Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 60 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 60
  3. Negative: 15 out of 60
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  1. pauloredline
    Jul 31, 2016
    10
    Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force is a huge expansion and a dramatically improved port Fairy Fencer F, originally released on the PS3 and the PC. The additions are enough to attract old fans to check out this new version, while new players must also choose this because of the content and a range of small adjustments that enhance the game experience.

    The focus of Fairy Fencer F Advent    Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force is a huge expansion and a dramatically improved port Fairy Fencer F, originally released on the PS3 and the PC. The additions are enough to attract old fans to check out this new version, while new players must also choose this because of the content and a range of small adjustments that enhance the game experience.

    The focus of Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force is in the expansion of its history. Battle systems have been improved and the small additions like the race make this a more enjoyable experience than the original version. Fans who liked Fairy Fencer F will likely love Advent Dark Force and, for those who still do not know, this is the complete package for a great RPG.    … Expand
  2. vahn
    Feb 6, 2017
    9
    The best word to describe this was "surprising". It was indeed a surprising experience to say the least and even if I expected the usual sillyness that always come from their games, FFF:ADF is now one of my most favourite RPGs of all time (alongside Trails of Cold Steel of course....wait were you expecting me to say final fantasy? That game is bad and you know it!)

    Anyway I want to    The best word to describe this was "surprising". It was indeed a surprising experience to say the least and even if I expected the usual sillyness that always come from their games, FFF:ADF is now one of my most favourite RPGs of all time (alongside Trails of Cold Steel of course....wait were you expecting me to say final fantasy? That game is bad and you know it!)

    Anyway I want to start from the beginning: the game is a turn based RPG and if you've played Neptunia you pretty much play the same game, only more expanded and more complex on certain regards. Each character has their unique skill set, their spells, abilities, and all of them can learn different attacks that can morph their weapon into different ones, in which will break the shield of the enemy and activate avalanche mode (essentially a free combo with all characters in the team). The combat itself is okay although a little unbalanced sometimes, while having the possibility to skip animations will make your life easier when grinding for exp.

    The world is pretty small unfortunately, with your usual hub world and stuff, however thanks to the World Shaping feature you can customize the areas at your own leisure, making you able to increase the exp gotten or decrease the physical defense of enemies (but also yours). The shaping requires you to remove swords from the Goddess of Vile God - which is also the main focus of the story, as removing certain amount of swords will lead to a different path - and once removed thanks to a fairy (which is basically a buff, since you can't change weapons) you'll get an additional buff to the fairy in question. It's fairly good and in general, thanks to the fairies you can equip, there's enough customization.

    But you've noticed I'm skipping the story, and personally that's one of the best things of the game. Now I want to say this: the story isn't perfect and it's not the most well written one or oscar worthy or anything, however the way the characters were made and how they interacted and how certain things happened during certain scenes, actually got me in the heart.

    Let's start with Fang: he's a jerk, a big one, heck you could call him an **** really and you'd be right and he'll stay like that for a good chunk of the game. However the more you play, the more you see him changing and I actually felt this change to be natural: he suddenly started to see things differently and he felt sorry for his action, in a very simple yet humble way, to the point where seeing reacting to certain scene actually got me impressed in some ways. But it's not just him: most of the characters (MOST, not ALL) have a great moment of their own and seeing them acting like that in a scene really brought me sadness in some point. Heck the third route is probably one of the best in my opinion, and seeing characters changing into worse, betraying your or even DYING really made me feel sad at some point, it was that touching.

    But as I said, the story is not oscar worthy: it's just good and overall well written even though it was often cheesy and quirky, but when it wanted to be serious it KNEW how to be serious, which was something that I did not expected from the devs of Neptunia. You know, a game where seriousness is zero and the game is all about half naked girls and boob jokes.

    However before recommending the game I want to say that despite the tecnical limitations and everything, my biggest gripe with it is the length: I finished the first time in around 30 hours, did all 3 routes in 40, and I platinum'd the game in 45, and this is all without rushing (although I did use the skipping feature to reach the breaking point on my playthroughs, without mentioning having to replay the entire game twice because of mistakes!)

    So is FFF:ADF worth the price? Absolutely, and as a owner of the collector's edition myself I felt it was worth every penny. But if you don't like anime styled stories and just like AAA games the most (Like Final fantasy, I guess?) you might feel disappointed. It's still a good game AND a good story, but don't don't go in it thinking to be watching oscar-worthy writing.

