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Fantasian

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Fantasian
App Store icon
Developer(s)Mistwalker[a]
Publisher(s)Mistwalker
Director(s)Takuto Nakamura
Producer(s)Hironobu Sakaguchi
Designer(s)Masahito Inoue
Artist(s)Takatoshi Goto
Writer(s)
  • Hironobu Sakaguchi
  • Atsuhiro Tomioka
  • Masaru Hatano
Composer(s)Nobuo Uematsu
EngineUnity
Platform(s)iOS, macOS, Apple TV
Release
  • Part 1
  • April 2, 2021
  • Part 2
  • 2021
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Fantasian[b] is a 2021 role-playing video game developed and published by Mistwalker for iOS devices through the Apple Arcade service. It was produced and written by Hironobu Sakaguchi with music by Nobuo Uematsu, both of whom are best known for their work in the Final Fantasy series. The game is split into two parts, with the first released worldwide in April 2021, and the second part to be released later in 2021.

Plot

The game's plot revolves around Leo, a young man who becomes amnesiac after entering an alternate universe known as the Machine Realm. Various characters join him in his quest to recover his memory and discover who he is, while encountering the mysterious Vam the Maleficent along the way.

Development

Fantasian was first announced during Apple's introductory video of Apple Arcade on March 25, 2019.[2][3] The game was developed by Mistwalker, a studio founded by Sakaguchi in 2004.[4] The game was first conceived after Sakaguchi had met with some Apple employees, who were fans of both Final Fantasy and Uematsu's work. After spending some time conceptualizing on possible ideas, Sakaguchi's team wondered if it would be possible to create a game for Apple.[5] The game was created with the Unity game engine.[6]

Conceptually, Sakaguchi felt inspired to go "back to [his] roots" after replaying Final Fantasy VI in 2018 with some of his former colleagues who had worked on the game.[7][8] Prior to this, the producer had spent time working on mobile games like Party Wave and Blade Guardian, with his last narrative role-playing game being 2011's The Last Story for the Wii.[9] With Fantasian, Sakaguchi wanted to work on something that emulated the Japanese role-playing games (JRPG) of the past, stating that it was a style that he enjoyed and that "old styles can be great in their own right".[10] He also acknowledged that potentially, Fantasian could be his last project due to his age.[7][11]

Visually, Fantasian uses hand-crafted dioramas, a concept decided upon at the beginning of its development.[11] A miniatures hobbyist, Sakaguchi had previously used hand-crafted elements in the mobile strategy game Terra Wars, and wanted to explore the concept further in a traditional RPG.[9] Unlike the pre-rendered levels from earlier Final Fantasy games, Fantasian used drones equipped with 3D scanning technology to digitally recreate miniature sets built by hand.[12] Over 150 dioramas were created this way.[10] This process was laborious, and required longer conceptual planning times since the development team could not go back and change things in a 3D modelling program.[12][13] Despite saying that a game "with a diorama [development] pipeline probably shouldn't exist", Sakaguchi noted that this process was necessary in order to get the appearance he wanted, saying that it offers a "unique handmade touch that cannot be replicated."[12][13][14]

Fantasian is composed of two parts, with each part taking players about 20 to 30 hours to complete.[15] The first part was released released worldwide on April 2, 2021.[16]

Gameplay

Exploring the world of Fantasian involves players tapping on a location, which Leo will then navigate his way to. As the player navigates the world, random encounters occur where the player must fight a small group of enemies. During these battles, the game changes to a turn-based RPG. When in combat, the player controls a small party, where during the player's turn, the player can fight or use items or skills such as magic attacks or attacks that hit multiple enemies. Equipment to increase a character's attack or defence can be purchased from various stores or obtained by treasure chests scattered throughout the world. The game features checkpoints that save the player's progress, while "save crystals" are spread throughout the game that allow players to manually save their game.

A unique element to Fantasian is the "Dimengeon" system which allows players to skip battles against enemies. When the "Dimengeon" system is enabled, players do not fight the enemies immediately - instead, the enemies are placed into the "Dimengeon", which allows players to explore the the game's world without constant repeating battles. The "Dimengeon" can only hold a certain amount of enemies however, and once this capacity has been reached, the player is forced to fight all of the enemies they have accumulated at once. Various enhancements are placed in these "Dimengeon" battles, such as increased attack power or the ability to "steal" a turn.

