Fairy Bloom Freesia – Review
A ‘cheap’ Japanese beat em up. Certainly something that brings along some skepticism.Fairy Bloom Freesia tries to be different. In this game, timing isn’t the most important, fun is. It’s not the hardcore beat ’em up like many others are, but it’s more like a beat ’em up platformer where you just bash all the monsters that you come across!
Story
Fairy Bloom Freesia is about a fairy, Freesia, whose role is to protect the trees of the forest Lita. Humans and monsters try to steal spirit stones from the trees, which provide the forest’s life energy. Humans try to steal these spirit stones, since they provide some magical powers and of course they want to inspect what these magical powers are. Freesia needs to prevent this, because once a spirit stone gets stolen from a tree, the tree dies. Luckily she has some fine skills in fairy-fu to prevent all the humans and monsters from attacking the forest.
Graphics
The graphics look very good for a ‘budget game’ like this. Characters and backgrounds look very colorful and they bring a smile to your face. The effects of skills are satisfying and never get boring. Especially the effects when multiple enemies get bashed against each other looks nice through the whole game.
The enemies themselves are a bit disappointing because of the lack of variation. You’ll fight the same enemies over and over again and most of the enemies even look a bit blurry. The bosses au contraire look pretty good and they are pretty detailed. The cutscenes are typically Japanese dialogues between two characters, with images instead of moving characters. These cutscenes are very enjoyable, but you’ll need to be aware of some typical Japanese teenager-humor.
Sound
The music in this game never gets overwhelming, but it certainly adds a value to this game, especially during the dialogues. During these dialogues, the music helps to bring some extra atmosphere. During the game itself the music is less noticeable, since the sounds of your attacks overwhelm the music. You can expect some typical Japanese shouting during these attacks, but that’s exactly what fits in a game like this.
Gameplay
When you start the game, you only get the option to play the story mode on easy or normal difficulty. Once you’ve completed one of these, the hard difficulty and guardian mode will unlock. In story mode you’ll need to protect the forest for several days from monsters and humans. These enemies will attempt to attack the forest and steal the spirit stones. Guardian mode is pretty much the same. You’ll need to defend the forest for several days, but you have only 3 continues and you won’t be able to save your game after every day.
At the start of the game, you’ll only have the option to guard and use some basic attacks, but you’ll acquire experience for every enemy you beat to learn new abilities. There are three types of abilities to learn: Basic, Special and optional. The basic attacks are some specific button combinations and you can use them at any time, without any cost. The special attacks are a little different. Before each fight you can assign 4 special abilities to 4 different button combinations. It’s your job to pick the optimal combination for every fight. These special attacks also cost you mana, so you won’t be able to use them all the time. The last type, optional skills, will give you some extra buffs. You can raise your strength, magic, hp, etc… but again you aren’t allowed to use all these buffs during your fights. Before the fight starts, you’ll be able to pick two out of your available optional skills.
The most important ability is ‘guard’ though. It’s important to block almost every incoming attack, since one missed block could mean an empty health bar. Especially when you’re surrounded by multiple enemies. They’ll be able to start a chain of attacks on you, and it’s impossible to interrupt it. Also in boss battles, the guard ability is the ability which you’ll have to use the most to survive these fights.
Everything I said till now was very positive and make this game look like an almost perfect game, but this game also has his minors. Despite the huge amount of different skills, you’ll be able to finish almost every day and boss battle just by spamming your basic attacks and guarding the enemy attacks on time. You won’t need any of your special skills and that’s a bit disappointing. The game is also very short (you can complete it in about 1.30 – 2 hours) and the replay value varies for every gamer. Some will have enough after 1 playthrough, others might want to complete the story mode on hard and complete the guardian mode.
Conclusion
The game surprises by its beautiful graphics, nice music and huge amount of skills to learn, but fails in the details to make this an “almost perfect game”. A lack of variation in enemies and being able to win every fight by bashing your basic attacks, make this game a pretty no-brainer beat ’em up. Just block the enemy skills on time, start bashing your basic attack and repeat. It’s amusing for a while, but people who are looking for a deeper battle system, should look for other games. This being said, the game will be fun for those new to the genre and those looking for some casual fun.
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It does seem like fun