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Developed by Genolabo and published by Kodansha, Fairy Tail: Dungeons is an RPG deck-building rogue-lite featuring characters from the Fairy Tail anime series.

I will make it clear, I have no idea of the Fairy Tail series. I knew it existed but every time it came into view, it looked like PG- Smut. As far as tie-in games go, this one is no lazy phone-in.

A Fairy Tail accounted for

There are a lot of characters in this deck-building rogue-lite and they come and go as you play. I dared to try and remember all their names but ultimately I had to give up. Maybe if I had seen the 328 episodes of Fairy Tail, I might have an idea but I have a life to live.

Regardless, for the sake of these reviews, I am gonna go through characters via look and their cliche in the world of Fairy Tail.

Story

The deck-building rogue-lite begins inside a giant castle. A boy with pinky-red hair and a thick white scarf is running towards the basement. He has a Blue with white tummy anthropomorphic tom cat with him and they are both in a hurry.

In the basement, they meet a hooded figure that reveals itself to be another anthropomorphic cat but Gray.

The cat tells MC and his sidekick cat that there are secret magical mazes that need to be traversed or something bad might happen. The cat says he is looking for a character(Who will remain un-described) and the MC says that the person is his friend too.

They all enter the maze through a giant glowing teleportation door to find the dude in question.

This is where they introduce the Gameplay. However, I want to finish the story first. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything, just giving you the idea.

After we fail to find our friend and are kicked out of the maze, we get reunited with our other buddies. One is a pink girl with armour that protects absolutely nothing on her body and a tall guy without a shirt.

After we give them a summary, We get to pick one of the three humans as our MC. (More on that later)

The way this is introduced made me think that more characters would get unlocked as you play, but in my time, I failed to get any so I don’t know.

Other Characters

We go through the portal again, see a map of progress and the Fairy Tail starts anew.

Now, as the game progresses, we get these little moments called interactions. In these, we will meet other characters on their personal missions. These characters would either be already known by our MC or by the hooded grey cat(#fan service). I’ll get to the purpose of these interactions later.

There are a lot of these interactions and almost every time you meet someone new with their own set of plot and dialogue.

I won’t spoil any of their stories but I will tell you that meeting them has plot significance and I will tell you that Fairy Tail: dungeons does have an ending.

Not just a dungeon crawler

Gameplay-wise, it is a fairly simple ordeal. You go room after room in a dungeon through a map and fight enemies. After each fight ends, the Health from it is carried on to the next fight. If it runs out, you die. Combat is turn-based and deck-based. 

You are given 4 cards. Each card has a required ‘power points’ number on them. The cards are one of three: Defence, Attack and effect. These can be punches and kicks or magic attacks. The more the game goes on, the more of these cards you get. 

You have 3 ‘power points’ by default. 

The enemies are a classic affair of RPG- Cliche. We are talking about orcs, trolls, bats, glob monsters, etc. 

You attack in your turn and then take a hit from every enemy in their turn. Yes, it is as unfair as it sounds.

Characters

After the tutorial is finished you are introduced to two playable characters leaving you with a choice of three.

• Red hair Kid: Brawler: Starts with moves about punching and kicking.
• Pink Girl: Magic: Starts with Magical Attacks
• Shirtless Dude: Evader: Starts with a lot of Dodges and blocks(Seriously the best option)

I get the feeling this was supposed to be a party-gathering game. Won’t complain as it has some charm to it with the single-character system.

Upgrade system

Main thing you want to focus on gameplay-wise in the deck-building rogue-lite Fairy Tail: Dungeons, is collection and upgrading cards. This being a rogue-lite, these cards stay with you in future playthroughs but the upgrades do not. So deal with that wisely.

Like a fork with one missing tine, you can new cards/upgrades in three ways:

• Trader: A shop set up on the map that you can access to buy either new cards or other usable items such as health, modifiers, etc.

• Awards: Winning a fight gives you three basic cards or items. You get a rare award for clearing the stage.

• Travellers: Meeting new characters gets you gifts from these characters. These gifts could be cards or items. When you meet a character the second time, you will help them in a battle. Win this battle and they will award you with a special card that does not charge any power points to use.

• Journal: before and after fights, you can access your journal. In this journal, you can get yourself permanent upgrades using money.

• Campfire: Finally, the rogue-lite has a campfire at the end of every stage. You can replenish 30 points of health or upgrade any card in your use.

Would come again!

A lot to unpack with this game but in the end, it got me wanting to play more. Fairy Tail: Dungeons would throw something new towards me whenever I started to feel a little bit of repetitiveness, and it would be reel back in.

Let me make it clear that I am no fan of Rouge-likes or Rouge-lites and I certainly have not watched a second of Fairy Tail, but still, I had a blast with this one. Now take that as you will but as far as I am concerned, Fairy Tail: Dungeons is a recommendation from me. 

Maybe I should watch the show. You know, get addicted to over 300 episodes of Weeb stuff.