Fairy Tail Dungeons Review – A Magic Dungeon-Crawling Indie Experience

Introduction to Fairy Tail Dungeons

From its conception, Fairy Tail Dungeons is an oddball concept. It’s an indie game based on a very iconic and popular manga and anime series by creator Hiro Mashima. This is a unique opportunity that by definition is already surprising and may inspire more projects in a similar vein.

Everything started with Mashima wishing for more games for Fairy Tail and publisher Kodansha holding a contest in Japan to pick indie teams’ ideas. The first one is this roguelite deckbuilder by SOULVARS’ ginolabo.

Story and Characters

In a world of magic, gifted men and women group up in guilds to solve troublesome situations for common people. Among them, there’s a popular one with very loud individuals, the Fairy Tail, which is the focus of the namesake series.

One day, a mysterious door shows up in the guild’s basement. Protagonist Natsu and his companion Happy decide to investigate what’s going on. However, they soon find themselves in a mysterious labyrinth, which they must brave.

The polished pixel art and character design make Fairy Tail Dungeons a visually captivating experience for fans.

As they contemplate what to do, they are dragged inside the labyrinth and meet Labi. This original Fairy Tail Dungeons character is a new Exceed, a special race of cats that is an important element in the Edolas arc. His partner, the earthen molding mage Arthur, created the labyrinth and disappeared inside it.

Gameplay Mechanics and Deckbuilding

To look for him, we’ll have to explore the layers of the place and get to the bottom. However, what starts as a solo adventure will soon demand us to use more characters. After Natsu finishes the first area, we’ll unlock Gray and Lucy, and more characters come afterward.

Each individual has a unique deck with different priorities. For instance, Natsu’s attacks generally tend to do big damage, while Wendy’s are often weak but can compensate for it with area effects. Gray has some attacks that cause more damage when he has more shields up, and Lucy’s considered a specialist in debuffs and support.

While the dungeon design may lack variety, the addictive gameplay and rich character interactions keep you engaged.

This variety makes exploring the dungeon with each playable character an opportunity to try different things. Once the player has beaten the first area, they will open deeper ones that bring a major twist: you must combine the characters you built to make a party.

The first area, called the Labyrinth, is where you build your deck and skills. After choosing your character, you pick a route to explore, and the “rooms” you enter may have treasures, enemies, or some other kind of event.

Some hold Lacrima, a currency we can use to unlock passive skills. These include bonuses like more HP or a defense boost when a certain trigger happens in battle. It’s also where we can unlock more “Magic Chains,” powered-up card combos that can sometimes be used to break an enemy’s concentration.

Dungeon Design and Exploration

Enemy rooms are straightforward: they’re points that force us to fight against a group of creatures. A purple symbol means a common enemy, while a red one will lead to a stronger variation. Beating them will give us rewards, including extra cards, more lacrima, items, and many other helpful options.

To face them, we must use our deck with various signature moves the fans will easily recognize. We can pick between four cards assigned to the directions during our turn. There’s also a redraw option which lets us keep the ones we select and discard all the others.

Besides attacks, Fairy Tail Dungeons cards can be defensive options to build up guard points or support skills to cure, heal debuffs, or improve attributes such as attacks. Each card costs a certain amount of MP, of which we only have three. It’s also important to note that selection order matters because of effects and the aforementioned Magic Chains.

Fairy Tail Dungeons brings the beloved anime to life with its unique blend of roguelite and deckbuilding mechanics.

Treasures will feature the same kinds of rewards we may get by winning the battles. Events may lead us to find big lacrima crystals and unique items or meet various characters like Juvia or even members of other guilds, like Lamia Scale or Saber Tooth. It’s possible to get unique abilities and cards that summon them for a single attack in battle.

However, we aren’t free to explore it as much as we want. Each movement through the dungeon area reduces the lantern’s count by 1. Once it gets to 0, you have to face the next boss. The “Labyrinth” ends with the third boss, and then you get to save your progress in a tome of remembrance.

For the following areas (Sealed Portal and Labyrinth Depths), we’ll need to use these memories of them, and their cards and passive skills won’t change. This will limit how much power they hold but also means that you can forever engrave that epic run in a save and peruse it to face the harder challenges.

Visuals and Soundtrack

Once we finish the Labyrinth Depths for the first time, we unlock a harder difficulty option, with more to follow. By making multiple runs, we’re rewarded with amulets, more cards, and events through a rank-up and Labyrinth Quest achievement systems. All of that helps make the experience richer in possibilities, rewarding those who stick with it.

However, it’s important to note that the dungeon’s level design is very repetitive. The whole experience at the default (easiest) difficulty level doesn’t take long, and the areas don’t feel like they have much variation. Though the experience is enjoyable, the level design is a sorely lacking aspect.

On the other hand, the game’s visuals are surprisingly polished and detailed, with strong pixel art that represents the characters and their unique magic very well. The soundtrack also features tunes that sound close to the medieval instruments the series generally evokes in the anime. However, it’s a big shame that there are no voices, which makes the game feel less alive and will definitely be missed by the fans.

Final Thoughts on Fairy Tail Dungeons

Fairy Tail Dungeons is a strong example of creatively handling an anime series’ universe to make a compelling game experience. Ginolabo’s take on the roguelite deckbuilder format is just as addicting as we came to expect from the best games in this style.