The Link Between Fantasian & Old-School Final Fantasy

Content originally posted to Instagram on April 5, 2021.

Fantasian, the new JRPG helmed by the creator of Final Fantasy himself, Hironobu Sakaguchi, just came out a few days ago! What personally gets me the most hype about Fantasian is how the in-game environments are actually real-life dioramas, all crafted by different artists in the JP special effects industry and scanned into the game. Just take a look at the video to see what I mean.

Although the game is developed by Sakaguchi’s company Mistwalker, there seems to be a very “old school Squaresoft" feel to it (a.k.a. the company that developed Final Fantasy amongst other classic JRPGs before it became Square Enix): Nobou Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame is behind the soundtrack, and Akira Toriyama of Chrono Trigger fame (and, outside of Squaresoft, known for Dragon Quest and Dragonball) contributed a diorama. Sakaguchi himself has even elaborated on how Fantasian is inspired by Final Fantasy VI.

For now, the game is exclusive to Apple Arcade on iOS devices. It’d be nice if it was more widely accessible, but I understand…get that Apple money 💸 Here’s to hoping it comes to other systems in the future.

(on a sidenote, Fantasian’s dioramas remind me of another game I posted about on my Instagram way back, Hylics 2. There’s just something fascinating about seeing real-life materials scanned into video games, y’know?)