Fantasian

[mediocrepoet]

Maybe. What I saw from reviews of the original release didn't leave me inspired, but I'm always happy to be proven wrong when it means actually good games being released rather than the general nostalgia cash in drek we often see these days.

Reviews of the full game - not just the first half - left me very inspired. It all sounded like a great return to form for Sakaguchi and Mistwalker, ala Lost Odyssey. What exactly was it that made it sound bad?

Would it disappoint you to hear that I don't remember? I didn't exactly spend a lot of time doing deep research here.

 

[Jinn]

Would it disappoint you to hear that I don't remember? I didn't exactly spend a lot of time doing deep research here.

No, it shows. That's kind of why I asked. My assumption is if you read anything about it, you went into it with the mindset "this is mobile trash and I'm never playing it anyway," so any negative far outweighed the positives. I understand that position, but think there was enough about this project that should have made you look a little deeper if you care about any of those outstanding aspects. I just think saying blindly that you were left uninspired by what you read about the game, with the above mindset in consideration, is being negative for the sake of being negative only, and doesn't contribute much of value to the conversation.

Now if you could have remembered specifics and proven my assumption wrong, I would have been very interested to read those particular points.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Would it disappoint you to hear that I don't remember? I didn't exactly spend a lot of time doing deep research here.

No, it shows. That's kind of why I asked. My guess is if you read anything about it, you went into it with the mindset "this is mobile trash and I'm never playing it anyway," so any negative far outweighed the positives. I understand that position, but think there was enough about this project that should have made you look a little deeper if you care about any of those outstanding aspects. I just think saying blindly that you were left uninspired by what you read about the game with the above mindset in consideration is being negative for the sake of being negative only, and doesn't contribute much of value to the conversation.

Meh, you made a remark and I replied to the remark. The only reason I'm checking this thread at all is to see what the reception is once it releases on a platform I might actually check out. I did briefly look at the mobile reviews and they didn't leave me jizzing my pants, but I appreciate the devs enough to have not written it off entirely.

Simply because someone hasn't followed a project since it's inception on iOS of all things and isn't rabidly fanboying over something is generally a viewpoint I tend to find more interesting because they aren't completely up their own ass singing praises. That particular approach is as useless as the guys who just shit on everything. cp. luj1 and Fluent.

Now if you could have remembered specifics and proven my assumption wrong, I would have been very interested to read those particular points.

That's fair.

 

[Jinn]

I did briefly look at the mobile reviews and they didn't leave me jizzing my pants, but I appreciate the devs enough to have not written it off entirely.

I hope you understand that I wasn't left "jizzing my pants" either. Rarely is there anything that's going to get me that excited these days. It just seems to be a decent-to-good JRPG with a unique aesthetic approach, some people who I respect working on it, and a fair amount of challenge in the later portions. I'm excited to play it, but I don't think it's going to be a revolutionary experience or anything. The only reason I'm addressing your blase comments on it is because I think it's a pretty standard stance I'd expect most codexers to take, and do so with little knowledge to actually back it up. I get tired of that attitude around here, but I like you and usually like your posts, so figured I'd give you the respect of addressing your attitude, rather than ignoring it like I normally would for most other posters.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I did briefly look at the mobile reviews and they didn't leave me jizzing my pants, but I appreciate the devs enough to have not written it off entirely.

I hope you understand that I wasn't left "jizzing my pants" either. Rarely is there anything that's going to get me that excited these days. It just seems to be a decent-to-good JRPG with a unique aesthetic approach, some people who I respect working on it, and a fair amount of challenge in the later portions. I'm excited to play it, but I don't think it's going to be a revolutionary experience or anything. The only reason I'm addressing your blase comments on it is because I think it's a pretty standard stance I'd expect most codexers to take, and do so with little knowledge to actually back it up. I get tired of that attitude around here, but like you and usually like your posts, so figured I'd give you the respect of addressing your attitude, rather than ignoring it like I normally would for most other posters.

That's fair. Like I say, I'm mostly wait and seeing to see what the rerelease actually is and how its received. I'm not interested enough to go out of my way to look up anything on it and it's close enough to release I figure this will all be moot soon anyway. I had thought it was apparent: I'm reserving judgment for the rerelease on its own merits since 1) games can be constrained by the various facets of the platform they release on and 2) I assume they are tweaking things for this rerelease, hence the name change, so it's not just a straight port dump. (Theoretically.)

 

[Abu Antar]

I'll get this one for $15-$20, and not a penny more.

