Highlights
- Hironobu Sakaguchi's mobile RPG Fantasian may be coming to PC in the near future, as it has been spotted on SteamDB.
- Fantasian was created with passion and ardor by Sakaguchi, who established his own studio, Mistwalker, after leaving Square Enix.
- The game features a unique gameplay system called "Dimengeon" that allows players to enjoy the dioramas without random battles, but they must eventually face accumulated enemies in harder battles.
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's mobile RPG Fantasian - currently available on Android and iOS - has been spotted on SteamDB, signaling that it may finally be coming to PC in the near future.
Shortly after his departure from Square Enix in 2003, Sakaguchi established his own development studio, Mistwalker, with Microsoft's help. Since then, he has proceeded to create multiple turn-based RPGs on various platforms, such as Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, Terra Battle, and Fantasian. Speculating that this might be his last project due to his advancing age, Sakaguchi crafted Fantasian with unparalleled passion and Ardor.
The game used over 150 different hand-crafted dioramas to establish the world of the game, most of which were created by industry veterans, including one by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. The creator used drones equipped with 3D scanning technology to recreate the real miniature sets and dioramas in the game, giving it a distinctly lifelike aesthetic. Famous Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu also provided the score for Fantasian.
The game features a unique gameplay system called "Dimengeon". Basically, it's a system that allows players to enjoy the beautiful dioramas without being interrupted by random battles. Whenever the player encounters enemies, these enemies can be placed in a reserve storage area, and once this area has accumulated a certain number of enemies, the player would have to fight them all. These battles are harder, but there are gimmicks that allow players to overcome them with ease compared to normal battles.
Some fans are speculating that this could be a positive sign for more Mistwalker titles to break away from their respective platforms. However, the possibilities of this happening are quite tricky, as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey both appear to be IPs owned by Microsoft (if this trademark renewal is anything to go by). The Last Story is also a Nintendo-owned IP, which makes it even harder to get on modern platforms unless Nintendo decides to do so.
Fantasian was nominated for Mobile Game of the Year at the 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.