Kodansha’s indie project has taken an unexpected turn with Fairy Tail: Beach Volleyball Havoc. This latest release brings a unique concept to Hiro Mashima’s beloved series, a surprising blend of magic and volleyball. While Fairy Tail is widely known for its flashy combat and battles, this game puts an imaginative spin on the formula by throwing the characters into chaotic volleyball matches.
Fairy Tail Meets Volleyball in a Chaotic Blend of Magic and Sports
In this version of beach volleyball, players control pairs of characters as they attempt to score points by hitting the ball into the opposing team’s court. The game forgoes some real-world volleyball rules for simplicity, focusing more on frantic action and magic-infused chaos. Players must score four points per round, moving their characters strategically to block or hit the ball while using magical powers to gain an edge.
Magic-Infused Volleyball Action
The controls are designed to be approachable. Players can move around the court, jump, and hit the ball either defensively or offensively. On the ground, characters push the ball up, while jumping allows for more aggressive strikes. Every time the ball is hit, it drops “ether lacrima” crystals that fill up the magic gauge, unlocking special abilities for the characters. These magical abilities add various effects to the ball or field, including explosions or environmental hazards, making the matches increasingly unpredictable.
Character-Specific Abilities: Adding Flair to the Chaos
Each character comes with their own signature magic, making the game feel more connected to the source material. For example, Natsu’s attack makes the ball explode, and Erza summons weapons to hit the ball, each adding a bit of personality and familiarity for fans of the series. Unfortunately, while the concept of adding magic to volleyball sounds fun, the lack of balance can lead to frustrating experiences where it feels like the game descends into pure chaos.
Lack of Precision and Control in Fairy Tail: Beach Volleyball Havoc
The game’s biggest issue lies in its unpredictability. Despite its simple controls, players don’t have clear control over the direction or strength of their hits, which can make matches feel random. This lack of precision makes it difficult to develop strategies or consistently aim for weak points on the opponent’s side, reducing what could have been a fun and strategic game into a chaotic mess.
Multiplayer Chaos and Technical Hiccups
There are a variety of magical effects that come into play as teams score, but the game doesn’t offer much explanation or control over how these power-ups work. This randomness may lead to excitement for some, but for those looking for more control, it feels unsatisfying. A more robust tutorial or options to adjust the complexity of the game would have made a significant difference here.
Multiplayer options are available, allowing up to four players to participate in matches. However, during testing, issues with the multiplayer functionality were apparent. Controller recognition issues made it difficult to set up local multiplayer matches, and the game lacked proper settings to adjust or troubleshoot these problems.
Fairy Tail’s Signature Art Style: A Visual Hurdle
The visuals are colorful and capture the lively, cartoonish spirit of the Fairy Tail series, but even the art style has its drawbacks. The brightness and overuse of special effects can make it hard to follow the action, with visual obstructions frequently getting in the way of gameplay. The game’s aesthetic, while faithful to the series, ends up being more of a hindrance than a help.
Fairy Tail: Beach Volleyball Havoc – A Missed Opportunity
Ultimately, Fairy Tail: Beach Volleyball Havoc has an interesting premise, but it struggles to deliver a polished and enjoyable experience. The chaotic, magic-infused volleyball matches have the potential to be fun, but the lack of control and balance holds it back. Fans of Fairy Tail might appreciate the effort to bring something new to the franchise, but as it stands, the game feels more like a missed opportunity than a solid addition to the series.
Fairy Tail: Beach Volleyball Havoc (PC)
Fairy Tail: Beach Volleyball Havoc offers a unique take on the Fairy Tail universe with magic-infused volleyball matches. While the concept is exciting, the game suffers from unbalanced gameplay, lack of precision, and chaotic multiplayer issues. Fans of the series might appreciate its charm, but the overall experience falls short of expectations.
The Good
- Good Skill Variety - There are lots of skills we can use and unlocking even more each round can be fun sometimes.
- Colorful Characters - The game has a unique vibrant artstyle that can be quite striking despite being a little too bright.
The Bad
- Random Ball - Playing the ball to the other side is a mostly random effort, where we just don't have control over aiming, strength, speed or any parameter other than magic attacks.
- No Tutorial - The game just has a single sheet of basic information so players can see the basic skills, and not even that works because of not showcasing the proper keys/buttons.
- Buttons and multiplayer issues - The game doesn't offer proper settings for altering controller schemes and this can completely break multiplayer.
- Complete Chaos - Not having at least some setting to make a more basic experience cutting down the random power-ups can lead to very poor matches.
