‘Fairy Tail’ – PC Review
5 min read
What’s going on Gameologists! Welcome to Gameology News review of Fairy Tail. Developed by Koei Tecmo and Gust Co. Ltd, and published by Koei Tecmo, be prepared to dive into the very popular anime of the same name. Sit back and we here at Gameology News will tell you all about Fairy Tail the game.
Fairy Tail picks up with the action right from the beginning by throwing the player straight into a fight. The turn-based battle system plays like most typical games in the RPG genre, but with a twist. Most of the time, the player will be attacking with magic. This is what a lot of Fairy Tail fans have been waiting for. Finally, the chance to relive some of our favorite parts from the series. Mana is drained during battle, and just like health can be refilled with an item.
Where the story starts isn’t actually from the beginning of the anime or manga but about a third of the way in. The Fairy Tail game starts with the fight against Hades, which is the culmination of the Tenrou Island Arc. Following the anime story line, the guild members were all transferred seven years into the future. This is where the game starts to be revealed. All of those previous skills sampled in the very first fight are now gone and the characters will need to be leveled up all over again. Which really puts a fire in Natsu’s belly. With the Fairy Tail Guild now in massive debt, the player’s first job is to get them out of debt while working on relearning skills.
Progressing through the story will unlock characters to join the party, with all of the fan favorites making an appearance. While working missions and progressing through the storyline the player gains the ability to upgrade Fairy Tail Guild hall as well as can level up relationship bonds with other party members.
Combat is broken up into what we would think is a typical JRPG turn-based style. That’s where we’re wrong. The enemies are placed in a grid in varying order. Casting magic spells affects different areas. Lucy has a spell called Fleuve Detoiles that performs a reverse ‘L’ shape of damage to the targets. As where Natsu has a move that does an upside down ‘T’ as its damage area. This adds to the challenge of Fairy Tail, being able to strategize and take out your foes with ease.
During exploration of the different zones the player will come across blocked paths. By getting into combat next to them you have the opportunity to do overdamage. This overdamage is what is needed to unlock new portions of the map to explore as well as pick up some items and treasure chests. This becomes important later on in the game as Guild Requests sometimes take you into those areas to be completed.
The characters and the environment are beautiful. This mix of cel shading and 3D modeling really helped bring the world together. Fiore is really brought to life with the vibrant colors of each of the zones available to explore. The cities in the game are no exception either. The player can choose to wander around and collect items as well as talk to party members once the bond has raised enough.
The audio from the first moment of turning on the game had me hooked. Typically in the style of Celtic rock for much of the action, it emphasizes the need for urgency during battles and quests. The background music does change depending on the setting and suits every scene perfectly, while repeating some tracks. Never once did I sit back and think the music was out of place for the mood that was being set for a certain scene. There is one particular track that plays more than the rest, but it’s music that helps the player to be consumed by the game for hours. Fairy Tail unfortunately did not get an English dub so all you dubbed anime fans will have to listen to their original Japanese voice actors. For all of you subbed fans, get ready for some familiar voices.
The controls for the game are straight forward. While playing this game on the PC it gives prompts for the Xbox One controller, even though this game is not released on the Xbox. This could mean hopefully for you Xbox One fans you could be seeing this come to your console as well. If you’re a fan of playing keyboard and mouse you may want to pick up a controller instead. The option is there for binding but the use of keys to move and keys to change your view is frustrating. If only the view for running around the areas was controlled by the mouse it would make playing mouse and keyboard much more enjoyable.
Now that we have gone over the basics of Fairy Tail and what it’s about, onto what I think. The game overall is almost a blast from the past. Finally, being able to form our own Fairy Tail Guild teams was like a dream come true for this series. With all the nostalgia, I even had to start rewatching the series again. It brought the old Fairy Tail fan in me back out in a big fun way. Thank you, Tecmo Koei, for bringing our anime dreams to life through so many different games. With all of the love aside, I did find some downfalls to the game. One, some details were lost because I couldn’t remember the anime or manga, so anyone not familiar with the story might find this troubling. Gameplay wise I felt it was really solid. The difficulty may be a little on the weak side for a seasoned veteran of JRPGs, but don’t worry. The player is able to turn the difficulty up as tough as they like. For newcomers and diehard fans of the series, I feel the game does very well in making you want to play as well as watch the anime. Happy gaming, everyone. Until next review.
