Fairy Tail 2, game developer Gust’s second (and most likely final) video game adaptation of Hiro Mashima’s long-running manga and anime series, Fairy Tail, is now available for public consumption, meaning that fans of the first game can finally continue their interactive adventures in Fiore Kingdom in with Dragon Slayer Natsu Igneel, Wizard Lucy Heartfilia, Exceed Happy the Cat and the rest of “Team Natsu” after a 4-year-long wait.
Fairy Tale 2 effectively retells the “Alvarez Empire Arc” from the original manga and anime—which aired in anime form on Crunchyroll in December of 2018 and served as the mainline series’ final chapter (although there has been a prequel, sequel, OVAs and two feature film spin-offs in the years since). Much like in the first Fairy Tail game, zero time is wasted catching players up on the series’ 10 years of backstory.
Instead, they are thrown right into the deep end, with Team Natsu in the midst of being swallowed up by a deadly sandstorm controlled by Ajeel Raml, a powerful “sand wizard” and a member of the Spriggan 12, a group of magic users which in turn serve and protect the Emperor of the Alvarez Empire, A.K.A The Black Wizard, Zeref.
In both our 2020 review of the original game and our recent preview of Fairy Tail 2, my colleagues Remington and Jason respectively remarked on how strange was it is for a game to provide next to no onboarding for players new to the franchise, and I 100% concur. It’s bizarre, especially for a series that ran for over a decade. But to be fair, I also recall making the same complaints in my review of One Piece: Burning Blood EIGHT YEARS AGO, and that franchise has been running for almost 30 YEARS and counting, so there’s no point in continuing to beat a dead horse. Cold starts in games are just a thing that long-running Japanese franchises like One Piece and Dragon Ball Z have to do.
Nonetheless, if it is any consolation, players who finish the game will be able to experience an original epilogue story called “The Key to the Unknown,” which is set after the final battle.
Remington’s 2020 review of the first game memorably praised Gust’s bold choice to build Fairy Tail’s core gameplay around that of traditional turn-based JRPG mechanics, rather than going down the more common “fighting game” or “tag-battle arena-fighter” route that one might assume to be a better fit for it, given the inherently wild, action-packed nature of the anime series.
This time around though, while not necessarily making any large, sweeping changes to the formula, Gust has apparently modified the recipe in order to spice things up and cater at least a little bit more to players who are more action oriented, which is probably a good thing.
For starters, Fairy Tail 2 does away with both the first game’s strictly turn-based structure and its focus on enemy line formations, replacing them with a combat system that shares a spiritual resemblance with the original Final Fantasy VII’s Active Time Battle system. Enemies unleash their attacks based on a timer (which depending on the level of attack may be seen or unseen), while players build up the SP points required to go on the offensive and/or retaliate with “Powerful Attacks” (that are mapped clockwise to the Triangle, Circle and Cross buttons) by first performing combos with “Regular Attacks” (that are mapped to the Square button).
Take the case of Natsu: in order to execute either his Fire Dragon Iron Fist attack or Fire Dragon Roar (AOE) attack, players must first successfully perform a simple, three-button combo with Square to build up the SP needed to perform the move, which translates to a 3-hit flurry of fiery punches. The player can then opt to use the special attack right away, or perform another simple combo with the aim of building up more SP for a more powerful and SP-expensive attack.
“Fairy Tail 2 does away with both the first game’s strictly turn-based structure and its focus on enemy line formations…”
The player is never alone of course and the goal is to work together with the other two party members to reduce the enemy’s health to zero and/or chip away at the “Break Gauge” that appears above the health gauge of stronger enemies until they destroy it. When a Break Gauge is shattered, the player can then unleash a powerful Link Attack with an active comrade in the party to deplete the enemy’s health, or in the case that all Break Gauges have been destroyed, one can instead unleash a deadly Unison Raid attack to finish off the enemy in dramatic style.
Where the FFVII ATB influences come in are with the timers, because even the player attacks are in part governed by them. Regular Attack combos can’t simply be mashed, they have cooldowns and must be executed with at least some semblance of timing to actually work, and failed combos won’t generate any SP. Meanwhile, enemies will attack based on their own timers, and while there are regular indicators and hints in battle as to which enemy will likely attack whom and when, in the heat of combat it can often become difficult to perform precise blocks and reduce incoming damage when facing off against a large group of strong enemies.
By the same virtue, however, if one times their Regular Attack combos (and hence SP accumulation) well, they can potentially build up an offensive onslaught so powerful that it can disrupt a much stronger foe and “stuff” its main attack before it can even get off the ground.
In addition to Powerful Attacks, players have access to Extreme Magic attacks via the Fairy Rank gauge, a five-section gauge which slowly and gradually fills each time that SP is used to perform skills (e.g., special moves, healing, etc.), which players will constantly be doing in battle all the time. Extreme Magic calls in support characters with different abilities, such as dealing massive damage to a powerful opponent—provided the opponent is not immune to the nature of the support character(s)’ attack, or healing and buffing the defence of the entire party.
The more filled sections on the Fairy Rank gauge, the higher the rank of Extreme Magic can be used, so long as that support character is actively in the party. Finally, there is “Awakening Magic,” which unlocks an ultimate set of skills for use by certain characters at key story moments.
