Fantasia: New Dimensions Video Game Review – Game Review

Fantasy: New Dimensions is the latest (and maybe last) game Hironobu Sakaguchi,Father final fantasy. It’s a love letter to the series’ classic 8-bit and 16-bit games, the most famous of which Final Fantasy VI. It features a turn-based combat system, a world map, numerous dungeons, and a cast of quirky heroes, just as you’d expect from a game of its pedigree. However, fantasy This isn’t just a simple throwback to a long-gone era of gaming.

fantasy It also borrowed from works that Sakaguchi later participated in. final fantasy Ability to change your party members on the fly during combat (this provides a lot of versatility in combat). On the narrative side, flashbacks of various characters are conveyed as narrative short stories that are a natural evolution of purely textual stories. lost odyssey.

However, the key mechanism fantasy It’s something completely new: the Dimengeon system. Using it, you can save random encounters (initially 30 enemies, later up to 50 enemies) and then fight them all at once. While this may seem like an insurmountable challenge at first, it’s doable because most abilities and spells in the game have special properties, such as affecting all enemies in an area or penetrating multiple enemies in a line or arc. an enemy. Whenever possible, it is usually easier and more time/resource efficient to use a Dimengeon system.

However, even this advantage cannot change the fact that: fantasy is a very difficult game (even in normal mode). Now, you might be wondering, how do you make classic turn-based combat difficult? Can’t you go beyond your level? exist fantasythis is easier said than done. Once your character reaches level 35, they can only gain a small amount of experience points by killing monsters lower than their level. This does a good job of keeping the game consistent throughout (although the non-linear nature of the second half of the game does allow for some degree of over-leveling).

The real difficulty of the game comes in the form of the bosses. Many times, simply sending your most powerful attacks and healing damage when needed isn’t enough to win. Almost every boss in the game has some kind of gimmick. Sometimes it’s a special attack or status ailment that needs to be mitigated. Other times, like attacking when the boss is at a specific point in the animation, or using weaker multiple attacks to destroy barriers that a single attack can’t break. In other words, every boss fight is a puzzle that you must solve or die.

The first half of the game serves as an extended tutorial due to its linear nature. Your party is always predetermined, as are the skills each person is equipped with. In other words, the answer to the puzzle is right in front of you, even if you don’t realize it right away.

However, things became more difficult in the second half of the game. Not only can any character currently in the party be used in any battle, but each character has access to countless skills that can be learned (in something like final fantasyThe same is true for the bat). This means you’ll need to constantly figure out which characters to use and what skills they need to overcome the boss’s gimmicks. Fortunately, you can reassign your character at any time, so you don’t have to worry about potentially missing the skills you need for a specific encounter. It can be difficult – often brutal – and you’ll usually need to give the boss a few tries before defeating it. The game rarely, if ever, feels unfair, but you need to know the ins and outs of all the characters if you want to win.

From a story perspective, fantasy It doesn’t quite fit Sakaguchi’s epic plot. Final Fantasy VI or lost odyssey. The overall story itself is largely predictable (albeit fun), but the characters and world are every bit as memorable as those found in these games. Each character has their own tragic backstory, resolution arc, and additional arc to look forward to what happens next in addition to their role in the main plot. At the same time, the setting of the story is fantastic, not only taking place in a world like ours, but also venturing into other worlds ripped straight from science fiction stories and weird fantasies.

This brings us to one of the game’s biggest selling points: its visual design. Back to the original era game consoleDungeons and city settings in JRPGs are usually the static pads you’ll encounter. instead of doing this fantasyThe team created more than 150 dioramas, which were then photographed at different angles for use as backdrops, including ones used during battles. This gives fantasy The unique aesthetic makes it feel unlike any other game.

However, while this is a win for “games as art”, the automatic switching of static camera angles while moving around the map can sometimes cause some issues. Visually, there are occasional visual artifacts during transitions, causing some objects to appear twice on screen, but in slightly different positions. In terms of gameplay, the fixed-camera nature of the game means you have to reorient the control stick after every camera change, which can lead to some annoying situations.

As for the music, it’s simply fantastic. Written over a long period of time final fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, fantasy It’s one of his most haunting scores in recent memory. The game’s diverse setting allows him to play many different styles of music, and you can tell he’s having a lot of fun doing it. The game also allows you to change the battle music if you wish, swapping out the final fantasy 14 or Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Which (despite the quality of these soundtracks, to be honest, feels a bit sacrilegious).

This battle music option is just the first of several new additions fantasyThe new “new dimension” Version. fantasy It itself was originally released on Apple Arcade in 2021 and is therefore designed for mobile devices with touch screens. new dimension Not only does this PC and home console version come with an HD livery, but it also includes voice acting for much of the game (which the original version lacked).

Another major change is the addition of a new “Normal” difficulty mode (the original version’s difficulty is now called “Hard” difficulty). However, while Normal mode is easier, that doesn’t mean the game is suddenly a walk in the park. Normal mode, conversely, is slightly more forgiving, meaning that even if you don’t immediately figure out the boss’s gimmick, it’s still possible to recover mid-fight in certain situations. But even so, there are many boss battles that require multiple attempts, even on Normal difficulty.

I should also mention that in the 60+ hours I played the game, I experienced at least five crashes where the game soft-locked during loading screens. I have to reset the game every time to fix the problem. What mitigates this issue, however, is that in addition to saving points, the game also constantly autosaves at checkpoints, meaning I never lost more than a minute or two. (*Note: I played a pre-release version of the game, so this issue may be fixed with a patch before the game is released.)

in the end, fantasy Feels like a game from a different timeline final fantasy The game retains its turn-based roots but still innovates in creative ways within that framework. It’s a game that feels fresh and nostalgic at the same time, especially for those who are passionate about the top 10 final fantasy game. While it may not have the most original plot, it has great gameplay systems, memorable, well-developed characters, great music, and a diorama-based art style that visually sets it apart from other games. if Fantasy: New Dimensions You even sound a little interesting, give it a try. You’ll be glad you did.