He also served as a director on Final Fantasy X, and as the battle director on Final Fantasy XIII. He was involved with many games during his time there, but the most relevant may have been his turn as director of Front Mission 2, 3, and 4. If I had to guess, this can be laid at the feet of Toshirou Tsuchida, one of those aforementioned veterans of Final Fantasy and Square Enix. If that’s your background, it’s like going from go-karts to Formula One racers in terms of challenge. There isn’t much in the entire Final Fantasy series that would have prepared you for the likes of what Fantasian throws out. The problem, I suppose, is for those who do not fit in that rather narrow scope. Truly, these encounters were built for veterans of the genre. Trying to play like a meathead will drop you on your rear within a turn or two. I had to seriously think about all of the tools in my box and devise complicated, custom strategies for each of these boss battles. I haven’t been bullied this hard by a JRPG in a long while, and I wouldn’t have ever thought it would come from an Apple Arcade game by the father of Final Fantasy. If you’re into this kind of thing, it’s exhilarating. You will need to swap characters out mid-battle for many bosses, too. Sort out the skills and the party members you need, and when you need to use them. Each one is a puzzle, and you either figure out its solution and win or keep on failing. If you think you can fire and forget with your Growth Maps, or that you have any sort of flexibility whatsoever in how to handle these bosses, think again. Growth Maps are introduced late in first part of the game, and they work more or less as you would think. The only way, and I cannot stress that ‘ only‘ enough, you will succeed is by doing your homework on the boss’s behavior and respec’ing your characters’ Growth Maps in just the right way to topple your foe. Every day is Final Exam day in Fantasian‘s second half. You thought that Fire Lizard was a pain in the first part of Fantasian? Buckle up. And again, this isn’t just the last boss. You should always have the tools you need to beat each of them, but you’ll have to figure out which you need and then use them perfectly to succeed. It’s difficult in the sense that it is jam-packed full of bosses that are half puzzle, half “Final Boss"-tier tenacious drag-outs. It’s not difficult in an opaque way like the SaGa games. Fantasian is, quite simply, one of the most difficult JRPGs I have played in the last couple of decades. And I think most people will hate it if they actually try to finish it. I mostly had an excellent time with it, and even found myself thrilled at some points in a way that I haven’t been with most other RPGs. A lot of careful attention has gone into its design, and in terms of production values you really can’t argue much with it. Fantasian is, in a lot of ways, a brilliant game. And the deeper you go into the game, particularly in its second part, the more it diverges from that game in form and feel.Īnd that, my friends, is what has left me in a real pickle for the last few days since I toppled the final boss with just under sixty hours on the clock. Even its broad structure, with a heavily linear first part and an open second half, follows the Final Fantasy beats. Uematsu’s music has that old familiar ring to it. Turn-based battles, bits of melodrama, and the way it feels to move around and explore. With all of that, you would perhaps expect this game to play out like a Final Fantasy game. Besides the star power, the game also benefits from a gorgeous, unique look thanks to its extensive use of elaborate dioramas for its backgrounds. There are other Final Fantasy veterans on the team, including one who seems to have a great deal of influence on the design of Fantasian. It is also the latest and possibly last complete game soundtrack from Nobuo Uematsu, the composer behind the first nine Final Fantasy games and many other titles. The big claim to fame for Fantasian is that it’s the latest and possibly last full-on RPG from the man widely recognized as the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi. There are still bits coming in future updates, but the main game is here and I suppose I have to do this now. And I’m glad I waited, because the second part really did change my opinion on Fantasian as a whole. When it first launched, it was only the first part of the game and I didn’t think it was necessarily fair or a good idea to judge an RPG on its first half. It’s an Apple Arcade game, so you don’t exactly need advice on whether or not you should buy it if you already subscribe to the service. Fantasian has proven to be a tremendously challenging game to review.
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