Games based on Anime properties are at times a mixed bag. However, games such as Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and a variety of other licensed Anime properties have proven themselves to be a cut above the rest. When I heard that Gust, the developer behind the Atelier series, was doing an Anime adaptation RPG for the Fairy Tail anime, I was intrigued. I was not disappointed either. The Fairy Tail game is easily part of what I would consider the gold standard of Anime adaptations in gaming.

Before we dig too deep into Fairy Tail, I should mention that I have not watched a single episode of the anime. Why is this relevant? For two reasons: the first reason is that I had no preconceived notions about the anime, characters, or world. The second reason is that I was surprised to discover that even though Fairy Tail covers multiple story arcs from the anime, they do enough explaining in tutorials and dialogue to make sure you aren’t confused as a newcomer.

I knew very little about the series going in; After doing a bit of research and playing through the game for a while, I can tell you that Gust did its best to faithfully recreate the characters, storylines, and environments from the anime. I’m not particularly pleased that there is no English voice acting for Fairy Tail, mostly because there is a dubbed version of the anime, and a lack of voice acting makes it less accessible for non-japanese speakers who have issues reading large amounts of text. However, as far as complaints go that’s fairly minor.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get into the nitty-gritty. In Fairy Tail, you play as the members of the titular guild, who are working to make their guild the best guild in the land of Fiore. Among the 16 total characters you can have in your party (getting more of them as the story progresses) you can play as Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Lucy Heartfilia, and many others. Each character has different abilities and elemental attacks, which can help you defeat various enemy types.

At the start, you can only carry three party members, but that expands to five over the course of the game. Having a balanced party covering all sorts of elements and utilities is important. Some characters are great at raw offense, while others are better at healing, providing buffs, and using spells to move enemies between the rows of the battlefield.

To explain that a little more, combat takes place in a turn-based arena. However, enemies are on a 3×3 grid of squares. Each of your attacks can hit a certain configuration of squares in its area of effect. So, careful management of which attacks you use can make a difference in how quickly and effectively you make your way through fights. This is also true since each element has an inherent resistance and weakness, so hitting enemies with their weaknesses is important.

Something else you’ll need to manage in combat is the MP consumption of your characters. Unlike most RPG’s, every attack takes MP due to the inherent nature of magic in the game. Because of this, your characters can be knocked out if their MP falls to zero, just as if their HP goes to zero. Luckily, you can purchase MP restorative items, so if you keep them on hand it won’t be too much of a problem.

Also, the characters get enough MP as they level, that you won’t really have too much of a cause to conserve MP. As characters level up though, their abilities will evolve and strengthen, which will make them cost more MP to use. Because of this, you’ll need to make sure you have them equipped with the right gear to make sure they aren’t behind in their Max MP stat.

Speaking of gear, in Fairy Tail, you won’t be equipping weapons and armor. Instead, you will equip crystals called Lacrima. Lacrima boosts your stats in various ways or provides status effects to your attacks as well as resistances to various effects. You can either purchase Lacrima after you level up your item shop a bit, synthesize Lacrima in your laboratory, or receive it out of chests, as well as request rewards.

Over the course of the game, you will get recipe books that will allow you to synthesize new types of Lacrima, and as your guild rank goes up and you get higher quality requests, your rewards will increase in value as well. In regards to guild rank, you raise it by doing requests. Some requests have a mini-storyline to them and require you to bring certain characters along. Other requests are repeatable and may be as simple as killing a certain number of enemies or collecting a certain item.

There are also side-quests known as “Community Service” requests, which can be found in town areas, as well as in exploration areas. These requests are usually simple, where you deliver certain crafting materials to the quest-giver in exchange for a reward. Doing requests gets you guild rank, as well as a point currency that allows you to rank up your characters.

Each character has a number of star ranks and as you rank them up using points, you can unlock things such as passive bonuses, new costumes, and more. To unlock higher ranks, you must do character stories for each character. Character stories unlock over the course of the game and allow you to increase their max rank. They also give insight into the motivations and history of each character.

Character stories also allow you to unlock new party members, so doing them as soon as they appear is important. Some things are locked until you reach a certain point in the story, which is where some of the base management comes into play. Your base has multiple facilities, from the Request board to the Item shop. You can upgrade them multiple times, having to do a fetch quest of sorts in order to get the required item to upgrade them.

However, upgrading your facilities is very worth it. The Laboratory lets you craft more types of Lacrima, the Item shop sells new items, and other facilities provide all sorts of other benefits. You can also remodel your facilities once you upgrade them, enhancing their capabilities even further. Fairy Tail seems like a simple anime tie-in game at first glance, but as an RPG it is surprisingly deep.

From bond events between your characters to the sheer volume of main and side quests, there is so much to do and see in Fairy Tail. Even for someone who knows nothing about the anime, you’ll find a lot to enjoy. Granted, there is the typical anime fanservice that gets a little bit cringe-inducing at times, but overall the characters are interesting, fun, and the game takes a lot of time building up their relationships in a way that makes sense.

Truthfully, other than the lack of voice acting, there isn’t much that I have to complain about in regards to Fairy Tail. I would have liked it if the game had started from the beginning of the anime, not midway in, but where they started isn’t too hard to understand. On top of that, I think if Gust is careful, they could possibly make an entire franchise off the Fairy Tail tie-in, with more than one RPG. Cover a few story arcs in each one and give both anime fans, and RPG fans, something to sink their teeth into.

Fairy Tail is a great RPG. Whether you’re a fan of the anime or not, I would encourage you to give this game a try. Picking it up on Switch also has the added bonus of giving you a chance to take it on the go. You can’t go wrong with Gust RPG’s, and Fairy Tail is no exception.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Fairy Tail was provided by Koei Tecmo America for this review.

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Fairy Tail

$59.99 USD

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Easy to Understand With No Anime Knowledge
• Fun Characters
• Lots of Content
• Deep Progression Systems
• Multiple Difficulty Options

Cons

• No English Voice Acting
• Some Cringe-Worthy Fanservice