Fairy Fencer F - review

After the release of Aksys' SRPG, Record of Agarest War, Compile Heart enters a phase that causes the company to lose money when supporting Microsoft, upon the release of the very first Record of Agarest War game. Because of that, Compile Heart will support Sony for the rest of their lives since RPGs are big in Japan.

Every once in a blue moon, NIS America teams up with Compile Heart and we didn't be happy to oblige since that happened in a while. That recently happened after the two companies that did Record of Agarest War gleefully stopped supporting Microsoft. Little did I know, but we didn't even know that RPGs are singlehandedly big in Japan.

Since times, Compile Heart had permission with Idea Factory and developed their JRPGs. This year, Compile Heart released their latest JRPG game from the guys that brought you the game with females, Hyperdimension Neptunia. Now let's just take it easy and read a review, ladies and gentlemen.

Fairy Fencer F is a game from the development team of Hyperdimension Neptunia that allows you to take control of the knights who wield the magic weapons that are left behind by the two spirits. This is the first half of the game and the sequel, "Advent Dark Force" is coming to the US next year on the next gen console.

The World with Fencers and Furies:

Fairy Fencer F has a main thing, Fencers and Furies. Fencers are knights who wield weapons that are left behind by the two spirits, the Goddess and the Vile God that are called Furies. The Goddess is capable of occuring world peace, while the Vile God is capable of occuring world domination. Once the Vile God is awakened, he will destroy the world. But once the Goddess awakens, she will bring world peace, which has joyful harmony.

The Story:

A young boy named Fang got sent in jail for stealing food from someone. After his sleeping, a female voice is heard. She was a fairy named Eryn. Eryn informed Fang to get out of jail, but despite Fang's grumpiness, he wants to stay in jail since this is a relaxation. After convincing, Fang and Eryn escape from jail to the entrance to the town. A sword sticks on the ground and nobody will pull it out. So Fang pulls out the sword and became one of the Fencers. With the Fury in his hand, him and Eryn have a mission to collect the 100 Furies to break the seal and awaken the Goddess to wish for world peace.

The Gameplay:

In the outside of combat, you'll find some items scattered around the field. There are enemies on the field. When you make contact with an enemy, press the X button to do a Symbol Attack, which gives your allys the advantage. Time carefully or you'll be ambushed in two ways, the enemy touches you from behind or your timing is off.

The battle system is completely similar to Hyperdimension Neptunia because you can press the X button to attack and the triangle button to open commands and et cetera. The character's portrait has a Tension gauge, which is filled up by fighting and vice versa. However, it decreases when used a healing item and missing the enemy. When the gauge reaches the third milestone, it changes color to green, which means you're ready to level up. By level up, I mean Fairize. When you're in bad shape after trying to defeat enemies, you can return to town to recover HP and SP.

SP is a gauge that is consumed using skills and magic, which is performed under Command. To learn new skills and magic, use WP to learn skills and boost your stats. WP is Weapon Points, which are earned at the end of the battle. With WP, you can boost your stats and learn new skills, magic and attacks after when certain requirements are met. Sadly, it isn't as much, but you can try to reserve WP if possible.

Fairizing to Achieve Fury Mode:

Like I said before, you can Fairize when the Tension gauge has at least three milestones. To Fairize, open the command menu with the triangle button and go to "Fairize." It is way similar to Tenkai Knights' Titan Mode. During Fury Mode, their ATK and DEF skyrocket and the jingle plays until everyone's Tension gauge goes down to the first milestone or cancels manually, which is selected under Command. Also, you can use it on critical times like when your HP is low.

Avalanche Attack:

To occur an Avalanche Attack, keep pouring the attacks that the enemy is weak to until it reaches a certain point. An Avalanche Attack is a hyper combo that allows your allies to take turns attacking. The more attacks the enemy is weak to, the longer the Avalanche Attack.

Creating Your Combo:

To create your combo, you need 10 WP to learn the 2nd attack, 200 WP to learn the 3rd attack and 1000 WP to learn the 4th attack. Go to Weapon Boost under Battle Options. On the 2nd, 3rd and 4th attacks, you can create your own combo. After the 1st attack, press the X, triangle, or the square button perform a combo.

Challenges:

The challenges are from Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory. Here's an example, if you jump 10 times, the first level of the challenge is cleared. For every challenge you clear will boost your max stats. Do you have what it takes to clear them all?

The Godly Revival:

In the inn, you will enter the Godly Revival, which has the Goddess and the Vile God. After every battle you won, the shell will crack open after pulling the Fury out of body parts. You need is a fairy to pull them out. The more Furies you release, the better the rank. Make sure you revive the Goddess, not the Vile God. The Vile God will cause world domination, so don't let him.

World Shaping:

World Shaping is a process of making areas granting bonuses. In the World Map, press square and choose any fairy you are comfortable with. To turn off the effect, pull out the Fury by selecting the name of the fairy with the sword symbol before it. When there's a question mark, stab the area to reveal the destination.

The Fairy's Effect:

Each of the fairy has effects. You can equip the effects by selecting Equip under Battle Options and selecting the very last space that says "Resonance Effect." With the Resonance Effect, your stats are affected and you can earn Fairy EXP at the end of each battle. The maximum level is 10.

The Conclusion:

Fairy Fencer F is not a game intended for everyone. If you don't know how you feel about it, you can rent it as possible. In fact, it's a fun game that fans will enjoy. All that Tenkai Knights plot are affecting fans in the world alike. That is until the plot, of course. Just because there's deja vu doesn't mean you can fail. You can even call them Tenkai Fencers if you wish, so there's no need to fear about it. It's not that perfect, but you can still enjoy.

Pros:

+Excellent Music Quality
+Great Gameplay Quality

Cons:

There are no cons

Although Fairy Fencer F is an excellent game, overall, but there's some fast parts into the game that has all that plot. Which is why I'm giving it a 9.0, which is close to perfect and I'm definetely going to be aiming for and looking forward to the sequel that has more plot than usual and this will be a great game for you to enjoy.