Home - RPG Games - Fantasian Neo Dimension: A Comprehensive Review
The world of role-playing games (RPGs) is vast, filled with countless titles that bring fantastical stories, innovative mechanics, and breathtaking visuals to gamers. Fantasian Neo Dimension stands out as a testament to the genre’s potential. Developed by Mistwalker, the studio founded by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, this title revives the magic of classic JRPGs while introducing unique twists that cater to modern audiences. Let’s delve into an in-depth review of this masterpiece, exploring its core features, strengths, and areas for improvement.
Aesthetic Excellence: The Diorama-Based World
One of Fantasian Neo Dimension‘s most striking features is its diorama-based art style. The game’s environments are crafted from over 150 handcrafted dioramas, meticulously designed to immerse players in its enchanting world. Unlike conventional digital landscapes, these dioramas provide a tactile, lifelike quality that enhances the overall aesthetic.
Key Highlights:
Visual Appeal: The dioramas’ intricate details, from lush forests to bustling towns, create a stunning backdrop for the game’s narrative.
Immersive Atmosphere: The blend of physical art with high-definition digital graphics bridges nostalgia with innovation, captivating players of all ages.
Unique Design: The handcrafted approach adds a personal touch that’s rare in modern gaming, making every location feel distinct and memorable.
The game’s aesthetic success is further complemented by the subtle use of lighting and color. Each area’s ambiance is carefully curated to match the story’s tone, from vibrant, sunlit meadows to eerie, shadow-cloaked ruins. However, while the visuals are undeniably beautiful, some players might find the fixed camera angles restrictive, particularly when exploring hidden areas or engaging in battles.
Storyline: A Tale of Dual Dimensions
At its core, Fantasian Neo Dimension delivers a narrative-driven experience that weaves together mystery, emotion, and epic adventure. The game’s story revolves around the protagonist, Leo, who awakens in a strange mechanical world with no memory of his past. As he journeys through the dual dimensions of order and chaos, he uncovers secrets about his identity, his companions, and the forces threatening the universe.
Narrative Strengths:
Character Development: Each character’s backstory is richly detailed, creating a deep emotional connection with the player.
Engaging Plot: The dual-dimension concept is masterfully executed, adding layers of intrigue and complexity to the narrative.
Cinematic Presentation: The story is told through a mix of beautifully animated cutscenes and in-game interactions, ensuring seamless immersion.
The supporting cast shines as well, offering memorable personalities and meaningful contributions to the overarching plot. From stoic warriors to enigmatic sorcerers, each companion adds depth and diversity to the story’s emotional weight. Despite these strengths, some players might feel that the pacing slows during certain segments, particularly in the middle of the game. This could detract from the otherwise compelling storyline.
Gameplay Mechanics: Innovation Meets Tradition
Fantasian Neo Dimension‘s gameplay strikes a fine balance between classic JRPG mechanics and innovative features that enhance player engagement. The game employs a turn-based combat system, reminiscent of traditional RPGs, but introduces modern twists to keep battles dynamic and strategic.
Combat System:
Dimengeon System: This unique mechanic allows players to send weaker enemies into an alternate dimension, reducing random encounters and enabling uninterrupted exploration.
Trajectory-Based Attacks: Players can manipulate attack trajectories to target multiple enemies, adding a layer of strategy to combat.
Customization: Characters can be equipped with unique abilities and upgrades, encouraging diverse playstyles.
Exploration is equally engaging, with puzzles and environmental challenges integrated into various areas. Players often need to use their wits to navigate obstacles, unlocking pathways to hidden treasures or advancing the story. While these features are groundbreaking, the learning curve for the Dimengeon System might be steep for newcomers, and mastering trajectory-based attacks requires patience and practice.
Music and Sound Design: A Nobuo Uematsu Masterpiece
No review of Fantasian Neo Dimension would be complete without mentioning its soundtrack. Composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, known for his work on the Final Fantasy series, the music elevates the game’s emotional impact.
Musical Highlights:
Memorable Themes: Each track perfectly captures the mood of its respective scene, from epic battles to poignant character moments.
