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[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Mistalker has released the information, trailers, and screenshots for Fantasian, its diorama adventure RPG due out for Apple Arcade (Mac, iOS, and tvOS) in 2021.

The tale begins in a realm governed by machines. Within this multi-dimensional universe, the balance of “Chaos and Order” becomes a key factor in the struggle for these realms and the machinations of the gods who wish to control them. Players will assume the role of protagonist, Leo, who awakens from a massive explosion only to find himself lost in a strange land with only one memory left to him. As players set out on a journey to reclaim Leo’s memories, they will unravel the mysteries of the bizarre mechanical infection slowly engulfing all that is known to mankind. The captivating story is written by Sakaguchi and is complimented by a sweeping soundtrack by celebrated Final Fantasy composer, Nobuo Uematsu.

New Battle Mechanics – Tapping into his experience from the Final Fantasy franchise, Sakaguchi brings to Fantasian several quality of life improvements to the classic Japanese RPG genre, such as the “Dimengeon Battle” mechanic, which allows players to send previously encountered enemies into a separate dimensional dungeon to streamline combat and maximize uninterrupted exploration of the beautiful locations.

Hand-Crafted Environments – Each of the 150-plus dioramas has been crafted by the masters of the Japanese “Tokusatsu” or special effects industry. Creating Fantasian’s real-life miniature sets are veterans who have worked on projects like the Godzilla films, Attack on Titan, and Ultraman. Fantasian serves as a vehicle to bring these amazing works of art into the digital space via Apple Arcade.

Legendary Soundtrack – Celebrated composer Nobuo Uematsu, known for his work on the Final Fantasy series and games such as Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, created a soundtrack to compliment the memorable and magical world of Fantasian from catchy battle tunes to heart-pumping dungeon pieces, and moving character themes.

Novel Storytelling – To tell an epic story, a ‘novel’ approach was used in the form of a “Memory” system where players encounter and collect various memories, journal entries, and notes presented as miniature in-game novels to flesh out the story, realms, and characters of Fantasian. These bite-sized novels have unique artwork, music, and sound effects to offer players a truly immersive experience.

FANTASIAN first details, trailers, and screenshots

Mistalker has released the information, trailers, and screenshots for FANTASIAN, its diorama adventure RPG due out for Apple Arcade (Mac, iOS, and tvOS) in 2021.

www.gematsu.com

 

[Shifty1897]

Apple Arcade only? This is how Mistwalker dies: not with a bang, but a whimper.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Virt McPolygon]

Apple Arcade only? This is how Mistwalker dies: not with a bang, but a whimper.

What makes you think they'll die after receiving Apple money?

If anything, the money from an exclusivity deal will help fund their next project.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

It'd be cool to see it released on other platforms. The Dimengeon Battle mechanic and collecting novels to tell the story are neat.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Mistalker has released the information, trailers, and screenshots for Fantasian, its diorama adventure RPG due out for Apple Arcade (Mac, iOS, and tvOS) in 2021.

FANTASIAN first details, trailers, and screenshots

Mistalker has released the information, trailers, and screenshots for FANTASIAN, its diorama adventure RPG due out for Apple Arcade (Mac, iOS, and tvOS) in 2021.

www.gematsu.com

Wait not available for consoles? Crap... ...

 

[HaveButOneLife]

This looks incredible, too bad it's only on mobile.

 

[dottme]

Between this and the Final Fantasy Ever Crisis, there might be some good original mobile RPG comings.

 

[gela94]

You could have put the platform into the title

 

[TintoConCasera]

Between this and the Final Fantasy Ever Crisis, there might be some good original mobile RPG comings.

Yep, time to set up some virtual machines on the pc.

 

[SinDelta]

I want this. Its definitely something different and I think its really cool how they use the backgrounds.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

This looks incredible, too bad it's only on mobile.

Give it 6-12 months. Then again it looks fairly low budget similar to Chaos Ring from S-E.

 

[Lady Bird]

The idea of "collecting" random battle encounters for later is pretty cool.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[dottme]

Give it 6-12 months. Then again it looks fairly low budget similar to Chaos Ring from S-E.

In the Verge interview, they say there is 150 diorama. So I don’t expect it to be that long. But it doesn’t need to be long to be good.

 

[CamHostage]

Is it me or does this look... real normal? It's pretty, but I don't understand what the point of promoting the Diorama concept when they've gone and made such a straight JRPG from it.

They've also transformed the Diorama backgrounds into 3D models once they're shot, so ultimately it's just photographic textures on regular 3D worlds. It's Photogrammetry from Toys, which is fine, but it's not the same as what I'd think of when I thing "a game made of Dioramas". Half the time, they're having regular 3D game backgrounds anyway and just zooming/panning around or filling it with Final Fantasy glow-particle effects (albeit a lot of the trailer is from cutscenes; the second Features video shows the worldmap and battles where Diorama is used better.)

The actual gameplay and the characters do seem cute, if pretty normal, again, but it's not catching me in motion as something special. It'll have to be real good to rise above the fray. Best of luck to Mistwalker at least.

 

[Fbh]

Looks great, I like the visual style way more than that of Bravely Default 2.
Hopefully it's only a timed Apple Arcade exclusive and we can buy it on consoles and PC later on.

