Fairy Tail: Dungeons Switch and Content Update Impression

Given that the original release at times felt quite light on depth compared to some of its contemporaries, this new content could make it more enticing to those who have cut their teeth on the likes of Slay the Spire.

Fairy Tail: Dungeons is a roguelike-deckbuilder game based on the anime of the same name originally released for PC back in 2024. You can see our review for the original release here. Created with a retro pixel-art style, Fairy Tail: Dungeons lets players challenge both main story and extra dungeons with some of their favorite characters. This provides not only a nice change from other games in this genre, but also provides a fun way for players to mix and match their favorite characters. Now available for the Nintendo Switch, RPGamer got the chance to try out this new port along with the latest content update for the game.

New characters add many new party compositions for players to toy with.

The gameplay of Fairy Tail: Dungeons is very straightforward, and easy to pick up. Players will select a character to challenge the game’s dungeon with and then venture in, collecting new cards and upgrades for their deck as they go along, as well as experiencing occasional bits of story. The neat part about Fairy Tail: Dungeons is that in addition to tackling dungeons as a singular character, there are some dungeons using two- and three-character parties. After completing the normal dungeon with a character, players can save the deck they utilized for future use in these multi-character runs. Instead of new cards on these runs, players gain a variety of party upgrades to help increase the chances of success. This includes team-up attacks with characters from Fairy Tail not available as playable characters. With a total of ten characters to unlock, there is a ton of variety for players to explore.

The retro style of the original release was not taxing on PC hardware of any stripe, and so graphically, the game finds a perfect home on the Switch. The pixel graphics shine either in handheld or docked modes, with no performance issues to be found. The soundtrack features Celtic themed songs very reminiscent of the anime. The original PC release was heavily designed around controllers, so the controls for the game translate to the Switch with no effort whatsoever. Each card in the player’s hand on any given turn are mapped to the face buttons, and all controls are visible on screen, so there is never any confusion.

The sprites, especially for bosses and player characters, constantly impress.

The new update to the game, also available for the PC version, expands the content of the original. Five new playable characters are added to the original’s five, providing more reason to revisit the dungeon. New difficulty levels have been added for those looking for more of a challenge. New quests, skills, monsters, and more have been added, as well as a new special post-game labyrinth. Given that the original release at times felt quite light on depth compared to some of its contemporaries, this new content could make it more enticing to those who have cut their teeth on the likes of Slay the Spire.

Disclosure: This article is based on a free build of the game provided by the publisher.