#Dimengeon Machine

[fogaminghub]

🎮✨ Are you ready for an amazing adventure in FANTASIAN Neo Dimension? This game blends classic RPG nostalgia with modern magic! Explore breathtaking handcrafted worlds, engage in innovative combat, and enjoy fantastic music by Nobuo Uematsu! 

Don't miss out on the game that captures the heart of RPG fans everywhere! 🏰💖

[killscreencinema]

Fantasian (iPhone)

They say you can't catch lightning in a bottle, and that statement only seems to become more relevant the more we see iconic game devs from the past try to resurrect their IPs via crowdfunded "spiritual successors", only for the result to be... not good. I mean, Mighty Number 9 anyone?

However, I was actually kind of optimistic when I had heard that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was teaming up with God-tier game composer Nobuo Uematsu to develop a new JRPG under their new studio Mistwalker. I would love it if these two "behemoths" (hehehe) of gaming made one more masterpiece together.

Instead we got Fantasian, released on iPhone in 2021 and only playable if you subscribe to the Apple Arcade. Besides the fact that "Fantasian" is kind of a lame title, it also constantly makes me think of...

..you guessed it...

"Cantaloop (Trip Fantasia)" by US3:

Did they think naming the game "Fantasy" was too on the nose?

Anyway, in Fantasian you play as Leo, a character so androgynous that he (and make no mistake, Leo identifies as a "he") might just be the ultimate in sexually ambiguous J-RPG heroes. Leo has lost his memory, which is a story trope I can't fucking stand by the way, and travels across the world in a quest to regain it, while also fighting a malignant machine disease that is slowly spreading across the world.

The story is incredibly puerile, bringing nothing new to the table as far as the genre goes. The characters are as stock as it gets, with your amnesiac hero; a runaway princess who can throw a good punch; a magic girl who has a mysterious connection with nature; a surly sea captain, blah blah blah. I will say the dialogue between these characters can be pretty funny at times, but at the end of the day, they're ultimately forgettable. Hold a gun to my head right now and I doubt I could even remember one of their names.

So when the story of an RPG is boring, the gameplay better pick up the slack, right? Well, in this area Fantasian compensates a little bit. The game introduces a mechanic called the Dimengeon, which is a device that you can switch on to trap monsters that attack you, essentially avoiding random encounters, however if the device gets too full you'll have to fight all the monsters trapped inside... at once. So it's risky, and generally to your benefit to empty the device regularly to avoid a deadly monster battle royale. It's a neat mechanic to explore areas without constant interruption, yet also allowing out to now miss out on gaining XP.

While the combat is your standard turned based stuff, there are certain nuances that keep it interesting, especially for the boss battles, which are genuinely challenging.

I found the graphics to be visually striking, specifically the "diorama" environments, which are real models that were photographed and scanned into the game. So that's a really cool touch!

Uematsu's score is about as underwhelming and mediocre as the game.

If only the game weren't so dull overall. I think part of the problem is that I was playing it on my phone and it's difficult to get invested in a mobile game because you're typically playing it on the go. That's why the best mobile games are quick, pick-up-and-play experiences like Angry Birds or a game I'm currently playing on my iPhone - Slay the Spire (reviewing pending!). Point is, I might have had a kinder review for Fantasian had it been on a home console or my PC, but I doubt that would have made the story any more interesting or palatable.