Fantasian Neo Dimension Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Features | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Fantasian: Neo Dimension from developer Mistwalker and Square Enix is an enhanced version of a modern classic JRPG.

Originally launched as Fantasian for the Apple Arcade in 2021, the stunning effort from some behind Final Fantasy was nominated for Mobile Game of the Year awards and hailed as pushing mobile-based RPGs forward.

Now it’s arriving on modern platforms, upscaled and likely ready to contend for more awards.

Which is to say there is a lot of pressure on Neo Dimension, as it doesn’t get the benefit of sneaking up on gamers this time on a platform lacking quality competition. And yet, it’s arriving for a reason and the upgrades a few years later should keep it in a position to become a beloved hit once more.

Fantasian was gorgeous on mobile devices, and Neo Dimension takes it a step further with enhanced visuals that really bring the experience to life.

One of the game’s big taglines before release is that it boasts more than 150 dioramas. It was an interesting way to work with the limited horsepower on mobile devices at the time and is still super compelling now.

The visuals are, after all, varied and colorful across many different biomes. There isn’t grand shadow work and detail like one might expect from a AAA release, but the depth to areas is immersive and it’s always interesting to navigate the world. Battle scenes themselves have the expected cool effects and the user interface (UI) is easy to navigate and informative.

It helps that sound design is so, so good. This version includes English and Japanese voiceovers, breathing life into the tale. The musical score from legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu is fantastic. The game takes the opportunity to innovate some in musical functionality, too, letting players swap out background music for songs of their choice, including tracks from other Final Fantasy games.

Neo Dimension also impresses in the way it blends presentation and gameplay—while keeping in mind it was a mobile game first.

Exploration of the game’s areas is fun but it has also been streamlined smartly with the “Move” system, which lets the player zoom out on an area’s map and simply lets them fast-travel to key points.

A turn-based battle system features similar trappings. Trajectories play a big role in combat strategy. Players can use straight, curved lines or area-of-affect lines with attacks. This was an innovative way for players to use a phone or tablet’s touch screen to curve attacks, allowing them to hit multiple enemies at once.

The game does make some interesting design decisions, like not revealing actual details of enemy health unless players scan them with an ability. There’s an overarching, expected weakness system too.

In a fun wrinkle, and by far the biggest, players can actually store encountered enemies for battle at a later date within the Dimengeon Machine. This can lead to huge, sweeping battles against as many as 30 enemies.

So, the game massages the annoyance of random encounters while exploring by letting players save them for later. It reduces those random encounters, makes battles grander and keeps the battle system fresh because players aren’t having to do it so often.

Of course, the battle system is fun even without that system in place. And really, the trajectories system is interesting and something that other JRPGs might want to explore.

Story, Multiplayer and More

Neo Dimension is very, very much a JRPG from a story sense. The main character, Leo, suffers from a bout of amnesia, and players will encounter friends who help him unravel that mystery while also stopping a big bad.

This time, it’s order vs. chaos, and players will hop across worlds while progressing the tale.

None of this should be construed as a bad thing, of course. Players will become engrossed with certain characters, if nothing else, and the game’s runtime doesn’t overstay its welcome, which has been an issue for the genre.

What’s really interesting is how progression changes up as the story continues.

Players eventually unlock a “Growth Map,” a fancy word for what players will know otherwise as a skill tree. It’s interesting in its non-linearity, though, and the SP experience gained over the course of the game feels fair.

Gearing into specific builds, considering party composition and experimentation is a good time here, which is a key thing for a JRPG to nail well.

Also eventually on the docket is the ability to upgrade weapons and equipment, too, furthering that complexity beyond the surface level.

Those behind the game heard the complaints about difficulty in the original, too. This time out includes a normal difficulty for those who find the game gets too hard as players advance deeper into the narrative.

Impressively, the game also features lots of replayability and progression, including a Void Realm, which is basically a boss challenge mode with upscaled difficulties. That, and a new-game plus mode.

Neo Dimension is a classic JRPG experience in the utmost sense, which helps explain why the original was a breakout hit for those who happened to stumble upon it.

Now, the game gets to hit a much broader audience and it deserves to do so. Even the mobile-inspired mechanics like trajectories feel fresh and add a fun layer to the expected turn-based combat. The ability to store random encounters for later is something we’re sure to see from other games soon, too.

So long as would-be players understand the game’s mobile roots, Neo Dimension shouldn’t have any problems being a hit. It’s a charming, fun experience that once again proves massive budgets and hype don’t make a game experience great these days.