The Most Overlooked RPG of the Decade Is Finally Getting Its Second Chance

There are few video game creators as influential as Hironobu Sakaguchi, the mind behind Final Fantasy, Mana, Chrono Trigger, and more. Since leaving Square Enix in 2003, Sakaguchi and his studio, Mistwalker, have crafted even more beloved RPGs, with each new game feeling drastically different from the last. That’s never been more true than with Sakaguchi’s last game, Fantasian, but you’d be forgiven for having not played it. Released on iOS in 2021 as an Apple Arcade exclusive, Fantasian is a hidden gem that manages to feel wonderfully nostalgic, but also vibrantly new and exciting.

That delicate balancing act between those two elements makes Fantasian one of the most fascinating RPGs seen in years, and that’s before even mentioning the jaw-dropping hand-made diorama world. Now, the game is getting a second chance with a Square Enix-published remaster called Fantasian: Neo Dimension, marking Sakaguchi’s first time working with the company he played an integral part in after two decades.

“Twenty years is a very, very long time. I recall the first time going back to the office, I got into the elevator, and all the other staff kind of froze, like ‘Oh my god, is that him?’ I wasn’t sure how I’d be received,” Sakaguchi tells Inverse, “But lo and behold everyone had a warm welcome for me. It’s been a long time since I was last in that building and since we’ve worked together, but it was like returning to your home in the countryside, this old home that your parents always had.”

It’s especially interesting that this reforged relationship is happening with Fantasian, of all games, because of how heavily Sakaguchi’s past has inspired it. Fantasian feels like a classic Final Fantasy entry in nearly every way — a massive world filled with magic and political intrigue, a robust cast of diverse characters, classic turn-based combat, and a healthy dose of emotional twists. You play as Leo, a young boy who wakes up with amnesia, stranded in a dark and mysterious world made of machines. As he journeys to recover his memories, Leo learns about the nature of the world he’s in, and his connection to it. It’s a setup that’d feel right at home in any Final Fantasy game, and that’s apparently entirely intentional as Fantasian’s inspiration was, surprisingly, Final Fantasy VI.

In 2017, Nintendo released the Super NES Classic Edition, a miniature model of the classic console with built-in games. To promote the system, a Japanese magazine gathered creators of the original games to play on a live stream, which resulted in Sakaguchi playing Final Fantasy VI.

“As I played, it really reminded me of returning to my roots, of what Final Fantasy represented for me, including all the base mechanics,” says Sakaguchi, “At the time, I thought if my next game would be my last project I wanted to return to my origins, what brought me into the industry.”

That link led to Fantasian’s classically inspired story, coupled with Sakaguchi’s earnest dream of creating a game world made up of dioramas. But the game doesn’t want to just emulate Sakaguchi’s past successes, but innovate on the formula that he helped define. Part of this lies in Fantasian’s brilliant turn-based battles, giving the player huge amounts of control over battles.

In Fantasian, each character has abilities that deal area-of-effect damage, and the “Dimengeon” system lets you store multiple battles in a kind of inventory, stacking them up to use at once. This essentially lets you take on turn-based battles whenever you want, not having to slow down the story’s pacing with dozens of battles in a row. It also lets you wipe out a dozen enemies in one fell swoop. It’s a brilliant innovation that makes turn-based combat feel far less restrictive and formulaic.

Fantasian’s other huge innovation comes with the world itself, and the jaw-droppingly intimate details. Roaming around the world of Fantasian feels like stepping into the shoes of a miniature character. But what’s most interesting is that Neo Dimension feels like it’s truly letting Sakaguchi realize his full vision.

Because Fantasian was on Apple Arcade, its resolution and graphical power were limited to what iPhones could do, but apparently Sakaguchi and his team shot all their footage for the diorama in 4K. This means that for Neo Dimension the team could go back to all that raw data they had to dilute, adding even more detail and color into the world of Fantasian, making it come to life in new ways. Sadly, he also says most of the dioramas used in development had deteriorated by this point, although a few were raffled off to fans in Japan. This means the hundreds of hours of work put into those dioramas now solely live on within Fantasian itself, making it even more important the game gets made available on more platforms outside of the iPhone.

Equally interesting is how Sakaguchi says Square Enix was a huge part of refining that vision, specifically Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida. Over the last few years, Sakaguchi has become a diehard fan of FFXIV, which has led to him fostering a bit of friendship with Yoshida. Sakaguchi knew Mistwalker wanted a publisher to work on the port of Fantasian, and his experience with FFXIV was a direct influence on the choice to go with Square Enix — with Yoshida helping to work on the new version of the game.

“What I realized is Yoshida, and FFXIV, paid a lot of respect to what I felt was the history and legacy of Final Fantasy,” Sakaguchi notes “So I felt a very sense strong sense of trust for whatever we end up doing together. Yoshida understands the essence of what Final Fantasy, and in this case, Fantasian, represents.”

Neo Dimension is a chance for Fantasian to get the due it deserves, a criminally underrated game that until now simply couldn’t be played by a lot of people. Fantasian is a nostalgic trip that reminds people of why they fell in love with RPGs in the first place, and how far we’ve come over the decades, and Sakaguchi notes that’s the exact feeling he wanted the game to elicit. At the same time, he hopes Fantasian might be able to bring in new fans.

“The games industry itself is a very young industry as a whole. I think there are even younger gamers right now who perhaps have never played some of these classic games, so Fantasian could be some kid’s first exposure to a classic turn-based RPG. I hope the mechanics and systems we have developed are able to withstand that type of new player, experiencing it for the first time,” Sakaguchi says.

Fantasian: Neo Dimension launches Winter 2024 for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.