But rather than bogging players down with the pitfalls traditionally associated with such encounters, the game gives you the ability to “collect” all of the monsters you randomly encounter on their journey and fight them in what is known as a “Dimengeon Battle”. Unlike a lot of its modern contemporaries that put enemies directly on the map, Fantasian uses random encounters. It’s a pretty genius and engaging system one starts to shine when you unlock the ability to send monsters to the Dimengeon. Magic attacks can be curved, so if you have some big oaf right up front with a shield down stopping any shot you send its way, you can bend your spell around them like James McAvoy in Wanted. Some abilities will ensnare foes if they’re within the attack radius, while others allow you to strike any creature you can line your shot up with. So a basic melee attack will hit just one creature, but if you use a skill or magic, you can target several opponents. This is because every character in the game has attacks that can target either single or multiple enemies depending on where they are positioned.

When you engage with monsters, they’re scattered on the diorama battlefield rather than standing in straight lines or groups.

While it is a fairly standard turn-based RPG, Fantasian’s combat has two elements that craft an identity of its own. The visual disconnect between the locations and the character designs wilted away quickly as I opened up more of this enchanting place and engaged in its magnificent combat system. And while they don’t exactly look like they belong in this diorama world, they don’t really look out of place either. The overworld map is a traditional 3D map, and all of the characters, NPCs, and monsters that you encounter are 3D models. Not everything in Fantasian has been handcrafted and scanned into the game. There is so much detail in each space, and it’s a bit mind-boggling to see how intricate of a world its artists could create on such a small scale. These sets and locations are brilliantly designed with Mistwalker employing several model shops to bring the game to life. And let me just get this out of the way right now: this game is stunning. Dubbed a “Diorama Adventure RPG,” it uses more than 150 handmade dioramas to create most of its world. The episodic format means they could at least address the dull combat system, and spin it into something halfway decent.If you’ve been paying attention to Fantasian at all over the past few weeks, it’s probably because Mistwalker has been dropping absolutely gorgeous screenshots of the title in the lead-up to its launch. Crystal Chronicles can get morbid at times, no reason why they couldn't have accomplished something similar here. They ought to have leaned into the Diorama motifs, and made a more lighthearted game. As for the motifs, seems like derivative anime bullshit, with little to no redeeming value. Mikami talked about how hard it was to get that right for Killer 7, but most others tend to not bother dealing with the kinks whatsoever. I prefer fixed camera perspectives, with an on rails camera, but goddamn if most people tend to fuck that up. Some aspects of the diorama design aesthetic are appealing, but the camera work in this game is appalling. The ability system worked in FFTA/A2, but was dull as hell in FFIX and I don't know why in the hell anyone likes FFX' combat - its nice that they got rid of what was up till then, the ATB shite that was nothing other than a gimmick, but the replacement was merely rock, paper, scissors at its most basic. Sakaguchi insists on keeping the worst aspects of games that he worked on.

Wanted to enjoy Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey - not cos of Sakaguchi, but ex-Nautilus staff - but goddamn those games were dull. maybe he's the reason some of the FF stories were decent, I guess but mechanically, I much prefer VIII, X-2, and the XIII series. Sakaguchi never meant much to me to begin with. granted, I watched a live stream of the first couple of hours - up to the money tree. The encounter build up just seems like a way to alleviate oft perceived annoyances of random encounters, and basically just presents you with a shooting gallery after the fact.

Fantasian diorama