Fantasian: Neo Dimension – Hironobu Sakaguchi talks about the new port of his latest JRPG Interview

Hardly anyone in the video game industry has shaped the JRPG genre as much as game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi. In 1986 – shortly after the infamous video game crash of the 1980s – the Japanese developer founded Square and created Final Fantasy, which turned out to be the company's last resort and ultimately saved it. After years of JRPG hits, led by the influential Final Fantasy series, Sakaguchi-san parted ways with Square Enix in 2004 and founded the studio Mistwalker. In addition to titles such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, the studio also released Fantasian, a JRPG that appeared exclusively as part of the Apple Arcade subscription. Trapped on iOS and macOS devices, its latest title never reached modern consoles. However, during this year's Nintendo Direct in June, Square Enix surprisingly confirmed an enhanced version called Fantasian: Neo Dimension which will be released for the Nintendo Switch later this year. In the course of this, we had the honor of talking with Sakaguchi-san about his latest title. In particular, the newly blossoming partnership with Square Enix plays a central role – but you can also find out what Sakaguchi-san's love for Final Fantasy XIV and the Japanese Gunpla miniatures has to do with the port of Fantasian: Neo Dimension in this interview.

ntower: Hello, Sakaguchi-san, it's so nice to meet you, and it's a huge honor for me to talk to you today about your newest release of Fantasian: Neo Dimension. Personally, I grew up with Final Fantasy over 20 years ago, and I'm very much looking forward to the release of Fantasian: Neo Dimension as well. Thank you so much for your time today. Some of our readers know who you are, but some might not. So, would you like to introduce yourself briefly?

We had the pleasure of talking to Hironobu Sakaguchi about his latest JRPG adventure

© Square Enix

Hironobu Sakaguchi: I'm Sakaguchi from Mistwalker. On FANTASIAN, I was the producer, and I also wrote the story and co-directed the game along with my colleague Nakamura. And it's been 25 years since I've worked with Square Enix in this capacity. So very, very excited to see where this goes.

ntower: Fantasian: Neo Dimension is an enhanced version of Fantasian which was released back in 2021 on iOS and macOS devices through Apple Arcade. Now, Fantasian reaches the Nintendo Switch as well. What was the motivation behind the port to other platforms?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: As I make games, I want as many people as possible to be able to play it, access it, experience the world. So, it was only natural to explore the possibility of porting it. And as I'm sure some of you know, I'm a huge Final Fantasy XIV player right now. So, through my Final Fantasy XIV fandom, I was able to meet the producer Yoshida and reconnect with him and talk and chat about games. And we got to talk about the opportunity of bringing Fantasian to consoles. Then we started working together and discussing how we should upgrade the game for the console release.

ntower: How does the enhanced version differ from the original? What can we expect?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: I'd say there's a few changes from the Apple arcade version to the console version. One of the biggest ones being there are now Japanese and English voiceover in the game, which really enhances the character's emotions, and I think it strengthens that dynamic and play off of each other. That's one of the biggest changes, I would say. And in addition, the dioramas that we have created to make this game, we had actually photographed them in 4K resolution, but due to different hardware constraints, we weren't able to fully utilize the 4K resolution that we acquired the raw assets in. Now we're able to do that for the console release. And there are also some other more minor adjustments, for example, the difficulty curves and the balance between enemies and moves. So, I went through the whole game, reviewed and optimized some of those in order for it to be more accessible to a larger population, even down to smaller adjustments like the character's movement speed I increased a little bit. Some of the play feel, the feeling that you have as you're playing it on a controller. We adjusted that as well.

