After all, how do you build on the hype of the initial release? It’s much harder to get people excited about a patch even if it does mean the game is finished.
The Apple Arcade staggered release strategy always was fishy to me in ways that only benefit their subscription model rather than the game itself. The first five hours of my 2.0 playthrough was re-learning the systems, map and story (most of which I had to review outside of the game). This won’t affect new players at all as they’ll just continue on seamlessly but it was a big adjustment for me. That turned out to be wrong the game unceremoniously picks up right where I left off like I had just put in the second disc in a PS1 Final Fantasy. I was expecting the new content update to be a “chapter 2” for the game, released with a recap or something to catch me back up. Mistwalker was hard at work during that period building out what turned into an additional 40 hours of gameplay for me (I haven’t even played the end game dungeon yet). It’s a testament to how good the game is that I readily jumped back into Fantasian when the 2.0 patch released on August 12, 4 months after I had completed the first 20 hours that were released at launch.
Fantasian skill tree how to#
Prolonged periods away from a systems heavy game means completely forgetting battle strategies and how to proceed with ongoing quest lines. Taking a break in an RPG is usually a death sentence.
You can read my write up on the first release here.