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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ย. 2021
- I hadn't planned on making another Fantasian video, but now that I've sweated bullets through Part 2, I felt like it was necessary to talk about the full experience.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: DigitalTQ's complete Fantasian walkthrough - www.digitaltq.com/fantasian-w...
Tunes: Fantasian Soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu (Available on Spotify and Apple Music) - เกม
Here's some thoughts from someone who enjoyed playing through Part 2 more than Part 1. The party swap mechanic introduced in Part 2 genuinely led to some of the most fun I've had playing a JRPG. I was fortunate enough to have immediately grasped depth that the mechanic allowed - honestly the mechanic is insanely OP and you should be using at least 5 characters in every boss fight. The game really lets you feel like a maestro when you're on top of a fight, switching characters in and out and timing all the proper skills. That's not to say that I didn't struggle playing through Part 2; I still died all the time, but I never got stuck on any one fight long enough to get frustrated, while I also allowed myself to come back later for a tough boss if I did start to wipe too many times. Getting game overs in this game didn't bother me, because I enjoyed the experience of making adjustments and seeing improvements - guess it helped that I also cut my teeth on precision platformers where the death count is literally just a number to be proud off. I wiped twice to the final boss, but I still enjoyed the gauntlet since I learned valuable lessons from each loss.
Regardless, despite my love for this game (it's my GOTY for sure and it's the first game that's driven me to create community guides on the subreddit), I'll also be the first one to question dropping a game this hard into the casual Apple Arcade environment. It doesn't help that a game this hard is also this niche - good resources are few and far in between. I totally understand all the people who say that playing through Part 2 is like playing an entirely different game - they dropped an entirely new, insanely complicated mechanic onto you, with no natural tutorials of how to get good at the mechanic without experimentation, while balancing around the depth that this mechanic allows without making sure that players knew how best to utilize it first. I enjoyed that learning process, but I think playthrough experiences as smooth as mine are relatively fewer and farther in between.
Thanks for the thoughts. I didn't mention party swapping in this video, but I'd agree that's a huge difference with Part 2 and huge feature overall. An oversight on my part to not mention it, so thanks for bringing it up.
I wonder if it's even possible to beat the game without party swapping, at least under normal circumstances. I did it extensively, but I didn't love it. For me, the party swapping was interesting at first, but ultimately it became another unwelcome layer of micromanagement. Part 2 is SO open with fast travel, skill tree reversing, dimengeon upgrades, and party swapping. It's almost like the game punishes you for giving you so many options. I remember having to adjust my skill tree almost on a boss-by-boss basis. You really have to constantly consider all your options.
For people looking for this kind of depth, Fantasian is probably for you. There's nothing wrong with this level of depth, but I'd have to argue that it's out of place considering the platform, marketing, and medium difficulty of Part 1.
Thank you for being the one guy on TH-cam that did a review of the full game. I hope this comment will be dated at some point in the future, because I want more people to talk about this game! I had a wonderful time with it, even with it’s issues. I agree with a lot of your points here! However, in terms of difficulty, I did find that even though I was under leveled a lot of the times, if you execute the right strategy, you can find ways to make the bosses a lot easier. For example, I was level 59 and had only put 55 hours into the game during the last pass, and I was able to beat the final phase on the third try. Did it take an hour (for all 3 tries) of my time? Yes. Do I think some of the boss battles are way too long? Absolutely. But I wouldn’t say that you need to be over leveled or even spend that long grinding in the game to beat the bosses. However, this could be because I am a bit used to these sorts of RPG’s. I can definitely understand your frustrations! I honestly felt the same way at the end where I was glad to have my life back! Lol
Thanks for the thoughts. I totally agree that-in the main story-strategy is far more important than player level, especially if you have the right equipment to execute said strategy optimally. I was only level 61 at the end, so only barely over-leveled. I think most of my time in Part 2 was spent on the quests. Quests are where some extra leveling can be very helpful.
"Bar exam level anxiety" -- well put and exactly summarizes my experience. Honestly my day job is intellectually demanding enough that I just want to sit down and enjoy some time to myself. Part 1 was a blast. Part 2 is a nightmare.
Also, for side quests, they're called side quests, but some of them are actually required for the main story. So sneaky.
