Hironobu Sakaguchi's FANTASIAN

[conchobhar]

After a few months of teasing, Mistwalker has finally revealed their latest project, and it looks incredible:

Just look at it! I'm a huge fan of when games have art styles that emulate the look of arts & crafts, but this is the real deal: they made actual, physical dioramas for this, photographed them, and used them in the game. I think it looks amazing, gives it a real unique character, and is an interesting way to bring back the pre-rendered, fixed camera look so common in PS1 games.

But it's not all eye-candy: the trailer also shows off some of the game's mechanics, which also seem very interesting. This won't be the first RPG to let the player dismiss random encounters for a time; but the way you only delay those encounters, and then have to fight them all at once, is something that really gives it teeth. The battles also seem to have something interesting going on with the ability to diret the angle of attack, and even in the brief snippets in the trailer, it looks to have a lot of potential.

Polygon has a brief article on the game, where they talked to Sakaguchi for some more details on the conception and design of the game; nothing too revealing, but still interesting. Meanwhile, Mistwalker's official site has a few screenshots and behind-the-scenes images of the dioramas and their construction.

There is some bad news, though: it's currently announced as an Apple Arcade exclusive. But most Apple Arcade exclusives have since popped up on other platforms, so hopefully this will too. But until then… well, I'm very tempted to subscribe to the service just for this.

 

[WildcatJF]

I am SOOOOOOO hype for what I've seen for this, and I hope it leaves Apple Arcade as soon as possible.

 

[Falselogic]

I can wait a year or two for this!

 

[YangusKhan]

I am intrigued but tempering my expectations. I actually haven't ever finished any of Mistwalker's games before dropping them for one reason or another.

 

[Zef]

Oooooh the Diorama style looks really great and I like the ability to "put off" battles while exploring or until I'm ready to deal with them--

an Apple Arcade exclusive

Aaaaaaaugh

 

[ghosttaster]

The diorama concept is terrific but the character and enemy graphics are kinda disappointing in comparison. I guess it's too much to ask for stop motion but even something like a less far-out spin on Hylics could have been very cool.

 

[conchobhar]

The diorama concept is terrific but the character and enemy graphics are kinda disappointing in comparison. I guess it's too much to ask for stop motion but even something like a less far-out spin on Hylics could have been very cool.

That's the only part of it that lets me down. I can't really fault them for doing 3D models for all the characters and enemies, but I wish they were more stylized— having shaders that made them resemble figurines or something.

 

[Becksworth]

When I first heard they were using dioramas I thought they were just being quirky for art’s sake, but being seeing all those camera pans that can’t be as easily done with traditional pre rendered background shows some method to the madness. As for the 3D models, yeah, doing digitized stop motion animation would have probably been too much, and I also imagine they are wanting to target some older iOS devices still, which may limit what they can do on the shader end.

Given the turn around I’ve seen on Apple Arcade to Switch eShop ports, hopefully people who don’t have any Apple devices won’t have to wait too long to play this.

Edit: Oh, and there is a second “Story” trailer too...

 

[Paul le Fou]

The diorama concept is terrific but the character and enemy graphics are kinda disappointing in comparison. I guess it's too much to ask for stop motion but even something like a less far-out spin on Hylics could have been very cool.

Yeah, and it's not just their quality; the sprites and backgrounds clash worse than they did in the PS1 FFs. The designs also look like very boring generic anime/JRPG designs.

That said, the FFX/Scarlet Grace/etc. battle-order bar at the bottom, the "save up monsters and fight them all at once" concept, and messing with angles of spells to hit multiple enemies all seem like there's a lot of potential for the battle system. And thinking more about the diorama potential of messing with several static/"pre-rendered" camera angles, it could be really cool.

Hope it comes off apple arcade, or I'll literally never play it~

EDIT:

Edit: Oh, and there is a second “Story” trailer too...

Yeah, see, this all just looks Not Very Interesting At All.