Diverse Soundscapes: The blend of orchestral and electronic elements creates a rich auditory experience.
Immersive Audio: High-quality sound effects and voice acting further enhance the game’s atmosphere.
Each character’s theme is a standout, providing auditory cues that amplify their personality and story arc. However, the lack of voiceovers in some critical scenes might feel like a missed opportunity to further immerse players.
Replayability and Value
With a playtime of approximately 30–45 hours for the main story and additional hours for side quests and exploration, Fantasian Neo Dimension offers substantial content for its price. The inclusion of multiple endings based on player choices adds replayability, encouraging players to revisit the game to uncover different outcomes.
Post-Game Content:
Side Quests: Numerous optional missions provide opportunities to explore the world further and deepen character relationships.
Boss Challenges: Hidden bosses offer a rewarding challenge for players seeking to test their skills.
New Game+: Players can carry over progress to a new playthrough, making it easier to explore alternate paths.
Additionally, a robust crafting system lets players create powerful items, further incentivizing exploration and resource management. Collecting rare materials and experimenting with combinations adds another layer of depth to the gameplay.
Accessibility and Platform Availability
Initially exclusive to Apple Arcade, Fantasian Neo Dimension has since been re-released on multiple platforms, including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. This wider accessibility ensures that a broader audience can experience its magic.
Technical Performance:
Smooth Gameplay: The game runs seamlessly on all platforms, with minimal loading times and no major bugs.
Optimized Controls: Both touch and controller-based inputs are intuitive and responsive.
Cross-Save Functionality: Players can sync their progress across devices, ensuring flexibility and convenience.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Stunning Diorama Visuals: Unique handcrafted environments that are visually breathtaking.
Engaging Storyline: A rich narrative with well-developed characters and emotional depth.
Innovative Combat Mechanics: Strategic systems like the Dimengeon and trajectory-based attacks.
Immersive Soundtrack: Masterfully composed music by Nobuo Uematsu enhances the game’s emotional resonance.
High Replayability: Multiple endings, side quests, and post-game challenges encourage repeated playthroughs.
Wide Accessibility: Available on multiple platforms with seamless cross-save functionality.
Cons:
Fixed Camera Angles: Restrictive perspectives may hinder exploration in certain areas.
Steep Learning Curve: Some mechanics, such as the Dimengeon System, require time to master.
Pacing Issues: The story’s momentum slows in certain segments, potentially losing player engagement.
Limited Voice Acting: The absence of voiceovers in key scenes diminishes immersion.
Platform-Specific Controls: Touch controls on mobile may feel less precise compared to traditional controllers.
Final Thoughts: Is Fantasian Neo Dimension Worth Your Time?
Fantasian Neo Dimension is a love letter to classic JRPGs, blending nostalgic elements with modern innovations. Its diorama-based visuals, engaging storyline, and strategic gameplay make it a standout title in the RPG genre. While it has minor flaws, such as pacing issues and the steep learning curve for certain mechanics, these are outweighed by its strengths.
Key Takeaways:
Perfect for fans of traditional JRPGs and newcomers seeking a unique gaming experience.
Offers a compelling mix of story, visuals, and gameplay that’s rare in today’s market.
A must-play for enthusiasts of Hironobu Sakaguchi’s work and Nobuo Uematsu’s music.
High replayability ensures lasting value for players.
Whether you’re a seasoned RPG fan or a newcomer to the genre, Fantasian Neo Dimension is a journey worth embarking on. Its blend of art, story, and innovation ensures it will be remembered as one of the defining games of its era. With its breathtaking dioramas, captivating narrative, and innovative gameplay mechanics, it’s not just a game but a testament to the artistic potential of the medium.
I had high hopes, but sadly it just reminded me again that Sakaguchi is kinda overrated. The diorama-style areas sound cool on paper, but in practice they’re pretty iffy. The combat system also had a ton of potential, but the execution was poor. Honestly, that’s the game in a nutshell — tons of potential, but none of it realized.
