Review: Faery: Legends of Avalon

I’ll admit it: Faery: Legends of Avalon wasn’t exactly looming large on my radar. However, as a fan of fantasy, turn-based RPGs, I couldn’t pass on the chance to give this game a try. Besides, how many opportunities do you get to play as a fairy and have the ability to fly?

You begin the game by customizing your avatar, choosing a sex and selecting features for hair, skin color, etc. Although the selections are limited, you get a nice amount of customization, and because these are fairies, you can go with some unique and crazy colors if you choose. Because lilac is my favorite color, I went with a lilac skinned, haired, and eyed female fairy with a pretty face and delicate features, but of course you can do whatever suits you. I was initially disappointed at not being able to customize my fairy’s wings, but it turns out those are part of the interesting upgrade system, which I will elaborate on later.

After customizing and naming your avatar, the story begins. Apparently, you have been in stasis for a long time, and while you slept, the magic of the world has begun to drain away as man has stopped believing as it once did. As a result, the fairy worlds and fairy folk are dying, and King Oberon, king of all magical creatures, has awakened you in the hopes that you can save what worlds that remain. You start off in Avalon, where you must undertake various quests in order to build your first party of two before you can set off to the lands beyond the mirrors. Avalon serves both as tutorial and first world, allowing you to get a feel for the menu and upgrade system, combat, and explore how dialogue trees work in the game.

As far as dialogue goes, developer Spider is pretty ambitious, creating a “Bioware-light” system in which you often have several choices of how to respond to NPCs; depending on your responses, supposedly, creatures will react to you differently. If you are nasty, you may not get a favor or important piece of info, be nice, and you’ll usually get your way. While I appreciate the attempt at doing something of this nature, in general I didn’t see a huge effect on dialogue choices, as the game is pretty linear, and the dialogue choices alone are definitely not enough to merit replaying the game (in the same way that it might be in something like Dragon Age, for example). However, I do appreciate the effort all the same, and it does add a bit more of that “customization,” as you can play the character a bit more the way you want, rather than being forced to a set line of dialogue each time. This is a good thing, because you will spend perhaps 33-50% of your time talking to various NPCs for information (and side quests). The rest of the time is spent exploring and battling, although battling is definitely a lesser focus, depending especially on which world you are in.

I personally don’t mind this, as the worlds are generally beautiful and interesting to explore, especially since doing so will often reward you with items and new armor to equip. As in other RPGs (like Dragon Age), equipping a full matching set of armor will give you a bonus to that armor’s traits. So if you’re wearing the fire armor, having the full set equipped will give you double the bonus to your fire spells. Completionists will enjoy scouring every inch of the level for hidden chests, and each piece of armor you equip will show on your avatar, allowing you to further customize your look. Like Dragon Quest IX, if you’re like me, you might sometimes find yourself sticking with one piece of armor just because it looks nice on your avatar. This customization was something I wouldn’t have expected in a title like this.

As far as battle goes, it’s fairly simple, although it does implement a unique system. When you encounter an enemy, the game will shift to the battle screen. Something I found interesting about the battle screens in this game is that they actually reflect the actual location where the battle is taking place: rather than using a backdrop simply for that room or area (as most turn-based RPGs will), you can actually see unopened chests in the background that will be there in the exact spot once the battle is over. I found this pleasing, surprising, and helpful, as I did find a few chests this way that I may have otherwise overlooked. The battles themselves are turn-based, with you controlling your avatar and your two other party members. Initially you have only one action gauge, but as you and your party members level up, you will earn more, enabling you to perform more powerful attacks and used more powerful magic, since some attacks require more than one available slot. As a result, if you have three slots, for example, you can choose to attack with level one attacks or spells three times, use a combination of a level one and level two attack or spell, or unleash a super powerful level three attack. Because each character has their own attacks and magic (both defensive and offensive) at their disposal, the system allows for some strategy, and I have to admit I enjoyed the system overall. While you start out with two fixed characters, as you progress you will recruit other potential party members, and can customize your party to your liking, again adding to strategy. However, the game is easy (I think I only had a character pass out once, and never saw a game over), so strategy isn’t really necessary to succeed.

