Koei Tecmo’s Fairy Tail Hands-On Impression

Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz

The starting characters for the game are Lucy, Natsu, and Erza, which you can switch between characters to move about on the map while you make your way to the next waypoint. There is also Wendy, Gray, and now 2 new characters that have been announced to join the roster—with many more to come—and they are Gajeel and Juvi.

The graphics for the game are also top-notch and wonderfully animated. There is a nice clean design with the characters that look similar to the anime but obviously, the CG is more prevalent but nonetheless, great! When you begin training, you will realize Fairy Tail is a Turn-based RPG and actually fits really well with the game. To be precise, the combat is Turn-based, but while not in combat, you are able to free-roam with the character you chose back in town—because you can’t switch characters outside of town so if you are picky about who you want to play as when traversing the map, don’t forget this! ^_^

When you are able to go on your first mission which is the tutorial, you will notice that you’re inside the Fairy Tail guild house. At the moment, you're at the point of the series when they have been cast out by the Magic Council for causing too much trouble—more than they’ve contributed, unfortunately. So your guild house is...small and you have to build your guild’s reputation again in order the expand your guild house. In turn, this will also allow you to gain more opportunities with quests and bigger awards as well. The bigger the quest, the more you can get from it and gain reputation.

When you are out venturing around the game’s maps, there will be items you can pick up that can/will help you in battle or for when you go back to your guilds house and are able to craft other items to help you in future battles/advancements throughout the game. There will be a crafting section in your guild that you will have to unlock first, in order to enjoy part of the game’s experience.

As mentioned earlier, Fairy Tail is a turn-based RPG and has 4 combat functions to choose from which are Attack, Magic, Defense, and Item. Attack is a simple default attack like it would be in other RPG style games, while Magic is where it is at. When choosing a Magic action, there will be a display screen to indicate the area of attack it will focus on, the attack power stats and other facts to help out along the way. Defense is...well...defense and Item is obviously when you have an item you can use during battles like Revive or Health Boost. There are many ways to go about battling and experience the game's mechanics in Fairy Tail, which is up to par with many other well-known RPGs out there.

We did like the Link Chain combat in Fairy Tail as it really provided that extra boost of experience with the character special attacks—mainly in Magic attacks, and are shown in a very well done approach that feels just like the anime. Seeing the animated action scenes really look good and made us feel happy that Fairy Tail is now in video game format. Other points about the link chain are that you have the ability to end the link chain (Finisher) in one attack, two attacks, or three attack combos. This will allow your whole party to take part in a 2-3 way attack combo allowing you to defeat your enemies more efficiently and faster. How to acquire a link chain is imply landing hits and building up your meter/gauge to perform a link chain.

The camera is not automatic so you will have to direct the camera movement yourself but it is only when traversing the map. A nice segue about the map is that for the first time, we get to see what the layout/floor plan of the town Magnolia and what it looks like, as well as, knowing the exact floor plan of Lucy’s house as you are able to enter and explore that as well. We also saw the original Fairy Tail guild house from the anime, or rather before they were kicked out of the magic society and unofficial… Getting back on track, we can only imagine what the rest of the world of Fairy Tail looks like and that was a question to ask the producer Keisuke Kikuchi which we’ll have a separate interview article for you later.

Once you get to the end of the tutorial, your first boss is none other than Jullal and Ultear, who also are there to help advance your fighting skills. Ultear gives you a magic energy boost that drains you for a bit but later, you feel and become much stronger than before which then Jullal tests your newfound powers in a battle with him and without holding back. THIS is where you can expect more excitement from combat sequences. Once you are powered up with your new skills, it unlocks new attacks that many anime fans are familiar with while others in the gaming community are now able to experience this as well and on a whole new level!

Final Thoughts

Editor in Chief

Author: Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz

I'm a Geek, Nerd, Writer, and lover of all video games, anime, science, technology and the internet. I previously worked for STFUandPlay.com, a contributing writer as the Japanese Corespondent at TheKoalition.com and founded a website called Transcend-Gaming.com! I currently live in Japan as Editor in Chief of Honey's Anime and its very talented writers! I'm down for anything! What do you want to do?

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