 

[Captain Toad]

I thought Mistwalker was already dead. Making mobile games is basically the same thing, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[PooBone]

Where's Mickey Mouse? Where's the marching brooms?

Seriously, those screens look nice, but Apple Arcade is a stinker. Port that sucker!

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Don't care about JRPG kinds of games but the diorama backgrounds look great.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

So, which character is the boy?

Trapped on Apple Arcade, such a shame.

 

[Kimahri]

I really hope this ends up on other platforms eventually . It looks and sounds exactly like something I want to play. Almost like a return to the days of PS1 style jrpgs.

But I have no apple devices, so I guess I'm screwed.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

I really hope this ends up on other platforms eventually . It looks and sounds exactly like something I want to play. Almost like a return to the days of PS1 style jrpgs.

But I have no apple devices, so I guess I'm screwed.

Yeah, same here. It does remind me of a PS1/PS2 era RPG.

Sakaguchi sounds like he really enjoys working on these projects, that they bring him genuine joy, which is cool to read (from the Verge article).

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

Fuck yes, can't wait for this. Looks like Apple did well going with this game.


This is the type of games Apple Arcade needs.

 

[NahaNago]

Yeah, same here. It does remind me of a PS1/PS2 era RPG.

Sakaguchi sounds like he really enjoys working on these projects, that they bring him genuine joy, which is cool to read (from the Verge article).

Yeah, it really does seem like a very pretty hd ff ps1 game. Unfortunately they it looks like they have the ps1 battle system to go with it. Which is fine to a certain extent but it would have been nice if the battles graphics had a bit more kick to them.

 

[UniformDeliverance]

What I see is an actual game. An rpg, with no obvious cut corners or micro transaction system. This kind of thing should be celebrated, I'm interested in seeing more.

 

[Danjin44]

 

[Quasicat]

Serious question, as I know nothing about Apple Arcade...can I buy this instead of subscribing?

 

[Rickyiez]

MC looks like a guy but with hairband just to mimic 2B

 

[Orenji Neko]

Definitely will look forward to playing this game。Love the look of it too。

 

[theclaw135]

I thought Mistwalker was already dead. Making mobile games is basically the same thing, as far as I'm concerned.

The jury is out. There doesn't look to be official confirmation whether the game features micro transactions, at all.

 

[It's all in the wrist]

Such a small userbase. Hate to see Mistwalkers talents go to waste like this.

 

[Trogdor1123]

This looks so incredible, I so wish it was coming to ps5...

 

[JeremyEtcetera]

Such a small userbase. Hate to see Mistwalkers talents go to waste like this.

If they keep funding good content like this, wouldn't it help both parties grow a larger userbase?

 

[Hosam6xavi]

Can't wait to play it on Switch after 1 year

 

[Danjin44]

Such a small userbase. Hate to see Mistwalkers talents go to waste like this.

This could very well be same case was with Bayonetta 2 on WiiU. Maybe no publisher other than Apple was willing to fund this project.

 

[sunnysideup]

wow looks awesome.

 

[Kumomeme]

the sets looks pretty

 

[Keihart]

So...can i emulate this on PC? no? ok, then.

 

[Fredrik]

This looks great! I’ll definitely play this as long as it runs on any of my iOS devices.

 

[Cherry Sonoshee]

I came in expecting nothing, but man that looked great.

 

[Inno]

This look neat. Like others have said it's a traditional jrpg just with a 3d background rendering gimmick.
From the gameplay video it looks like it plays just like any ps1/ps2 era jrpg.
I probably won't play it on an IOS device even though i have plenty. Would be down for a port to consoles/PC though.

 

[A Elbereth Gilthoniel]

Shame about the platform; and those character designs are atrocious. But I do like the artistry of using handmade backgrounds.

 

[AllyITA]

i've read the title as Fantavision

 

[MeteorVII]

This is genuinely one of the most bland, generic, lifeless fucking pieces of garbage I’ve ever seen and it is shocking to see it come from Sakaguchi to be quite frank...

A shame that Guchi and Nobuo Uematsu’s legacy could potentially be capped off with this...

 

[Kimahri]

Yeah, same here. It does remind me of a PS1/PS2 era RPG.

Sakaguchi sounds like he really enjoys working on these projects, that they bring him genuine joy, which is cool to read (from the Verge article).

I'm just so bummed it's in Apple Arcade. I really hope it's not a lifetime exclusive. I went to the apple arcade website to see what's the cheapest cost of entry, but apple seems to think everybody owns an appropriate device already, and doesn't deem it necessary to make such info easily available, so I just gave up.

Is Apple TV the easiest and cheapest way of entry? Maybe I could borrow one for a week or two..

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Nice. Will play it once it's out on Apple Arcade. Looks amazing.

 

[Life]

I mean, can you blame them? Why make a modern fully-fledged RPG, with voice acting, progression, cutscenes, etc etc - when you can just pump out mobile "games" for less time and cost (and pressure).

 

[Maiden Voyage]

This looks incredible, too bad it's only on mobile.

Apple Arcade games are also on Mac. And Apple TV as noted below.

Serious question, as I know nothing about Apple Arcade...can I buy this instead of subscribing?

At the moment, no. If it gets released elsewhere, then yes. If you haven't done the free trial already, there is usually a trial you can use to check it out.

 

[RoboFu]

Looks good! I will pick it up on my Apple TV.