Fantasian

Fantasian is a JRPG by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series, that sets itself apart from most of its genre peers primarily through its backgrounds - instead of digitally painted sets, the game uses hundreds of handmade dioramas, physical models that the team scanned and turned into environments for individual locations. The result is a visually distinctive game full of depth and textures that are hard to achieve with purely digital graphics, giving the world an almost tangible atmosphere.

The combat system combines classic turn-based JRPG elements with a practical solution to random encounters - the player can "collect" enemies from a distance using a special mechanic and deal with them all at once later, which spares the game from annoyingly interrupting exploration while walking through the dioramas. The music was composed by Sakaguchi's longtime collaborator Nobuo Uematsu, giving the story and battles a characteristic orchestral feel familiar from Final Fantasy.

The game was released exclusively for Apple Arcade, split into two parts, with the first part available for free as part of the subscription and the second requiring a one-time additional payment - an unusual solution that combined a subscription model with a premium expansion. The game later received a release on other platforms under a new name, showing that reaching beyond a mobile audience was intended from the start and that Mistwalker treated the game as a full-fledged title.

Why play it: A tip for fans of the JRPG genre and of Hironobu Sakaguchi's work who will appreciate the unique handmade dioramas, but must reckon with an Apple Arcade subscription and an extra payment for the second half of the story.