Final Fantasy creator wants to bring Fantasian to PC and make a sequel

Hironobu Sakaguchi has shown interest in bringing his mobile RPG Fantasian to PC.

IGN Japan reports that Sakaguchi was in attendance at the Magic 2023 festival in Monaco, where he took part in a Q&A session looking back at his career.

When asked about Fantasian – which was released in April 2021 and is still currently exclusive to Apple Arcade – and whether it would be available on other platforms, Sakaguchi reportedly showed interest in at least porting it to PC.

“We have received many requests to release the game on PC too, and there have also been requests for a sequel”, Sakaguchi replied, “so we would like to continue working as hard as possible to meet their expectations.”

Developed by Sakaguchi’s studio Mistwalker, Fantasian sees the Final Fantasy creator returning to traditional turn-based RPG gameplay for the first time since 2007’s Lost Odyssey on Xbox 360.

The game, which was released in two chapters, also features a new soundtrack by legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.

Its most unique feature is its art style – the game’s environments are all real-life dioramas created by Japanese artists who have worked on ‘tokusatsu’ (special effects) films including the Godzilla movies, Attack on Titan and Ultraman.

These dioramas were then scanned and turned into in-game environments, resulting in realistic backgrounds.

Although Fantasian is currently exclusive to Apple Arcade, there have been a number of Apple Arcade titles that lost their exclusivity after a period and were then ported to other syems.

Lego Brawls, for example, was available on Apple Arcade when the subscription service launched in 2019, and was then ported to PC and consoles in 2022.

Further reading

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Hironobu Sakaguchi interview: ‘I’m aging… so I made a game that returns to my roots’

The Final Fantasy creator discusses Fantasian, FF7 Remake and Mistwalker's plans for the future

Sakaguchi told VGC back in 2021 that Fantasian could be his final product.

The veteran designer, who has worked on many acclaimed role-playing games such as Chrono Trigger and Kingdom Hearts, told VGC he had approached Fantasian as if it were his final full title, and suggested that his plans beyond the game’s two scheduled episodes were yet to be set.

“I think it is certainly possible that this could be my last project,” he told us, “and that was kind of in the back of my mind as we were developing it.”