FAIRY TAIL Review for Nintendo Switch

Beloved Japanese manga series, Fairy Tail, was created by Hiro Mashima and ran from 2006 to 2017. Published in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine, Fairy Tail sold over 60 million copies worldwide. In 2009, the magna series was adapted into an anime series that was televised in Japan for over 10 years.

Although the series has touched the video game world before, being adapted to the Nintendo Switch, fans of the fantasy themed story can now experience Fairy Tail on the go. Developed by GUST studios and published by Koei Tecmo America, this single player JRPG provides 30 hours of gameplay that includes a wide arrange of playable characters, magical battles, and an original episode created by Mashima.

Plot

Earth Land is home to wizards that use their magic to look over cities and protect others. By completing quests, guilds can rise to the top in a power ranking against other guilds. The Kingdom of Fiore is located in Magnolia and is where the Fairy Tail guild can be found.

In the beginning, the team of mages squares off with the villain Hades, creating a void that wipes the characters, and the island they are on, off the face of the earth. Before disappearing, the Fairy Tail guild was ranked number one. Returning seven years later, The Fairy Tail guild has found their camp to be run-down and broken. The redeeming heroes must train to become the number one guild once again while also paying off years of debt.

This JRPG does its best job remaining cannoned to the original story. Over 16 characters are playable, all remaining consistent with the magna storyline. Some characters you can play as includes: Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heatfilia, Gray Fullbuster, Erza Scarlet, Wendy Marvell, and much, much more.

Gameplay

Fairy Tail is a semi open-world experience that incorporates turn based combat mechanics for battle. When traveling around the game, users can free explore numerous landscapes and areas. Villages, guilds, forestry areas, and other settings are used to help push the game along. There are fast travel options for both free roaming and after completion of missions.
After completion of requests, users can strengthen friendships and upgrade guild facilities. Doing this increases the Guild Rank and thus helps users reach their goal of becoming the number one guild in the kingdom. There are other features that help expand character progress as well; increasing character rank using skill points will help make your team of mages stronger, too.

When in combat, players have four options per turn: attack, summon magic, use items for healing, and defend. When playing, if magic is charged fully up, users can use a full team chain for a crazy amount of attack points and combos. Each magical ability has a different area of range, meaning that selected moves will implicit damage on boxes that are covered in a 3 x 3 square. This feature is an addition to make combat more strategic and helps create a larger sense of difficulty when fighting.

My Personal Experiences

My overall run with Fairy Tail definitely was interesting. Prior to playing this game, I have not heard anything about the series. For someone who has no investment to the title, I thought the game picked up in a weird fashion. It appeared that the story started off halfway through the whole cannoned story with no formal introduction to any of the characters.

Being misplaced with the overall story, I thought the combat and graphics were going to redeem the game for me. I truly believe the combat was the best part of the game, but graphics were by far the worst. On average, Fairy Tail runs on a 15-20 fps. When traveling around the map, this showed a huge hindrance. Camera movements felt choppy and at times, made me feel a little sick.

I enjoyed the option of playing as a wide arrange of characters, however, I just wished I had a little bit of prior knowledge. I did not grow attached to anyone in particular because of the lack of commitment to the series.
I also felt that audio and visuals were lacking in this game. I do not mind sub versions of games and I also found the voice actors to be quite believable. The soundtrack was the aspect that was the downside of audio. The music did not fit the mood a lot of times and this really took me out of the game. Overall, I enjoyed my playthrough, but only as much as non-fan of the series could.

The Final Verdict

Fairy Tail is a game that provides a lot of fan service. I commend the creators of this game as well as Mashima for creating a game like this for its loyal fan base. For players who have no awareness to this manga series, do not buy this game. The retail value is not redeeming enough for new viewers of the Fairy Tail saga. However, if you are an avid fan of this anime and turn based battle RPGs, this game is a must buy.

Final Scores: 6/10 (if I was a fan of the series, 8/10)

Check Out the Fairy Tail Trailer:

For more information, please visit: https://www.fairytailgame.com

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Nintendo Switch Review

7/10

Sam Koretz

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Video games have played an essential role in my life since my parents purchased me my very own GameCube. Countless years and games later, I still have appreciation and love for the gaming community and culture. My passion for a variety of games has kept me close to many friends and roommates over the years. Starting in the fall, I will be embarking on my final year at Michigan State University. I am very excited to see what this year full of gaming will pertain.