After each battle, you receive experience points, and once you have enough, you will level up, as is typical for RPGs. However, when you level up, you will receive a skill point to spend on upgrading your character, and occasionally you will also get a battle point. Your skill points are used to unlock and upgrade various body parts, such as wings, antennae, tails, and more, all of which will imbue some power or resistance to your character, and all of which will appear on your avatar from then on. I thought this was a cute and unique system, and again emphasized how far you can take personalizing your character in this game. I did find it disappointing that you can’t fully customize how your party members level; even when they do ask you to choose a skill for them, you have to choose coldly as there is no description offered. It’s a minor gripe, however, and, again, as the challenge is relatively low, not being able to customize your party members’ traits really isn’t too much of an issue.

Although I enjoyed the game overall, it did get a little monotonous and repetitive, as many RPGs will. For one thing, it seems like you’re always doing fetch quests of some kind for various NPCs, which are never much fun, although the environments were enjoyable to explore, so this wasn’t so bad. Combat, despite its interesting attempt at strategy and clever spell effects, can drag a bit, and you’ll often find yourself fighting the same (or very similar) enemies, which can be a bit tedious. Add to the fact that battles are very, very easy (especially for seasoned RPG vets), and you might find yourself occasionally wishing for a “fast forward” button. Despite this, and I know it’s a downloadable game, but having only three worlds (plus Avalon) to explore was also a bit disappointing, and I wouldn’t be unhappy to see a sequel or DLC that would open up more incredible magical worlds to explore. You will get your money’s worth in terms of gameplay, however. I’m not sure how long the game is if you do all the side quests and spend time searching for everything, since I didn’t time it, but my guess would be somewhere in the 20-30 hour range, depending on how much of a completionist you are.

Again, the art design for the game is great, and it looks gorgeous for the most part: even the waves on the sea look realistic, and while character models are recycled, each faery creature type has its own distinct look. I really liked the way the developers give a sense of scale, not only for your own character, but for the other fairy folk. A tree, patch of grass, or bird are all completely different when you’re only a few inches tall. Likewise, your characters look and feel good while flying, and navigation is fairly easy, really giving you a sense of wonder. It’s not often (in my opinion) that you find an RPG that actually lets you role play, and Faery does, by truly giving you a sense of being one. My biggest gripe with the immersiveness of the game was the complete lack of voice acting. While I don’t normally mind silent games, and definitely have no problem reading, the overall high presentation of the game made the lack of voice acting painful. I can only imagine how vivid the world and characters would have become if even a small amount of voice acting had been included. Also, while the game does have strong writing overall, don’t expect a sweeping, epic storyline. The world is in danger, you have to save it; it doesn’t really delve much deeper than that. While that can be a problem, I don’t feel it hurt Faery too much, but if a lack of a strong story is a deterrent for you, you may want to look elsewhere.

Faery: Legends of Avalon is a rather ambitious little downloadable title. The graphics are stellar, the customization for your avatar is excellent, and the amount of gameplay you get for your $15 is impressive. Although it falls short in certain areas (the lack of voice acting really hurts the overall presentation, for example), and the gameplay can get a bit repetitive, in general these are things I can excuse considering all this title does get right. If you’re a fan of turn-based, fantasy RPGs, you could do far worse with your $15. While it might not be the most ground-breaking little game, you’ll certainly get your money’s worth.

Faery: Legends of Avalon
Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PlayStation 3, PC
	Publisher: Focus Home Interactive Developer: Spiders Genre: JRPG Release Date: November 10, 2025 MSRP: 1200 MSP/$15 ESRB Rating: E 10+ (for Everyone 10+)

Doin’ It RIGHT: - Beautiful art design - Interesting customization system - Varied environments - Hours of gameplay	Doin’ It RONG: - No voice acting really hurts presentation - Fairly repetitive and slow, can feel boring - A bit fetch-questy at times - A bit too easy
FINAL SCORE: 7 / 10