I been helping some people on Reddit with this game and I also have the current speedrun wr, I played a lot of JRPGs up to FFX when they started to change the battle system of a lot of JRPGs, I think that if you are like me and played a lot of old school JRPGs this game is exactly what you are looking for (it should take you around 70 hours to 100% the main game, there’s some extra content after that you can do if you want) but if this is your first JRPG then you should start with something else like Chrono Trigger, Golden Sun, Final Fantasy 6, Dragon Quest 5, etc, the reason is not because of difficulty but because of game mechanics. I don’t think that this game is as difficult as you say it is but you need to know how JRPGs work, most of the issues I’ve seen on Reddit are that they don’t understand/use some basic JRPGs mechanics like the list with the turn order (and how some skills change it), character swapping, status effects mechanics, enemies weaknesses, etc, so if you have those down then you shouldn’t have issues with Part 2 with the exception of 2 or 3 bosses (Eternal Holy, Holy Puppet and Solar Flare Noise, fyi the first two are optional) and the final boss may be a bit of a marathon, you may die to bosses a few times but if you understood why you died then it won’t take you more than 1 to 3 attempts to defeat them (you can start the fight right away, you don’t need to load a save) but if you attempt to do the same thing expecting a different result or better “luck” then you are going to get frustrated.
The other issue I’ve seen is that a lot of people don’t explore the Growth Map and choose to grind for levels instead (which is useless as the game tells you after level 35), they should have introduced the Growth Map (similar to the FFX grid for those that played that game) on Part 1 instead of Part 2 so the player gets used to it from the beginning, after I talk about some mechanic a lot of the time they say “I never used that skill” or something along those lines, there are some really OP skills on the Growth Map that make the bosses A LOT easier and most players get to the end game without ever using them, the main ones are Desperation, Mystery Potion, Slow (with Piercing), Quick All (Ez in general, you should use him a lot), Payback and most importantly Bounce Field which is the most broken skill on the game, if you are not using those skills then you are going to have a REALLY hard time with some of the bosses, you basically have access to all of them after level 40 or a bit lower.
Another thing to keep in mind that you and a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that you can basically walk to the final dungeon from the beginning of Part 2, the north section of the map is entirely optional, most quests and bosses are optional too, basically the only things that are required are the Ship, complete Hidden Valley and unlock Valrika’s Growth Map, I would also recommend saving a few characters and getting a few other stuff to be able to defeat Solar Flare Noise and some of the bosses on the final dungeon but the point is that if you don’t want to do quests then you don’t have to do them, level 55ish is good enough to start the final boss but you can go as low as level 45 if you want a challenge but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you know what you are doing. Also you can play an harder version of the game if you play New Game ++.
Personal opinion but I wouldn’t play it on an Apple TV because you are going to have to use a controller and using a controller can be frustrating because when the camera changes the direction you are walking kinda gets “locked” and you need to reset the stick to neutral to be able to turn, either mouse and keyboard or touch controls are fine and a lot more intuitive.
Really great to hear your perspective here. Thanks for taking the time to share all this. (And thanks for taking time to help people on Reddit!) And more importantly, congrats on the wr! I don't think I'd have time to comment on all your points here, but here are just a few.
My experience matches what you describe in a typical playthrough to some degree. I don't think I died on rounds one and two of the final boss. I think I died twice on round three. (And two other times I made a dumb mistake early and started over.) Round three of the final boss has one sequence where I think "luck" (for the average player, not necessarily for a wr holder) is very relevant. I won't go into what part exactly for spoiler reasons, but you probably know what part I'm talking about. The final boss was a slog, but my main trouble was with a quest boss. That boss I had to abandon, and I came back over leveled and handled him. I found many of the bosses to be quite demanding, even though only a few really had my number.
I mentioned this in another comment, but I made a huge goof in this video by leaving out character swapping during battle. Just like the growth tree, jewel management, and other stuff, character swapping during boss fights is crucial.
The bit about the final dungeon being accessible so early is news to me, so I'd agree that many players wouldn't pick up on that. I chipped through all the main missions without really knowing if all of them were truly needed. I'm glad I did because I got to experience the entire main game's story (not counting post-game, obviously).
I think I'd disagree with the Apple TV thing. I got used to this by just lifting my thumb off the analog stick whenever the camera would switch. Annoying, but easy to adjust to. I played part one mostly with touch controls, but I landed on Apple TV as my preferred way to play. (Also, playing on a TV was great.)
Thanks again for the thoughts! I just subscribed.
Nice Channel! I feel you, i am Playing this Game Right now and its so hard. But i still love this Game
As an smt enjoyer i think that fantasian part 2 is AWESOME. That's best game in many years that gave me a decent challenge. Not for casuls, tho.
