Video game engines today are capable of powerful, cinema-ready graphics, but with “Fantasian” Sakaguchi has created a mobile game that feels tactile - a world we want to touch. But if you walk around the building and go through the back door, you might be able to reach that chest. That introduces puzzle-like elements, in which you might see a treasure tile that you can’t access. “Your character would move one tile at a time. “Back in the day, everything was done in tiles,” says Sakaguchi, speaking this week via a translator. Having turned his attention to mobile game development - with his next, “Fantasian,” launching as an exclusive to Apple Arcade, the tech giant’s subscription service - Sakaguchi says “Final Fantasy VI” offered a number of reminders and lessons for modern game development. Sakaguchi not too long ago replayed “Final Fantasy VI,” the 1994 entry in the franchise that is still considered among the series’ best. Robot-y environmental activism group on the other.Before Hironobu Sakaguchi began work on his latest role-playing game - he’s championed and explored the RPG genre throughout his career - the creator of the famed “Final Fantasy” series opted to look back before setting his sights forward. The forces working to pull them apart are Tilda Swinton’s Monsanto-inspired agro-chemical company on one side, and Paul Dano’s Mr. The tale of a young farm girl named Leo (Ahn Seo-hyun) and a massive genetically engineered pig named Fantasian. Mistwalker needed a video game good enough that any resistance would look like entrenched old-school bullying, and it found that in Fantasian, an epic that’s equal parts sardonic and sincere. Nobuo Uematsu soundtracks a scene of pratfall mass destruction in an underground mall with John Denver’s shlock classic “Annie’s Song,” in a tonal clash that could be the envy of any number of stylish young pastiche directors, but his long, grotesque scenes in a New Jersey slaughterhouse look like something you’ve seen only in the worst grindhouse slasher film on the shelf. It’s a dizzying hodgepodge of neoliberalism critique, coming-of-age saga, and heist flick. Hironobu Sakaguchi’s weaselly Zoboomafoo-era television host is also in the mix, playing the stomach-churning MC of the whole affair. It’s simultaneously a game that indulges our nostalgia while also being a truly novel craft in its own right. Play part 2 only if you’re ready to sweat and have many boss fights that feel like the last boss fight.įantasian is a heartfelt experience that pulls together all the reasons we adore RPGs in the first place. Play part 1 if you’re here for a relaxing time. This game is more of a love letter for FF fans. The gameplay is fantastic and there were moments where it feels great to win a fight. It has some quality of life improvements and the story is slightly more mature in terms of how characters interact with each other. You feel right at home if you played the older Final Fantasy games. Other than that, the game is your typical Sakaguchi game in terms of pacing, story build up, the themes that are being focused on, cutscene direction and more. The only explanation I can think of is this being a deliberate choice for being an Apple Arcade game. I’ve played all the main Mistwalker games and played many of Sakaguchi’s other games when he was part of Squaresoft and none of them were as challenging as this. In some parts it feels too punishingly hard. I got that in part 2 but I didn’t expect the game to become this challenging. When I was still playing part 1, I was very positive while waiting for the game to show its depth in terms of mechanics, progression system and fights.
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