A.W.: Phoenix Festa

A.W.: Phoenix Festa attempts to combine an action RPG with a dating sim and is actually able to pull it off.

Too simple for it’s own good, A.W. Phoenix Festa is a game that never truly commits to itself. That’s sort of ironic since dating and relationships are such an important part of the experience.

Quotation forthcoming.

A.W. Phoenix Festa does a decent enough job at transferring the characters and setting of the anime to the Vita but does a terrible job of explaining those things for newcomers. The combination of dating sim and battling works well but no individual part excels.

Nothing about Namco Bandai’s, A.W.: Phoenix Festa is particularly bad, but then again, nothing about it is especially great either.

A.W.: Phoenix Festa is fresh and easy action game, mixed with simple dating sim mechanics. The light combat system and the pleasant graphics will help you enjoying this unassuming game, while the only few characters playable and the just two main modalities will easily bore you. In the end, a fair game that will entertain you for some hours, especially if you are a fan of the anime series.

I have zero doubt that, given extra time and material to work with, the developers could have produced one of the best anime-inspired video games this decade. What’s here is still modestly enjoyable, though, and this title is worth supporting just to champion the notion that anime games besides the Narutos and Dragon Balls of the world deserve localisations.

Vita’s already seen a number of dating sims, but none of them combine action-RPG gameplay with visual novel elements like A.W.: Phoenix Festa. Because it handles both of these decently, it’s worth checking out for fans of the Asterisk War franchise and anyone who thinks they might enjoy such a combination. Unfortunately, it’s way too light on narrative to leave much of an impact; for a game about a tournament, it lacks the sort of excitement and tension you’d expect, and even the dating sim elements pay off in thin dividends.

The game is most enjoyable for fans of the series, but an overall shallow experience sinks the title in an already small Vita pond.

AW : Phoenix FIesta mixes action game and dating sim in a funny way, but fails to deliver really good action gameplay nor dating sim features.

A.W.: Phoenix Festa is a title that doesn't know what it wants to be; offering something for everyone, but failing to make all the bits work together in harmony. If tuned properly, this could be an enjoyable title, but as-is it's so easy and/or monotonous at times that it's only slightly better than doing nothing at all.

Nice characters and an engaging management aspect aren't enough to save this mess of game. Skip it.

Even by the lowered standards of licensed tie-in titles, Phoenix Festa fails to impress, seemingly intent on undoing the redemptive work of other, better, tie-ins like the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series or even the various Sword Art Online adaptations.

Exhaustingly trite and mechanically shallow, A.W. Phoenix Festa is a waste of memory card space better occupied by something like Steins;Gate.

For as much as A.W. : Phoenix Festa fails to capitalize on the potential of its strong ideas, there is something oddly compelling about the whole game that had me start up a second playthrough pretty much immediately after my first ending. I can't really recommend this to anyone but diehard fans of the series, but even then, it comes with the caveat that it's a flawed, rushed game. It's nice to see more titles like this brought over, but this is one that can safely be skipped.