Fairy Tail: Dungeons Review
Slay the Spire With Magic
Fairy Tail: Dungeons is the latest in a growing genre of roguelike deckbuilders, bringing its manga source material’s wizard-based action and Celtic musical flair. Taking place in a mysterious dungeon that has appeared under the guild headquarters of Fairy Tail, the game uses a slim story as an excuse to take the cast on some new dungeon traversing shenanigans. Thankfully, these adventures provide a fun card fueled experience for fans and non-fans alike. An enjoyable soundtrack and great pixel art provide good audiovisual pleasure. Though it lacks the teeth and depth of Slay the Spire, it still provides a great package with a good deal of replayability.
The story of the game doesn’t provide much other than a flimsy excuse for the members of the Fairy Tail guild to venture into randomized dungeons in the mysterious labyrinth under the guild hall. There are some fun story sequences that pop up more often once players unlock the party-based dungeon mode, which gives characters a bit more to do in the story. The benefit to the light story is there’s no fluff in the game. Players are quickly thrown into the deckbuilding action with little to slow them down. Still, fans looking for fun interactions between their favorite characters will be left wanting.
Fairy Tail Dungeon features fast and furious pixel battles.
The gameplay in Fairy Tail: Dungeons begins in a straightforward fashion, similar to many other roguelike deckbuilders. Players pick a character, get a randomized starting deck, and set off. Dungeons are presented in a board game-like view, where players get a set number of moves before they are forced into a boss encounter and can move on to the next floor. Markers on the board show enemy encounters, treasure, and other events that players can navigate using their limited moves. Each of these will often give players choices of cards to add to their deck whether awarded at the end of a battle, purchased from a merchant, or gained from other mysterious encounters that often give quick story bits from non-playable members of the guild. In addition to cards, players get resources as they traverse the dungeons to unlock further boons on an upgrade tree, which is randomized for each run. These include damage boosts, health bonuses, and other benefits and vary between each character.
Battles in the game are a fast paced affair where players can play as many of four drawn cards each turn as their mana allows. One redraw is allowed per turn at the cost of a few hit points. Strategy revolves around making good use of buffs or debuffs, timing usage of defensive cards, and effectively picking which enemies to focus on. If players have certain cards in their deck, they can also be combined for bonus damage. Boss and mini-boss fights throw an additional wrinkle, sometimes presenting conditions for the player to complete to prevent a powerful attack. These conditions are usually hitting a certain damage target, activating a combo, or not using certain types of attacks. Hitting these are never required to finish battles, but they do provide a big advantage by preventing what could be a run ending assault. Though the battle system is fun and flashy, it can feel a bit shallow in the single-character dungeons that are required to get to the meatier content.
The dungeons are a bit lacking in variety.
Thankfully, solo dungeons serve as just a warm up for the main attraction of the game. At the end of each solo-run, players can save their deck from that playthrough. Once a deck has been saved for three different characters, a new three-character dungeon becomes available. Players choose party members and decks at the start, and these are then locked in for the run. This is where the main story gets resolved, and the best character interactions happen. Party dungeons are traversed in a similar fashion to the other dungeons, but instead collecting cards, players will collect new buffs for their party members. More story sequences can be encountered with interactions between the characters players chose for their party. Battles also play out mostly the same way as before, except players attack with all three characters on their turn. Character order is all up to the player, so players will have to consider the hand of each character and what order to play buffs and debuffs to benefit the attacks of the other two. These dungeons are a blast to play, but it is a shame to lose the deckbuilding aspect, with players required to return to the less enjoyable solo mode to build a new deck.
The soundtrack in the game is a major highlight. Featuring the work of famed Secret of Mana composer Hiroki Kikuta, the Celtic-themed soundtrack is a highlight throughout. Some of the tracks are played a bit too frequently, but never enough that the songs become annoying. The sound effects, though simple, perfectly match the pixel styling of the game. There’s no voice acting, but it feels fitting for the game, rather than a lacking feature. The battle graphics are the best part of the visual experience, with the members of the Fairy Tail guild perfectly rendered showing all the character you’d expect from the anime. The same can’t be said for the enemies, which are reused a bit too much by the end of the game. The backgrounds in battle are also forgettable and, similarly, the gameboard style dungeons are a bit repetitive and simple, and could have used a bit more variety.
A variety of character upgrades can be purchased in addition to collection new cards.
Fairy Tail: Dungeons is no Slay the Spire, but in some ways that’s a good thing. It provides an easier to grasp experience that provides a fun dungeon romp for fans and non fans alike. It has enough variety in the form of a good roster of playable characters and other secrets to unlock, but does lack the depth to make the game the kind of long-running obsession other roguelikes have become. The story adds nothing to the long running lore of Fairy Tail, but provides enough fun character interactions to make it worth it for fans. Even non-fans looking for a pixel-art infused card battler will find a fun game to enjoy here.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Variety of characters to play as
Energetic Celtic-themed soundtrack
Great pixel sprites and animation
Battle system a bit lacking in strategic depth
Paper thin story
Enemy variety a bit lacking
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