This is a throwback to both snes-era and ps1-era jrpgs, with the open-ended second half of Final Fantasy 6 meeting the carefully framed 3D angles of Final Fantasy 9. It also throws Final Fantasy 10's turn order system and its own area of effect attack skills in for added depth and variety.As a throwback, it succeeds brilliantly and shows why many of those games it references are still considered timeless classics. However, it also carries along with it a few tedious and overwhelming design choices which may turn off less avid jrpg players. Those elements are less "buyer beware" and more "buyer be prepared."For the tedious elements, the encounter rate, while not overbearing early on, can become time consuming toward the middle and latter half. The game's unique encounter control mechanic called the Dimengeon helps alleviate this issue by allowing the player to stockpile encounters, then fight them them in greater numbers to eliminate them more quickly with area of effect skills, but these stockpiled battles can become long winded in their own right. Fortunately, there are ways to mediate these stockpiled encounters through optional side quests, though they may still slow down an otherwise well-paced playthrough.What players should definitely prepare themselves for, however, is the second half's boss and unique encounter difficulty. This is less of a point of criticism as compared to the encounter rate as the boss's become rewarding to defeat thanks to their challenge, but also makes reattempting long boss fights from the beginning a strong possibility. That said, I found the game less frustrating in this regard than Bravely Default 2 (a game I finished on Switch), and felt extremely accomplished after defeating the final boss, since I knew the game wasn't pulling any punches. You may want to put the game's difficulty on normal for the second half, however, since I did so as well and feel I may not have finished or enjoyed it otherwise.Apart from the gameplay, the narrative is campy fantasy with an underlying serious tone. It hues closer to pulp fantasy than anything approaching the heavy politics of Game of Thrones, so characters may be goofier or more prone to silly actions than many modern fantasy fans may expect, but those elements of tragedy and melancholy still persist if under a sunnier disposition. It's more of a feel good adventure story than a nuance-driven political epic, which makes it a nice companion to something like Metaphor Refantazio or even Final Fantasy 12.I strongly recommend Fantasian Neo Dimension, especially for fans of the snes, ps1, and ps2 era of jrpgs. It has a great deal of charm in its pulp fantasy storytelling which isn't overly diminished by some of its more tedious or challenging aspects. I also didn't need to rely on a guide for the majority of the game, only needing to check online for one important story beat (an area on the overworld map that didn't seem accessible at first) and for an extremely useful item pickup that unlocks a useful skill path. It may not initially be to everyone's liking as a classic-style turn-based jrpg, but it is also a powerful reminder why that style of game can be so charming and engrossing for so many.
I can't recommend enough Fantasian. For those Final Fantasy Veteran out there, namely the one who grew up with Hironobu Sakaguchi's Final Fantasy and Nobou Uematsu OST (Final Fantasy 1-10), This is the game for you. It is for lack or better term the Spiritual Successor of those game. You feel a feeling of nostalgia even though you never played the game before. The Great Story Telling, The Turn Based RPG and many other feature are like its predecessor (to be expected since its the same person designing it). and Just like its predecessor, the game is vast where you travel form one place to another (diorama like environment). What's new (and i argue an improvement is that the game is HARD. You gotta strategize if you want to win. A great game for its price tooCurrently fighting against the Final Boss. try it guys. you won't regret it
The story is fine. The environments looks great. The characters are decent.
Sadly the combat is not. It's a slog.
On top of that: The final boss has three phases. After the first 2 phases your party gets put in a little rest area where you can speak with them, level up, heal, etc before the final third phase. You'd expect to be able to save your game here as well, but guess what? They removed the autosave checkpoint from this area in one of the patches. Meaning that if you die in the third phase (and you will if you go in blind due to at least one attack the boss has that'll oneshot your entire party), you'll have to take an additional 20-30 mins to get through the first 2 phases again.
This game was a 7/10 for me before the final boss. Now it is a 6 at best. Another great job, Square Enix!
