Fairy Tail 2
Developer: Gust
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Switch, PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $99.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
The Fairy Tail franchise has remained one of Hiro Mashima’s most popular and long-lasting works throughout his long career. While he may have started making his mark with Rave Master and recently completed his recent series Edens Zero, not only did Fairy Tail manage to garner a sequel to its completed run back in 2017, that sequel is still running to this day with Mashima providing the writing for Natsu and the Fairy Tail guild’s continued journey in the 100 Years Quest. It only makes sense then that Koei Tecmo and Gust would also release a sequel of their own to their 2020 Fairy Tail RPG that saw its own rather strange beginning and ending points. Now, four years later, with a completely revised combat system and once again set during an odd place in the story, is Fairy Tail 2 worth it for fans?
Story
Considering Fairy Tail 2 is already a sequel to the original RPG back in 2020, players should be expected to have at least some knowledge of the franchise if they want to get the most out of this game. Not only did the first title start at an incredibly odd point but it also happened to end right before the big climactic arc of the Fairy Tail manga. That means that this one, Fairy Tail 2, is set almost entirely within that arc and those who are unfamiliar with the franchise or characters will mostly be left in the dust here as this is a game clearly designed and written with fans in mind.
Fairy Tail 2 begins by glossing over a number of elements involving the in-between events of the original game and this one in an effort to kick players right into the Alvarez Empire arc almost immediately. The Alvarez Empire Arc serves as the final arc of the original Fairy Tail manga and sees the Fairy Tail guild, including numerous allied guilds, battling against the invading Alvarez Empire that is led by the dark Emperor Zeref and his powerful mages called the Spriggan 12. As mentioned before, there is very little background information given as to what led up to this point outside of some small history summaries in the glossary and the ability to pull up small descriptions of specific terms, guilds, or characters during dialogue sequences.
Gust’s handling of the massive Alvarez story arc is a bit of a mixed bag here. Fans of the franchise will obviously be able to get the most of the storyline but even then there are quite a few liberties taken with specific events and others that are omitted entirely. In fact, one of the first largest battles that players have that features only a section of the Fairy Tail guild will have other fights happening that feature other members of the guild and their allies only be revealed afterwards, these fights happening off-screen and given only the briefest of summaries. Along these same lines, various character encounters only happen through certain “Character Stories” that are only available at campfire rest points. These character stories are actually quite nice most of the time, as they either feature flashbacks that showcase brand new interactions between characters or little flashbacks of events that were never previously detailed even in the manga, but there are also character stories that are time limited and provide context about what is happening to the other guild members or battles as Natsu or whoever the current lead character is as they continue down the core storyline.
Unfortunately the side-missions within the game are barely worth mentioning as they boil down to simple gathering quests that generally revolve around luck thanks to obtaining items from destroying field items or killing enemies to return them to the requester for a miniscule reward that has nothing to do with the actual storyline. Thankfully while the side-mission’s aren’t the best, the actual character interactions with one another, both between Fairy Tail members, other guilds, and even against enemies, remain as impressively written as ever. Whether it is Lucy dealing with the numerous issues that arise thanks to her family’s history, Natsu coming to terms and battling against his fate, or even the smaller romance subplots between the likes of Gray and Juvia and Gajeel and Levy. These interactions between characters still shine here and nearly every character still has a chance to shine, even the smaller side-members at this point in the storyline, despite the somewhat truncated storyline.
In general, the handling of this major Alvarez arc is handled well enough, even if it feels like a bit too much was cut out or relegated to simple summaries in an effort to keep players on the move rather than having them jump around and deal with the multi-faceted fights that the invasion involved. This means that, while plenty of content is covered and the pace is always on the move with climactic battles happening left and right, fans will definitely miss out on some fan favorite battles as a result. Once players conclude this story arc, Fairy Tail 2 does not delve or even tease much into the Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest but instead features a completely new and originally written by Hiro Mashima set of smaller storylines that take place after this arc.These brand new stories are enjoyable and give characters quite a bit of extra time to shine, even the few that didn’t have a chance throughout the story by this point and serve as a solid enough conclusion even if it doesn’t continue into the next step in Fairy Tail’s journey.
Gameplay
While the first Fairy Tail from Gust was a purely turn-based affair that saw players entering battles with up to five total fighters, Gust has taken the game in an entirely different direction with Fairy Tail 2. In general, exploration is still the same as players will roam around a sprawling world where they can fast travel to key landmarks, unlocked campfires, and primary buildings with there occasionally being a mediocre shop or side-quest NPC along the way. While traveling players will encounter obstacles that can only be surpassed later on in the story such as the ability to climb higher ledges or destroy large obstacles, encouraging some retreading to access previously inaccessible treasure chests or area bosses that are generally worthwhile to challenge. Other than that, players will also encounter plenty of enemies while traveling around.