Appreciate this breakdown and omg... So much time in the menus :-S Forbidden Chest has my Achilles Heel
I played this game in like 65hrs, tbh it's just like another Final Fantasy RPG. But I enjoyed it. Its not really difficult but enough to get your attention and focus.
this is a game that should have come out for Steam or an e-shop in consoles but they sold them on mobile. All the aeshtetic put into the game all the beauty went under appreciated.
Story final boss couldn’t even hold a candle against the secret boss. I had to keep buffing, attacking, guarding, healing, and PRAYING that the next attack would be the last one..
I’ve just finished the game. The final boss was extremely hard, it was almost unfair. I think sometimes you cannot avoid death due to the random nature of the game. At one point I almost had him, just 1000 hp to go. But I finally did it. I couldn’t play this game without walkthroughs. Some bosses were really hard.
Yes, definitely agree with you, this game is hard! I never knew that switching characters were part of strategy to kick most of bosses there
How is it that, you are the only one talking about Fantasian Part 2 on TH-cam? This is crazy. Where are all the people who were talking about Part 1 before?
LOL, I also remember having guides in the 90's with games. At school, they would think "wow, he's serious". Now, using a guide means you're a noob. I guess one of the teaches was giving away their kid's Nintendo Power magazines. I didn't ask why, but when she said "I'm throwing these out, do you want them?" I was like "Yes".
Damn. This video is so true! I just finished part one and the bosses in part 2 are no joke. And yes octopath travelers is difficult!
Great Video. Fantasian left me really frustrated paying now the 5th month Apple arcade. But I came to a point after 95 hours NOT to finish it. I reached the sanctum, but can't motivate myself to grind levels or find the missing gemstones I need to finish one of the pre-final bosses. My time is limited and I spent already more than I was planning the last months. But I don't have a feeling Fantasian values nor respects its player's time investment. It became more and more frustrating by purpose and not in a fair way. And I can just imagine what investment the final boss might be. I loved a lot about the game, but you can't treat customers like that.
Hey, that's fair. Under normal circumstances, I would have left Part 2 in the dust early on, but I decided to persevere because I'm just trying to be better about finishing games in general, especially RPGs. So it was kinda of a personal challenge to get through it.
If you decide to pick it back up, a guide should tell you what gems you need, and if you missed some, you can probably look up locations and pick them up quickly. The toughest boss for me was in the Forbidden Box quest. Last few bosses in the main story missions were no cake walk, but they weren't as bad as the one quest.
I partially agree with this, but I do want to point something out:
-If your phone/tablet has enough ram you can multitask out during a boss fight and come back at your leisure to complete it
- Like all JRPGS, you can grind levels to make boss fights easier. And grinding in this game is faster than most JRPGS.
-You can rotate characters in and out at any time during fights. This gives you a lot more leeway if you make a mistake.
Lastly, it’s a difficult game for sure. This is mostly because the boss AI is so smart. If you make a mistake or get greedy it will guaranteed punish you. But it’s a fair difficulty IMO.
Thanks for the thoughts. Good point about minimizing the app and re-opening it. This could work assuming you're only minimizing briefly before returning. It's been a while since I played on mobile, but I think I recall the app returning to the title screen after being minimized for a few days. Also, late game bosses probably require a bit too much planning and forward thinking for you to go idle for days. But you're right that minimizing can help make playing mobile-only more forgiving. Regarding grinding, I touched on how different areas tend to have soft level caps, meaning you can only grind and level up so much in particular area before plateauing. However, doing your leveling in the main game can help you make some of the tougher side quests more manageable. (The side quests are where most of the really brutal challenge is, IMO.) Regarding the difficulty, I'll reiterate that the difficulty itself isn't really the problem for me. Good games can be easy or difficult. My issue is more with the massive difficulty spike between Parts 1 and 2.
@@PestulonGaming I agree with everything you are saying. You’re correct, you cannot minimize for a long time or the app will close. I think the longest I ever kept it minimized was 2 days on my ipad pro 2018. But for my iphone xr it closes after a few hours. And with difficulty spike I also agree 100%, it becomes extremely challenging. The only point I was trying to make is that unlike some other jrpgs you’re not just at the mercy of rng to have a good run. It’s an extremely hard game and you need to play spot on but you have a lot of tools available that give you more control in how the fight turns out.
Agree with you… very difficult. Glad it isn’t just me. Even with guide I had to give up this game in the middle
I'm stuck on like 5 different bossfights and don't know what to do anymore lol. I always need to be a few levels higher than the recommendation which takes an insane amount of grinding. I would like to play to the end but part 2 is quite a chore, guess they want people keep paying for the subscription.
