If you ever asked yourself if fairies had tails, then you’re probably not in the right page because Fairy Tail 2 despite their fairies not having tails is the sequel to Gust’s Fairy Tail back in July of 2020 and is based on the hit manga series Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima. This follows the adventures of Natsu Dragneel and the other members of the titular guild, Fairy Tail.
Sadly, if you’ve never watched nor read anything about Fairy Tail, this isn’t exactly the game for you. A huge reason for that is this drops you off at the start of the Alvarez Arc, the last chapter of the main series. And this makes it almost impossible to even catch you up with anything as the game just casually drops plot bombs at your left, right and centre.
As a sequel, Fairy Tail 2 follows the ending of the first game. Now, this doesn’t exactly give you the whole rundown of everything that has happened towards its lifetime but that’s at least a good starting point if you ever want to start this adventure without ever touching the manga or its anime adaptation. However I still highly suggest that you at least give it a try since the game just doesn’t do it enough justice because of its pacing while its more notable fight scenes don’t get the love that they deserve due to its awkward gameplay mechanics.
Gameplay
As far as gameplay goes, Fairy Tail 2 moved from its old turn-based style to the newer yet more awkward Active Time Battle system similar to the later releases of Gust’s Atelier games. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not exactly hating on the whole ATB system that new Atelier games are on but what makes Fairy Tail 2 awkward is how it implemented new mechanics that don’t exactly make sense. During battles, you have the option to choose from up to six special moves that a character can equip as well as being able to switch from your three active characters or tag in your other available characters.
Special moves can be used by having enough SP that is gained through using normal attacks and they can be unlocked as you level up and gain origin points which you can spend in their respective skill trees. They also have certain values that allow variation like a high power, break or balanced attacking move to even recovery, buff or debuffing skills.
Fairy Tail 2 also implements a way to block incoming attacks to mitigate the damage you receive as well as a Risk Gauge where enemies especially bosses can charge up and unleash a highly damaging move if you’re not able to stop it. Certain characters and their skills also have something called a “style” which if you use the corresponding style on enemies that is charging up a move can deplete their Risk Gauge to interrupt them. This makes balancing your SP towards attacking and interrupting a huge factor… or at least it was supposed to be.
But what makes battles somewhat awkward is its lack of balance. Characters that have skills which have high breaking capabilities can pretty much just save SP before unleashing a barrage of continuous skills to break them. Once broken, you can just save SP until they recover from the break and repeat the process until they’re defeated. This makes for such anti-climactic fights unlike what you’d normally expect from its source material as a battle manga. It is such a shame since it could’ve at least made it fun instead of just a button-mashing disaster.
Exploration
Meanwhile, exploration and the world that Fairy Tail 2 does have some things worth noting despite Gust taking a lot of liberties to change and simplify its world. The town of Magnolia for example couldn’t even pass to be called a town as a lot of its areas have mostly been cut out. However, outside the town is a huge and expansive area filled with enemies, hidden chests and other trinkets.
Some of these are called Lacrima which are items that can be equipped to boost a character’s stats or provide special effects. There are also quite a couple of neat little landmarks and campfires that you can use for fast travel as well as a way to just ease up with the game’s hectic main plot.
While resting in a campfire, you can view skits in the Fairy Tail Diaries which can be unlocked when certain conditions are met, these are neat little interactions with characters that don’t particularly have much to do with the story but it’s a nice addition nonetheless. It provides a nice break from the main story’s heavy blows and a relentless barrage of plot development.
Visually, the game also looks really good. The characters look spot-on with a ton of detail and their animations are as fluid as Mirajane and Lucy’s jiggle physics. I also love a lot of animations that they do mid-battle, from funny ones to the cool link and unison raids that they do from time to time.
The exceed trio is one of those that I just couldn’t help but laugh at as they danced around a fish before healing my entire party. It is just sad that you don’t really have a huge roster to play around and some unison raids don’t really offer any unique interactions. Not to mention that enemies in the overworld are often overused and lack variety.
Conclusion
Overall, Fairy Tail 2 could’ve been a great game. It had a great source to tell a story which a lot of the time, they deliver. As a fan of the series, I enjoyed revisiting the story but its lack of polish with its combat made it somewhat disheartening as I was just simply mashing buttons instead of having fun with it. Fairy Tail Diaries is the only thing that kind of makes it somewhat worth it compared to just rewatching the whole anime a third time. So sadly, I find it very hard to recommend Fairy Tail 2 when plot pacing and terrible game mechanics can just ruin the whole experience.
Fairy Tail 2 Trailer
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The code was provided by the distributor.
Platform: PS4, PS5, PC & Nintendo Switch
