Fantasian

Get ready for something truly unique with Fantasian. Jump into this breathtaking adventure roleplaying game set against a stunning backdrop of handmade dioramas. Yes, you heard me right. The game takes place in dioramas, as though you were playing a tabletop game in real life. This is, without a doubt, one of the most interesting games to have come out in the last decade. The art direction alone is something of legend, but the story and character design as well? Forget about it. This is a tour de force. Let’s quit messing around and get into it.

Gameplay

So the gameplay of this title functions a bit like Final Fantasy XII mixed with some inspiration from NieR: Automata and even Pokémon. You take control of the protagonist and run around this handcrafted sets on your adventure, combat can stop you if you want it to but the best thing about this game, is that it doesn’t have to.

While traversing the maps, you may encounter a beastie that wants to fight, but you can’t be bothered right now, so you send them to something called the Dimengeon; portmanteau of dimension and dungeon. This is because you can actually store up the enemies you encounter and choose to fight them all at once when you want to. I don’t know about you, but constantly stopping every few seconds to get dragged into a battle was always one of the most frustrating parts of dungeon crawlers. This makes the whole deal way more fluid.

The game also relies heavily on the concepts that you would expect from a role-playing game. Lots of travelling, speaking to people, discovering fantastical mysteries and saving the world in about 3 different ways. It definitely hits the notes that you would want it to, which I really cannot and will not complain about

Visuals

Okay, the visuals to this game are way better than they have any right being. Sure, from the isometric perspective, things can look a little grainy but that is almost exclusively for the characters and not the world itself. As stated, the world, backgrounds and whatnot, are all actually dioramas. Meaning, they were constructed in real life and then used in the game. The only way you can get detail better than that is if you played it as a tabletop game. I was absolutely blown away by how well it works in the game, and how smooth the transitions were while traversing the map. I truly think you’ll know how special this game is when you play it.

Music

The music in this game slaps. Legendary game composer Nobuo Uematsu, known for his work on the Final Fantasy series, scored the entirety of the 60 tracks found in this title. A full orchestra and diverse synths accompany this incredible gameplay. I guarantee, you will be nodding your head to these tunes that make the world all the more memorable.

Pros

• Fantastic set pieces
• Brilliant story

Cons

• Character models are a little lackluster in comparison to the diorama backdrops