Wat a ride, good game, introduces some new style of battles in RPG standard turn-based attacks. Story and character developments are good too. Thanks for this great journey ;)
[b]PROS[/b]
- Fantasian embraces the FF6 World of Ruin style endgame. After a very linear first half, the game opens up, making the whole world your playground. Unlock characters, moves, items, etc at your leisure, while revisiting areas and exploring. Tons and tons of optional content that you can do before moving on to the final dungeon when you're ready. This is easily my favorite thing about this game.- The difficulty of bosses in the second half of the game are fine tuned. At the appropriate level, they are very challenging and require planning, preparation, and strategy.- Very good variety of bosses. Seriously, a ton of them. All with different varying strategies.- Nobuo Uematsu music- The way they handled new game plus is unique and awesome. Probably my second favorite thing about this game.[b]CONS[/b]
- Those difficult boss fights make the freedom of the second half feel significantly less free.- The encounter rate is astronomical. There is a system to stock the encounters and fight them all at once, but even with that it feels like there are way too many encounters. And fully stocked up fights feel long and tedious after a while.- For better or for worse, you get less and less EXP when you kill enemies the further below your level they are - preventing you form leveling too far over recommended level of an area. I'm a fan of being allowed to over-grind in games, so this is a con for me. It might be a pro for you.- I'm not a fan of the art style. The dioramas make the game's world feel like a toy model, which breaks the immersion for me[b]SUMMARY[/b]
B+ : Would recommend, especially for those who like JRPGs with difficult boss fights that require strategy and planning.
A worthy successor to the golden era of Final Fantasy. The story is a little basic but the battle system and scenes more than make up for it in my opinion.
Fantasias Neo Dimension has all of the indigents of a great jrpg but lacks substance.The story and dialogue feels lacking in terms of culture and mannerisms benefiting the characters’ backstories. It feels as though most of them are just paper cut outs-where each has a point to the story but each lacking interesting moments or not enough time to truly invest in a character.For example, it doesn’t make sense for us to unlock the last character in act 2 when 20+ hours of gameplay was already invested in the game. Hard to be interested in someone that has so few scenes. And not really a part of the overall story.The most glaring issue of the game is just pacing in general. Like the first act is super boring. And you don’t unlock the cool things until the second act such as the growth map which is a grid leveling system.The other issue is the long boss battles and regular battles. I was playing normal but still did not feel powerful when defeating enemies that were several levels weaker than me.The plus side of this game is the interesting mechanics of the game such as directing your attacks and trapping monsters in another dimension.The music was good but just feels lacking an interesting theme to tie them together.Overall a 6/10 for me.
I played FF 7, 8 and 10 before this so I can tell there are lots of similarities.[h3]About Gameplay features:[/h3]
I like that they added dimengeon because I hate random encounters that appear every 10-15 seconds (I would prioritize getting items that allow me to avoid this in other FF games). I know others may not like it but I do. I wouldn't have to grind a lot unless I want to.[h3]About the story:[/h3]
I'm not a big fan of the story but it's ok, it's probably for a targeted audience. Nothing special or memorable. They still have that "ancient modern civilization that wiped out long time ago" trope that's really common in any FF game and of course, Omega (no surprise there). There's a special story made by Uematsu-san and I thought it was nice too.I thought it was weird they mashed up words like mechteria or dimengeon lol but it made sense in the story.Of course, this is a JRPG, expect that you'll be fighting against gods with some light-hearted stories.Ah and my only gripe on English voice overs is when Leo shouts "Solar Flare" when he uses his tension skill and it sounded slurred. Kinda awkward.[h3]About HARD mode and boss fights:[/h3]
The bosses are not very forgiving especially in hard mode. I've heard that this was the original normal mode before they toned it down. It gets better the stronger equipment and growth map you unlock, though. Nonetheless, [b]the boss designs were great! The mechanics were very interesting--something I didn't think of from turn-based games before; a bit challenging at first but you can cheese it once you figure out.[/b] (Just check out the boss you will fight at level 52).There were a couple of bosses I needed to beat in normal mode (reduced HP) so I can move on though. Each turn is very tight and the damage is too high so you really can't go ham with attacks. All bosses have status ailments and debuffs (almost immune to them) and some have adds that heal them that you need to deal with first. In that case, you really need to make use of all your abilities. I can't count how many times I get wiped out because there was no "Resist All" or "Cure All" or have both of them but a healer's tension skill really helped in some situations.[h3]About the party:[/h3]
