9 Games You Should Play If You Loved Fantasian: Neo Dimension

There’s no better place to start than the same studio’s other work. Blue Dragon is an old school-style RPG with a few twists, while Lost Odyssey is more of an ambitious, contemporary Final Fantasy-like experience that effectively leans into visual novels. Mistwalker reuses that technique in Fantasian, but for Odyssey it hired a career novelist for those moments and it shows.

Much like Fantasian’s creative combat system that combines puzzle-like solutions and positioning attack trajectory, Resonance of Fate is best known for thinking outside the box when it comes to battles. SEGA itself once described it as a mix between “Valkyria Chronicles and a John Woo movie,” so you know Tri-Ace was cooking at the time.

We’re tackling the comparison from a different angle here. Harold Halibut is a strange (and sweet) indie adventure game that couldn’t have less in common with Fantasian. But there’s one exception: The visuals are strikingly similar in that Halibut’s world is entirely hand-made, every asset a high-resolution scan of a painstakingly-crafted physical object. It’s a great pairing with Fantasian’s hand-made diorama backgrounds. More like this please, video games!

Obligatory. We’re talking about Hironobu “Father of Final Fantasy” Sakaguchi here. But the first Final Fantasy specifically shares some ideas with Fantasian’s fantasy/sci-fi genre blend. It gets weirdly washed out in the remakes, but later parts of the original NES version gradually remove the bright, organic colors in exchange for darker, dirtier tiles meant to convey metal, rust, and an unspoken explanation for why you start fighting robots. It’s fine if you just take my word for it and stick with the Pixel Remaster instead, though.

Sometimes you don’t have to leave Square Enix territory if you like Final Fantasy but want something new and different. SaGa is a series often flying way under the radar, but those who know it swear by its unusual style, unique systems, and disinterest in player comfort. The recent Romancing SaGa 2 remake dials back on the friction, but makes up for that sicko-enticing aspect with dense, rewarding systems and super slick combat.

This might seem out of place if you haven’t finished Fantasian yet, but there are multiple dungeons in the back half that have you navigating dark, unmapped corridors in first-person. Wanna guess where that came from? DRPGs are a whole world unto themselves, and perhaps there’s no better place to start than Digital Eclipse’s remake of the O.G., Wizardry. Prepare for cruelty, but a real sense of accomplishment if you stick with it.

If you haven’t played Chrono Trigger and you like turn-based RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play Chrono Trigger. It is simply one of the best to ever do it, period. This is what happens when you put Sakaguchi together with Dragon Quest veterans Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama (RIP), let them build a huge team, and go wild. They even got to use the beefier Super Famicom carts! You don’t let just anyone use the 32-megabit ROMs, you know.

This hidden gem from the folks behind Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is an interesting one. It’s a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic tactical RPG set in the remains of Kentucky, which is already unusual. It also shares the idea of a technological threat to humanity with Fantasian, but does so by reminding the player what kind of person likely makes the key decisions just before the robots start wiping out humanity. Miasma Chronicles is rough around the edges in a few ways, but its unfamiliar (for video games) setting and real-world allegories mix quite well.

Oh hi, Claire (with an e at the end) here to tell you about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 if you haven’t heard enough of it already. With a turn-based combat system, an overworld to traverse, and a narrative that feels directly inspired by the “let’s go kill a god” spirit of classic Final Fantasy titles, you owe it to yourself to play Expedition 33.

With a wonderful cast of characters whose stories are wonderfully told over the course of its main story and an intriguing, fantastical setting, this RPG is a must-play if you loved Fantasian and are looking for more spellbinding, turn-based action. — Claire Jackson