Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Final Fantasy?

When Mistwalker revealed Fantasian for Apple Arcade, it was merely considered the newest project from the small development studio helmed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and their biggest project since The Last Story. With the first part’s impending release, it’s becoming clear just how important this is for the creators involved, how it could mark a conclusion of sorts.

Sakaguchi confirmed to IGN Asia that Fantasian could include the final full soundtrack from former Final Fantasy franchise composer Nobuo Uematsu. This is understandable, and a predictable turn of events. Uematsu isn’t getting any younger, currently at 62 years old, and hasn’t composed a full soundtrack since The Last Story released over a decade ago on Wii. But it’s more understandable considering his recent health scare, in which he damn near died. It’s a miracle we’re even getting one more game full of his compositions, and no one can blame him for wanting to take it easier after this. He’s not entirely exiting the stage.

On the other hand, someone else involved with Fantasian could be going out with it: Hironobu Sakaguchi himself.

“I think it is certainly possible that this could be my last project,” Sakaguchi explained to Video Games Chronicle during their interview, “and that was kind of in the back of my mind as we were developing it.” He elaborated: “To be perfectly honest with you, I haven’t given much thought to the next steps for the company or where we want to go, and I think I could use a bit of vacation time in between now and whatever it is we do next. So we’ll see what happens, that remains to be seen.” He didn’t claim anything definitive, but it could very well be his, well, final fantasy. For real this time.

Fantasian is a turn-based RPG with backdrops handcrafted with dioramas, courtesy of environmental designers with experience in the Japanese “tokusatsu” genre of live-action shows and movies. (Think of giant monster movies like the Godzilla series and shows like the Kamen Rider series when the term “tokusatsu” is used.) They’re a sight to behold in the screenshots and videos provided, reminiscent of prerendered backgrounds from a number of older 3D games.

The game’s story involves a universe governed by machinery, where the balance of chaos and disorder is at the whim of gods who control the machines. The tale will center on a protagonist named Leo, who loses his memories and finds himself in an unfamiliar land after a massive explosion. He’ll unravel the mysteries about a mechanical infection during the quest with fellow party members as he works to reclaim his memories. Further story elements will be revealed through novel-like memories, in a mechanic that sounds reminiscent of the dreams Caim could discover in Lost Odyssey. No one else borrowed that feature, so why shouldn’t they reuse it?

The battle system and its features, however, are more unique for a Mistwalker title, and can’t be called “typical.” The encounters are random, but the party doesn’t always have to fight them. The key feature here involves the “Dimengeon Battle” mechanic, where players can send enemies to a dimensional dungeon and fight them all at once. All the characters appear to have wide or semi-wide area of effect attacks that can damage multiple enemies, meaning encountering a bunch of them at once isn’t as intimidating as it sounds. Releasing an RPG with random encounters in 2021 is brave, but they at least considered a way to mitigate the potential annoyance of being interrupted during field exploration.

Fantasian is the most important project for Mistwalker in years, following a decade focusing on mobile games, to varying success. The first Terra Battle title’s superlative performance kept their lights on for nearly six years, but Terra Battle 2 and Terra Wars were shut down after only one year and six months, respectively, following their launches. This newest game will mark a return to what worked for them before, but its higher budget compared to their mobile games means they’re taking a risk. This will ideally pay off.

The audience that hasn’t been happy about Mistwalker making games exclusively for mobile platforms for ten years still doesn’t appreciate this effort despite it being on Apple Arcade. They should. The service is giving them the opportunity to create a game on a mid-tier budget for a platform that’s done a fine-enough job advertising them. Not to mention that Apple Arcade isn’t a mobile-exclusive program, with games being playable with a controller and on Apple TV+. I would have loved for Sakaguchi to potentially go out with a AAA-budget game, but in this case, other publishers should be blamed for not giving him another chance despite his name and talents.

Fantasian will be split into two parts, each containing about 20 to 30 hours of gameplay. The first one is still scheduled for release in March 2021 despite only a couple of days remaining in the month, while the second is coming this fall. This game could be ported to other platforms eventually like several other Apple Arcade games, so anyone who doesn’t own any Apple devices capable of playing this (like me) can take potential solace in that. There’s a chance this may not be Sakaguchi’s final fantasy considering this isn’t the first time he’s claimed this, to make for a Hayao Miyazaki-style “retirement.” If it isn’t, it would be nice if a publisher could give him a deal; but this game’s quality will be the judge of that.