 

[fanboymaster]

It looks like an augmented reality game a la what happened when you used those cards that came with the 3DS rather than a unified aesthetic. Maybe the game will use that but it definitely doesn't make me regret not having immediate access to it before impressions show up about how the final product is.

 

[Zef]

Edit: Oh, and there is a second “Story” trailer too...

I'm not really all that bothered by the PS2-era models with XB360-era resolution/colors. I am, after all, still looking forward to SMT Nocturne and any other PS2 ports that may result from it. The animation of those models, wellllll... I know nothing about Apple Arcade so I don't know what kind of platform it is but I hope that these are really just prototypes. As for it being a story trailer, it was just a big bunch of flashy scenes. There's very little actual content in to even begin to tell what the story is beyond the basics "chosen prettyboy with unique power gathers teen allies and a whoooooooole lotta moe girls versus a very transparently evil villain. Also, end of the world yadda yadda." But other than the ridiculously cheesy moe girls, the stilted animation, and the couple of Anime As a Derogatory Qualifier anime scenes, I liked some of the stuff? I love the ship/skimmer design, and some of the environments. They're definitely going to clash with the diorama aesthetic, though.

I wish Sakaguchi would do more Blue Dragons and Lost Odysseys. Or, rather, I wish Microsoft threw more money at him to make more BDs and LOs.

 

[MetManMas]

Don't exactly have an Apple device, but if this shows up on other platforms eventually I might give it a look.

I wish Sakaguchi would do more Blue Dragons and Lost Odysseys. Or, rather, I wish Microsoft threw more money at him to make more BDs and LOs.

Personally I would be all for something set in the Terra Battle universe that's more of a full-fledged RPG instead of a gacha.

While the game was still around I liked all the lore stuff and character art and that some people were giant furry lizards, but I wanted more from the gameplay than banging a bunch of colorful squares together.

 

[Becksworth]

Sounds like this is starting to roll out in different regions? From what I heard they are doing what Wayforward did with Shantae and the Seven Sirens and breaking this up into two parts, with the latter half releasing later this year.

I just so happened to have recently gotten a new iOS device eligible for three free months of Apple Arcade, so I can give my impressions of it once it’s live in North America.

 

[Becksworth]

Initial thoughts:

• Liking it so far. I wouldn’t go out of your way to buy an Apple product just for it, but so far it seems like a perfectly solid JRPG in the vein of PS1 era Final Fantasies. I saw described elsewhere that if this was a Kickstarter project, anyone who would have backed it would be pleased with the results, which I can agree with.
• When playing without a controller the game controls like a point and click adventure title, which I honestly prefer much more than the virtual dpad solution most mobile RPGs seem to settled on.
• Graphically, I think it works better on smaller phone screens, as the pre-rendered backgrounds and models blend better. On Apple TV meanwhile, I’m noticing the background shimmers when it moves. Could be it upscaling to 4K or something, not entirely sure...
• Speaking multiple devices, there is a weird quirk with the cloud saves if you’re trying to play on multiple devices. The first time you play the game on a device it forces you to start a new game, meaning you have to watch the intro movie and play through the tutorial battle before it lets you load up your existing save. Presumably this an oversight and will be patched in the future (or be a non issue in any hypothetical ports).

 

[Phantoon]

I don't have Apple Arcade but I'll jump on this when it moves onto other platforms. I think that the reason this exists is due to ex-FFVI staff replaying that game on their SNES Classics is just fantastic.

 

[Kirin]

the reason this exists is due to ex-FFVI staff replaying that game on their SNES Classics

Well daaaaang, now I really hope this gets ported eventually.

 

[Becksworth]

So part 2 is supposed to be dropping on Apple Arcade sometime soon in case anyone was sitting on a free trial waiting for the full release.

I never finished part one before my trial ended, so at this point I might hold out for a Switch port, but I did enjoy what I did play.

 

[Becksworth]

This game apparently popped up on Steamdb, so ports to other platforms may be coming in the near future.