Fantasian: Neo Dimension's flagship feature is the trajectory combat system

© Square Enix

ntower: Sounds very interesting. I've never played Fantasian before because it was limited to Apple Arcade. Especially the trajectory system is interesting which I've never seen before. Can you talk a little bit about that? And how did you come up with the idea?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: First off, the game, when it was released for Apple Arcade, I know it was ported to many different Apple platforms, but the primary target was iOS mobile devices, which automatically meant we knew we were dealing with a tactile interface, a touch panel type of screen. And how do we make the battle mechanics of a turn-based RPG fun engaging on a touch screen? Initially, we thought about this idea of flicking and tossing spells and tossing spheres to hit enemies. But after a lot of trial-and-error between myself and the programmer, we settled on this trajectory system where you pull a sphere back and then it would be launched on the trajectory or curve that that spell has. And that felt really, really satisfying. And in addition, Fantasian has this mechanic called the Dimension System. If you've played classic JRPGs, you'll know there's a lot of different random encounters when you're on the world map or when you're in a dungeon. Instead of having to fight each random encounter individually, the Dimension System, “Dimension Dungeon”, basically stores stockpiles of different enemies that you randomly encounter, and then you can choose to battle them at any point at a later time. And when doing so, because there are so many enemies inside of this “Dimengeon”, it is really satisfying to be able to pull back and launch these spells and hit a whole bunch of enemies, either in a line or in an area. So that was a very rewarding experience, I think, for the player.

ntower: These are very interesting features, I think. But are there any other features that you would like to have included in the game? Or is Fantasian: New Dimension your vision of the adventure?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: Very fortunately, we had quite a bit of time to be able to work and trial and error this port. So, even down to the smaller details that I wasn't able to mention earlier, for example, off of the previous conversation on touch panels, our assumption is most players are going to be playing this using a controller. So, we put a lot of effort into how the controller feels when players have it in their hands and they're controlling these characters. There's been a lot of R&D [research and development] and trial-and-error on that front as well. In a lot of different areas, I think the game has really evolved into what would be the vision or the final form, if you will, of what the game could be. I think it's about as complete as a Fantasian: Neo Dimension can get.

The hand-built dioramas in particular will be shown to their best advantage in the expanded version

© Square Enix

ntower: I'm really looking forward to finally being able to play it. Since we're a Nintendo magazine, I was wondering if you could tell me more about the difficulties of porting the game to newer platforms, especially the Nintendo Switch? Because the Nintendo Switch is the weakest system it's going to be released on.

Hironobu Sakaguchi: Initially, when we were developing Fantasian, our target platform was [Apple] iPhone, and back to a certain generation of [Apple] iPhone[s]. So, if anything, I would argue, the Nintendo Switch version had access to more power. And for example, the screen size, when we designed the game to be able to be played on four-inch, five-inch screens, the Nintendo Switch actually offers more real estate on the screen. It felt bigger, if anything. With regards to the processing power, I don't really feel the Nintendo Switch came up short because this game doesn't have a lot of demanding 3D-CG, rendering, particles, imagery, etc. A lot of the photos that serve as the background are pre-rendered, and they really showcase the beauty of the dioramas. Because it's not a very intense or demanding game on the programming side, I think it feels quite complete, even on the Nintendo Switch. It captures the experience 120 percent.

ntower: That's very nice to hear. As this is an enhanced version, I wonder if we can expect additional chapters or story elements in the new version?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: In terms of story, there isn't anything in addition or new in this case. Everything that we set out to do for the game and the world, the characters, the story we wanted to tell was complete through the Apple Arcade release. However, that being said, for the Apple Arcade version, it was released part one, part two, and then some additional content in that respect. So, players had to wait, or it was released over time, whereas the console ports, of course, are going to be the full experience from start to finish, and to complete it in one version.

ntower: That makes sense, of course. A month ago, your company, Mistwalker, filed a trademark for Fantasian: Dark Edge …

Hironobu Sakaguchi: [laughing] Dark Edge …

ntower: Do you have plans to develop the Fantasian universe further? New worlds, new characters … Can you talk more about future projects?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: Nowadays, it's interesting how news breaks and how the scoops are released. As you know, getting trademarks takes a lot of time, and you have to work with a lot of different legal entities, different countries have different rules and regulations, so I guess that tipped our hand. But regardless, “Dark Edge”, as I'm sure you can understand, we can't really say anything as of right now. And of course, there's always discussions and talks with different parties. But what I have said is that I am working on or thinking about in very early stages on something new. So, I can only leave that question to answer as that.

