Fantastica

"“Welcome to Fantastica, the land where legends are born.” —The game's tagline" Fantastica (ファンタスティカ) is a role-playing game developed and published by Execraft under Sam Imbecile's supervision. Released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on August 30, 2019 in Japan and November 1, 2019 elsewhere, it is the first installment of the company's Fantastica series of RPG games.

Two years later, it is followed up by its sequel, Fantastica II: The Great Disaster.

Development
In E3 2017, Sam Imbecile, the CEO of Execraft, announces that he will be personally supervising the development of the company's new RPG which was slated to be released sometime in 2019.

A teaser trailer for the game was shown at New York Comic Con on October 6, 2018. Three months later, illustrations for a few new characters and the game's setting were revealed.

Story
In a world of unknown wonders lies a single continent where all life flourishes, the continent of Fantastica. Within the land are six nations: the Magic Order of Chymia, the Principality of Fuchswald, the Kingdom of Eldonia, the Eastern Confederation of Tururu, the Holy Aurelian Empire and the dreaded Negramstia, the Empire of Pleasure that covers nearly half of the known world.

A few centuries after Negramstia's foundation, this country has now reached the peak of prosperity and decadence. Posessing an overwhelming "charm" power, the great adulteress empress Radmila rules over Negramstia with her powers, expanding her influence in neighboring countries through "people hunts", a chain of human slavery and resource pillages.

Meanwhile, all of the countries won't stand such immorality any longer and thus, they unite and name themselves as the Holy Alliance to stand up against Negramstia. The allied forces overwhelm the Negramstia, and they manage to successfully corner the Empire in an encirclement.

But before the allied army stood one man, the Black Beast Knights' captain Dyrek Rondo. Following Radmila's order, he pursues the allied army surrounding Negramstia to destroy them but, the real ambition in Dyrek's heart is to "take over the throne" and expand the borders of the Empire of Pleasure to the entire known world.

However, the reality of the world of Fantastica lies within the secret of Negramstia, its rewritten history and its forgotten foundations long ago and the horrifying truth that could warp that reality forever…

What is Negramstia? Who is Dyrek Rondo? Where did it come from? Who founded it centuries ago?

Gameplay
The game combines elements of a hack-and-slash role-playing game and a strategic war game. In this game, the player takes control an avatar character who chooses which of the four nations (Chymia, Edlonia, Tururu and Fuchswald) they want to start at the beginning of the game. When a player selects a nation, they go through a different playthrough with unique objectives, missions and story, meaning the events that progress throughout the game are different depending on which starting country they are in. As the game progresses on, if the player becomes very skilled and powerful, they have the option to switch sides to another kingdom or join either Aurelia or Negramstia, where its quests are only available for at least Level 40.

In the game, the player chooses a class suiting to fight for a certain nation, and must fight their way and work their ranks in their respective army to earn more experience, collect more weapons, obtain side-quests and even take command of a certain battalion or an entire army as commander.

Respect is a mechanic to earn the trust and increase the player character's reputation among their fellow countrymen. This is earned by winning in battles, doing good to other people, making right decisions and completing quests. The more respect the player has, the more chances they have of being promoted in their ranks in the army or establishing their own groups and guilds. The player can communicate with NPCs or other important figures to earn respect as a means to earn the trust of many people. They can choose to either make war or negotiate with other nations. They can also make orders to establish groups, recruit and train people into groups depending on the experience the player has, and create garrisons in a territory if they wish to expand land and influence to other nomadic cities and tribes or force an enemy nation to redirect sieges.

Setting
The world of Fantastica is comprised of six powerful nations, the former four listed below of which the player can have a starting point in the game.

Hero of Fantastica
The Hero of Fantastica (ファンタスティカの勇者) is the nameable main protagonist and avatar character of the game. He/she can either be male or female and can fight for either Chymia, Fuchswald, Tururu, Eldonia, Aurelia or Negramstia.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Toshiyuki Midorikawa (male), Ayane Sakura (female)
 * English Voice Actor: Bryce Papenbrook (male), Melissa Fahn (female)

Iris Arcadia
Iris Arcadia (イリス・アルケーディア) is the princess knight hailing from the Arcadia family, one of the seven noble clans of the Holy Aurelian Empire.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Megumi Toyoguchi
 * English Voice Actor: Jen Brown

Prince Pryce
Prince Pryce Quechaff (プリンス・プライス・ケチャッフ) is the son of King Amarillo and the heir-apparent of Aurelia's Quechaff royal family.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Hiro Shimono
 * English Voice Actor: Miles Luna

