Fantasian Neo Dimension is a bit of like Japanese function taking part in sport 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 reduction, and extra. Collectively they will uncover that there is a world, nay, universe-ending risk on the horizon, and solely they’ve the means to cease it.
You are Leo, and you do not keep in mind who you might be or why you are within the Machine Realm, a world of metallic 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 making an attempt to piece collectively your id. This includes — in conventional JRPG type — speaking to folks in cities, traversing the world map, recruiting new allies, coming 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 {a photograph} of the inside of a doll’s home, or the bit within the previous Godzilla motion pictures the place he smashes up the cardboard metropolis. You may inform all the things is a miniature, painstakingly hand-crafted. It by no means appears really actual, however we recognize the work it took to construct.
Fantasian’s soundtrack comes from the legendary composer of many Closing 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 elegant. The tunes are different, becoming, and eminently hummable.
There have been moments taking part in Fantasian that evoked such sturdy emotions of nostalgia in us that they had been virtually palpable. The pleasant music from Uematsu, the pre-rendered backgrounds — in case you flip off the marginally grating voice appearing, it looks like a type of Closing Fantasy video games from the unique PlayStation, like an unfinished lacking hyperlink between Closing Fantasy IX and X, lastly unearthed over 20 years later for our taking part in pleasure. It is fantastic, or no less than, it is fantastic till you get right into a combat.
Fight might be what is going on to make or break this sport for you. There have been occasions we liked it, and different occasions we hated it. It feels unbalanced; each approach too simple and approach too tough relying on the place you might be within the journey. It is the form of sport the place, relying on which abilities you’ve got unlocked on the ability tree, the subsequent boss you combat will both be unattainable 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 might be tougher than a coffin nail. It is everywhere in the store.
Battles in Fantasian are turn-based. A useful chart on the backside of the display screen tells you which ones character’s flip it’s, who’s subsequent, after which a dozen or so turns after that. You may plan which character goes to assault or heal or buff based mostly on their placement within the operating order. In your flip you possibly can both use a typical assault, a particular ability, 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 possibly can hearth a projectile to hit all of them one after one other. Some characters can forged spells that you would be able to 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 probably the most environment friendly solution to hit as many enemies as you possibly can with every flip so you possibly can 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 may 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 via quite a lot of battles utilizing principally no technique in any respect. They’re far too simple. Then you definately’ll face a boss that does not simply require strategic considering; it requires you to observe a particular technique, and even then luck is concerned. It is not a sport the place you are rewarded for experimentation. It is a sport that requires you to have a selected ability unlocked, do that factor, then that factor, then the opposite factor, after which pray to the RNG gods that the fallacious particular person would not die when the enemy retaliates.
We discovered it actually irritating, and it turns into much more irritating roughly half-way via the sport when the ability bushes open up. After getting entry to the ability bushes, you possibly can tailor your characters to your liking, specializing in a specific ability or trait. However you will then combat bosses which can be nigh-impossible with out gaining access to sure abilities, which clearly you do not know till you combat them. Happily, you possibly can simply reset the ability bushes and get your factors again to reallocate them. Some folks may like this sort of 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 a substitute of being interrupted as you discover the world to combat a large 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 wherein you will combat the entire 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 may flip this characteristic 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 Closing Fantasy. It is received an impeccable soundtrack, lovely locales, and a world that evokes surprise. Nevertheless it’s let down a bit of by likeable however fiercely archetypal characters and a by-the-numbers story, and it is let down so much by wild and uneven issue spikes that make fight a supply of fixed frustration within the second half of the journey.