 

[Grauken]

https://www.rpgsite.net/review/11663-fantasian-neo-dimension-review

Fantasian: Neo Dimension​

It's now been over 3 years since Fantasian released on Apple Arcade, and the game has finally been ported to consoles and PC - and the lingering issues that plagued the Apple Arcade release are no longer applicable to the updated version, Fantasian: Neo Dimension. A new "Normal" mode has rebalanced the game, and while the original difficulty remains accessible in Neo Dimension as a Hard Mode, this means that it's much easier to recommend the game to players that might have otherwise been put off by the difficulty spike later in the game.

Additionally, in my experience replaying the game on PC, the new release is remarkably more stable and performant than when we had played the original relaese on Apple TV 4K (2021). We experienced no crashes on any of our PC systems, and performance was strong enough that we are confident that any reasonable PC setup will have absolutely no issues playing the game. Finally, additional improvements such as the new voice acting have had a profound impact on the game's presentation during key scenes, particularly memories. All put together, Fantasian was already a game we were confident in giving our RPG of the Year 2021, and Neo Dimension has thoroughly polished things to a shine.

 

[Jinn]

Too bad about "Hard" mode just being the normal game, but I'm relieved the original difficulty was left intact. That was really the only concern I had, and I'm glad it's been put to bed. 10/10 seems a bit much, but you pretty much never see that score on RPGsite. Anyway, here's a good review to read mediocrepoet. Hyperbole aside, sounds pretty fucking good to me.

 

[Jinn]

Lowest score it's received, because it's too difficult.


A glowing review if I've ever seen one. You can't make this shit up. Even further concreted my purchase.

 

[HoboForEternity]

I Overspent on this current sale, my gaming budget is depleted, plus i have like 10 extra games to play now, so i will wait. I hope the game do well though.

 

[Thac0]

played this on a borrowed apple device, it is not a bad game, but full price is crazy overpriced

 

[Jinn]

played this on a borrowed apple device, it is not a bad game, but full price is crazy overpriced

Got it for $40, which seems like a fair price to me for an older game getting a good port job with full voice acting in two different languages added in. But I also personally see it as an opportunity to signal to Squeenix that they should continue supporting Mistwalker when they can. I can see people being more willing to pay something like $25-30 overall, but from my perspective I'm still getting a 50-70 hour classic JRPG experience that feels almost like I've been dropped back in front of my CRT and PSX circa 1997-2000, with two of the biggest names in the genre's creative stamp on it. Nothing has felt quite like this since then except Fantasian, and that's a feeling worth investing in for me.

Different values for different people. Sad to see this bombing so far. There's a lot of different factors involved, and I understand them, but after playing a solid 9 hours I can confidently say the game is something special. It has a bit of a slower start both narratively and gameplay-wise, but it's really starting to come into its own. The only thing that feels remotely "mobile gamish" to me about it is some of the menu UI elements, mostly in terms of their visual implementation. Game actually plays really cool with mouse and keyboard too.

 

[Thac0]

played this on a borrowed apple device, it is not a bad game, but full price is crazy overpriced

Got it for $40, which seems like a fair price to me for an older game getting a good port job with full voice acting in two different languages added in. But I also personally see it as an opportunity to signal to Squeenix that they should continue supporting Mistwalker when they can. I can see people being more willing to pay something like $25-30 overall, but from my perspective I'm still getting a 50-70 hour classic JRPG experience that feels almost like I've been dropped back in front of my CRT and PSX circa 1997-2000, with two of the biggest names in the genre's creative stamp on it. Nothing has felt quite like this since then except Fantasian, and that's a feeling worth investing in for me.

Different values for different people. Sad to see this bombing so far. There's a lot of different factors involved, and I understand them, but after playing a solid 9 hours I can confidently say the game is something special. It has a bit of a slower start both narratively and gameplay-wise, but it's really starting to come into its own. The only thing that feels remotely "mobile gamish" to me about it is some of the menu UI elements, mostly in terms of their visual implementation. Game actually plays really cool with mouse and keyboard too.

