Fairy Tail: Dungeons by developer ginolabo and publisher Kodansha—PC review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Fairy Tail: Dungeons was one of those games that almost completely snuck up on me. A simple presentation and fairly easy to learn gameplay mechanics give way to a surprisingly engaging roguelite with more variety and depth than I was expecting.
The more traditional RPG version of Fairy Tail that came out for PlayStation 4 a few years ago was a bit of a mixed bag for people, but I personally enjoyed it quite a bit and am looking forward to the announced sequel. The visuals and music certainly fit the anime well, but what we see here in Fairy Tail: Dungeons is a much more simplified presentation. That’s not necessarily a problem, as the title is reasonably priced and a good fit as a Steam deckbuilder.
Fairy Tail: Dungeons sees series mainstay Natsu Dragneel tossed into a pretty zany but exposition-heavy introduction that sees him dragged into some strange, otherworldly dungeon. Right off of the bat there’s some name drops for known characters and world references that assume you are at least passingly familiar with the IP, but the story’s not so involved that a lack of familiarity will be a barrier to enjoying the game itself. Part of me thinks that this would work just about as well without having been Fairy Tail themed, but what’s here is still nice for fans of the IP, such as myself.
As a roguelite, you see a lot of the norms of the genre. Randomly generated stages and enemies along branching paths that will almost certainly lead your demise over and over again. If you were a fan of similar titles like Slay the Spire or Monster Train, you have a pretty good idea what to expect here. I will say that despite being a budget title, the pixelated visuals are more interesting than a lot of similar titles in the genre. The music’s good too, but I’ll be honest in admitting that it didn’t ‘feel’ like Fairy Tail to me.
Really though, while the presentation and the story are nice ways to wrap the content up, the meat of Fairy Tail: Dungeons and its ilk are the gameplay. Here, we have a robust number of cards to support the turn-based combat. It then becomes a game of managing action points against the cards in your hand, and balancing offensive abilities against defensive ones. So often in games like this, there’s a fine balance to be struck. You want to play just enough defense that you survive the encounter and the ensuing ones, but often times turtling up like that is not a winning strategy as your enemies have a knack for getting stronger the longer they’re alive. It’s all quite simple on the surface, but combinations and a fair amount of progression make the gameplay loop a rewarding one.
That progress comes in a few different flavors, probably the most interesting of which is unlocking new characters. These new archetypes provide new strategies that keep the formula feeling fresh, despite dying and replaying the same stages over and over again. These new powers and decks really do change the tactics you’ll use quite a bit, and while the presentation itself is a high pixelated one, I have to say there’s a bit of flavor to the cards and animations that help elevate the gameplay a bit.
This kind of strategic die, learn and improve is the tactics
version of Soulslike games, and the genre has become a favorite of mine. Fairy Tail:
Dungeons is one of the better examples of this style of game, wrapped up in a
bit of extra anime packaging. If there is a quibble to be had here, it’s that
the game is a relatively short one, as I was able to wrap it up in about a half
dozen or so hours. The release price point is certainly a reasonable one too,
and I enjoyed tinkering with the various ways to play that I kept coming back
for more anyways. Fans of this genre will absolutely want to pick Fairy Tail:
Dungeons, while fans of the anime will likely still be interested, but I feel
like this is a deckbuilding roguelite first, and a Fairy Tail game second.
Score: 8 / 10
