Fans of the Final Fantasy franchise may recognize the name of Hironobu Sakaguchi, the series' creator and director of several of its installments. He remained prolific in the video games industry since then, and as Sakaguchi probably nears retirement, one of his last games has just released, called Fantasian.
Fantasian is the newest game from Sakaguchi's Mistwalker Studios, which he founded when he left Square Enix in 2004. Mistwalker Studios has created titles like Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and the Terra Battle mobile games. Fantasian garnered a ton of attention due to its use of diorama sets for game locations, adding a unique twist to the game's art style. Over 150 dioramas were hand-crafted by masters in the industry.
Now that the game has released on Apple Arcade, players will be able to explore these intricate environments as they play through the story as Leo. Players awaken after a massive explosion with almost no memories to guide them. Searching out to reclaim their memories, players get tangled up in a conflict between machines and mankind. With Fantasian being a diorama RPG adventure, the game will still feature the typical turn-based combat.
Fantasian's gameplay can also be done with touch controls, but can still retain a "console" feel. The game will also feature a “Dimengeon Battle” mechanic, where players can send previously encountered enemies into an alternate dimension, freeing up time to explore the world. It will be interesting to see how this mechanic plays out in-game.
However, players won't be able to complete the entire story of Fantasian any time soon. The game is being released in two parts, and while the first part already has 20-30 hours of content, part two will be releasing later this year. Right now, Fantasian is only available to those in the Apple ecosystem, and there is no news yet about whether it will be released onto other platforms or consoles. Other Apple Arcade exclusives like Murder Mystery Machine will find themselves on other platforms, so hopefully the same will one day be true for Fantasian.
Fantasian is available now on Apple Arcade.