Games Happy

It’s no secret right here at RPG Website that the majority of us cherished Fantasian when it initially got here to Apple Arcade three years in the past. Hell, it one way or the other even received our 2021 Recreation of the Yr award which nonetheless appears surreal, but it surely completely deserved it. So when developer Mistwalker unveiled Fantasian Neo Dimension again in June for PS5, PS4, Xbox Collection X|S, Swap, and PC with the assistance of Sq. Enix, many people in our tremendous secret workers Discord chatroom had been thrilled. I acquired the possibility to go hands-on with the PS5 model of this new launch of Fantasian, now free from its Apple Arcade exclusivity.

In its announcement, among the new options detailed had been 4K visuals for the PS5, Xbox Collection X|S, and PC variations, together with a better problem possibility; Sq. Enix additionally talked about that “all cutscenes, and plenty of non-obligatory scenes within the recreation are actually voice acted” with assist for English and Japanese voices. 

One of many new unannounced options that I acquired to tinker round with in my hands-on session is the brand new battle music selector. Accessible each within the settings menu and in battle, individuals can pull up an inventory of varied Remaining Fantasy video games that can play choose tracks from them. The titles selectable had been Remaining Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, Remaining Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, Remaining Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Remaining Fantasy VII: Remake, Remaining Fantasy Pixel Remaster, and Remaining Fantasy XVI. There was a random possibility on the very backside too, if you’d like fight to simply play a special tune each time you interact into battle.

Truthfully, it’s a little bit of an odd determination. Fantasian shouldn’t be Remaining Fantasy. I do know Sq. Enix is pushing Sakaguchi’s title and legacy to market Fantasian Neo Dimension to the broader market, but it surely’s troublesome to not understand this as a insecurity in Fantasian having the ability to stand by itself. Somewhat, they really feel the necessity to have the phrases ‘Remaining Fantasy’ someplace within the recreation, even when the vast majority of the titles are tasks that Sakaguchi has by no means touched.

Apart from that, the hands-on demo for Fantasian Neo Dimension fulfilled my expectations for what I needed from Fantasian; it was not confined to the restrictions of Apple units, so the hand-crafted diorama environments regarded as crisp as ever. They had been already stunningly stunning within the authentic Apple Arcade launch, however they come out a lot extra brilliantly in Fantasian Neo Dimension. It’s very simple to identify all of the love put into the little particulars in these dioramas and I personally want Fantasian Neo Dimension had some form of diorama gallery to view all the unique diorama fashions in isolation from the in-game property.

The demo encompassed Leo, Kina, and Cheryl’s preliminary arrival to the Historic Hill area the place they encountered Tan, a mysterious solitary determine with a spirit beast named Galf.

It isn’t lengthy till the group is attacked by a gaggle of troopers who’ve been pursuing them. When you’ve performed the unique Fantasian, nothing has basically modified in the way in which it performs. Fight is all turn-based with a visual flip order timeline, so gamers can all the time hold monitor of who’s taking their flip subsequent.

Fantasian’s battle system closely emphasizes hitting a number of enemies directly, so many talents journey alongside a path that may inherently pierce by means of a number of foes. A Hearth spell, for instance, might be manually aimed in a line and all enemies alongside that line shall be hit; when aiming a spell, they will bend to allow them to journey in a U-shaped trajectory as effectively.

In fact, Mistwalker has designed some counters to this technique. Some enemies can instantly cease an assault or spell’s traversal as a result of their shields will stop it from piercing them. Gamers might should goal from a special angle to bypass these enemies, so it solely hits the foes behind them.

There are different talents that may bypass this counter… so, a counter to the counter. Cheryl’s Knightly Influence talent, for example, doesn’t journey alongside an arc. As a substitute, this capacity has her Knight guardian instantly strike from above to all enemies within the AoE zone instantly, so protect enemies can’t bodily cease this talent from hitting the foes behind them.

Throughout battles, I did discover some decelerate in efficiency when enemies had been defeated and their fashions had been fading away from the battle. It caught out, however I think about it is going to be ironed out by the point it absolutely releases. Consider that is nonetheless an in-development construct of Fantasian Neo Dimension.

One other distinct function retained from Fantasian to Fantasian Neo Dimension is the Dimengeon System. Usually, individuals would provoke battles instantly by way of a random encounter like older RPGs; individuals shall be operating round a map till unexpectedly, the display screen will twist, flip, spiral, and transfer in different methods to point that they’ve run into a gaggle of enemies and the sport mechanically transports their get together right into a battle encounter enviornment instantly.

With Fantasian, individuals can flip on the Dimengeon function to “retailer” a number of random encounters to battle them later. The caveat is that the enemies that may’ve proven up in these battles should have been encountered and crushed not less than as soon as earlier than. Folks should usually battle and eradicate any brand-new enemy varieties initially, earlier than any subsequent fights with that very same enemy sort might be put into the Dimengeon.

So if an individual has run into each form of enemy sort in a area, they will freely discover it uninterrupted when the Dimengeon System is on. Any battle encounter set off will present up as gentle orbs touring into the Dimengeon. Bear in mind that the Dimengeon can solely maintain so many enemies earlier than gamers should enter it and get rid of all of the enemies they’ve been storing.

The enjoyable facet of participating in Dimengeon fights over common enemy counters on the sphere is that there shall be particular momentary modifiers gamers can choose as much as buff their get together, akin to assault boosts and taking one other flip instantly. Folks must stability hitting as many enemies as attainable with their offensive talents, or typically make a trade-off like sacrificing hitting two enemies to hit a useful modifier, as a substitute. 

I gotta admit that whereas I do have qualms concerning the inclusion of the battle music selector, jamming out to “Discover the Flame” from FFXVI’s OST made a considerably prolonged Dimengeon battle extra thrilling.

Apart from that, the Fantasian Neo Dimension hands-on session led as much as the conclusion of the golem boss battle within the Historic Hill space. It was pretty transient, however the existence of Fantasian Neo Dimension alone is thrilling as a result of meaning I’ll have the ability to speak about Fantasian to extra individuals and never simply the loopy individuals on RPG Website (together with me) who both purchased an Apple TV to play it or already owned an Apple gadget and subscribed to Apple Arcade in an effort to play it. There’s nonetheless no agency launch date but, and continues to be slated to launch a while in Winter 2024.