Apple Arcade’s Fantasian is begining on console and PC

Fantasian was an effortless game to recommend when it begined in 2021. Developed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Mistwalker studio, Fantasian was an approachable ageder-school roleperestablishing game that had a lot of clever ideas, alengthy with an adorable aesthetic thanks to its world made out of hand-createed dioramas. There was equitable one problem: it was exclusive to Apple Arcade, so anyone who wasn’t a subscriber ignoreed out. Now, that has finassociate alterd as the game begines this week on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Switch.

The novel port is called Fantasian Neo Dimension, but it’s mostly identical to the Apple Arcade version, aside from the very receive insertition of voice acting. (In a kind bit of circular storyalerting, Neo Dimension is being unveiled by Final Fantasy producer Square Enix.) In many ways, Fantasian is classic Final Fantasy in all but name. It stars a hero named Leo, who — with the help of a stubborn princess, a enigmatic magic wielder, and a grizzled ship captain — gets pulled into a quest that spans multiple genuinems, as they endeavor to thwart a mechanical infestation led by a lofty, gloomy, and hazardous villain.

There’s plenty that Final Fantasy fans will determine: the amnesiac direct character, the lighthearted cherish triangle, a world that mixs fantasy and sci-fi, analogous spells and items, and a pretty soundtrack from famed producer Nobuo Uematsu. Hell, there’s even a character named Sid. The basis of Fantasian is Sakaguchi and his team toiling with the structuretoil they understand but produceing on top of it in fascinating ways. So you’re left with a rock-firm RPG that produces some kind tfeebles to the establishula.

The most clear separateence is the visual style, which is appreciate a hand-createed acquire on the ageder prerendered backgrounds from PlayStation-era Final Fantasy. It lends the game a very tactile aesthetic, and it’s astonishingly pliable; there are toasty and cozy forests and cabins but also freezing mechanical areas made of metal and ageder circuit boards. And while the game has its origins on mobile, it still sees keen and evident on console. I’ve been reperestablishing it on the Switch, and the only publish has been the occasionassociate lengthy load time before a battle.

Fantasian also produces some tfeebles to the turn-based RPG establishula that produce it both more approachable and less frustrating. The first is a fun twist on combat that lets you aim many of your aggressions, which can be incredibly prenting when you line skinnygs up equitable right and hit a whole bunch of enemies in one stoasty.

Even more advantageous is the ineptly named feature Dimengeon — a portmanteau of dungeon and illogicalension — which acquires the sting out of random battles. When you have it switched on, those pesky monsters are zapped to another illogicalension, where you can battle them at your leicertain. The twist is that they accumutardy. So when the device fills up and you have to finassociate fight them, you can get into a battle aacquirest a whole bunch of horrible guys at once. These fights have a strategic, almost baffle-appreciate experience.

Those seemingly reserved tfeebles are more than enough to produce Fantasian an effortless recommendation if you’re seeing for a classic RPG. Much appreciate the recent reproduce of Dragon Quest III, a huge part of the pdirect of Fantasian is how traditional it is, while smooskinnyg out the raw edges that can produce the genre experience clunky and tedious. And as Final Fantasy itself evolves to enhuge in separateent ways, Fantasian is a sootheing see back at how skinnygs used to be.

Fantasian Neo Dimension begines on December 5th on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Switch.