Final Fantasy was utterly shameless about inserting boss encounters that effectively acted as gatekeepers, forcing you to level up enough to take them on, often via hours of annihilating increasingly dull cannon fodder.

The other issue arising from that mechanic is the need to grind. It makes the economies of scale available from the Dimengeon seem like a good deal and a positive way of addressing the controversy that understandably surrounds random encounters. You can also target icons that award extra turns, buff attack strength, or cure ailments. That’s useful not just from the perspective of avoiding continual jarring interruptions, but also because many of your party’s battle moves work best against groups of enemies.Īlong with the usual physical and magical attacks, there are moves that blast through multiple enemies at once, either in a straight line or along adjustable curves. All that is regularly interrupted by random monster encounters, a feature that was divisive even at the height of its popularity decades ago.įantasian’s way around this is to hand you the Dimengeon, a gadget that stores up random encounters until you’re ready to take them on, or it reaches a maximum of 30 monsters, at which point you fight all of them together. From its androgynous, spiky-haired protagonist, who starts the game with no memory, to random monster encounters, to turn-based battles with sparkly magic and outsized swords, this is nostalgia-infused fan service so extreme it’s incredible that Kickstarter wasn’t involved.ĭespite the unusual non-CGI surroundings, what you get up to within their confines is warmly familiar, namely talking to non-player characters, shamelessly pillaging people’s houses right in front of them, and accepting oblique side quests from friendly villagers.

Refusing to rest on its laurels, Apple is celebrating Arcade’s first anniversary with a slew of new killer material, the highest profile example of which is Fantasian.ĭirected by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, this is very similar to earlier outings in that series. The creator of Final Fantasy helps celebrate the anniversary of Apple Arcade with a brand new game that’s perfect for JRPG nostalgists.Īpple Arcade, the iPhone maker’s game subscription service, has had an impressive first year, with timed exclusives like the excellent match-three battler Grindstone, indie classic Exit The Gungeon, and the comedy slapstick of Sneaky Sasquatch.

Fantasian – a different kind of graphical realism (pic: Mistwalker)

Fantasian 2