Fantasian is the latest game from Hironobu Sakaguchi, reknowned Final Fantasy creator, who left the fertile lands of Square Enix many years ago for uncertain futures. After the Xbox 360's Lost Odyssey, Sakaguchi's company Mistwalker followed it up with a couple lame Wii games and some hesitant mobile games.
But Fantasian is an Apple Arcade game for Apple devices, and it's a return to form for Sakaguchi, whose new Sugar Daddy has a lot more cash than Square Enix.
So far, I like that game. Unlike Sakaguchi's other later gamers, this one features a return to the turn-based battle system. The story features some JRPG tropes (hero has amnesia), but Sakakuchi seems to be using cliches to his advantange in new twists. I mean... the guy pretty much invented the Japanese RPG.
The music, by legendary Nobuo Uematsu, is of course, gorgeous.
I'm enjoying it. I'd say it has PS3 graphical quality on my 2018 iPad Pro, and the handcrafted diorama backgrounds remind me of PS1 era prerendered backgrounds. But there some news twists through this mechanic too.
I had a free three month trial for Apple Arcade, so I decided to try it out when Fantasian came out. So far, I'm not disappointed.
Interesting. I hope it gets ported to consoles.
Well, it can be played a controller, so it's possible. But I bet Apple paid for exclusivity.
I really like the art style. As Knight Driver said, hope they port it to something I can play it on.
Hey! Long time no see! How are ya, Blake?
My bad, I thought I responded to this haha. I'm doing ok at the moment, can't complain. Just been playing some Resident Evil Village. How are things in your neck of the woods?
A week or so ago, one of my friends texted me a picture showing off his new TV, which I guess he can play Apple Arcade games on, and the title screen of this game was what was on the TV. So I guess I now know what it is. If it plays like a classic 16-bit RPG like FF4 or FF6, or even FF9, I"m sure I'd like it. But I'm always really suspicious about subscription services like that. Like, they make it easy for you to sign up for that first free month, but hard to unsubscribe when it comes time to pay. Plus I already have a lot on my plate right now.
There is another Apple Arcade game I'd really like to play, though. It's called Pac-Man Party Royale. You think I would've subscribed to Apple Arcade just to play that, but that just tells you how leery I am about those kind of subscription services. I do wish that would come out on consoles. Another one I wish would come out on other consoles is Pac-Man: Maze Tunnel Battle. Right now that's exclusive to Stadia! Luckily I can at least play ONE of these exclusive Pac-Man games: Pac-Man 99 on Switch. I really like that one, and even got number 2 one time! I'll probably review it at some point.