As the game is only available through Apple Arcade, the game does not feature any microtransactions.[17] The game also has mouse and keyboard support and can be played with controllers such as the DualShock 4.[18]

Music

The game's music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, and considers Fantasian's music as the best soundtrack he has ever made.[19][10] Uematsu had previously worked on other Mistwalker titles, and for Fantasian, he composed 60 tracks for its soundtrack.[20] Alluding to health issues, Uematsu noted that like Sakaguchi, the Fantasian soundtrack could be his last complete soundtrack.[10][21] For the game's music, the composer wanted to break free of conventional music found in the JRPG genre. Some of the music features improvisations, which Uematsu had never used in his video game soundtracks prior to Fantasian.[10] Over the period of a year, he spent 13 hours per day composing music for the game.[22]

Reception

The first part of Fantasian received "generally favorable reviews" according to Metacritic.[23] Particular praise was given to the "Dimengeon" system, the diorama sets, the soundtrack, and the gameplay during battles, while criticism centered around the game's story being a typical JRPG story, navigating the world being somewhat cumbersome via the touch controls, and the game's graphics being subpar when playing the game on higher-resolution devices such as through macOS.[28][24][30][25]

Notes

  1. ^ Additional development by Arzest[1]
  2. ^ Japanese: ファンタジアン, Hepburn: Fantajian

References

  1. ^ アーゼスト - Works. Arzest (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  2. ^ Pineda, Rafael Antonio (2019-03-27). "Mistwalker Announces Fantasian Game for Apple Arcade Service". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2021-04-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "Apple introduces Apple Arcade — the world's first game subscription service for mobile, desktop and the living room" (Press release). Apple. 2019-03-25. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  4. ^ Wen, Alan (2021-04-02). "JRPG 'Fantasian' is out now on Apple Arcade". NME. Retrieved 2021-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Madnani, Mikhail (2021-04-19). ""There Were No Plans of Any Kind Before Apple Arcade", an Interview With 'Final Fantasy' Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi on Fantasian and More". TouchArcade. Retrieved 2021-05-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "FANTASIAN" (in Japanese). Made with Unity. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  7. ^ a b Scullion, Chris (2021-03-26). "Hironobu Sakaguchi interview: 'I'm aging… so I made a game that returns to my roots'". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ White, Sam (2021-03-02). "Hironobu Sakaguchi's Fantasian is part sculpture, part role-playing game". British GQ. Retrieved 2021-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ a b Hardawar, Devindra (2021-04-02). "'Final Fantasy' creator Sakaguchi on what makes 'Fantasian' a unique mobile RPG". Engadget. Retrieved 2021-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ a b c d e Krabbe, Esra (2021-03-23). "How Nobuo Uematsu's Newest Soundtrack Made Final Fantasy Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi Cry". IGN. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  11. ^ a b Lynch, Gerald (2021-03-26). "His Final Fantasy? JRPG legend Hironobu Sakaguchi talks Apple exclusive Fantasian, next-gen gaming and an iconic career". TechRadar. Retrieved 2021-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ a b c Macy, Seth (2021-03-02). "Final Fantasy Creator Talks About His Latest RPG Fantasian and the Diorama Worlds In Which It Inhabits". IGN. Retrieved 2021-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ a b Webster, Andrew (2021-03-02). "Final Fantasy's creator is back with a classic RPG made of incredible handcrafted dioramas". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  14. ^ Martens, Todd (2021-03-02). "How the creator of 'Final Fantasy' challenges himself: A game made with 150 dioramas". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-04-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ Dino, Oni (2021-03-23). "Mistwalker's Fantasian Will Be a Two-Part Game". Siliconera. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  16. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (2021-04-02). "Final Fantasy creator's latest game, Fantasian, launches on Apple Arcade". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  17. ^ "Apple Arcade complete guide: Everything you need to know". Macworld. 2021-04-06. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  18. ^ "Mistwalker Corporation". Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  19. ^ "FANTASIAN". App Store. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  20. ^ Brown, Shelby (2021-04-02). "Apple Arcade: Fantasian is Final Fantasy creator's returns to nostalgic roots". CNET. Retrieved 2021-04-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ Robinson, Andy (2021-03-07). "Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu 'could have made his last soundtrack'". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ "FANTASIAN | Nobuo Uematsu Short Interview". YouTube. 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  23. ^ a b "Fantasian for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  24. ^ a b Andriessen, CJ. "Review: Fantasian (Part 1)". Destructoid. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  25. ^ a b Gregoire, Aubin (2021-04-09). "Fantasian sur Apple Arcade : le papa de Final Fantasy revient avec une perle du J-RPG à l'ancienne". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  26. ^ "Fantasian review - "An innovative and jaw-droppingly gorgeous RPG"". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  27. ^ "Fantasian - レビュー". IGN Japan (in Japanese). 2021-05-02. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  28. ^ a b Bramwell, Tom (2021-04-14). "Fantasian review – random battles and quirky banter in beautiful iPhone game". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  29. ^ Sapieha, Chad (2021-04-15). "Fantasian review: Like Final Fantasy for your iPhone". Fiancial Post. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  30. ^ Webster, Andrew (2021-04-14). "Fantasian isn't just charming; it's the most approachable JRPG I've ever played". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-05-30.


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