Cover Photo By Ben Allie Antonio
Cover Photo By Ben Allie Antonio.

In search of lost memories: Leo and his journey in “Fantasian”


Join Leo as he fights against enemies and collects clues that can help him restore his memories.


By Jillian Cu | Saturday, 3 July 2021

After the success of the video game series “Final Fantasy,” Mistwalker’s “Fantasian” brings a unique gameplay experience adapting the well-loved Japanese role-playing games (JRPG) produced and written by Hironobu Sakaguchi. With simple interactions among different characters and finding objects throughout the game, this focuses on the storyline that will make gamers look forward to what’s next. 

The game released its first part of the story last April 2 introducing “Leo” who lost his memories after entering the Machine Realm. His quest is to restore his memories through interacting with characters, collecting objects, and fighting enemies that would help him remember his adventures while meeting Vam the Maleficent. This was produced by incorporating handmade dioramas as its background and 3D characters that will make it stand out among other RPGs. 

Simple interactions with unique backdrops

The game primarily focuses on interactions with players through its storyline, therefore playing is easy, with only a few taps for the main character to go to places. A mini-map can be used as a guide to help the player. As Leo reaches his destination, he will stumble upon different enemies that may hinder his journey. During battles, the player will have options to use different skills and items, along with the help of some characters like Kina. 

Aside from interacting with characters and combating battles, the player can also collect objects that give clues to reveal Leo’s identity, as well as items that can help him during his future battles like healing potions and fragments. Along with interacting with the townsfolk and other supporting characters through picking the right dialogue, there are also quests that must be accomplished by the player.

Warp points along the gameplay serve as checkpoints if you wish to save your game progress. With its storyline, different encounters are shown to reveal flashbacks that also involve other characters aside from Leo.

The game becomes more interesting with its unique backdrops made from over 150 crafted dioramas along with different soundtracks created by Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.

Limited skills and repeated battles

As the quest progresses in helping Leo restore his memories, the game may become a bore with its random appearances of battles from enemies while trailing back and forth to accomplish missions. Furthermore, there are limited skills that a character can use during the battle, so players must think strategically. Other items that can be used in battle are for healing energies and using fragments as special weapons against enemies. 

As the game heavily focuses on the storyline, the battles simply don’t bring excitement with limited skills which can only be controlled with simple taps.

Those who wish to fully commit to playing the entire game should avail the Apple Arcade subscription (Php 249 per month), as it is part of the Arcade along with other games. 

Mistwalker is in the progress of creating the second part of the story, looking forward to its release later this year. Furthermore, there are still parts of the game that are being fixed for smoother gameplay.

As Sakaguchi continues to produce the game inspired by “Final Fantasy 6,” players will surely look forward to how Leo will overcome quests.