Fantasian was provided by Square Enix for review. Thank you!
I fondly remember the original Final Fantasy titles, especially the PS1 releases. I remember trying them out for the first time and being awe-struck at what was possible on both a visual and story-telling level. Final Fantasy 9 stuck out to me even more than the rest, and I fell in love with the world that was built. So, I think it’s understandable how excited I was that the creator of Final Fantasy, who worked as a producer and helped create the story of the 9th entry, was bringing his recently released JRPG to PC.
FANTASIAN Neo Dimension is an enhanced version of the original game, released in 2021 on Apple Arcade for iPhones. This new version has a couple of neat upgrades, like high-definition visuals, full English and Japanese voiceovers, a new difficulty option, and new battle and background music. The music selection is great, and I enjoy the voiceovers, but outside of those, I’m not sure there’s extra to offer for those who played it years ago on the phone. However, I had not played it before, so I was excited to jump in.
The original release was significantly more difficult, so developer Mistwalker added a second difficulty. I later learned that the "Normal" difficulty is the easier version of the game, whereas the "Hard" difficulty is how it was originally designed. It isn't a make-or-break issue, but I thought it was interesting when I learned this.
The immediate connection I had when I first started playing the game was the visual style. I am used to seeing newer games use the full 3D style, with all models in the game being created digitally. With Final Fantasy, this became a standard since the 10th entry, but FANTASIAN takes a step backward in time for a different approach. While all the characters and monsters are 3D models, FANTASIAN’s locations, buildings, and backgrounds are all real-life diorama models.
This creates a unique-looking world that I can’t really compare to any other game. The entire world looks wonderfully realistic, with some locations looking like they came right out of a toybox. It’s got this beautiful appeal to it, and I found myself staring deeply at the rock and grass surfaces to study their shine and texture. Some of the effects also look a little dated, but they never look out of place in this gorgeous world.
The biggest part that got to me was actually the UI. While it all functions correctly, it has the large buttons and text that I would expect to be on an iPhone. The text and icons are massive, and I wasn’t as much of a fan of. It makes sense for smaller screens that use touchscreen, but it feels a bit weird to go through shops and equipment screens.
With FANTASIAN being a JRPG, you have a deep, melodramatic story that surprised me with how solid it was, even if it wasn't the most satisfying overall. You play as Leo, a man who has lost his memories and is stranded on a mechanical planet. Soon, he finds himself back home on an Earth-like planet and journeys to reclaim his memories and save the world from Mechteria, a deadly infection that Vam the Maleficent has caused.
Along the way, you will meet a colorful cast of characters, and while each one feels distinct from the others, they all play into their tropes and end up being less interesting for it. While Leo is not as bad, I did get a little tired of Cheryl, the hard-headed princess who wants Leo all to herself, or Kina, the ditsy mage whose everything goes right over her head. The story has some intriguing twists and turns, and it never gets too old, either. It was solid enough that I found motivation and curiosity to keep me going to learn more about the events unfolding and what is going on with both of these worlds.
However, I really enjoyed FANTASIAN’s gameplay and feel they made some decisions here that other JRPGs should adopt. The game utilizes a turn-based combat system where each character acts individually and in an order determined by their stats. All characters have regular attacks and skills or magic they can use, draining their MP when using it. Some of these skills could have different elemental affinities, where enemies could be weak to or resist. And once the battle is done, you gain experience points to level up and currency to spend on items and new gear.
However, the way you take down enemies is different than other games. Instead of targeting individual enemies, you will have different skills and weapons that can pierce or hit full areas. You can aim your attacks to Frey and hit as many enemies as you possibly can, or go after the ones next on the timeline. Some attacks can even be curved, which allows them to go around some enemies in front of you and hit them in a diagonal line. I think it’s an awesome mechanic, but it pairs perfectly with the dimension mechanic.
