When you are a child, the idea of magic hiding somewhere in the world is a fascinating dream that most hope to become a reality. As you grow up, certain things that once filled our curious minds and dreams become lackluster and lose their sense of wonder. Many are drawn to or fantasize about magic because it makes the improbable or impossible possible. Over the last century magicians and stories of magic have fascinated all those around the globe. Stories like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Mashle: Magic and Muscles, Supernatural, and Fairy Tail have captivated audiences.
Earlier this year, Fairy Tail returned after a five-year hiatus (2019) to start the Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest sequel story arc written by Hiro Mashima. With the return of the animated series Fairy Tail, it only made sense for Koei Tecmo to release its sequel to the video game adaptation of Fairy Tail in 2020. The 2020 video game adaptation of Fairy Tail threw players into the midway point of Fairy Tail’s story starting at the events of the Tenrou Island arc (Time Skip arc) and Grand Magic Games arc going to the reformation of Fairy Tail after it had been disbanded.
Fairy Tail 2
Developer: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD, Gust
Publisher: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, & Nintendo Switch
Release Date: December 11th, 2024 (Steam), 12/13/24 Other Consoles
Players: 1
Price: Base: $59.99 USD
Fairy Tail 2 throws players into the action after the events of the Avatar arc when former Guild Master Makarov is taken hostage by the Alvarez Empire. Players learn that Makarov went to the Alvarez Empire in order to try and avoid a conflict between Alvarez and Fiore.
Setting out to rescue their guild Master, newly appointed guild Master Erza Scarlet (7th) recruits Natsu and the others to go on a rescue mission.
After two lengthy cut scenes, we are introduced to one of the Spriggan 12 members and taught the core fundamentals of combat. Fairy Tail 2 takes the JRPG fighting style approach to combat with a basic attack charging a special meter allowing the player to use their character’s special abilities.
These special abilities are divided into different types which are typically only important when enemies are charging up their special attack; if the player can damage the enemy with the displayed attack type it will cancel their special attack, otherwise the player will need to block to prevent or reduce damage.
In combat, the player can use the Fairy Rank they earn to get assistance from NPC allies; these abilities range from debuffing the enemy to healing your own team. As the story progresses you will get more allies for your team or to assist you on your journey.
Like other modern JRPGs, Fairy Tail 2 has different combat difficulties; the four difficulties are Story, Balanced, Hard, and Ragnarok. While playing, the player can choose to swap between the difficulties if they are having a hard time or want more of a challenge.
When grinding experience in between boss fights, it is more efficient to drop down to the Story difficulty and just clear the Hordes since the experience each character gains does not change based on difficulty. Party members will gain the same experience while together without having to be used in combat. If you want to clear hordes faster, you can just charge and attack them to clear them if you are a higher level, otherwise you will get a combat advantage against them.
Similar to other JRPGs, Fairy Tail 2 features a skill tree system with three different focuses, Skill, Strength, and Spirit. When the player levels, they receive an Origin Point that can be assigned to one skill in one of those three trees. Some skills require more than one origin point to unlock it and sometimes requires a special item as well.
These skills can unlock new abilities for each character or improve their attack, defense, or speed. Improving the character’s abilities can also affect the damage they do during Link Attacks. Link Attacks are special attacks that deal extra damage to enemies after their guard has been broken; certain characters get special link attacks based on their connection.
Fairy Tail 2’s story takes players through the story of Fairy Tail’s final arc and lets players experience how the series originally ended before the 100 Years Quest. The biggest problem with Fairy Tail 2 story is it fails to inform the player about the events that have previously transpired.
If you have never watched Fairy Tail or played the first game, you wouldn’t know what is going on up to this point. The game does allude to prior events through the bonfire stories, however, your character will need to be at a certain level to unlock those memories.
The game’s story remains mostly faithful to the anime’s story but does have some character-building backstory to help grow and show the bond between the different characters. Because the story throws you into a rather pivotal point in the story, you do not get to see how the characters have developed and what adversities they have faced. Yes, there is a cliffnote-like feature that will fill in some of the blanks but they feel too minimalistic to actually help.
As someone who loves the Fairy Tail franchise, it was nice to be able to relive the final arc and get to fight in the final battles. The open-world exploration made it feel like less of a linear experience and more of a chance to explore the Kingdom of Fiore. The game’s lack of tie-in to the previous story feels like a poor development decision by Gust leaving new players who are unfamiliar with the franchise scratching their heads.
The combat in Fairy Tail 2 is rather simplistic and even on the highest difficulty is still fairly easy to overcome. At times, it does not feel worth it to play on a higher difficulty unless you are going to choose to let the AI walk all over you. The game does have a frame rate issue when multiple enemies get hit by a special attack causing it to stutter.
I did have an issue where the game crashed and the save corrupted and could not be restored through Steam’s Cloud Save. Additionally, the fact that you have to wait until halfway through the game to unlock certain abilities that you encounter early on can be rather frustrating.
The blockades can only be removed by the last member who joins the team, so don’t bother trying to move them. Also, be warned that the game is only in Japanese which seems like misstep since an English audio option could appeal to a wide audience.
If you are a lover of Fairy Tail and just want to relive the Fairy Tail final Arc, then it is worth picking up Fairy Tail 2 as it’s a fun JRPG. If you are curious about the franchise and have not played the previous game or watched the show, then it is best to skip this game until you watch a recap of events or play the first game (even though that is just the halfway point in the story).
Fairy Tail 2 was reviewed on Steam using a Windows PC with a code provided by KOEI TECMO. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Fairy Tail 2 is available on December 11th on PC; it is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, & PlayStation 5 on December 13th.