Dark souls fan here so the difficulty gets me stoked! But dark souls makes looking up guide stuff necessary so I feel the walkthrough comments. Great video, thanks for the content and the review!
I have nothing against using a strategy guide, but I like to do an initial play blind and let things surprise me (unless I get stuck). But some games are a little ridiculous with needing a guide to get through (the old DOS kings quest games). Or they have loot that is only obtainable by following a guide. I'm ok with missing items in the game, a game should be full of surprises, not a job to do every little thing you can.
I'd agree. These days, I generally only use a guide if I'm stuck. Fantasian (Apple Arcade version, anyway) might be an exception where I'd recommend using one throughout the whole game. But I would mainly recommend using one for the bosses in Part 2. I think the only game where I used a guide moment-by-moment all the way through was EarthBound.
I love Octopath travelers and fire emblems under hard difficulty, but I still strongly suggest even a hard-cored, old-schooled jrpg fan should look at the boss attack patterns, which are available in Reddit. I love to figure out the boss fight solution by myself; they are math or physics quiz, and I enjoy solving it using my intelligence and what I have learned before. What’s more, the boss fights are always so different (except for some repetition in machine realm) and never make me bored.
However, I believe no one likes memorizing, with is VITAL in fantasian. If the boss gonna heal or get a super buff next turn, you’d better curse it. If it is going to seal you, you would like shift your current characters to Ez, Tan (who are not really rely on MP), or those equipped with seal null. The next boss move is not readily available in game, so players have to either search for guides or just LEARN and REMEMBER it.
I’m much prefer to save my already over-used memory on my heavy school stuff, rather than a game that supposed to make me fun after learning.
BTW, in story telling they shapes every characters well except for Clickle. I wish I could say this is understandable since robotic emotion is a difficult sci-fi topic and not everyone is capable for discussing it, but even the in-game Bilk-0 story is better than Clickle’s one.
can't agree more, the game is just extremely hard in Part 2, i have to give up the game in the end and watch the ending on youtube. i just want to enjoy the game and story like Part 1, not spending all my time to level up my people but still fail to beat the boss.....
This game is beautiful. Change nothing apart from it glitching on the Apple TV. Yes I know apple was scummy for dragging me out into keeping my subscription, but my 91.5 hours of playtime was well enjoyed. THE JOY IS IN THE FRUSTRATION!!!
THIS GAME TAUGHT ME HOW TO LOSE and I could have sworn God of War and Devil May Cry and Halo on legendary were bad enough. Fantasian takes the cake.
Yes I am the one you call the sadist. I lost and lost and lost and lost. This game taught me how to lose with dignity.
I still honestly used a guide for 2% of my playthrough and that was just to find a treasure chest and a few things side quest related instead of looking around blindly because it was just a feasible thing to do.
With that being said I completed the game last night and I AM NOT GOING TO DO NEW GAME PLUS!!!! It would just be me torturing myself at this point. I ended my apple arcade subscription on this good note. Any regrets? None. I just won't be doing that again!!!
I've played many turn-based RPGs since I filmed this, and none of them have been nearly as tough as Fantasian. Octopath 2 was the closest, but it's a DISTANT second.
Does the game tells you when you finish part 1 now that both parts are out?
That's a really good question, and I'm not entirely sure. If not, just know that Part 1 ends after you beat the Chaos Serpent.
The game won’t tell you when Part 1 ends anymore but Part 1 ends when you teleport out of the Chaos Realm.
Part one was rpg but part two put the “J” in the jrpg if you know what I mean😂 seriously though some bosses like the geo stone with ez are harder than winning a custody battle
This game is too hard for me, I'm quitting, loved it but some bosses can be too much based on luck and gems.
Is it still hard or did they fixed it?
I have seen no reports that they've patched the difficulty. My guess is that-if they patch the difficulty-it would probably be for a console/PC release.
Oh no my mum loved blue dragon and lost odyssey but she can't play hard gamez😂😂
Console noooo keep it on Apple Arcade mobile is the future of gaming
You must be joking...
@@sjajsjsja4523 no I’m so serious
Thx for the review! OMG this game sounds soooooo AWESOME!!! I will never play this unless it gets a physical or steam release. Applearcade. **farts**
I'm hoping a console/PC release is in the pipeline. Two years seems to be a common wait time from a game's Apple Arcade debut until the "proper" release. Fantasian is getting there. As hard as I was on the game, I would still pick it up physical.