Fantasian Neo Dimension is a bit of like Japanese position taking part in recreation consolation meals. There’s the marginally androgynous amnesiac hero. He’ll go on a quest to reclaim his reminiscences and alongside the best way he’ll meet up with a barely kooky orphan mage with secrets and techniques of her personal to uncover. They will befriend the sassy princess, the lovable rogue, the comedian aid, and extra. Collectively they’re going to uncover that there is a world, nay, universe-ending menace on the horizon, and solely they’ve the means to cease it.
You are Leo, and you do not keep in mind who you’re or why you are within the Machine Realm, a world of steel and robots and conveyer belts and sparks and gray. It is grim. After your daring escape from the metallic hell you awoke in, you wander the human realm attempting to piece collectively your id. This includes — in conventional JRPG fashion — speaking to individuals in cities, traversing the world map, recruiting new allies, getting into dungeons, and besting villains.
The sport’s world was created first by making precise dioramas for every location after which 3D-scanning them, successfully utilizing the scans as pre-rendered backgrounds for the extra conventional 3D anime characters we management to discover. The outcomes are fairly lovely, lending every location a real-but-not-quite high quality. It is a bit of like taking a look at {a photograph} of the inside of a doll’s home, or the bit within the outdated Godzilla films the place he smashes up the cardboard metropolis. You possibly can inform the whole lot is a miniature, painstakingly hand-crafted. It by no means seems really actual, however we admire the work it took to construct.
Fantasian’s soundtrack comes from the legendary composer of many Remaining Fantasy video games, Nobuo Uematsu, and his work right here is splendid. From the jaunty items that play throughout moments of hijinks to the commercial din of the Machine Realm, the elegant pomp of the Royal Capital to the dramatic themes throughout climactic battles, the soundtrack is unequivocally chic. The tunes are diverse, becoming, and eminently hummable.
There have been moments taking part in Fantasian that evoked such robust emotions of nostalgia in us that they had been nearly palpable. The pleasant music from Uematsu, the pre-rendered backgrounds — should you flip off the marginally grating voice performing, it seems like a kind of Remaining Fantasy video games from the unique PlayStation, like an unfinished lacking hyperlink between Remaining Fantasy IX and X, lastly unearthed over 20 years later for our taking part in pleasure. It is great, or at the least, it is great till you get right into a battle.
Fight might be what is going on to make or break this recreation for you. There have been instances we cherished it, and different instances we hated it. It feels unbalanced; each means too straightforward and means too tough relying on the place you’re within the journey. It is the kind of recreation the place, relying on which abilities you’ve got unlocked on the talent tree, the following boss you battle will both be unimaginable or trivial. In the event you observe the extent suggestions for quests you will rapidly uncover any minor enemies you face in that quest will die as quickly as you have a look at them, however bosses you encounter will likely be more durable than a coffin nail. It is all around the store.
Battles in Fantasian are turn-based. A useful chart on the backside of the display tells you which ones character’s flip it’s, who’s subsequent, after which a dozen or so turns after that. You possibly can plan which character goes to assault or heal or buff based mostly on their placement within the working order. In your flip you’ll be able to both use a normal assault, a particular talent, or an merchandise.
Most assaults in Fantasian are projectile based mostly, and so enemy positioning issues. In the event you occur to see enemies stood in a line you’ll be able to hearth a projectile to hit all of them one after one other. Some characters can solid spells which you could hearth on a curved trajectory to hit a number of enemies in flip. Some assaults, like grenades or bombs, hit a number of enemies in an space.
Battles contain figuring out essentially the most environment friendly solution to hit as many enemies as you’ll be able to with every flip so you’ll be able to take them out earlier than they take you out. In the event that they’re bunched collectively, throw a grenade. In the event that they’re a bit of unfold out then your mage would possibly be capable to curve a spell to hit 4 or 5 of them directly. It is a bit of like fixing a puzzle, and for some time we had been actually into it.
Sadly, Fantasian suffers from some really outrageous issue spikes. You will get by means of a whole lot of battles utilizing principally no technique in any respect. They’re far too straightforward. Then you definitely’ll face a boss that does not simply require strategic pondering; it requires you to observe a particular technique, and even then luck is concerned. It is not a recreation the place you are rewarded for experimentation. It is a recreation that requires you to have a selected talent unlocked, do that factor, then that factor, then the opposite factor, after which pray to the RNG gods that the unsuitable particular person would not die when the enemy retaliates.
We discovered it actually irritating, and it turns into much more irritating roughly half-way by means of the sport when the talent bushes open up. After you have entry to the talent bushes, you’ll be able to tailor your characters to your liking, specializing in a selected talent or trait. However you will then battle bosses which can be nigh-impossible with out getting access to sure abilities, which clearly you do not know till you battle them. Thankfully, you’ll be able to simply reset the talent bushes and get your factors again to reallocate them. Some individuals would possibly like any such micromanagement, however we discovered it irritating.
One shining star within the fight system is the Dimengeon Machine. In the event you flip the Dimengeon on, it’s going to “inventory” random battles for you, so as an alternative of being interrupted as you discover the world to battle an enormous crab or one thing, you will merely get a notification to inform you that an enemy has been added to the machine. As soon as you’ve got stocked thirty enemies, a dimengeon battle will happen during which you will battle all the enemies you’ve got stocked in a single go, letting you’re taking out a number of baddies directly with curved assaults or area-of-effect spells. You possibly can flip this function on or off, however we loved utilizing it and having much less interruptions and extra attention-grabbing battles.
Conclusion
Fantasian Neo Dimension evokes reminiscences of basic Remaining Fantasy. It is received an impeccable soundtrack, lovely locales, and a world that evokes surprise. However it’s let down a bit of by likeable however fiercely archetypal characters and a by-the-numbers story, and it is let down loads by wild and uneven issue spikes that make fight a supply of fixed frustration within the second half of the journey.
