned into the game itself using 3D technology that ends up creating a world in this title that feels like you're actually in the hand crafted objects themselves, but gives the game its own distinctive aesthetic that gives me EXTREME deja vu of pre-rendered backgrounds of some of the early Final Fantasy games - which I've missed immensely. However, where the game shines, even beyond its amazing visual has to be with its overall combat and the lengths it goes with its fighting mechanic called Skill Trajectories. If you've ever seen that horrible movie with Angelina Jolie where she can shoot her gun and spin her bullet where she wants, then well... this is similar, only... not as terrible as that movie is. Using Skill Trajectories, it allows you during combat to aim your attacks in multiple directions, such as straight forward like your normal turn based RPG's and then even curve your line of attacks that evolves the in game combat system beyond your traditional way of playing a turn based system. In my opinion it feels like a marriage between your traditional turn based style and Final Fantasy Tactics with the way you can move your attacks in various directions to hit enemies far away or lined up in the back to where normally in a regular fight, you wouldnt be able to hit, but now by being able to change attack direction, opens up a plethora of strategies to think about when taking on enemies, both tough and weak. Speaking of tough and weak, if were going to keep Final Fantasy references going, the game itself ranges from being on the level of challenging as a Bubbly Bernie crab, then moves up further to a Ghillie Dhu, before finally whipping your butt as you feign in terror at the might that which calls itself, Tonberry. I swear, no matter what game they're in, those dang Tonberries are all my inner most horrors manifested. Fantasian works similarly to what I just labeled previously. At times its going to seem VERY EASY, but the further you progress, the harder the struggle will be. Granted, its not as hard as previous RPG's of old, but it can definitely give you a run for your money, should you take it too lightly and not properly utilize your skill trajectories. I implore you, do NOT play this like a typical turn based or you will be sorry.
Should you find the game WAY too hard however, much like it seems a lot of people have with the Apple Arcade version... the team at Mistwalker has all console and PC players covered by implementing the system known as Dimengeon. This system allows you to do away with random encounters and hazards in your way. For example have you always hated grinding through a highly populated area of monsters and then realize you have to RUN BACK through the area again shortly after and have to re-fight EVERYTHING all over again? Yeah Ive been there too and it can kill the fun out of games. Similar to the way Spirits Within ruins the fun of movies or Dirge ruins all forms of human comprehension and sanity. Luckily with this system you don't have to put up with Deep Ground and all its absurdity due to the fact that Dimengeon allows you store all random encounters you partake in and keep them for later on, should you wish to fight them another time for grinding whenever you want. By allowing players to do this, it not only reduces the grind during the main story and enhances your exploration of the world built here, it also makes every encounter with a monster feel like it has more of a purpose other than ''bad guy in way. must fight. must kill''. This works well in tandem with the newly added Normal difficulty mode as well that lets players who found the original vanilla version of the game too hard or too challenging. Dont worry though, it still retains the option for a more hardcore experience and bridges the gap just enough to the point new players and hardcore players have an easy transition and are in no way alienated from an enjoyable playthrough, no matter what pace you play at. But even though the game is absolutely gorgeous, combat system is unique and probably will influence the industry going forward, mob storing mechanic and banger music from previous Final Fantasy titles that is playable.. even so, its still not perfect. At least its not a lazy game on top of it though, much like our girl Yuffie. World in peril, reactor gonna explode, nope, time to be lazy and think only about Materia, cause.. why not?. Fantasian definitely has its issues with the control scheme here and there feeling a tad bit clunky at first, pacing issues, difficulty spikes. But hey, even with those bad things that scar it up a little bit, at least its not the video game equivalent of the Luca Goers. So I'll take it.
''This is how its done, Angelina Jolie''
OVERALL:
At the end of the day, Fantasian Neo Dimension achieves what it wanted to do, which is give us long time Final Fantasy fans a taste of nostalgia, while also further improving the JRPG genre. Sure its not perfect with issues stated previously like pacing can be off at specific points in the game due to brash difficulty spikes and controls feeling wonky the first hour or so of playing until you get used to them due to the migration of scheme the devs had to do with taking this from mobile to PC and console, etc. But even with all that, with the dioramas of the game being breathtaking and creatively genius, engaging and strategic combat system that keeps strategy fresh from start to finish through innovation, respects your time by allowing you to store enemy mobs away using the Dimengeon system for easier grinding, amazing soundtrack from Nobuo, its all woven together extremely well, blemishes at all. Fantasian Neo Dimension is definitely an RPG worth playing, whether you are long time fan of Final Fantasy or eager to see just what Sakaguchi has in store for us next. The father of Final Fantasy is back and did not disappoint. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW
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