    Just expect the worse and you might be surprised.    … Expand
  3. LYONDEN
    Mar 2, 2017
    8
    Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force is a great JRPG! The battle system is awesome and the animations for magic attacks are great. I would rate it higher but there is also a lot of grinding involved to complete the quests to the point that some take a ridiculously long time to finish. But all of that aside I would really like to rate it a 8.5 for the things the game does right and the greatFairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force is a great JRPG! The battle system is awesome and the animations for magic attacks are great. I would rate it higher but there is also a lot of grinding involved to complete the quests to the point that some take a ridiculously long time to finish. But all of that aside I would really like to rate it a 8.5 for the things the game does right and the great story contained within. If you enjoy JRPG's and don't mind grinding a bit this game is for you.… Expand
  4. 346
    Apr 3, 2017
    10
    Honestly, the only Compile Heart game that tops this is the recent Megadimension Neptunia VII. I mean, holy f*** this game was great. Party being expanded from 3 to 6 in this reboot, as well as the amount of storylines getting tripled, with a ton of endings to be had for the new ones. The gameplay mechanics were much smoother. The soundtrack, OMFG the soundtrack! Soundgasms to be had byHonestly, the only Compile Heart game that tops this is the recent Megadimension Neptunia VII. I mean, holy f*** this game was great. Party being expanded from 3 to 6 in this reboot, as well as the amount of storylines getting tripled, with a ton of endings to be had for the new ones. The gameplay mechanics were much smoother. The soundtrack, OMFG the soundtrack! Soundgasms to be had by all. The only issue I really had was the lack of a proper release for a particular song. This game, as well as Megadimension, is the pinnacle of all Anime JRPGs. Not even Persona 5 tops this. This game is a must buy for anime gameplay fans. The top two anime games to play are Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force and Megadimension Neptunia VII.… Expand
  5. commander218
    Aug 1, 2016
    9
    While I played the Hyperdimension games and greatly enjoy them, the feeling is nothing compared to this game which I greatly enjoyed. I wish I could give it a ten, it's more of an 8.5, but there are faults which I really can't ignore. I can pretty much recommend this to any JRPG fan as you'll have a good time playing.

    The story isn't anything special at first glance but it's pretty well    While I played the Hyperdimension games and greatly enjoy them, the feeling is nothing compared to this game which I greatly enjoyed. I wish I could give it a ten, it's more of an 8.5, but there are faults which I really can't ignore. I can pretty much recommend this to any JRPG fan as you'll have a good time playing.

    The story isn't anything special at first glance but it's pretty well written. I'll try to avoid many spoilers but it's really more or less about altering fate. Funny thing is that I'm coming in from FE Fates and this game does branching paths so much better...even if it gets a little weird. The story goes through the original Fairy Fencer F path (the goddess path) and then you can choose which path to take.

    The characters are also rather simple, but they're really fun to the point I can't really hate them. I hated how Harley looked, but then it kind of explains itself to the point I can't knock it down (fanservice is fanservice I suppose). One character felt a little bit forced in the main story, but seeing as what happened if I didn't recruit him, I'd rather have that. The other paths fix and expand on other characters so if they feel jarring here, they're probably implemented better in another path.

    The main protagonist, Fang, might come off as someone you're going to despise due to his lazy and obsession with food habits (he's also an idiot). He grew on me over time and he really does develop as a character. So I wouldn't put down the game right away just because Fang aggravates you at the start since he does get better. I like him a lot better than most main protags surprisingly.

    Now let's talk about the gameplay. The maps are not quite as bland as Hyperdimension games, but I haven't played VII so I can't tell. You will be going through these maps a lot so if you despise repeating stuff, I'd stay back, but outside of quest and enemies, you can clear a dungeon in usually 1 minute to reach the boss. It really helps with New Game+ stuff. A few enemies are also recycled from HD but they will feel different due to the combat which I'll get to.

    Then there's quests. Most of them are pretty fast paced and I recommend doing them your first go around since you'll be hurting for money in hard mode (you'll need those items especially in some battles). You also get quests that'll unlock the next rank of quests. Let's just say the D rank and especially the B rank quests are the most tedious thing in the game you'll never want to do again. Mostly the B rank one. Thankfully you only have to do those quests once and it'll carry over in New Game+. After that, I'd just go after quests with good rewards since they're simple and quick generally.