You get 3 supports, 2 mages and 3 physical damage dealers but they don't have a lot of special abilities that make them shine in every situation. You can swap them like in FFX and they have a simpler version of sphere grid, but you're screwed if the next boss attack is something that requires elemental/ailment resistance and they die.There is one particular boss fight that you are required to use a special ability (Vacuum) so you don't get wiped out. You'll probably learn it the hard way because it happened to me within the first 10 seconds of the fight LOL.[h3]About the items:[/h3]
A lot of times I run out of MP and you can't upgrade the items (in FF8 you can upgrade potions to potions+ and so on). It's either Ether S or Ether L and you're screwed if you needed boost to your attacks with Concentrate or Charge because you'll have to waste a turn lol.[h3]About Weapons:[/h3]
The attunement of the artifacts reminded me of Persona 5 when they get attuned with their cards too. Thought it was neat.Of all the weapon upgrades, Ez was the last one to get the love (he's stuck with a +66 weapon while the rest get +70 and above after upgrades). His grenades' damage is fixed and cannot be increased until you finish a specific quest at level 47 so you can get a better weapon for him.[h3]Why I recommend it?[/h3]
Because it's fun lol. Even if I closed the game too many times to go back to a previous save, you can try different strategies. If you like the challenge, you'll probably find it amazing. Definitely not for nostalgia. I should say they really improved a lot that you hoped were there from the old FF games.
If you go in Fantasian expecting a Final Fantasy from the play station era, be prepared to be sorely disappointed. This golden age of Final Fantasy was all about telling a story with a novelty gameplay system that reinforced the story on top of it. Fantasian is gameplay driven and has a worthless story. Sakuguchi told in an interview that he was inspired by Final Fantasy VI when making Fantasian. The only part where it is clear is the structure of the game. The first half is linear, story focused and is about meeting your friends. The second half is open, gameplay focused and is about finding your friends to defeat the final boss. The rest has nothing with VI.The characters and the story are the most basic tropes you will encounter. You will guess every twist like the two women in the cast being sisters all along. Part 1 is honestly hard to get through. The first half being easy even on hard (except for that one boss) does not help. I started skipping the story near the end of part 1 and you can be sure I skipped every dialog in part 2. Save yourself some time and skip all of it.Part 2 is where Fantasian finally becomes what it truly wants to be, a Wizardry inspired JRPG. Fantasian is at its best when it is challenging and I truly think that, to get the most out of it, you have to play on hard. In part 2, exploration is rewarding, boss mechanics are good if simple and you get to fiddle with equipment and character build. You get to see that every character can shine under the right condition and, mechanically, it is a solid cast. If you are worried that the game will be too hard, just remember that this game is a JRPG at heart. Which means you can crush it by grinding and using a guide. I could see through the fast-forwarded cutscenes that Mistwalker put a lot of care in those in the second half, but I could not care to watch any of it.Though, if you continue playing and go through new game plus, you will find out that, in truth, Fantasian is just confused. I expected new game plus to be an extended part 2, gameplay focused and finely balanced because I accepted that Fantasian is all about that gameplay. Actually, it is even easier than part 1. Everything is a breeze. While grinding was possible, it used to resist you by rubberbanding experience gained. Not in new game plus. The brakes are off and overleveling is garantied. Worst is that, at this point, you will discover that Tan is the best party member. Nothing can stand against the Mystery Potion and Rudy Strike+ combo. It is grotesquely overpowered and very puzzling that the game allows this. I thought that, at the very least, the secret final dungeon would be a challenge, but nope. Even that secret boss Tan would melt in a few turns. Only go through new game plus if the story moved you, because it has nothing else to offer.Finally, I want to address the music. I see a lot of reviews saying that the music is average or, the unthinkable as it is Nobuo Uemastu, bad. While I disagree, I do get why people say that and it is for two reasons. For one, it makes a terrible first impression. The normal battle theme is not bad per se, it is just incredibly misused. It is made for a desperate struggle, not an every day struggle. It got so grating for me that I considered using the various Final Fantasy battle themes provided in this re-release until I found out having Final Fantasy IV’s boss battle to listen to is even more inappropriate. You will never turn off the dimengeon not just because it is a great mechanic, but also because it has a good and appropriate battle theme. For two, the lackluster story just doesn't serve the music justice. Final Fantasy VIII’s story is poorly executed, but at least the music and presentation elevates it. Fantasian just can’t showcase Uetmasu’s tracks under the best light. I encourage you to listen to the soundtrack outside of the game. It does the Lost Odyssey thing where old fashioned midi songs are alongside tracks made using an orchestra. There’s also the obligatory heavy metal boss theme out of nowhere, the Uematsu classic which we all love. It is varied, grandiose, innocent, daring. Not every song is a certified jam and it is of course not as good as best girl Final Fantasy IX’s soundtrack, but it is way better than people give it credit for.
