Fantasian Neo Dimension is a new lease on life for a modern RPG classic

Fantasian Neo Dimension makes me very, very happy. 

In 2021, I sung the praises of Fantasian from Mistwalker, the studio helmed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, but lamented the fact that it was only available on Apple Arcade. While I understood the business reasons for an indie developer going this route, it also meant that so many people were missing out on such a wonderful RPG.

But, as fate would have it, Sakaguchi’s friendship with Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida ultimately led to Mistwalker striking a deal with none other than Square Enix, Sakaguchi’s old employer and the house that Final Fantasy built, to bring Fantasian to more platforms. Enter Fantasian Neo Dimension, an enhanced port of Fantasian that offers a number of smart tweaks and new features while otherwise preserving the experience as is.

The end result is the definitive version of an excellent game that both lovingly harkens back to the JRPGs of old and introduces some clever twists on that formula. Now, everyone can play it, and I’m overjoyed.

Looking back, I stand by everything I said in my original Fantasian review. But for the uninitiated, the long and short of Fantasian is that this is a turn-based RPG that follows Leo, a young amnesiac who finds himself caught up in a battle between the human and machine worlds. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a tropey story, as that premise suggests, but that’s also part of its charm as a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy. Indeed, Sakaguchi was first inspired to make Fantasian after revisiting Final Fantasy VI — one of the greatest games of all time — and wanting to return to his roots.

That DNA can be felt throughout Fantasian. While the core plot is quite familiar, the narrative, as penned by Sakaguchi, leans into his strengths as an imaginative and sentimental storyteller. As you play, one of the key driving mysteries of the story is the interdimensional exploits of Leo’s enigmatic father, which add a more personal and relatable connection to the conflict. And on a deeper level, the tragic backstories of Princess Cheryl and the mysterious mage Kina provide a strong emotional hook that adds texture to the universe. At the same time, those old Final Fantasy games balanced their sincere character drama with a great deal of whimsy and silliness, and Fantasian offers that in spades, especially whenever airship captain Zinikr and spunky genius orphan Ez are amusingly butting heads.

Fantasian also re-teams Sakaguchi with his friend and frequent collaborator, Nobuo Uematsu, the legendary composer of Final Fantasy. (For my money, he’s the greatest musician in the history of video games.) No spiritual successor to Sakaguchi’s work would be complete without Uematsu, and so it’s only fitting that he composed Fantasian‘s entire 60-piece score. As Uematsu has recently stated, he likely won’t do full soundtracks anymore, outside of stirring single contributions to the likes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, so Fantasian might very well be his last. Thankfully, it’s a strong note to go out on, featuring an almost experimental mix of classic rock, piano and synth ensembles with such distinct sounds as an internet dial-up connection to set the tone for an alternate dimension robot factory.

Fantasian also excels in its presentation. Quite marvellously, the game features more than 150 handcrafted dioramas made by those in Japan’s “Tokusatsu” special effects industry (behind the likes of Godzilla, Ultraman and Attack on Titan). These have been scanned into the game and serve as the environments through which the digital characters will traverse. It’s a brilliant visual style for two key reasons: it simultaneously gives Fantasian a remarkably unique and tactile world while also feeling like a nostalgic throwback of sorts to the pre-rendered backgrounds of Final Fantasy VII.

Fantasian doesn’t just rely on nostalgia, though. In fact, the game offers two of my favourite innovations to the traditional JRPG format in years. First, there’s the ‘Dimengeon’ system, which lets you temporarily disable random encounters in favour of having those enemies sent to an interdimensional prison. From there, you can choose to fight them all in one big battle (separated by waves) to earn greater rewards. This ingenious mechanic lends Fantasian a fascinating risk-reward element; do you fight random enemies one-by-one where they’re more manageable, or take a shot at a more dangerous but fulfilling skirmish? Special offensive and defensive power-ups will also occasionally spawn in the arena so you’re not overwhelmed.

The second innovative mechanic is the ability to arc certain moves, like the blade of energy Leo launches for his standard attack, to hit multiple enemies at once. This becomes particularly strategic if one row of enemies is led by a shield-equipped foe or another with a particular elemental resistance, so you might need to have two allies team up to clear the front ranks before the third party member can successfully arc their attack. Naturally, this becomes even more useful in Dimengeon battles to help you clear groups of enemies. Given that turn-based battles with random encounters can sometimes be tedious, I absolutely adore how Fantasian provides some welcome tools to shake it all up with greater player agency.

Giving you even more options this time around is everything new to the Neo Dimension. First, there’s full English and Japanese voiceovers, which were all solid and help flesh out Sakaguchi’s writing even more. On the subject of audio, you can also switch between Fantasian‘s original score and several songs from various Final Fantasy songs, including those from the Pixel Remaster series, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth and XIV: Shadowbringers and Dawntrail. What better way to celebrate history than some of the best songs in all of gaming? And on the graphical end, Neo Dimension also features welcome 4K support on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC.

But the best new addition, by far, is the inclusion of a new ‘Normal’ difficulty setting. In the original Fantasian, the latter half of the game suffered from a ridiculous difficulty spike in which bosses would routinely decimate your party. It felt overly unfair and actually led me to drop the game. Mistwalker graciously understood this, in the end, as that original difficulty is now labelled as ‘Hard’ in Neo Dimension alongside the new Normal option. At the same time, this re-release also inadvertently fixes one of the other structural issues with the original game — it launched in two parts in March and August of 2021. Coming back to a game several months later can already be challenging, especially if you played a bunch of other titles in between, and then that difficulty spike only made everything even harder. Now, however, those issues have been fixed.

I’m so glad that they’ve been fixed, too, because Fantasian really is a gem, especially given the current RPG climate. In recent years, there’s been a heated debate about Final Fantasy pivoting to real-time action, a clear attempt to bring in new players that’s arguably come at the expense of old ones. While I’ve loved the recent FF games, I’m certainly sympathetic to those complaints, particularly as someone who loves turn-based. But if nothing else, that conversation also makes it even easier to recommend Fantasian. In so many ways, it feels like a long-lost FF game from Square’s golden PS1 era, and I’m ecstatic that it’s getting this grand re-release to reach more people.

Whether you’re an old-school Final Fantasy aficionado or someone who’s looking for a damn good JRPG, Fantasian Neo Dimension is absolutely the right game for you.

Fantasian Neo Dimension will launch on December 5th on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC. The original version of Fantasian remains available on Apple Arcade.

Image credit: Square Enix