Fae Tactics - Review @ COG

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.

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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