Developer: Gust
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: PS4
Fairy Tail – Review
Fairy Tail is one of the most popular series in Japan and abroad. With its last season having come to an end in September last year with a spectacular ending, we were quite surprised when Koei Tecmo announced a proper RPG game based on the series! Fairy Tail features most of the story from the end of the Tenrou Island arc up to the Avatar arc. It has been the first real RPG game for PC and consoles brought out for this series and it surely doesn’t disappoint with some great turn-based combat used in games like Final Fantasy. We have to say that the game does have some obvious budget-related shortcomings though.
Story
The story of Fairy Tail starts at Tenrou Island with an introductory fight against Hades, the guild leader of the dark guild Grimoire Heart. The dragon Acnologia appears shortly after this fight and threatens to destroy all members of Fairy Tail present. All the members combine their magic to cast a strong spell that sends them seven years into the future. When they appear seven years later, Fairy Tail has become the worst guild in the rankings and a new yearly event called the Grand Magic Games has been created. From this point on, you need to build your guild’s rank back up from time to time to progress in the story. When you reach a certain rank, you can progress further into the story and enter the Grand Magic Games.
Graphics
Fairy Tail looks exactly like it does in the series. All the areas you can visit resemble those in the series and they look perfect. The combat looks amazing with all the character’s signature moves worked out perfectly. Some scenes are accompanied by cinematic videos that look amazing and perfectly visualize the events that took place. The game also features some extra fanservice, as you can choose your fairies to wear their swimsuits, which definitely shows the female guild member’s chest areas that are well endorsed.
Sadly, not everything is perfect in this area, as the game has some obvious budget-related shortcomings. The members of lesser guilds or regular enemies in requests are all portrayed as masked enemies with the same appearance. If we look at the entrance ceremony of the Grand Magic Games, with eight guilds participating in this event, each guild should have five members standing in the arena as their team. The developers have excluded all the characters that don’t play a major role in the game, making the arena look very empty with barely showing half of the team members in the arena with some teams only having one team member. In a lot of the conversations, you would see the character’s faces with their subtitles, but they won’t even make one appearance in the game. Stronger enemies in wild areas are represented by the same animals in a different color.
Sound
The sound is done perfectly in many ways. The background music sounds like it came directly from the series itself. All the original voice actors have voiced their characters, so every character sounds perfect. Each attack is also voiced perfectly with the names of the attacks pronounced perfectly. All this together makes it really feel like a Fairy Tail game and will be loved by all fans of the series.
Gameplay
Fairy Tail is a turn-based RPG based on the manga and anime franchise with the same name. It lets you follow the story of the original series with all your favorite characters from the series. The game features a steady turn-based combat system with some pretty good visuals. The enemies are placed on a three-by-three grid and each of your character’s magic attack has their own set range of spaces it will hit. The character’s progression system is worked out pretty good with new moves getting an upgrade and stronger moves getting added at certain levels or certain story events.
The turn-based combat system in Fairy Tail resembles the ones in games like Final Fantasy and is worked out pretty well. Each character has its own signature moves taken directly from the anime and each move has its own area of effect. With HP representing your character’s health and MP for using magic attacks, the attacks are balanced perfectly with stronger moves needing more MP to use. The Fairy Tail guild members all have their own strengths and weaknesses, just like in the series, this also gives each character a particular role as an attacker or supporter. Characters also have an awakening that gets unlocked somewhat further in the game that gives them a big stat boost or changes their form like Natsu’s Lightning Fire mode, where he uses the combined power of Laxus’s lightning and his firepower.
Each character can also equip Lacrima’s to give them a passive boost in health, magic, attack, or extra effects. As your characters progress, they can equip up to five Lacrima’s to boost their stats. Characters also form bonds in battle and when taking on requests from the guild to improve their effectiveness as a team, this grants boosts like lower MP cost or stronger combination moves like Unison Raids that combine two wizards’ powers to create one very powerful move. You also have a Fairy Meter that builds up as you perform attacks. When this meter is full, it will enable you to perform a combo attack with your whole team to deal massive damage to your opponents. In this combo, you sometimes get the chance to activate an Extreme Magic skill that allows for a mega-powerful finishing move performed by some ultimately strong moves as seen in the series.
The game also focuses on raising your guild rank throughout the game. As Fairy Tail has sunk to the lowest point in guild rank, you need to raise your guild’s rank to take on higher-ranked requests and progress into the story. Because you need to have a certain guild rank at points in the story, your team will most likely be at a level equivalent or higher than your enemies in the story battles, which makes progressing through the game pretty easy, but not less fun. As you progress in the story, your guild will grow bigger as well and more facilities will become available that will grant you some extra effects in and outside of battle. When you eventually regain control of the real Fairy Tail guild building, all the facilities will be available and you can upgrade them even further by collecting materials.
In every area, except for the cities Magnolia and Crocus, you’ll find enemy creatures roaming the area that form groups of enemies that can be battled to gather items and level up your characters. You’re free to fight as many enemies as you want to strengthen your team. As your Fairy Meter builds up with each attack performed, it is wise to fill this meter before you continue the story to always have a massively powerful combo attack when fighting a strong opponent.
Conclusion
Fairy Tail is a great RPG based on the anime by Hiro Mashima and features a great deal of the anime’s story. The combat feels very solid and the progression system in the game makes you progress through the game pretty easily. Everything in the game looks exactly like in the anime, but you do see the budget-related shortcomings like the absence of all the members of the guilds in the arena at the Grand Magic Games, or all the lesser enemies looking exactly the same. This doesn’t really influence the gameplay but as a fan of the series, you would expect a more complete experience. Despite the game’s small shortcomings, Fairy Tail is an amazing RPG with a great combat system and we’d recommend it for both the fans of the series and those not really familiar to this universe for a quick look into the world of Fairy Tail.
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