Fantasian is releasing the second part of its game Friday the 13th. Let’s hope that the launch goes to plan! The first part of Fantasian was released on April 2, earlier this year. Although its Apple Arcade (macOS, iOS, tvOS) exclusivity blocked many players from enjoying Fantasian, the masses who did play the game have not been short on praise, saying that it breathes the essence of Final Fantasy. Now, the second part of Fantasian promises double the playtime, additional features such as swapping your party members mid-battle, an expanded Growth Map - sort like a skill point board to customize your characters - and is said to be more quest-driven than the story-driven first part.
Part 2 will have 50 new dioramas scenarios, complementing the existing ones, and Nobuo Uematsu, legendary composer for the Final Fantasy series, has composed 34 new tracks. My playtime in the first part was around 24 hours. Sakaguchi said the second part will boast a runtime of 40-60 hours. Fantasian tells the story of Leo, an amnesiac boy who, on his journey to recover his memories, finds himself entangled in an adventure that could define the destiny not only of his dimension but of others. With a star-studded cast accompanying him, Leo recovers his memories and discovers why he and his companions are essential to the plot.
Why Apple Arcade exclusive?
I know what you’re thinking, wishing, or even complaining about: when will the Apple Arcade exclusivity end? While some games exclusive to Apple Arcade eventually see the light of day on other platforms, we can’t say the same about games from Mistwalker, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s company that developed Fantasian. Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon were Xbox exclusives for the simple fact that Microsoft, shall we say, hired Mistwalker to produce such games for their console. The Last Story, exclusive to Wii, was a collaboration with Nintendo. In an interview with JPgames.de, Sakaguchi said that he often had dinner with two friends who were part of the Apple Arcade launch team, and they asked him if they should do something together. Since the initiative came from Apple itself, that pretty much sums up why Fantasian is an Apple Arcade exclusive. All non-Apple users can do is hope that Fantasian won’t stay locked in Apple Arcade forever, or else they will miss this jewel of an RPG.
