As much as I like this game, it does a few things undeniably wrong.
Visually, no complaints. The music wasn't particularly my taste but did compliment the game and its theme well. Voice acting...non-existant. I guess by today's standards this is unexceptable but when I knew about this initially, I wasn't concerned since I've been gaming since the days of the original FF and Chrono Trigger (all great RPGs). Once I started playing it, it was a whole different deal. I'm not sure if it was the sheer amount of text or what but after awhile, I found myself just skimming through the dialouge.
One thing that I did like about Faery is how it combined elements of RPGs of yesteryear and those of today. It has a classic turn based battle system equipped with physical and magically abilities. This was very refreshing for me since I haven't played any RPG in awhile that still does this. It also has shades of a morality system but nothing really all that developed. You can choose for your character to either be really nice or a jerk to people. With some characters including party memebers, the game does keep track of how well they like you. What I never saw or at least in any great detail, are the results of these characters' perceptions. Another great feature and missed opprotunity of Faery was the customization feature. Beside the initial cosmetic set up of your character, the choice of certain alterations to your characters body directly impact their battle abilities. Wings, tails, antenaes, and tatoos are whats used to attach physical and magical abilities to the primary character. While this is very creative in essence, I didn't like how the results were PERMANENT! Meaning once you assign this change to the character, that's what its going to be moving forward in the game. I feel, that allowing you to unlock more of, changing more of these parts at will, or even just at certain points in the game (i.e. leveling up) would have added an extra level of strategy to gameplay. However, since most of the fighting doesn't require much strategy at all, Focus Home can get away with this without it hindering gameplay much. Also, I didn't like how the game didn't have many cut scenes...which even without voice acting, the older RPGs had. Cut scenes are what help move the plot along, which brings me to my next point:
The plot was interesting but the story itself was incomplete. Without spoiling anything, I fully understand that the idea was to leave things open for a sequal but that doesn't excuse leaving the current plot line inconclusive. By the end of the game, you will feel yourself questioning what was the whole purpose of journey. You start off the game with your character being restored from cystalized statis and you are tasked by the king of the Faery realm to form a team of fellow warriors to restore each world within to its former glory. Having suffered from amnesia, you begin to find out from the residents of each that not all is what it seems. In end, you are pretty much left with just that. ***SPOILER*** No final boss fight or anything ***END SPOILER***. You don't even get to explore every world within the realm, just three. Faery does give you a nice sized party of characters to use at your disposal. Out of the 6 recruitable characters, 2 can follow and join you in battle at a time...pretty standard. Your party members do each have their own unique personalities but some backstories are more well developed than others. The interactions between your character and these party members are as equally as uneven. Basically, the first 2 characters that you recruit in the game are the most involved in the game's story. Also, the only customization options that you have with these party members is choosing between 1 of 2 spells at level milestones. You cannot customize them to the extent that you can the primary character. The game does offer plenty of sidequest but they all come in the same form...fetch quests. Either you have find this person or X amount of these items and return to pationer. Besides the trophies, they're not worth doing.
My Breakdown:
What's Good:
- Good visuals
- Decent plot
- Combines classic and modern RPG elements
- Nice size and variety in party members
- Great idea for the customization/ability system
- Rewards you with plenty of equipment
- Some pretty eeriee looking enemies and bosses
What's Not-So-Good
- Could have definately used voice acting
- No shops to buy and sell equipment
- The music wasn't really my thing
- Battles require little to no strategy
What's Bad:
- Unfinished story
- Unexplored characters and relationships
- Underdevelopment of the customization/ability system
- Uncosumizable party members
- No seen consequences of morality system
- Boring and single type side quests
In all, Faery is the poster child of unfinished game that could have been great if many areas had been tweeked a bit more. I'm actually hoping for a sequal to help redeem the first game from its many shortcomings.