Probably one of the most challenging turned-based jrpg i've played specifically the part 2 of it as lots of boss battles need specific pattern and accessory to beat it, also you can't just overleveled the enemy because of its exp degrading system just few levels away from the enemy. The thing probably I don't like is they don't have a permanent no-encounter accessory or item, yes you can gather enemies or just flee but still the encounter rate is so high which makes it annoying to roam around in lower level areas.
Simple but good story, fun battle system and skill tree. The game has its problems after the second chapter, difficulty scales up too hard and random encounters get too high even with dimengion, but is a good game in general.
This game feels like playing a lost chapter of an old Final Fantasy, but with an unique and fun combat system, and multiple qol features you'd expect from playing a modern game.The star of the show is the aformentioned combat, the dimengeon system (a device that allows you to store random encountered enemies, and fight them all in a big battle, to avoid stopping your exploration), some of the later boss fights required all of my focus cause a single wrong move and you are doomed.I liked the story, especially the second part of the game where the game opens up to greater exploration, and you can do sidequest to recruit and upgrade the various party members, but i can see a lot of people not getting invested because of "anime clichè".Overall an easy recommend for JRPG fans, looking for a fresh twist on the classic formula.
beautiful game why western games are not lie that in western games always have to be some which don't belong in games pick any Asian will always deliver interesting simple gameplay good story like today played 5 hours without even feeling it
Fantasian Neo Dimension is a charming JRPG, that used the original platform's limitations as a creative way to make this game. Originally on Apple Arcade, it had to go through touchscreen limitations as well as hardware. However this limitation brought with it a beautiful hand-crafted dioramas as pre-rendered backgrounds. A story telling using mostly just texts with beautiful artwork in the background and sometimes animated cutscenes. Gameplay mechanics wise it plays really like a traditional JRPG, attack, flee, items, skills. However what makes this unique was the fact you can angle your attacks to hit multiple enemies if you angle it correctly.This version of the game comes with visual upgrades and many battle soundtracks from the Final Fantasy series, however the original soundtrack for this game is also great! While I haven't completed it yet as of this writing, I haven't really seen anything negative about it, there was one sound effect bug that happened in a certain scene and that was it. The only other point is the voice acting for it is hit or miss, some voice actors really put their all into it, while others (mostly generic NPCs) felt like they did it in one take and used that.
I just can't muster interest any further. I dragged myself to the end of Act 1 and called it. There are quite a few positives, but in the end it just falls short in too many other places. Here are some highlights:[list]
[*]Stop me if you've heard this one before: protagonist with amnesia must trace his lineage and stop the mysterious virus plaguing the planet, all while being hounded by Evil McNefarious. It unfortunately never gets better.
[*]This is just way too much money for an Apple Arcade port. It looks nice and it has a slew of Quality of Life, but I couldn't justify the cost until it hit a decent discount.
[*]Uematsu continues to be the best part about this title. The soundtrack is really catchy.
[*]The party members are merely cutouts of other titles. There's nothing particularly interesting about any of them.
[*]The first few hours of the game contain a ton of references and nods to the PS1 version of FF7 which was neat.
[*]Overall the game looks nice and I like being able to click nodes on the map to auto travel.
