Have I missed RPGs over the years? Like, were there ever this many in a single year? I feel like 2024 has been the year of MMORPGs and turn-based RPGs. We have had a lot of them and reviewed most of them. Anyway, maybe I’m just getting old and don’t remember previous years like this. Maybe all those E3 trips had my brain store away a bevy of RPGs that I came in contact with. Who knows? Who cares?
Moving on! This is my rambling introduction to Fantasian Neo Dimension from developer Mistwalker and Square Enix. And no, I’m not at all complaining about it. It’s a gorgeous turn-based RPG adventure that brings a solid story, and some compelling heroes and villains, while at the same time sporting some of the most gorgeous environmental graphics that I’ve seen in a long time. While it’s certainly not perfect, especially with controls, it’s a good adventure to partake in and enjoy the hell out of for more than a few hours.
So, let’s get this party started, jump on our warping devices, and head towards breaking down this game into a cohesive review.
Great start to a story
The story for Fantasian Neo Dimension begins with Leo, our main hero, waking up in a robot-led land, not knowing how he got there or anything before stirring from his slumber. From there, in a Momento-type fashion, Leo is sent on a backward quest to recover his memory, repair some damaged relationships, assist in the cultivation of a character’s new powers, and take on some awful Gods and monsters. Just standard stuff for an RPG, right? Not at all.
The story of Fantasian Neo Dimension is an engaging and intriguing journey. How it begins with Leo waking up and starting in the same place as the player with understanding the world and its characters is a bold move on Mistwalker’s part to create a unique story. Most of the time, it’s a coming-of-age sort of journey for RPGs, where the hero starts small and builds big, gathers a team, and then conquers after a long grind. Prove me wrong that this isn’t the majority of RPG experiences. Go ahead.
Fantasian Neo Dimension’s story doesn’t go that route at all. It decides to start you amid chaos, throw breadcrumbs at your feet that lead to clues about Leo’s life before his waking, and just build upon his journey as he picks up his pieces. It’s a clever and fun way to lay out what should be a standard tale, and it changes the RPG formula enough to keep you wanting more. Knowing more about his past and how he treated people helps to shape and define Leo, and makes his character far more than one-dimensional. Plus, it builds his world and helps shape others as you interact with them.
I enjoyed Leo’s journey, the personalities he met along the way, and the balance of humor and sincerity that the story came with. It’s probably one of the more grounded RPG experiences that I have played in a while, and its gradual unraveling and reveal kept me focused and motivated the entire time. The story did lead the gameplay quite well.
Gameplay simplicity and deep strategy
The core gameplay of Fantasian Neo Dimension is a standard turn-based RPG construct, with some clever mods to make it less familiar and newer. There’s something comfortable about knowing how the game works because of past experiences in the turn-based genre, while also being surprised with genius ways of executing said turn-based-ness. Mistwalker put their thinking caps on for this one and it shows.
Anyway, the game sends you on an isometric journey through realistic 3D model maps (I swear they were actual models with characters walking through them – just gorgeous). On the maps, you will have random encounters with enemies, which is what you should expect from a turn-based RPG, where those encounters will throw you into a battle scenario. The scenario has an order-of-operation to attacks, as this type of game should, and you take turns fighting enemies and then taking some lickings in return. Again, nothing too out of the ordinary.
Now, where the battling changes is how you can attack. Your characters can line up multiple enemies in their sight, depending on the enemy layout/positioning, and attack them with one swift move. This attack could be a standard weapon or something more powerful/magical. While this might not sound like a big deal, just think about it for a second. You will have randomly placed enemies in a scenario that you can hit multiple times depending on your strategy. This might mean less damage to your characters or it could mean a longer battle if not done correctly. For example, taking out bigger enemies will save time and health, while taking out a bunch of smaller ones might cost you more in the long run. It’s completely up to the player to be strategic in how they execute attacks, which puts a lot more responsibility on the player to think about their approach. That’s deeper and richer gameplay than most turn-based games deliver. Typically, you choose an enemy to attack (just one) and then pray for the best.
While this might sound like a shallow attempt at making a turn-based game different, what it does is open a bigger playbook for attacks and approaching fights. The different types of strategies that you can implement are vast, especially since your attack-turn-based order depends on which enemy falls first. What that means is that an enemy that is slotted to attack you in the fifth position, and that might stand between six different attacks from three different characters, could be eliminated and have the player attack six different ways in a row. Again, that all depends on your planning and how you execute it. It’s a hefty amount of strategy that is placed at the feet of the player. How and what strategy you choose to use during these fights is far more entertaining than the usual turn-based experience.
The variety of enemies makes this even more interesting, as smaller enemies with single places to hit can be quickly disposed of, adjusting strategy one way, while bigger enemies have to be taken down with more planning. For example, there is a golem in the game, a single mid-boss, that you have to strategize your attacks against. The golem has multiple targets on its body because it is big, and those targets affect what attacks the golem can deliver. This enemy is brutal as hell. Assigning your characters certain responsibilities and juggling their attacks is essential for success against this enemy. It took me about six times to get it right. It was more engaging and complicated than annoying and burdensome. I appreciated the amount of strategy and approach to attacking the golem because of the openness and manual attack executions I could launch against it.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg of how this game functions differently than other turn-based games of this type.