Battles in FANTASIAN pop up out of nowhere and often as you roam around. It can be a bit annoying. A lot of games have a mechanic like this, and while some navigate it alright, it isn’t the greatest if it happens too frequently and battles take too long. Instead of changing up the pacing, we have the dimension system. As long as you have regularly battled a monster once, they will instead be sucked into your dimension tool. This tool can hold 30 monsters before you have to battle them, putting you against 30 instead of constant smaller battles. These dimension battles, or Dimengeon battles, are significantly more appealing than the smaller ones, happen less frequently, but still are great for grinding and getting more experience and item drops. You do get some chances to increase your attack or steal a turn from the enemy in these, making fighting against more monsters easier. Paired with the aiming you do for skills, each move you make matters in how you will overcome the odds.
The progression systems are very basic in the beginning too. For the first part of the game, lasting around 10-20 hours, you will be stuck to leveling up and getting new gear to become stronger. You can buy weapons, armor, and gems from shops, or find them in chests, to equip, but that’s really it. In the second part, you will be able to do much more with upgrading gear with new attributes, growth maps that use skill points to enhance yourself, and a new "Tension" gauge that allows you to utilize special moves. I really wish these mechanics came into play sooner, since the first 10-20 hours were just not as appealing because of it. You can also respec the growth maps at will for no cost.
There are side quests you can find in the overworld, which is a nice way to spice up the main story path. Some are quite memorable too, though I found myself enjoying the dimension battle grind more than following the story paths. This is nice, since the game is a larger one that I could see going up to 60 hours in length. On one hand, I really enjoy longer experiences, but on the other, it can feel like a slog in the first part of the game.
Luckily, playing these kinds of experiences are fantastic on the Steam Deck, and FANTASIAN fits perfectly on the go.
While I didn't get to play FANTASIAN Neo Dimension at the Tokyo Game Show, I discovered it was running on a Steam Deck for the demos. It shows that Square Enix felt confident about the game's performance, and that confidence is well-placed! The game runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck, easily hitting 60 FPS while sticking below a 9W battery drain. It makes sense, considering the original game was a mobile phone release, but it's still wonderful to see.
The one issue I found is how you control your character in the overworld. When you walk around, the camera angle shifts to pre-defined spots, similar to Final Fantasy 7-9 or the original Resident Evil 1-3 releases. When the camera changes, your character will still move in the same direction that you were holding the joystick before. However, if you try to move it around, it will awkwardly turn your character around, making them run in a different direction than where your joystick is pointing.
Other games with static camera angles have remedied this by making the character snap to whatever direction the joystick is pointing. I feel this is significantly better than just making the character turn from the direction they are already running. This can be jarring, especially as you go through multiple camera angles in one strip of land.
Otherwise, I don't have any complaints here! The game runs wonderfully on the Steam Deck and is easily the best way to play it:
There is a way to play the game at 90 FPS if you are on the OLED Steam Deck, but there are areas where it will stutter and drop below to 81-87 FPS, even at low graphical settings. This is why I recommend a framerate cap at 60 in general, for stability purposes.
In the configuration menu, you can change volume bars and voice volume, toggle voice overs altogether, change the message speed and whether they will auto play, change the shortcut menu, turn on memory text effects, and change what button can be used to confirm actions.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, so there are no black bars, and there are both cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
FANTASIAN Neo Dimension has a lot of pros and cons to it, and while it isn't perfect, I highly recommend picking it up if you are a JRPG fan. I really enjoy the combat mechanics and dimension battles, and the world is just downright gorgeous with a great mixture of real-life dioramas and digital 3D models. It made me think of the older Final Fantasy titles often as I traveled throughout the world. I do wish the progression systems came into play earlier, and the story was a bit tighter, but it does the job and still felt satisfying as I played through the 40 - 60 hour experience.
Playing on the Steam Deck is a joy, and I have no complaints with the performance. Outside of controlling your character as you run through different camera angles, which would be an issue playing with any controller or gamepad, it's a perfect experience on Deck. Even with its issues, this was a wonderful experience and I think anyone who enjoys RPGs or JRPGs should pick it up.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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FANTASIAN Neo Dimension is a solid JRPG that has some great ideas, as well as some smaller issues, but it is a joy to experience on the Steam Deck.
