The latest Fairy Tail game, which fans have been looking forward to for, is out now. While the game’s format is a rather standard turn-based RPG format, it’s the characters and story that really bring the title alive. The game covers a section of the anime storyline which includes the Grand Magic Games and also has many side quests and guild upgrades available. If you are a fan of the anime series then you might notice that certain story fragments have been summarised instead of shown, which I, personally, felt broke the flow of the narrative in places and did make me wonder just how much extra effort it would have taken to just add in a few more cut scenes.
The main strength of the game is the characters and their move sets. Every character has their own iconic moves, and these can be chained and even combined, later in the game, with other characters in the team. I was a little disappointed that Gray doesn’t lose his clothes randomly in the middle of a battle, as he does in the anime, but there is a side quest which involves a hunt for his missing clothes, so his tenancies haven’t been entirely forgotten.
While the PS4 and Switch reviews are generally favourable, the PC version has attracted slightly lower scores due to poor optimisation and bugs, so if you are intending to invest in a copy and have one of the consoles it released for, then you might want to consider getting that version. There appears to be little graphical improvement on PC, so the upsides of going PC seem not to outweigh the downsides. If you are intending to purchase the PC version then you might just want to check out the reviews on Steam first or wait for a patch.
While the title is great for Fairy Tail fans, it is worth noting that it’s not really ground breaking as an RPG. It relies heavily on the franchises content to make it unique, so if that doesn’t interest you then you’re likely to find it pretty standard in RPG terms. The quests are generally all the same of hunt down X monster or Y number of X monsters and report back. The only real variety in the gameplay is from varying your team. The environments do look good, in a cell shaded way, but there aren’t a massive number and you do get sent to the same maps multiple times. It’s clear that the game was produced on a budget but while noticeable it didn’t ruin the fun for me. I found the combat quite enjoyable and most of the story line runs well in an RPG format.
If you are a fan of the anime series then this is likely a good game for you. If you’re not then you might want to give it a miss or wait for a discount.