As Leo, you try to regain his lost memories from a parallel universe

© Square Enix

ntower: Thank you very much for your answer. Now we've talked about the future, but let's go back in time a bit. You and Square Enix parted ways in 2004, and you founded your company Mistwalker and released several JRPG games after that and ended the series with Fantasian. Now Fantasian: Neo Dimension is being published by Square Enix, which of course makes things even more interesting. You've already told us the story of how you and Yoshida-san met, but is there anything else we can expect from this partnership in the future?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: As of right now, there really aren't any specifics. When Yoshida-san and I initially talked, it was really about how do we bring Fantasian to consoles as New Dimension. Throughout my talks with Yoshida, as well as different interviews like this that I've done, it, of course, became more apparent that it would be ideal, and Yoshida has echoed the same thought, if we didn't just end this partnership with one game and with how we've committed to Final Fantasy XIV. I'm really into the game and he's really into that game. He has mentioned it would be nice to be able to do something with me. But what I do admire about Yoshida is as he's developing Final Fantasy XIV, I feel, of course, a lot of respect that he has towards the entire Final Fantasy world, franchise and history. And he has really captured the nuances of the Final Fantasy universe and what's come before it, and also added to it, brought it into a modern era and put it all together in Final Fantasy XIV. And that's what I find really attractive, I think, about his style of game development and producing. So, there's a large amount of trust there between us. Again, no specifics at the moment. We're focused on [Fantasian:] Neo Dimension right now. But if there is an opportunity, I'm sure from both sides, it would be interesting to see what could happen in the future.

ntower: Personally, I have also played Final Fantasy XIV for a few hundred hours, and I can only second that. You can really see the love for this series. Your work on the legendary Final Fantasy series has had a lasting impact on the gaming industry. The JRPG landscape has changed quite a bit since then as video games became globally connected. To what extent has your work on Final Fantasy had an impact on Fantasian in a traditional sense? How has this affected your work on Fantasian?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: At Square Enix, I, of course, was involved in many different Final Fantasys, and I think the last one I actually had any type of influence in was perhaps Final Fantasy XII around the early startup or inception of that project I was involved in before parting ways. And every Final Fantasy iteration leading up to XII, I was constantly pushing the team for “How do we evolve the genre? How do we include new elements?” And as I transitioned into Mistwalker for the first few games, I carried that similar philosophy. There's next-gen consoles, so that means we need to have new takes or new interpretations of the JRPG genre. And figuring out what that was became a mission of myself as well as the company. But with Fantasian, it felt a bit different, I would say. I would call Fantasian almost the culmination of all of my years and experience as a game developer. And in a similar sense, it was also a return to my roots, to my origin. If Fantasian became my last game, I think I was going to be okay with retiring and letting that be my last game as a developer. And because of those reasons, I would say I didn't really feel like I needed to compare it to any of the older games, and I didn't really feel the need to make some massive evolution in the genre or the game. It was really a very natural expression of what I thought was a fun JRPG, and I felt quite free in determining how to make the game and what to include in it.

Fantasian: Neo Dimension represents the "culmination" of Sakaguchi-san's career as a game developer

© Square Enix

ntower: I'm very interested in what you liked best about the production of Fantasian. Can you tell us a little story about the production process?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: First when developing Fantasian, I always begin with the plot and the story that unfolds in this world. And at that stage it’s really just this fictious or virtual experience inside my mind. And when I think about this it is very liberating and I can go in any direction I really want. Once I have that, the next stage is to take this world and we start putting characters in it and I get the character illustrations and the concept art sent to me. And music samples of course which is a huge component of building that world. But in the case of Fantasian I think the biggest thing that excited me was perhaps the dioramas because this world that I have imagined in my mind is actually taking shape in front of my eyes. Not just taking shape as pixels but as physical objects that I can interact with. It’s really like you manifested something that you have imagined and created in your mind into a physical space. I am personally a huge fan of miniatures like making plastic models, and I am a big fan of Gunpla, the Gundam models back in the days. So, I think being able to see all that coming together of what I have imagined and visualized in my mind physically manifest is quite exciting.

ntower: Thank you very much for your insightful answers and for your time.

You can find the German translation of our interview with Sakaguchi-san here.