The original Fairy Tail, released back in 2020, ended up being one of the best JRPGs based on a manga and anime series ever made. Japanese studio Gust, known for being the developer of the Atelier series, managed to masterfully capture the spirit of the franchise, creating a game that can be enjoyed by both fans of Hiro Mashima's work and complete newcomers, despite some small shortcomings that do not detract from the experience in any major way. Four years later, Gust will bring players back to Earth-land with Fairy Tail 2, which is setting out to outdo its predecessor in a lot of different ways.
Following my short hands-on session during this year's Gamescom, where I also had the chance to speak with producer Hiroshi Kitaoka, I was recently able to try out the first five or so hours of Fairy Tail 2. This allowed me to get a better idea of the game's overall progression flow and, most importantly, the new battle system, which I feel will be one of the highlights of the experience.
As previously confirmed, Fairy Tail 2 will adapt the Alvarez Empire Arc, where Natsu and the entire Fairy Tail guild take on emperor Spriggan Zeref Dragneel and the powerful members of the Spriggan 12. Right from the Prologue, the game wastes no time throwing players into the thick of the action, providing a first tutorial battle that teaches players the basics while introducing some of the major players of the new story arc. Those with no knowledge of the manga may find themselves a little confused, but the game does a very good job providing all the background information needed to understand the story, the world, and the characters themselves, with the Check Terminology feature, which allows the player to quickly learn more about terms highlighted during dialogue sequences.
Still, unsurprisingly, those with knowledge of the story arc Fairy Tail 2 is adapting will have a much better time right from the get-go, as there's a lot the game throws at the player during the first couple of hours. The characters that appear in the first few chapters are already well-established as well, so a little research in the in-game Database is expected. This feature provides information on characters and story events that happened before the Alvarez Empire arc, which definitely helps, although reading the manga or watching the anime remains a way better option to learn more about the world and characters created by Hiro Mashima.
Though the first few hours of Fairy Tail 2 proceed mostly on rails, they give the chance to explore a few locations and fight quite a few battles. Exploration is mostly in line with what other modern JRPGs offer, featuring some medium-sized fields filled with items and enemies, which can be attacked beforehand to start a battle with an advantage, and little else, although things could be different in later chapters.
Combat, on the other hand, really stands out from traditional JRPGs. Doing away with the straightforward turn-based system used in the first entry in the series, Fairy Tail 2 uses a system that mixes together real-time and turn-based features. During the battle, players can only control a single character, and the two other party members will fight on their own, unleashing skills as needed. A circular bar indicates when the controlled character can act, and once they can, it is possible to use regular attacks to gain SP that can be used to unleash skills with different properties and area of effects. Skills can combo together or even be used repeatedly to increase power for increased SP. Once all SP has been depleted, the turn will end.
Adding more complexity to this combat system are the Break mechanics. Every enemy in Fairy Tail 2 has a Break gauge that is depleted with every attack. By depleting one bar, it is possible to command any of the characters controlled by the AI to unleash a skill that can also buff the party. Depleting the Break gauge completely permits the party members to unleash Duo Raids, combination skills that deal a lot of damage and have more diverse properties than regular skills, such as healing and debuffing. All this, in conjunction with the ability to guard at any time to reduce incoming damage, switch characters on the fly, and different elemental properties, promise to make combat in Fairy Tail 2 extremely dynamic and fun. The system also has some decent depth to it, as there are ways to extend attacks per single turn, so I'm really looking forward to delving deeper into it.
Fairy Tail 2 may be, on the surface, a game for fans of the manga and anime series, but the excellent work Gust seems to have done to make the experience welcoming to newcomers and its combat system will offer a lot even to those who have little knowledge of the original material. To learn if the game will have what it takes to stay toe-to-toe with more established franchises, we won't have to wait much longer, as Fairy Tail 2 launches on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch on December 11th, 2024.
