Fairy Tail review: an RPG ode to anime fans

Fans of the anime Fairy Tail are in luck. From Newskill we bring you the analysis of the GUST Studios video game that will undoubtedly delight fans of Japanese role-playing games and of this fantastic series in particular. Fairy Tail as a videogame is not an isolated release, but it will be the first of many releases for our consoles. Do you feel like wielding your weapon and defend yourselves with all the magic you have?

A story that does not disappoint

The main problem with manga or anime adaptations to the world of video games is that they are presented to us as empty works of content that usually tell a very simple story and whose story does not stand out to be remembered. Normally we face action games consisting of a me against the neighborhood, but the proposal of Fairy Tail is different, it is a turn-based RPG, of which few are left today, since the trend is to make games with a combat system in real time (just tell Final Fantasy 7 Remake)

The main objective in our adventure will be to achieve the greatest possible glory to our guild. A fantastic adventure full of dragons and fantastic creatures that will make us tremble with excitement. The land of Fiore will see Natsu and Lucy and all their companions battle (with up to ten playable characters). The videogame could be defined as the most complete game based on the manga tomes to date and has been supervised by the author himself, Hiro Mashima, to satisfy all the fans of his most important creation. As we mentioned before, the Fairy Tail guild has fallen into disgrace and its glory days are long gone. Natsu and company will try to recover that lost prestige in the Magic Games tournament

Gameplay in the purest JRPG style

The fact that it was Koei Tecmo who brought the franchise to Europe and that the videogame is a turn-based role-playing game instead of a moussou is already surprising. The gameplay of Fairy Tail is divided into the achievement of various missions typical of the genre such as collecting, eliminating certain enemies, finding allies to increase the group strength against the enemy or a kind of hunt. The world map is not the usual in Japanese RPGs, in which we have to move our characters in an open world from one city to another, but it is a map with locations between which we can move quickly. For fans of traditional role-playing games it will undoubtedly be a disappointment, but Fairy Tail fans will certainly not take it into account.

Fairy Tail has some mechanics that we have already seen in other more current role-playing games, such as Fire Emblem. We will be able to improve the relationships with our allies to perform better as a team during combat and we will have access to a kind of strategy game simulator since we will be able to modify and increase the performance of our base facilities. Improving all these points we will be able to improve the rank of our guild and take Fairy Tail to the top of Fiore

Its strong point: the turn-based battles

The turn-based combat is undoubtedly the strong point of the adventure. It has developed a system suitable for the most accustomed to the role-playing genre but that does not close doors to more casual players who are fans of the anime. We will be able to attack, perform magic or use objects among other commands. We will see on screen all the abilities of the Fairy Tail characters and we will have access to the Change Mode, present in the anime. Through this function our characters will change modes and adapt more fearsome and effective ways against enemies. If we receive damage during combat and we have to lose, the characters can use their dormant skills for a few turns to improve their attributes or perform new attacks

Another way to improve the relationship between characters is to fight together. As we do more and more fights with the same characters, the trust between them will increase, as well as their level of friendship. Conversations will take place between them, something that reminds us of the Tales of video game series. When we reach very high ranks it will even be possible to perform improved skills such as chain attacks

We want to highlight in our analysis of Fairy Tail its duration. Completing the adventure will take us just over 30 hours if we are completists, and despite missing some more exploration, we will undoubtedly enjoy the game if we are fans of anime and role-playing games

A graphic and sound section in the image and likeness of the anime

The graphic technique used for the Fairy Tail video game is cel shading and is the most used in most of the anime adaptations to consoles. They have managed to faithfully adapt the visual style that transmits the original and we are sure that its creator has been satisfied with the final result. Both the cinematics and the fights, but especially some special attacks or combos, move spectacularly on screen and are a treat for our eyes

It is noted that there is care in this production and the developer has already corrected some minor errors with a day 1 patch that fixes several textures of some sequences and improves certain expressions of the characters during the most prominent cinematics

The characteristic melodies of the anime will accompany us throughout the adventure and we will have the luxury of getting even more fully into the production thanks to the Japanese voices, which will have the invaluable collaboration of the actors of the anime itself, so fans of the series will be squealing with excitement

Fairy Tail is available now for PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Highlights

• A very faithful recreation of the anime
• Turn-based combat: spectacular and very colorful
• Japanese dubbed with voices of the original actors
• Its duration: more than 30 hours if we are completists

The worst part

• It is not translated into Spanish
• If you are not anime fans you will miss a big part of the story

We have made this analysis thanks to a physical copy of Fairy Tail for Nintendo Switch provided by Koch Media