Should players be far stronger than the enemies that they are about to encounter they can slay them with one strike of a field attack, gaining a miniscule amount of “Origin Points” (EXP) and drops. Attacking an enemy of equal or closer level will give players a bit of an advantage starting the fight as their Fairy Guild level will be a bit higher to start. Once in combat players will be able to experience the brand new combat system in its entirety. This involves having three characters fighting at the same time through an “Active Time Battle” pseudo-turn system. Players can only directly control one fighter at a time but can swap between their party members with a press of a button. It is also nice to note that while players will only be able to fight with three characters at a time, they can swap reserve fighters into the battle at will as well. This means that if a character might be strong against fire attacks, Natsu can be swapped out for Wendy or Laxus or vice versa.
Standard combat will flow with players using basic attack combos to build up “mana” that can then be used to trigger a character’s stronger skills. The stronger the skill, the more mana it requires and if players want to chain skills together for combos they will also require additional mana for every use. Ally AI is competent at targeting enemy weaknesses and staying on top of things thankfully, meaning they will utilize their skills properly to try and target opponent elemental weaknesses or breaking their stances or incoming power move. Yes, Fairy Tail 2 utilizes a break mechanic for enemies, especially bosses, that allow for players to stun them for a moment and trigger Link Attacks for high damage and team-wide buffs most of the time by selecting one of their team members to perform a follow-up attack. When fighting bosses or stronger enemies, fully breaking an enemy’s gauge will allow for a massive Unison Attack that can deal even more damage, especially when certain characters are paired together as some characters have unique attack animations that deal even more damage than normal.
As players fight, their guild rank will increase and this can contribute to allowing players to hold onto more mana at a time, giving them better access to combo attacks, but also the ability to call in a summon system of sorts. Not every character in Fairy Tail 2 is a fighter, even those that actually are fighters aren’t always playable and are relegated to special summons as a result. These can be triggered after players reach a certain Fairy rank and are on a cooldown after every use and when used they can range from teamwide healing abilities to straight up attacking the enemy. Later on, players can also obtain the ability to trigger Awakening, giving a character even more powerful attacks and major boosts for a limited time.
After a battle is over players will gain aforementioned Origin Points and, when a character levels up, they gain a full Origin level that can be applied to one of three skill trees. These skill trees are incredibly basic to the point that they feel superfluous. Using Origin Points and occasionally limited items found during exploration characters can unlock parts of a skill tree that often provides character buffs, team wide buffs, and even new skills or enhanced versions of previously obtained skills. This is a very simple way to upgrade characters and the same can be said in regards to the equipment in the game. Each character can equip up to three “Lacrima” that provide various stat boosts with some higher quality Lacrima providing additional bonuses but, given the game’s mostly simple nature and surprisingly easy combat, this isn’t too much of an issue. That said, players who do want to have some challenge with the game’s combat should go on at least Hard difficulty as even Normal is quite easy.
Audio & Visuals
Fairy Tail 2 looks rather impressive and mimics the art style of the anime quite well from the designs of the characters and the general world itself. The random enemies that players encounter are a bit of a mixed bag, ranging from generic monsters to those that feel like they would fit into the universe perfectly fine. Considering the game has shifted to a more action-based combat system the attack animations are still handled well enough, especially with Erza Requiping on the fly or Mirajane’s Take Over form shifts as they fight. That being said, some of the more elaborate looking skills these characters can unleash feel a bit less impressive now as they are streamlined to better fit into the flow of combat rather than feel like signature finishing attacks. The title also occasionally features some impressively drawn CG artwork to portray certain scenes, be it something fan service focused or a major story clash.
Similar to the past game, Koei Tecmo and Gust have chosen to forgo an English dub in favor of retaining the entirety of the original Japanese cast for the characters. While this might be disappointing for some, the retained Japanese cast is a signature at this point for the long running franchise and most fans will be more than happy to hear their favorite characters still sounding the same from the anime. As for the game’s soundtrack the title features a mix of original tracks as well as some of the signature themes used throughout the anime, including the main theme that always plays when Natsu or his friends are about to turn the tables for victory.
Overall
Fairy Tail 2, more than ever, is a game designed for fans in mind and for the most part fans will be pleased with what is on offer here. Sure, the developers take some liberties trimming parts of the Alvarez Empire arc entirely and relegating some of it to off-screen summaries but the biggest battles and events still unfold wonderfully here. The side-quests are unfortunately as basic as they come and the game’s leveling and equipment systems are incredibly shallow but the completely reworked combat that is fluid and action packed feeling and this sequel serves as a solid continuation and conclusion to the core Fairy Tail storyline, especially with its brand new character interactions and newly written epilogue content.
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