Fairy Fencer F Review

Fairy Fencer F is the latest RPG to come out of Japan, it has landed exclusively on PlayStation 3 thanks to the publisher Nis America. The game centers around fairies. Supernatural and powerful fantasy creatures that you must befriend in order to boost your potential power. As with many of the Japanese exclusive RPGs, there are an abundance of characters throughout that are pretty hard to care for.

The story is also a loose thread at first as it takes a while to get moving, much like a steam train you will have to endure a long wait until the plot truly opens up.

It starts by explaining centuries before the game takes place, a fight between a god and goddess broke out. Instead of fighting with each other they created special weapons for others to use in combat. Soon enough, these powers combined with each other and disappeared from the world. They did happen to leave various weapons behind, though, and these weapons in particular are called Furies and the people that wield them are called Fencers. Fury weapons are incredibly powerful, so Fencers are always trying to find more of them. By chance two Fencers known as Fang and Tiara get caught in the action and that is where you “the player” comes in. After that explanation, it takes a while until you reach another easily perceived portion of the story!

As you play through Fairy Fencer F you will undoubtedly feel that the level of progression is fairly slow. Like the plot it takes a while to level up characters, their stats may change, but to truly embrace power you will have to level up your fairies too.

Combat is tough too, due to attacks not really doing too much damage. Skills however do much more damage which almost forces you to use them instead of your standard attack. If you level up your fairies, you can even use them to your advantage and unleash super moves that will take health off your opponent in a weighted fashion.

Visually the game looks decent, character models look greatly detailed along with the combat visuals. The art style is as you would expect from one of these RPGs, especially if you are a fan of these types of games. If you have played Mugen Souls and Hyper Dimension Neptunia you will be right at home as Fairy Fencer plays very similar. It is a turn based game with the added benefit of free movement in a dedicated area.

The game does house a few faults, loading screens are fairly long and fast travel must be accessed through the menu system. Most of your time will be spent simply fast travelling cutting time off moving freely around the areas. Along with that the environments don’t look too great either. On a better note the game is packed with content offering well over 20 hours of gameplay.

Fairy Fencer F is a solid title, but it sadly isn’t anything outstanding, fans of the niche will love it, as for myself I thought it was a relatively slow and frustrating experience. The characters were overly obnoxious even though they were voiced well. I just couldn’t seem to connect with them and until the story opened up I found myself wanting to play something else. So if you still fancy giving Fairy Fencer F a shot be sure to check out some videos.