REVIEW – Fairy Tail 2 is a fantastic RPG with exhilarating battles

The original Fairy Tail on the Nintendo Switch was a surprisingly good RPG, instead of a quick cash-grab by using a manga license. The sequel arrives now with a different battle system, bringing the same quality as before, along with tons of enjoyment for fans and newcomers alike.

Some time has passed since the ending of the previous game and now Fairy Tail faces its biggest challenge yet: a full-on invasion, led by Zeref and the Spriggan 12 – a deadly group of 12 magic users. Natsu, Lucy, and the rest of the guild will have to use every tool at their disposal in order to barely have a chance to defend their nation.

The story is epic and can be enjoyed by any player, regardless of their familiarity with the manga. The game does an excellent job at explaining events that have transpired in the past, including the previous game, so you can quickly understand the conflicts and the relationships between the characters.

These last aspects are one of the main strengths of this adventure. The conflict is complex, and how it unfolds keeps you glued to your screen. You never know when the new member of the Spriggan 12 will pop up and what personality it will have. In fact, it is just as interesting to see how the relationships between your allies grow as it is to see how complex some enemies are. Sure, there are some one-dimensional villains, but others are extremely deep.

Your team faces these enemies through a combat system akin to Xenoblade Chronicles’. You have a regular attack that you can use up to three times (or five, once fully upgraded). Each regular attack does little damage, but it charges your SP bar. You have access to up to six different Skills, each with a different SP cost. These are the actual attacks that damage the enemy.

However, enemies have Break bars and Health bars. As long as the Break bar is not depleted, attacks do less damage. Hence you want to deplete that bar first. Certain Skills cause more damage to that bar, so you want to be strategic when choosing your attacks.

In addition to damaging the enemy, you also want to defend yourself. Sometimes the enemy will charge an attack of a specific type and if you manage to attack them with the same type enough times, it will be cancelled and you will have an opening to damage them.

The battle system keeps adding new elements at a really good pace, so it never felt overwhelming. Soon, you will have Support Characters, the use of Extreme Magic, and can cause havoc with Link Attacks. As you emerge victorious against your vicious rivals, you will grow your Magic Origin.

Every time your Magic Origin grows, you get a point, which you can then use to increase your stats or acquire new abilities. After hitting certain thresholds, you will unlock new memories from your characters, which you can see at Campfires. These short memories add a lot to your teams’s characterization and enrich the story.

I beat the game in around 20 hours, playing most of it at the highest difficulty, Ragnarok. You can change the difficulty at any point, with no penalty, and I did that for only one boss, for the sake of this review. The jump in difficulty was unexpected, and although I could have grinded for levels, I chose not to so I could keep enjoying the story. The accessibility presented with this option is great, though, because anyone can have fun regardless of their background in this type of game.

Once you beat the game, you unlock a new, original story, and have access to the whole map so you can complete any side quests that you might have missed, acquire any collectibles, open every chest, or beat any Area Bosses. (Note: after you beat these bosses, the map will reveal any important item you have missed in the area, so you should defeat them as soon as possible).

The cutscenes are fantastic and the music is quite fitting. The battle theme is reminiscent of that of Blue Reflection, another great Gust title. The game briefly stutters sometimes when there is a lot going on, but it levels out pretty quickly. There are no loading screens between the different regions, either, so the map feels really connected. Voice acting is great and the writing is spot on at all times, too.

As someone with no exposure at all to this franchise except for both Koei Tecmo games, I can honestly say I have become a fan. Fairy Tail’s story is epic, full of grandiose battles and hilarious interactions. This game is exhilarating and welcoming to any RPG player. Boss battles are fantastic and unique, and the Magic Origin systems lets you customize your experience to your liking. Play this game, and the previous one if you can, in order to enjoy a world full of magic, dragons, and fun.