Fairy Tail: Dungeons
Review
All Fired Up
by Camrin Santchi
reviewed on PC
A Labyrinth of Memories
The roguelite genre is an interesting one - taking the compellingness of a roguelike's randomness and looping gameplay but providing additions or alterations to make the game more palatable to those that might find the strictness of a roguelike to be intimidating. The differences between these two can vary drastically, and in some circumstances they are used interchangeably. One of the biggest differences is that roguelites have some form of progression when you lose, where roguelikes set you back to square one.
Fairy Tail: Dungeons is a roguelite deckbuilding RPG that stars Hiro Mashima's characters from the anime and manga Fairy Tail. The plot is fairly simple, with a mysterious labyrinth appearing below the titular Guild Hall, and one of the main characters Natsu being dragged into it only to find that the makeup of the labyrinth is affecting his magic, so he has to rely on cards made up of memories in order to actually use the techniques that were mastered throughout the series.
Recruited to help a catlike creature named Labi find his friend Arthur within the deepest parts of the labyrinth, Natsu and the rest of the 'Strongest Team' of Fairy Tail must learn how to navigate this dungeon and how to combat the monsters within. Along the way they'll come across familiar faces who are also exploring the dungeon like other members of Fairy Tail and even other Guilds like Sabretooth or Lamia Scale- and monsters from the depths of their memories that must be confronted in order to delve deeper, collect more cards, and level up your current build to take on stronger and stronger opponents.
The Strongest Team is a Varied One
Each of the members of the Strongest Team has a specialty in combat that comes to bear within Fairy Tail: Dungeons - such as Gray's sheer defensive bulk or Wendy's ability to heal her compatriots. This provides variety in gameplay styles depending on who you select to explore the dungeon, and becomes paramount in deeper parts of the labyrinth when you select a team of three to take on the tougher challenges below.
Each character's skills in Fairy Tail: Dungeons are saved in a Grimoire of Remembrance based on what upgrades, items, and skill cards are collected in the first few floors of the labyrinth. Many of these are not able to be located in the deeper sections of the dungeon, so gamers have to be confident in the build of all three characters they bring down below. The first section can be challenged as many times as the player wants in order to try and get a better or more optimized build that works well with the other characters, so experimenting is critical to coming up with a viable strategy. Each of the characters also can store up to four Grimoires at once, allowing multiple 'build types' to be saved for a mix and match type approach to lower levels in the dungeon, which might prove necessary when engaging with bosses.
One of the first main bosses for example gets an ability to massively raise its armor each turn once it is about halfway through its health bar, making it a pain to chip away at it. Knowing about this enemy's strategy, players can specifically be on the lookout for skills that outright ignore enemy armor rather than having to punch their way through it, brute force style.
The gameplay loop in Fairy Tail: Dungeons is simple and satisfying, and continued runs into the dungeon unlock new skill cards as well as additional equipment that can be used for additional effects like extra turns to move before encountering the boss, a healing item, or more. Creating a build around these items is a key part in getting to Labi's friend at the bottom of the dungeon, so testing out different combos could create some entertaining results when teaming up the characters.
Presentation is Key
Fairy Tail: Dungeons comes out of the gate strong thanks to familiar and recognizable characters from the series, but more than that it has a charming yet simple art style that faithfully recreates the characters in a pixel-like fashion, and the price point is accessible to fans of the genre and series.
Weak Links
Not everything in Fairy Tail: Dungeons is S-Class, unfortunately. The music loops are short and repetitive throughout the game, so while they are catchy it can feel a little grating if you do a lot of runs in a short time. The other issue, and this is more of a complaint based on this reviewer's preferences than anything else, is that the only carry over and progression that is felt within the game is additional items or characters being encounterable in the dungeon - the skills and decks of skill cards cannot be brought back into the first phase of the dungeon to further level them up. Again, this complaint is very minor and doesn't affect the overall satisfaction of the game, it just might make players feel like they aren't making much progress in getting the characters stronger since each run is randomly generated, so unlocking a new skill card for Erza doesn't necessarily mean that you'll find it on a consecutive run with her.
This Might Be the Run
In all Fairy Tail: Dungeons is an entertaining ride, particularly for fans of either the roguelite genre, the Fairy Tail series, or both. With an accessible price point and an enjoyable gameplay loop as well as art style, players can certainly enjoy diving into the labyrinth for quite some time- the repetitive music and limited progression forward aren’t enough to put a damper on the fun this game provides!
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8.1
fun score
Pros
Satisfying Gameplay Loop, Cheap Price, Great Pixel Art, Simple and Fun
Cons
Repetitive Music, Limited Progression