Astrid Flamel
Astrid Flamel (アストリット・フラメル) is the head sorceress of the Magical Order and the civil leader of Chymia.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Yōko Hikasa
 * English Voice Actor: Cara Eberle

Luca
Luca (ルカ) is a half-human half-dark elf soldier in the ranks of the Black Beast Knights.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Yū Shimamura
 * English Voice Actor: Arryn Zech

Eleonora Bern
Eleonora Bern (エレオノーラ・ベルン) is an Aurelian chief priestess.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Kaori Shimizu
 * English Voice Actor: Martha Harms

Kohaku
Kohaku (コハク) is a foxlike human and netizen in Fuchswald.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Michiko Neya
 * English Voice Actor: Jennifer Hale

Valdios
Valdios (ヴァルディオス) is an alchemist and inventor in Tururu. He is especially known in the confederation and even in surrounding lands to be extraordinarily intelligent and profound in technology never seen in his land before.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Kiyoyuki Yanada
 * English Voice Actor: David Kaye

Mel-Mel
Mel-Mel (メル・メル) is a halfling.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Ami Koshimizu
 * English Voice Actor: Barbara Dunkelman

Mistiola Atie
Mistiola Atie (ミスティオラ・アーテー) is a dark elf.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Atsuko Tanaka
 * English Voice Actor: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

Radmila
Radmila (ラドミラ) is the empress of Negramstia.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Saori Hayami
 * English Voice Actor: Lindsay Jones

Serafina Lenatus
Serafina Lenatus (セラフィーナ・レナトゥス) is a high elf and the "High Goddess" revered as a deity in the Holy Aurelian Empire.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Kikuko Inoue
 * English Voice Actor: Laura Bailey

Dyrek Rondo
Dyrek Rondo (ディレク・ロンド) is the captain of the Black Beast Knights (黒犬騎士団), a military sect he founded under Radmila's orders.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Kōichi Yamadera
 * English Voice Actor: Brad Swaile

Nicola Neubau
Nicola Neubau (ニコラ・ノイバウ) is a mage in the ranks of the Black Beast Knights and Dyrek's right-hand man.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Fumihiro Awano
 * English Voice Actor: Peter Lurie

Ryukaon
Ryukaon (リュカオン) is a wolfman and Dyrek's loyal left-hand soldier.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Kōji Yusa
 * English Voice Actor: Keith Silverstein

Dorago the Great
Dorago the Great (ドラゴ 大だい 王おう) is the final boss of the game. The 4000-year-old colossal dragon known by its title the Dragon World (龍りゅう 世せ 界かい ), he is the supreme ruler of the world of Fantastica and the most powerful creature that ever lived beneath the shadows of all mortals. It was unleashed by Dyrek Rondo as a last resort against the Hero and Serafina's Holy Alliance.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Shōzō Izuka
 * English Voice Actor: Daniel Riordan

King Amarillo
King Amarillo Quechaff (アマリロ・ケチャッフ王) is the monarch and ruler of the Aurelian Empire, second only to the High Goddess Serafina, and head of the noble family of Quechaff.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Shō Hayami
 * English Voice Actor: Howard Wang

Cayle Gale Dimble
Cayle Gale Dimble (ケイル・ゲイル・ディンブル) is the chief minister of the Council of Dranhesin in Tururu.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Hiroki Tōchi
 * English Voice Actor: Benjamin Diskin

Ahmed Mustafa Eldonia IX
Ahmed Mustafa Eldonia IX (アーメド・ムスタファ・エルドニア9世王) is the current king of Eldonia.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Masaki Yajima
 * English Voice Actor: Fred Tatasciorre

Raymondos Lulus
Raymondos Lulus (レイモンドゥス・ルルス) is the Archbishop of the Diocese of Trajanius.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Naoya Uchida
 * English Voice Actor: D.C. Douglas

Menou
Menou (メノウ) is the younger brother of Kohaku.
 * Japanese Voice Actor: Chiwa Saitō
 * English Voice Actor: Erika Lenhart

Reception
The game sold 120,000 copies in its first week and eventually sold an estimated 600,000 units worldwide at the end of 2019. It currently holds a score of 85/100 on Metacritic, citing "generally favorable reviews" from critics. It also popular in Japan, earning a score of 38/40 in the Japanese magazine Famitsu.

Casual gamers and fans noted the similarities of this game with another RPG series, Bethesda Softworks' Elder Scrolls, in particular the fifth installment Skyrim. Because of this, it has been often nicknamed "anime Skyrim" due to the comparisons with the gameplay, story and even Dorago the Great, the final boss which is a dragon similar to Alduin.

Trivia

 * The game is remarkable for mixing elements of a traditional single-player RPG and a real-time strategy.