[*]So the main gimmick of the game is that you can turn on a pocket device and send all random encounters to the shadow realm. You only have to deal with them once the capacity for the device gets full, then you fight in the pocket dimension all 30+ of them at once with a smattering of powerful upgrades you can activate along the way. On paper it's ok, but in practice it just takes too long and doesn't feel like you're saving any time.
[*]This game is just frustratingly SLOW: no 2x speed for fights, no sliders for random encounters... instead you get to deal with gigantic slews of pocket dimension fights and pray you get done before dinner. It's 2025 and somehow Bravely Default completely figured this problem out back in 2012 with a random encounter slider (0% - 200%, adjustable at any time) and JRPGs never took proper notice.
[*]The voice acting is great for the English dub and the autoplay works well enough with the shorter sentences.
[*]They do a good job of smattering treasure chests with all sorts of weird key requirements everywhere so you want to come back to areas. While I do appreciate them putting chest icons on the map for locked/open chests: they needed to go one step further and told you on the map what type of chest they are.
[*]The battle gimmicks of aiming your attack direction or AoEs is ok but gets old pretty quick.
[*]A minor grievance: Helm Bash doesn't make sense. It notes that it breaks guard, but when an enemy puts up guard or raises it shield it does diddly squat. Feels like a mistranslation.
[/list]It's so close. It has the elements of a sturdy JRPG, but instead fumbles the ball in way too many areas. By the end of Act 1 as I got a world state change: I didn't care about the story, characters, battle system, random encounters, or most things in the title. Your time is unfortunately spent elsewhere.
So far I am greatly enjoying FND with few areas of exception. There are many reviews with many more hours than me that discuss late game mechanics and difficulty (which I'm looking forward to), but here's my hot takes after the first few sessions:GOOD:
- Great writing and characters
- Music from the master Nobuo Uematsu is great in every situation
- Accessable combat flow
- Beautiful scenes and combat effects
- Overall vibe and aesthetic of late-90s/early-00s RPGs with updated graphics in many areas
- Plays excellently on Steam Deck with zero issuesBAD:
- Combat in the first 6 or 7 hours was a bit too simplistic and almost detracted me from playing more. Luckily it got more intense and provided more critical thought in recent hours
- My number one complaint is there's TOO MANY PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS WHEN EXPLORING! I get it, the dioramas made for each area are gorgeous, but you often walk 5 feet then the camera shifts to a different angle. Again and again. Over and over. There are some areas that literally have like 10+ transitions in the matter of a minute, just walking. It's disorienting and excessive at timesIf I have anything to add with more hours I'll adjust, but for now I'm very happy!
Wastes your time on purpose, debuffs rarely work on bosses and there's no point to debuff normal enemies because they die in 1-2 hits. Bosses all have a gimmick you have to figure out, so either look up a guide or waste 10 minutes each boss to figure out they're weakness. For a party based rpg, the party members are barely distinct from each other with tons of overlap. The story was overall weak and the characters were weaker. Maps were handmade irl as dioramas so thats cool, but there's so much backtracking through them that it gets tedious with random encounters every 10 steps which are again, very straight forward. I really liked the game at the beginning, but the charm it had got whittled down every time they told me to fuck off and waste more time doing chores. I'm pmo!
its a fantastic game. quite similar to FF6 in structure. the mobile UI is actually to its benefit. the music is good, the sound is good, and the graphics are good. besides the high difficulty, the game is solid to anyone who likes old school JRPGs.
The secret 4th PSX Final Fantasy, everything is here:- Prerendered-like background aesthetic.
- Humorous and well-paced scenario by Sakaguchi-san and co.
- Catchy and memorable music by Uematsu-san.Most fans of FFVII, VIII and IX should give this game a chance.
This game scratches that itch of classic jrpg vibe from the 90s and early 2000s but is packaged in updated graphics. Of course it's made by the awesome Sakaguchi and Excellent composer Nobuo Uematsu. This game is very chill in the beginning but it is also challenging so there's something for everyone!
It is a good game and the prerendered levels are gorgeous. If you like turn based RPGs you will like the second part, since the difficulty goes through the roof and you will get enemies that use different type of tactics in brilliant ways.