The problem is expectations and sentiment. The game in itself may actually be worth that much, but squeenix did not actually make itself any friends by putting it on a console that is known to be used only by rich tech illiterate boomers, making is subscription only, making it a mobile game first and foremost, with the only other mobile apple arcade squeenix game being the horrendous various daylife, and then on the long-awaited port taking price the reasonable price.
While signalling more interest in Mistwalker is good, this also signals being fine with bad business tactics, which equals out to zero, or wait for sale, for me

 

[Jinn]

The problem is expectations and sentiment. The game in itself may actually be worth that much, but squeenix did not actually make itself any friends by putting it on a console that is known to be used only by rich tech illiterate boomers, making is subscription only, making it a mobile game first and foremost, with the only other mobile apple arcade squeenix game being the horrendous various daylife, and then on the long-awaited port taking price the reasonable price.
While signalling more interest in Mistwalker is good, this also signals being fine with bad business tactics, which equals out to zero, or wait for sale, for me

You're misunderstanding the situation. Square Enix only got involved for this port and have never had anything to do with Mistwalker till now. The fact that they've entered a partnership for this is incredibly noteworthy. Mistwalker struck the deal with Apple themselves. It was a terrible move for the game's exposure and legacy, but my guess was it was their only chance at that point in time to get the game the funding it needed to exist.

I want to emphasize, I HATE mobile gaming with a passion. So the fact that I'm willing to cut them the amount of slack I am speaks volumes.

 

[Thac0]

So I suppose squeenix made this so expensive because they want to recoup the trendemous costs of buying this free from apple jail
This being on apple was sakaguchi autism btw, he started coding in an apple 2, so he wanted to end his career on an apple device, even if it makes zero sense now.

 

[Jinn]

This being on apple was sakaguchi autism btw, he started coding in an apple 2, so he wanted to end his career on an apple device, even if it makes zero sense now.

I think that might have been a convenient anecdote more than anything, but whatever the reasons, I think he may have chosen differently now if he could have.

Regardless, the game is on proper platforms now, and plays like it belongs on them. It's sad how the project's origins have so thoroughly muddied its image for people, but I suppose that's the way it goes.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Mistwalker isn't a real studio, it's just Sakaguchi acting as a producer and organizing contractors for individual projects.

 

[Yuber]

I just read that you can't powerlevel/overlevel in this game, that the enemy XP is scaling??!
Fuks sake I hate when JRPG do this, one of the worst things for me in a game. Same shit as in Lost Odyssey

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Same shit as in Lost Odyssey

Yep. It's one thing when games try to stretch the leveling curve or balance themselves to curb the effects of grinding. But these two game both go "You can get to level X for this area, and that's it." and level X is always underpowered for the area. They may as well not have experience levels at all.

 

[Grauken]

Fuck, is that true?

 

[Jinn]

Not really true, but the game has similar XP scaling as the Trails series. Saying you can't grind and level beyond your intended power point is simply untrue. The entire dimengion system is pretty much specifically designed to do just that. Yeah, it'd take a little while, but it's still possible. A lot of your large jumps in power will be tied to equipment and the chest key system regardless. Beyond that, grinding in JRPGs is exactly what usually ends up robbing the player of any challenge anyway. I rarely do it myself beyond one or two levels, which is exactly what Fantasian reasonably allows. Any decent JRPG is going to have diminishing returns when it comes to XP accrual. Grind if you must, but stop robbing yourself of the minor tactical challenge that JRPGs provide by doing so.

 

[Yuber]

Beyond that, grinding in JRPGs is exactly what usually ends up robbing the player of any challenge anyway.

JRPGs are piss easy anyway, let me overlevel if I want to, I love that. Getting strong Equipment in FF12 early is such a joy for me.
If I want challenge I can do a low level challenge myself, but devs need to stop doing XP scaling. Just remove level all together then.
Sea of Stars had it too, feels lke every modern JRPG puts that garbage mechanic in.

 

[Jinn]

JRPGs are piss easy anyway, let me overlevel if I want to

Sounds exactly like someone who destroys the challenge of an RPG for themselves, then complains about the genre lacking challenge. Would recommend trying different genres out if this is your approach.

 

[Yuber]

JRPGs are piss easy anyway, let me overlevel if I want to

Sounds exactly like someone who destroys the challenge of an RPG for themselves, then complains about the genre lacking challenge. Would recommend trying different genres out if this is your approach.

I just wrote afterwards that I do low level challenges etc IF I want challenge......
I did FF7 Solo Character, Initial Equipment, No Materia Challenge etc.
Even playing JRPGs how they are intended they are piss easy. Just finished Wild Arms 4 and it was a complete joke even escaping nearly all battles.

Scaling XP is a very very lazy way from the developers, zero repect.

 

[Jinn]

Even playing JRPGs how they are intended they are piss easy.

This is a gross generalization, but even so, why do you play them then, if this is how you view the genre in its entirety? I only ask because you seem to place a great deal of importance in this being a crucial aspect of enjoyment for you. There's a lot of reasons to play the genre beyond challenge, but it's there to be enjoyed in many situations, particularly if you don't grind.