Fairy Tail: Dungeons

In all Fairy Tail: Dungeons is an entertaining ride, particularly for fans of either the roguelite genre, the Fairy Tail series, or both. With an accessible price point and an enjoyable gameplay loop as well as art style, players can certainly enjoy diving into the labyrinth for quite some time- the repetitive music and limited progression forward aren’t enough to put a damper on the fun this game provides!

Meta progression isn’t a necessary facet of the genre, but when those systems do show up in more obtuse and fumbly ways it can be kind of tiresome to engage with them. I’d rather have something more straightforward, or just focus on the core mechanics entirely. And a game like this, with its smaller scope but explosive energy thanks to the Fairy Tail stuff, really thrives on a foundational level. The art is sharp and colorful, the series’ personality shines from every angle, and the combat itself is fun to grapple with. The game even has some interesting ideas with its checkpoint-like boss stages meant to challenge your saved builds. Making use of such a burly anime/manga IP as Fairy Tail to hoist up indie games is an awesome idea, and it’s great to see Fairy Tail: Dungeons come out swinging the moment the door opens.

It wouldn’t be wrong to label Fairy Tail: Dungeons as Baby’s First Roguelike, though that might be selling the surprisingly crunchy gameplay experience short. Veterans have plenty to dig into, even if they might ultimately breeze through it. It can also be an entertaining entry point into the niche roguelike genre, which can be an acquired taste. I wish there were more of it, so here’s hoping there will be someday.

Fairy Tail’s first indie adaptation (there’s two more on the way) is nothing short of a resounding success, tasking Natsu and the guild with strategizing their way through turn-based encounters. Sure, there’s a surplus of roguelike deckbuilders on the market, but Dungeon manages to balance accessibility with tactical nuance.

Fairy Tail: Dungeons feels like a straightforward, but still nicely tactical, deck-building game. Being able to play a few quick hands in a fight was great for moments when there wasn’t much time to play, and the ability to dive right in and pick up the rules in seconds made it easy to just jump right into. Even so, the systems underneath had enough depth that it kept pulling me back in to reshape my strategies for the next run.