This game went from a fun and different JRPG to one of the most annoying level-check on each late game boss fight game I've ever seen. It is such a shame because the game is overall fun with an interesting story and characters, but the design on the later boss fights is just bad. "Oh the boss has low HP, let the boss spam its attacks where it spawns adds everywhere that enrages while the boss itself becomes invulnerable."
And if that is not enough, sometimes you need a specific character to counter the bosses adds, but the boss can also bind one of your active characters so you are unable to swap them out and forced to take care of that first, meaning that you lose even more DPS on the adds in an already tight DPS-check.Fix the difficulty on the late game areas and this game would be a lot more enjoyable, but as it is right now it forces you to over level every fight on the harder difficulty and that just takes the fun out of the entire game.
This game feels like a lost gem. I just wish it would provide an option to scale the UI. Clearly designed for mobiles. At least this game didn´t die like Nier Reincarnation. Damn you mobile gaming.However, unlike other reviews, I think this game absolutely does not evoke any FF vibes at all. It feels like it has more vibes from Bravely Default with a Nier-like protoganist.
It's hard for me to recommend this game when I can't bring myself to finish it.Starting with the good, just about every core aspect of the game grabbed my attention. The majority of the map design being handmade dioramas is fantastic. The story was fascinating to me from the start, I loved how it presents exposition as a story book and I was engaged with how the plot ramped up. The dimengeon mechanic really cuts down the tedium of random encounters, and the combat letting you aim and curve attacks makes the turn-based more engaging. Heck, even the boss fights tend to put up unique challenges each time. Everything is a pretty solid formula!The big problem is that almost every good aspect has an asterisk after it. Progression is often a drag that it takes about 20 hours for the game to open up. One part of the problem is how often the writing tries to be funny with these awkward running gags, and another is how much linear retreading there is. And once it does open up, the game will heap piles and piles of quests onto you. This is all dragged down further by the fact the game will start gimping EXP gain hard if the enemies are even a single level below you, so grinding gets tedious quick. Every single boss from here on can also steamroll you no matter how overleveled or prepared you are for their gimmick. Pickings for armor equips get slim, and buffs/debuffs barely make a dent in stats. Boss fights ended up being one brick wall after another, so for my sanity I gave up.I like so much about the game, but the difficulty scaling needs a checkup. The game has a hard mode, I don't know why they think normal needs to be this unfair.
In every category of a RPG, it hits that "almost good" mark, but it really isn't ever going to be a good game since it feels like a mobile game.
The story is boring with its lost memory crap. The story telling is thru visual novel segments that is basically low budget attempts of storytelling.
The "storage battle" combat system gets old very quick and very tedious.
The boss battles are just 3d sprites that spew out a lot of damage.
The leveling system is dumb. It added a growth map thing like FFX, but you are limited on how much you can progress in a first playthrough. It's cute that they thought someone wanted to play this more than once.
The music is okay...I don't know why this was made.
Played about 4 hours. You start out as a guy with amnesia, which is probably one of the worst ways to start a story. Met a girl. Went walking in some forest somewhere. So far there's nothing of any intrigue, I'm not curious about the characters, I find them all incredibly unlikable. And like nothing's happened! Another game with a big name behind it but no substance. People who said this game "feels" like a Final Fantasy game are just straight up lying to you, FF games hook you in the first hour. This one doesn't.
The first half of the game is fun and interesting. The back half of the game is a terrible slog.I don't know why RPG designers still include the following things, they simply don't belong in modern games:
- forced random encounters
- unskippable cutscenes
- back to back boss encounters with no saveThe forced random encounters wouldn't be as bad if they didn't decide to kneecap your exp gains, so you get to fight (or spend time fleeing from) a bunch of encounters that give you absolutely nothing of value. If you didn't want people to overgrind, at least let them turn the encounters off to stop wasting time.The voice acting is great. The story is decent. The combat system is nice. I just wish the back half of the game respected my time more. There's a lot to love, and if you have all the time in the world and don't mind any of the things I mentioned, go ahead and pick it up. If you rarely have 2-3 consecutive hours to game, I might give it a pass.