Fairy Tail 2 features 16 playable characters (not including supports), and each one of them has their own skill-tree (or “Origin Tree” as the as the game describes it) that is unique to that character’s history and lore within the world of Fairy Tail. Within each tree is a trio of interconnecting branches that represent “Spirit,” “Skills” and “Strength,” and players can unlock new and more powerful abilities and signature attacks for each character by fuelling Origin Points into these branches. Origin Points are awarded through surviving battles and increasing a character’s Origin Rank.
“Fairy Tail 2 features 16 playable characters (not including supports), and each one of them has their own skill-tree…”
Initially, the thought of having to manage the skill trees of 16 unique characters struck me as overwhelming and tedious, but thankfully, players aren’t required to level up every character in Fairy Tail 2 to complete the game; they can just focus on their favourites if they want. There is even an option to “Enable Auto-Evolve” in each character’s Origin Tree if you’re fine with letting the game do all the character progression busywork, and prefer to have new abilities and skills just appear like presents under the Origin Tree at Christmas, which for me was a godsend.
Incidentally, unlocking a given number of abilities in a character’s origin tree will also unlock Character Stories related that can be viewed when resting at a campfire. Dubbed “Fairy Tale Diaries,” these short, non-interactive vignettes feature characters reminiscing about earlier adventures, forming stronger bonds and generally clowning around. While these episodes can hardly make up for the previously discussed missing decade’s worth of backstory, they are at least helpful in filling some of the narrative gaps and endearing players to some of the more interesting characters in Fairy Tail 2.
While we’re on the subject of time-saving QoL features, I was quite pleased to see Gust take a page out of Metaphor: ReFantazio’s handbook and enable easy battles when encountering significantly weaker enemies while out in the open world. Not only will a Regular Attack dispatch just about any weak opponent without triggering an actual battle (which is great for casual farming and looting of common items), but said enemies will also flee when they see the player coming, whether they be beasts, monsters or man, which is always good for a laugh. Also, once discovered, campfires can be utilized to fast travel between The Fairy Tail Guild Hall, other found campfires, and special points of interest.
It’s worth mentioning that there are crafting mechanics in the game as well, focused primarily around the crystal-like substance called Lacrima, which characters can use to enhance their skills and abilities (such as adding or reinforcing elemental properties to their attacks). This can be accomplished with the assistance of merchants.
Apart from main missions, players can interact with quest givers (usually townspeople) to gain special items as a reward in exchange for an item or material they are looking for. These are largely glorified fetch quests, however and more often than not players will already have the requested item in their inventory before they even meet the person who needs it, so most side quests take only seconds to complete.
Apart from an overabundance of ripped anime pecs, abs and other…ahem…fan-servicey elements that are rather distracting and impossible to avoid in this game, there’s not much that I can fault with Fairy Tail 2 from a presentation standpoint. I’m no longer the old-school anime and manga fan that I once was decades ago, but even as a casual onlooker still I have a soft-spot for cel-shaded anime games when they accurately capture the look and spirit of the source material, and Fairy Tail 2 definitely succeeds in this regard.
“…there’s not much that I can fault with Fairy Tail 2 from a presentation standpoint.”
The game also bears a strong resemblance to more popular anime-to game adaptations like Naruto and One Piece, but that can be said for just about any game released today with deep anime roots. Cel-shaded games have grown to become a genre in themselves. Despite these similarities however, Fairy Tail 2 undeniably has good bones and its combat animations are superb, especially when running on PS5 60fps. The only thing that brings it all down are the many corners that were cut by Gust when creating the game’s numerous cutscenes, which recycle basic animations, frequently imply action taking place offscreen rather than showing it, and often skip over major events with only a black screen and some expository text.
It should be noted that the amount of voice work is much improved compared to the previous title, with most interactions between principal characters being voiced in Japanese. The lack of an English dub is disappointing for those who don’t enjoy reading subtitles while battling, but the first game didn’t have the option either.
When all is said and done, Fairy Tail 2 is a game that has been crafted primarily for its most dedicated fans, including those who have been reading and/or watching from the beginning, or even those willing to hop onto YouTube and watch a 1.5-hour recap video right up until the beginning of the Alvarez Arc (guilty as charged). Without that level of dedication, I have a difficult time seeing newcomers and novices enjoying it, especially at full MSRP, but there’s definitely a quality to its characters and animation that at least deserves a look.
- More intense and spectacular battles! Use powerful magic and a variety of other strategic elements to take down enemies in stunning action sequences.
- Seamlessly explore a vast map, enhancing the experience of the original work while furthering the thrilling story of the final chapter.
- More intense and spectacular battles! Use powerful magic and a variety of other strategic elements to take down enemies in stunning action sequences.
- Seamlessly explore a vast map, enhancing the experience of the original work while furthering the thrilling story of the final chapter.
- More intense and spectacular battles! Use powerful magic and a variety of other strategic elements to take down enemies in stunning action sequences.
- Seamlessly explore a vast map, enhancing the experience of the original work while furthering the thrilling story of the final chapter.
