Fairy Fencer F – Review
There are loads of RPGs and JRPGs that are being released, all with their own specific elements. Fairy Fencer F has combined quite some aspects, namely a more old-school fighting system and some original elements. NIS America did their best to release a one of a kind game, so read on to find out the several bonuses.
Story
Fairy Fencer F has a rich storyline, both in the present as in the past. To understand the game, you will need a history lesson.
Years ago, the Vile God and the Goddess were fighting for the fate of the universe. The Vile God, made of pure dark matter, wanted to cover everything in darkness, while the Goddess, a reassembly from light, wished to preserve everything. They battled for a long time, using several swords and arms, until they were both defeated and fell into an eternal slumber. All their weapons eventually vanished and fell into the hands of humans. This is where the present comes in.
You’ll start the game with a guy named Fang, a young man with quite an appetite. He’s searching for food when he hears a legend from a local inhabitant of Zelwinds City. The rumours are that if you can pull out the sword that is stuck into the ground in the city, you can make a wish. This is ideal for Fang, as he wants to eat loads of food and he gives it a shot. Guess what, he pulls out the weapon. This is the moment that he meets Eryn, the fairy that resides in the sword. Due to his action, Fang is a Fencer now and it seems that he will need to wait for his wish. It is his job to find all the “Furies”, the legendary weapons from the war of the Gods. If he can free the Goddess, he gets a wish. This is where your adventure starts.
Graphics
The graphics have both its good and bad points. Let us start with the negative aspects. The graphical quality of the game isn’t that high when you venture dungeons or when you’re fighting. It feels like you’re playing a PlayStation 2 game. Next to that, the surroundings feel much alike. For example, outdoor places have quite a lot of similarities like the same bushes and trees. It feels like they’ve been lazy and reused certain things several times. The 3D images of the characters aren’t very detailed and feel quite blurry.
There are quite some positive things as well. The game has a lot of 2D graphics, both the characters and the surroundings, and these are really stunning. Every character has their own typical characteristics, even quite comical ones, and they all fit their personalities. The developers foresaw multiple emotion-related images as well, giving the game that extra dimension. Another aspect is the fury form. These are nice visualisations of the power that resides within each character.
Sound
In comparison with the graphics, the music is absolutely superb. There are quite a lot of tracks used and they never became boring, on the contrary, they were rather catchy.
The same goes for the sound effects and the voice acting, although there is one small remark. First of all, there are a lot of effects and they are a nice addition to the game. The voice acting is great and all of the voices really fit the character.
That remark I mentioned is about the repetition of the sound effects. When you play for a while, it will become clear that everyone says the same things over and over again during fights. This might bother you from time to time.
Gameplay
Fairy Fencer F is a JRPG with a mixture of 3D and 2D situations. The fights are done in 3D environments, while the events and conversations are in 2D. To make it even more fun, the capital Zelwinds City is ventured by using several menus. You will always know what do to next because the game has an “event” mark that assigns where to go. There are several sub-events as well and it is a good idea to watch them if you want to get a bit of extra information. These events will disappear after you’ve completed the next step in the story, so be careful.
It is your job to find multiple Furies so you can free the Goddess. This is done by ‘Godly revival’. Here you can borrow the power of a fairy to pull out a sword that’s stuck in the Goddess. You’ll have to be careful though, these swords are protected by monsters. When you defeat them, you’ve successfully removed a sword and your fairy receives a new ability and some other perks.
When you go and search for Furies, you’ll have to fight. The game uses a turn-based fighting style. To attack an enemy, he will need to be in range of your weapon. This might be tricky sometimes, since you can only walk in a certain area. The area of effect is visualized by a red colour. This is important, because other attacks, like skills and magic, will have a different area of effect. If you want to smash your enemies really hard, you can “Fairize”. This means that you “merge” with your Furies’ fairy, get into fury form and become more powerful. It would be nice if you could use this form all the time, but you will need “tension”. This is the small meter around your characters’ portrait. This needs to be filled until you reach a certain level, and then you’re good to go. The tension meter rises when you attack or when you receive damage. On the other hand, it will decrease if you heal, miss attacks and fail to escape a battle.
Before you’re ready to take on more difficult enemies and bosses, it is a good idea to be properly prepared. You can upgrade your weapon by using Weapon Points (WP). These WP are gained by killing monsters. It might be strange, but your weapon has both offensive as defensive aspects. Next to that, you can learn several skills and magic spells here, together with abilities and combo moves. These moves can be assigned in the “Combo Edit” menu. It is also possible to equip another fairy to gain a resonance effect. This means that you gain extra abilities from that particular fairy, so it’s a good idea to make great matches.
Upgrading your characters even more can be done by doing challenges. Each challenge has its own goal and it will grant you stat bonuses when you complete them. These challenges include killing a certain amount of enemies or finding treasure nodes on the map.
Next to that, you can also alter the equipment of your part members. You can only change one armour piece and a ring. This won’t change your appearance. There are other items that have an effect on the way you look. This are the costumes and accessories. These changes will be visible while running around and fighting, but not during conversations.
Money is an important aspect in the game. If you want to make some and gain items as a bonus, it might be a good idea to check out the quests. These will make you kill enemies or fetch items. You will start at rank E but you can level up by doing ‘important’ quests. The higher the rank, the better the loot of course.
Overall the gameplay was very nice. You get enough explanation and the turn-based fighting is interesting enough. Challenges are a real nice addition because it will give you something to work for. The controls might be something that feels strange when you first play the game, but you’ll learn the tricks soon enough.
Conclusion
Fairy Fencer F is a typical JRPG with a great storyline and loads of humor. Although the fighting is turn-based, it isn’t something that will bore you soon. The graphics has its good and bad points but the music is just amazing. The gameplay is challenging enough to keep you busy for several hours, so be ready to plunge into a world full of fairies and gods.
Fairy Fencer F - Review,
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[…] we wouldn’t be surprised if, like us, you have never heard of this series, given how niche it is. The original Fairy Fencer F debuted on PS3 and PC in Japan back in 2013 before getting a Western release a year later. This was […]