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Fantasian is an Apple Arcade RPG from the maker of Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's latest game is bringing his next game to Apple Arcade and it may be one of his most unique efforts yet.

Ozzie Mejia

March 2, 2021 12:50 PM

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There's been a lot of Final Fantasy news over the last week, but today's piece of news centers around the man who started it all. Original Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is still heavily involved in games and he's looking to create a new RPG experience for the Apple Arcade. On Tuesday, Sakaguchi's Mistwalker studio officially revealed its next big title, Fantasian, which is being put together for Apple Arcade.

Teased earlier this year, the story of Fantasian begins in a realm ruled by machines. Lead character Leo is caught in an explosion and loses his memory, save for a single vision of a young woman. His memory leads him to the town of En, where he meets Kina and they embark on a journey to recover Leo's memory and save all the realms from the malevolent beings who wish to control all dimensions.

Combat will comprise of traditional turn-based RPG battles, but players can also utilize a new mechanic called the Dimengeon System. When the Dimengeon System is enabled, anytime players randomly encounter monsters, those monsters will be sent to alternate dimensions. That allows players to avoid battle, which should buy them time to heal at a nearby town. However, those monsters still must be dealt with, so players can enter the Dimengeon later to face all of those monsters simultaneously.

Fantasian's worlds are constructed from over 150 dioramas. The dioramas are crafted, lit, photographed, and 3D scanned to create in-game worlds unlike anything else seen in gaming. Mistwalker has recruited workers from the Godzilla franchise, Attack on Titan, Ultraman, and more to create the miniature sets that ultimately become the in-game dioramas. To give Fantasian the sort of epic RPG feel that one would expect out of Sakaguchi's Final Fantasy, Mistwalker also has composer Nobuo Uematsu on board for the game's soundtrack.

Mistwalker most recently put together the Terra series on mobile devices. Nearly a full decade has passed since the studio's last console RPG, 2012's The Last Story on Nintendo Wii. Fantasian will mark the studio's first project on Apple Arcade and may also represent one of Apple Arcade's most intriguing efforts to date. There's no release date for Fantasian just yet, but look for the game to release on Apple Arcade later this year.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?