Fairy Tail 2 review

As a young nerd who grew up in the nineties and noughties, there was never any doubt that I’d be someone who enjoyed anime. Admittedly the options of what to watch on TV in the UK were limited to Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Dragon Ball Z, but you’d better believe I watched every single episode I could of those three shows I could as a kid. Now the curse of adulthood is real, and despite having access to hundreds of critically acclaimed anime at my fingertips I’ll never find the time to watch them all. At least we have video game adaptations to fall back on when all else fails, and now after playing Fairy Tail and its new sequel Fairy Tail 2 I can firmly say I’m a fan of this series.

While the first Fairy Tail game was more about building up the guild of colourful characters that make up the titular group, Fairy Tail 2 is a call to arms to try and stop a war. Set after the events of the first game that I won’t try to summarise here, now Natzu, Ezra, and the gang are the only ones left in the familiar main town you spent hours in previously that haven’t been evacuated. With the big bad Zeref on the way it’s up to you to do what you do best, use over the top anime attacks to save the day. This is a game I would absolutely not recommend to play if you haven’t played the first game, as it basically concludes the story with dozens of characters you’ll struggle to connect with if you didn’t see their backstory back in 2020 (or in the anime).

The reason I was originally drawn to the first Fairy Tail game was that it was developed by GUST, the acclaimed JRPG studio that brought us a whole load of Atelier games and other wonderful RPGs. The first time around combat was turn-based with a grid of enemies to beat up, but in Fairy Tail 2 everything happens in real time. You don’t directly move your characters around in battle though, and instead need to wait for an active time battle type meter to fill up so you can start diving into over the top combos.

As well as a basic attack each of your party members in Fairy Tail 2 can have three special attacks equipped at once, which can be chained back to back at the end of a combo as long as you have enough SP. These attacks are as flashy and ridiculous as you’d expect, with ridiculous elemental explosions as commonplace in this world as rainy days are in the UK. Special attacks come in all shapes and sizes too, with attacks that hit all enemies which are great for swarms of puny foes, stupidly powerful single target options, and of course healing spells. With three party members in battle at a time you can usually cover all the bases you need for this, but that’s not all that your allies are good for.

Any time you allow your SP meter to fill up to the maximum you’ll upgrade your Fairy rank, which gives you access to more SP in that particular battle and enables you to call upon an ally to perform a support attack. What’s cool about this is that every Fairy Tail 2 character has a different effect attached to their support attack as well as dealing damage to the enemy, so while Erza might boost everyone’s attack power when called upon for an assist, Wendy will instead heal the party a little. Getting to max Fairy Tail rank allows allies to join forces for a massive duo attack too, which will absolutely obliterate any non boss encounters with ease. These moving parts might sound complex, but in practice it’s easy to just keep launching massive attacks at enemies until you eventually can access the super moves you need to win – and it’s rather satisfying to do so.

Like any good RPG, Fairy Tail 2 has a rewarding level up system that sees you unlocking new and improved attacks between battles constantly. Each party member has a set of skill trees where you can spend the Unison Points you earn for levelling up, which will give them access to buffs and new abilities galore. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but you power up in such a meaningful way when spending these points that it always feels rewarding to do so. If you don’t want to do this for all of your party members you can individually set auto level up to specific allies too, which is a wonderful time saver.

Although the combat is the main difference between this game and its predecessor, the thing that shocked me most about Fairy Tail 2 is the vast world that you can explore. With treasure and quests scattered all around this world it’s worth going off the beaten path in the various forests and deserts that make up the game, and with different barricades that you’ll gain teammates to help you remove along the way exploring old areas almost always leads to exciting new finds. Instead of doing odd jobs, this time you have a sprawling world to explore, and I much prefer that.

There’s a lot to like about Fairy Tail 2, but I must admit the narrative is the part I struggled with the most. As a new fan who played one video game about the anime four years ago it was a tough story to follow, and the ridiculous amount of fairly pointless campfire scenes you could watch to flesh out the characters didn’t really help. I also feel the combat has a little less nuance than the first game, and while flashy; isn’t quite as engaging.

Fairy Tail 2 is a wonderful RPG with fast paced combat, a gorgeous world to explore and a whole lot of familiar anime faces. It’s not a game that’s particularly accessible for people who haven’t watched the anime though, and certainly not those who skipped the first game. Despite this it’s hard to deny that this is an engaging RPG experience crafted by genre experts, and for fans of the series especially it’ll be an absolute delight.