    Then there's combat. I played this game on Hard and boy can I tell you it's not an easy game at all. While you can use up to six characters and switch at any time to move around the battlefield more, it can get chaotic. It does so many wonders to this game as I usually ended up using all 8 of my character in the goddess path. Each one is also very unique so they'll be playing different roles in each fight. My only complaint is that the tanky character doesn't feel so tanky but man did he put in work for that final boss in the goddess path.

    Now for the soundtrack. I love this soundtrack so much especially the farize theme (the first version). They're really catchy though there are a few forgettable one. Still, you won't hear too much of the battle themes since normal fights will end pretty quickly. So glad that there's a sound room to hear some of the easy to miss themes in the chaotic combat.

    There are still some other flaws I'll briefly mention. Leveling is going to feel a little weird since you won't go up too many levels. Like level 20 is what you should be around for the story branch moment (I was like 16), but thankfully grinding isn't too tedious if you're skilled. Solo bosses can also be too brutal, but with a little thinking I could overcome a certain demon one (again, this is on hard).

    Oh, I forgot about the fanservice. If you played HD games, this game is really, really tame compared to those, but for those who haven't, there's going to be a couple of those scenes few and far between though thankfully they're followed by something either really good or really cool part of the story.

    Overall, this game has been a very enjoyable experience and I'm about halfway on the second path, but there's so many little things that make this game worth replaying. If you're an avid JRPG fan who doesn't mind a bit of that tediousness, pick this game up. As for everyone else, it's going to grind down to whether or not you can overlook a game's faults if you'll enjoy it.    … Expand
  6. sjc1279
    Jul 29, 2016
    10
    This game is great JRPG. I'm having a great time playing it and it's so much better than Star Ocean 5. I didn't finish star ocean 5, but I will finish this game and new game plus mode also.
  7. Haku76
    Aug 4, 2020
    9
    I enjoyed the story, characters, soundtrack, and gameplay. It is like the Neptunia games but it takes itself a little more seriously. I still has a lot of humor though. It is a turn based game but you have attack chains with a lot of options for each character, plenty of skills and magic, and armored forms to use. You can even change aspects of the dungeons themselves. My favorite gameI enjoyed the story, characters, soundtrack, and gameplay. It is like the Neptunia games but it takes itself a little more seriously. I still has a lot of humor though. It is a turn based game but you have attack chains with a lot of options for each character, plenty of skills and magic, and armored forms to use. You can even change aspects of the dungeons themselves. My favorite game from Compile Heart.… Expand
  8. San-D
    Mar 21, 2022
    10
    A HIDDEN GEM! I bought this game because it was on sale and I absolutely loved it! The characters are lovable and the story is very interesting and engaging. I also really enjoy the turn-based combat—the game really gives you a lot of opportunity to build a unique party of six with “equippable” armor, accessories, cosmetics, and fairies as well as allowing you to spend points to levelA HIDDEN GEM! I bought this game because it was on sale and I absolutely loved it! The characters are lovable and the story is very interesting and engaging. I also really enjoy the turn-based combat—the game really gives you a lot of opportunity to build a unique party of six with “equippable” armor, accessories, cosmetics, and fairies as well as allowing you to spend points to level characters’ stats and abilities as you please. It has some very talented english voice actors and the art style of the characters and scenery is very charming (though some graphics, especially the 3D graphics, are not jaw-dropping, but they add their own level of retro charm). All in all, if you love turn-based RPGs and/or games with interesting stories and characters, I would very much recommend you give this game a try! I had never heard of this game before in my life, but it is an absolutely fantastic game (a hidden game, in my opinion) and it deserves to be more well-known. I only wish there was a sequel, perhaps someday…… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 21
  3. Negative: 1 out of 21
  1. GameSpew
    Aug 10, 2016
    80
    Considering all that it has to offer, Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force is probably the best JRPG currently available on the PS4 (although stiff competition is incoming)
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  2. TheSixthAxis
    Aug 4, 2016
    50
    The story does nothing original unless you wind up on one of the new story paths after 20 hours of play. On top of that, the visuals still reek of PS3 muddiness despite the smooth framerate. It’s a grindy number-managing repetitive experience, and you might automatically love that or hate it depending on your allegiance to Compile Heart. It simply feels out of place next to other PS4 JRPGs on offer, and could have used a lot more polish if it wanted to stand a chance in the current gen.
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  3. GamingTrend
    Aug 2, 2016
    25
    Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force is a remake with very few improvements.
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