Pokémon Horizons: Liko and Roy's Departure - Review

Setting of on a different kind of journey.

Fairune - Review

Where illusion is reality

Console: Nintendo 3DS

After finishing up the excellent game that is Severed, I was in the mood for another smaller game, of which I still had a few downloaded on my trusty old 3DS. I quickly landed on Fairune, another indie game that I bought in the final days of the 3DS eShop. I read that it offered what was essentially a very small 2D Zelda experience, and I was interested in what that entailed.


Exactly what you think, as it turns out. Fairune is early Zelda in everything but name, from the design philosophy to the art and sound direction. It makes for a pleasant but also rather unremarkable little game.


Let's talk about it.


In the world of Fairune, three Spirit Icons once sealed an evil spirit. One day, the Icons disappeared, and monsters overran the world. You, the Chosen Maiden, are tasked with finding all three Icons, defeating evil, and bringing peace back to the land.


And that's all she wrote. The story is as simple as it gets: find the three things to save the world. The same setup as the first quarter or so of A Link to the Past. If not for developer Skipmore making it clear this is their take on a Zelda game, then I would've taken offence with it. As it stands, the narrative isn't anything noteworthy nor something to complain about.


The same goes for the world itself. It's functional with some recognizable landmarks such as the tower, but it’s held back because of how small it is and by the plain 2D pixel art. Plain in that it sparce no details. Tthere are no shadows to speak of. It doesn't look bad; I will praise it for cleverly blending some high-tech into its medieval world, but it's nothing to write home about either.


I also want to pull the music into the conversation here since my feelings on it are exactly the same as the graphics. There aren't a lot of them, barely 10, and they all sound like your typical 16-bit nostalgia tracks with some Zelda-like tunes thrown in for stuff like opening up a secret pathway. It's not my thing, but perhaps people who do very much like 16-bit music will appreciate it more.

Just one of many Zelda easter egg. 


Going back to the world, it is well stuffed with puzzles and secrets to dig your teeth into. Fairune is a puzzle/exploration title with a rudimentary level system thrown in as one of the few elements it can call its own. The world map is full of enemies, dungeons, and secrets for you to find with your trusty sword and the plethora of items you find along the way.


To find a path forward is to solve puzzles and figure out what these items do and where to use them. Things aren’t explained, and solutions are very much not telegraphed. It's about keeping your eyes open to see that one tree doesn't have a stump. You just need to push every boulder until you find the right one. Just got your hands on that torch? Well, good luck figuring out what to do with it!


It's very old-school in that approach, and while that might frustrate some in that you could get stuck somewhere without knowing what to do, I found it a lot of fun. I had to use my noggin and carefully observe my surroundings to find the solution, only to be greeted by the next obstacle shortly after. As such, I recommend you don't use a walkthrough when playing this game, even if you get stuck. Yes, it can be obtuse, but figuring it all out for yourself is where all the fun lies.


Combat is where Fairune puts a little spin on the Zelda formula. You attack enemies by just walking through them. When you do, the result differs based on the level difference between you and the monster. When you walk through same-level or slightly higher enemies, you gain exp to level up and become stronger, but they also damage you. Lower-level monsters don't damage you but also won't give you exp, while much higher enemies just simply damage you.


It's an interesting approach, to say the least. It's something different and gives rise to some nice challenges. Tiptoeing around monsters, knowing just when to avoid them or attack, can be fun, but I wouldn't call this system a success. It's underdeveloped and too exploitable. You can completely negate the challenge by doing a bit of grinding while on the opposite spectrum; the game sometimes straight up has you do a bunch of grinding to progress. You need to clear out an area of the map of monsters and have to grind to level up to actually damage them first. That was not fun, and I hope that in Fairune 2 if they keep this system, they polish it up quite a bit.


Fairune is a very short game. It took me only 3:35:16 to beat over the course of four days, and that is with the extra content the 3DS and Fairune Collection versions offer. The game is designed more for short mobile sessions, not so much for continued console play. Even so, those extra few minutes of the game make these console versions the definitive versions. And yes, the game is short, but it's not like they hide that fact in, for one, it's pricing. Plus, there is some extra stuff here that warrants revisits should you want to do so, such as the achievements you can earn.


Conclusion


I'd say that Fairune succeeds at what it set out to do: it's a pleasant game in the style of old-school Zelda. It does a good job of bringing back that original design philosophy of really letting the players explore and figure stuff out for themselves, though fails to make itself all that noteworthy with how much it borrows from Zelda with only very minor additions. The only thing that this game can call its own compared to classic Zelda is the level and damage system, which is underdeveloped and not all that interesting, really.


If you're a fan of early Zelda and want something cheap and bite-sized to play, Fairune isn't a bad option, but it's no substitute for the original, that's for sure. I will play Fairune 2 someday, but after my experience here, I'm not exactly in a rush to do so.

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