One of the cooler features offered in this game is trapping monsters as you travel and determining when you want to deal with them. At the beginning of the game, you’re given thirty empty monster slots to fill up, if you so choose. Instead of fighting monsters every 20 seconds between fights, you can collect monsters to fight at once when you feel like it (or when your slots fill up). That pushes away the usual blueprint of how a turn-based RPG works and how random encounters occur. This adds another item of interest and strategic moment for a player to deal with during the journey. You can collect monsters to push the journey forward faster but eventually have to deal with a bunch of monsters at once, or you can just chip away at them as you go. Regardless of the decision, the fact that Mistwalker threw this into the turn-based formula was a smart move. The more choices a player has to deal with random encounters, the less exhausting it will be to make it from point A to B in the game. It’s truly a beautiful and well-thought-through addition to an old RPG formula.
Fantasian Neo Dimension also adds a wonderful element of backend complication to the fighting process. Each character has a set of skills they can tap into that will help expand strategic options in the game. You can use weapons, magic, or gems in fights. The weapons are self-explanatory with how they work, as it’s a click-and-hit sort of deal with them. The magic comes in a variety of flavors depending on character type, so everyone will have a unique and powerful move, while also having the capabilities of defense and healing.
Now, the latter of the bunch in that sentence is interesting. Characters can throw up multi-hit shields, which will require enemies to break through them before actually doing damage. Depending on the enemy type and power, and there are a good variety of enemies with varying degrees of both, the shield can last multiple hits or just protect the character from one large gigantic hit. Regardless, the shield option isn’t a random encounter for players where they will have to cross their fingers and hope that it works. It’s just a straight-up defense that will protect and offer another layer of strategy to a fight. It’s a cool option, especially if you’re a defensive player.
As for gems, they’re neat buffs for characters. Along the journey, and in several treasure chests and/or shops, you’ll come across gems that will buff an attribute of a player. This buff could be an attack, defense, or something wholly other. This is akin to adding a jewel in a weapon in God of War, where it helps boost Kratos, while also being easily replaceable if something else is found and is better. The gem, weapons, armor, and magic are superbly treated in their construction and execution. The backend mix-and-match of each helps to expand how a character can approach a fight and how they can help their teammates during one. Again, it just offers up more strategy to a fight and makes the gameplay just a bit more delicious.
All the above combined, the turn-based adventure created by Mistwalker brings a unique and better gaming experience than the usual RPG features. These additions to the fighting and back end make for a richer and more fun journey that doesn’t get tiring. It’s just excellent from beginning to end.
Good dialogue, hiccup controls
While the story is fun, and it is entertaining, you’re going to do stop-and-go with an immense amount of dialogue. It’s not the dialogue abundance that you would find in Final Fantasy XVI or any Hideo Kojima game, but you’re going to get a fair share of dialogue that impedes the action just slightly. The fact that it is mostly voiced over does help its flow. You also have the choice of going through the dialogue quickly, so that helps as well. It’s a forgivable hiccup because the story is the driving point of the journey, so having dialogue gives more dimension to characters, situations, and story arcs and adds more beef to the game’s burrito. But the stop/go of the action will be felt through the journey. That’s not unusual for a turn-based RPG, just noticeable for this one.
A bigger complaint that I have with this game is the controls. As you traverse through the game, wandering through all the beautiful environments that Mistwalker has cooked up, the game will shift and move said environments to adjust your viewpoint. When the game does this, the controls you were using before that shift will be wrong when the actual game shifts the map. If you’re going upward with the thumbsticks, the map might swing to the right, and you will be going in an awkward direction until you let the thumbstick go and reset your movement with the map’s position. It’s a significant annoyance and one that you will either get used to doing or will frustrate you to the point where you will take a break. This reminds me of the camera and movement shift in the very first Resident Evil. The game was built on specific camera angles, mostly trying to emphasize the horror element of the unknown (it worked), and when the camera angles changed, the movement you were doing before the instant change would be pushing your character in the wrong direction. The same is true here. I’m not sure what type of update (or if there is one) that could fix this but right now you’ll have to deal with it. It’s a small blight on what is otherwise a gorgeous and fun adventure.
Beyond these two complaints, Fantasian Neo Dimension is a fun experience that brings more positive than negative. The dialogue issue can’t be helped, as it pushes the narrative, but I do wish the controls issue could be improved. I’m not a programmer so I don’t know how easy that would be to fix, but I assume if it was easy, it would have been fixed.
Out-of-this-world presentation
This is one of the most beautiful games of 2024. You will be wowed from beginning to end with the detailed and modeled environments, even if they look simple and uncomplicated. They’re just fun to see in motion and they fit perfectly with the anime-driven characters. During my time with the game, it was like watching cartoon characters enter an architect’s model home collection. It’s visually mesmerizing and one of my favorite parts of this gaming experience.
In addition to the environment models, the game features a great soundtrack to support the journey, fully orchestrated and well-composed, and it features some fantastic acting. While there might be a ton of dialogue to accompany the story, the actors bring the characters and situations to life beautifully through their performance. Both music and acting add another rich layer of fun to Fantasian Neo Dimension.
The presentation in this game will keep you locked into the story.
On that note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Fantasian Neo Dimension from developer Mistwalker and publisher Square Enix is a fresh concept in how turn-based RPGs should be. It features deeply strategic fighting mechanics, a bevy of enemies to go up against, and a fun story to hold it together. The controls need some improving, and the dialogue could probably be toned down just a bit, but the game has more positives than negatives at the end of the day.
