Fae Tactics - Review @ COG

HiddenX · August 2, 2020

COG has reviewed Fae Tactics:

Fae Tactics Review - A Brilliant Strategic Core

Strategy RPGs live and die by their mechanics. If the fights aren't any fun, what's compelling you to continue? What's the point, if you're not wholly absorbed by the minute-to-minute gameplay? It turns out a truly excellent tactics RPG needs more than a creamy nougat center of combat mechanics. Turns out you need a good reason to be annihilating these monsters and slowly gathering power. Fae Tactics gets a lot of things right, but it's missing a couple of ingredients. This indie gem is a good example of what these games can do, while it misses some things I didn't even know I needed.

[...]

I thought I knew what I was looking for in a strategy RPG. Specifically, I thought the combat systems were the deciding factor in a game's overall quality. Turns out it's a bit more complex than that.
Don't get me wrong! Fae Tactics plays beautifully, a dizzy dance of interlocking systems that reward experimentation, exploration, and endurance. If all you want is a series of complex battles marked by escalating difficulty, you can't go wrong here. There was just something about the narrative and the pacing that kept me from getting fully hooked. You can tweak the game speed, but this doesn't change the fundamental flow of the battles.
Perhaps my time in the Disgaea trenches has permanently scarred my psyche, or maybe I'm onto something here. Either way, beyond my minor grievances is a tactics RPG built from countless layers of approachable mechanical complexity. Fans of this sleepless, neurotic RPG subgenre owe it to themselves to give Fae Tactics a shot.

The Good

Gameplay is complex and compelling

Graphics are delicious

Progression system is simple and streamlined

The Bad

Story feels ineffectual

Pace of the battles can drag

Difficulty curve spikes very fast

Score: 72/100

More information.

greywolf00 · August 3, 2020

I'm about 8 hours in and outside of one seeming level scaling side battle I simply had no elements for I haven't bumped into a difficulty curve spike. That one was addressed by doing a few random battles to collect some new element monsters to bring into the side mission. Boss jumped from level 10 to level 13 between the attempts. The core story mission I hit afterwards was at level 11, so might be setup similar to FF:T in that sense.

I would say this is more a mix of Pokemon & FF:T than anything. You build your 3 commanders like a team, but you supplement them with additional summons who you will want to change based on the elements of enemies on the map.

I'd say this is kind of the Victor Vran of the genre - simplifies a lot of things but is still very interesting and stands on it's own.

Fae Tactics - Review @ COG

HiddenX

The Elder Spy

greywolf00

Keeper of the Watch