Fantasian Neo Dimension Review (PS5)

Fantasian Neo Dimension is a bit of like Japanese position enjoying sport consolation meals. There’s the marginally androgynous amnesiac hero. He’ll go on a quest to reclaim his reminiscences and alongside the way in which he’ll meet up with a barely kooky orphan mage with secrets and techniques of her personal to uncover. They will befriend the sassy princess, the lovable rogue, the comedian reduction, and extra. Collectively they will uncover that there is a world, nay, universe-ending menace on the horizon, and solely they’ve the means to cease it.

You are Leo, and you do not keep in mind who you might be or why you are within the Machine Realm, a world of steel and robots and conveyer belts and sparks and gray. It is grim. After your daring escape from the metallic hell you awoke in, you wander the human realm making an attempt to piece collectively your id. This includes — in conventional JRPG fashion — speaking to folks in cities, traversing the world map, recruiting new allies, coming into dungeons, and besting villains.

The sport’s world was created first by making precise dioramas for every location after which 3D-scanning them, successfully utilizing the scans as pre-rendered backgrounds for the extra conventional 3D anime characters we management to discover. The outcomes are fairly lovely, lending every location a real-but-not-quite high quality. It is a bit of like taking a look at {a photograph} of the inside of a doll’s home, or the bit within the previous Godzilla films the place he smashes up the cardboard metropolis. You may inform the whole lot is a miniature, painstakingly hand-crafted. It by no means appears to be like actually actual, however we recognize the work it took to construct.

Fantasian’s soundtrack comes from the legendary composer of many Remaining Fantasy video games, Nobuo Uematsu, and his work right here is splendid. From the jaunty items that play throughout moments of hijinks to the commercial din of the Machine Realm, the elegant pomp of the Royal Capital to the dramatic themes throughout climactic battles, the soundtrack is unequivocally elegant. The tunes are diversified, becoming, and eminently hummable.

There have been moments enjoying Fantasian that evoked such sturdy emotions of nostalgia in us that they had been virtually palpable. The pleasant music from Uematsu, the pre-rendered backgrounds — in the event you flip off the marginally grating voice performing, it appears like a kind of Remaining Fantasy video games from the unique PlayStation, like an unfinished lacking hyperlink between Remaining Fantasy IX and X, lastly unearthed over 20 years later for our enjoying pleasure. It is fantastic, or at the very least, it is fantastic till you get right into a battle.

Fight might be what is going on to make or break this sport for you. There have been instances we cherished it, and different instances we hated it. It feels unbalanced; each manner too simple and manner too tough relying on the place you might be within the journey. It is the form of sport the place, relying on which expertise you have unlocked on the ability tree, the following boss you battle will both be unimaginable or trivial. Should you observe the extent suggestions for quests you may shortly uncover any minor enemies you face in that quest will die as quickly as you take a look at them, however bosses you encounter will probably be tougher than a coffin nail. It is all around the store.

Battles in Fantasian are turn-based. A useful chart on the backside of the display screen tells you which ones character’s flip it’s, who’s subsequent, after which a dozen or so turns after that. You may plan which character goes to assault or heal or buff based mostly on their placement within the operating order. In your flip you may both use an ordinary assault, a particular ability, or an merchandise.

Most assaults in Fantasian are projectile based mostly, and so enemy positioning issues. Should you occur to see enemies stood in a line you may fireplace a projectile to hit all of them one after one other. Some characters can forged spells you can fireplace on a curved trajectory to hit a number of enemies in flip. Some assaults, like grenades or bombs, hit a number of enemies in an space.

Battles contain figuring out essentially the most environment friendly strategy to hit as many enemies as you may with every flip so you may take them out earlier than they take you out. In the event that they’re bunched collectively, throw a grenade. In the event that they’re a bit of unfold out then your mage would possibly be capable of curve a spell to hit 4 or 5 of them without delay. It is a bit of like fixing a puzzle, and for some time we had been actually into it.

Sadly, Fantasian suffers from some actually outrageous issue spikes. You will get via lots of battles utilizing mainly no technique in any respect. They’re far too simple. Then you definately’ll face a boss that does not simply require strategic pondering; it requires you to observe a particular technique, and even then luck is concerned. It is not a sport the place you are rewarded for experimentation. It is a sport that requires you to have a selected ability unlocked, do that factor, then that factor, then the opposite factor, after which pray to the RNG gods that the mistaken particular person does not die when the enemy retaliates.

We discovered it actually irritating, and it turns into much more irritating roughly half-way via the sport when the ability bushes open up. Upon getting entry to the ability bushes, you may tailor your characters to your liking, specializing in a specific ability or trait. However you may then battle bosses which might be nigh-impossible with out getting access to sure expertise, which clearly you do not know till you battle them. Thankfully, you may simply reset the ability bushes and get your factors again to reallocate them. Some folks would possibly like one of these micromanagement, however we discovered it irritating.

One shining star within the fight system is the Dimengeon Machine. Should you flip the Dimengeon on, it’s going to “inventory” random battles for you, so as a substitute of being interrupted as you discover the world to battle an enormous crab or one thing, you may merely get a notification to let you know that an enemy has been added to the machine. As soon as you have stocked thirty enemies, a dimengeon battle will happen by which you may battle the entire enemies you have stocked in a single go, letting you’re taking out a number of baddies without delay with curved assaults or area-of-effect spells. You may flip this characteristic on or off, however we loved utilizing it and having much less interruptions and extra attention-grabbing battles.

Conclusion

Fantasian Neo Dimension evokes reminiscences of traditional Remaining Fantasy. It is obtained an impeccable soundtrack, lovely locales, and a world that conjures up surprise. However it’s let down a bit of by likeable however fiercely archetypal characters and a by-the-numbers story, and it is let down rather a lot by wild and uneven issue spikes that make fight a supply of fixed frustration within the second half of the journey.