Fae Tactics (2020)

I only tried this game because it's on Game Pass. I would not have bothered if I needed to pay money because tactics games tend to be awful. This genre lacks any real strategy, the plays are obvious, and the computer is always really dumb. I love to check out indies because of how innovative they are, but I was actually very surprised by how closely this game sticks to the "tried and true" formula. I didn't notice anything that would distinguish this game from Final Fantasy tactics, so if that series is your jam then play Fae Tactics.

It looks pretty. I didn't finish it.

So, I haven't finished this game, but honestly, this game does complex simplicity so well, it's up there with Mario + Rabbids.

Before we get to that, let's hit on what this game does poorly. This game is technically, a bit of a clunker. On PC it has no Borderless Windowed mode, the audio levels are way too loud and the game doesn't seem to remember my audio settings, and there's just a number of little flaws like that. I didn't play it at launch, so I don't know if it had a buggy or bad release or something, but as it is now, it's perfectly playable.

The game also doesn't do a great job of telling you what keywords mean and whatnot. I very much recommend this Steam guide to help you better understand the bits and baubles.

That all aside, this game boasts a menuless combat system, and it delivers pretty damn well. All actions are contextual: If you click an enemy, you attack. If you click an ally, you assist (think heals and buffs). If you click yourself, you wait (and use your wait skill). If you click an interactable, you interact with it.

I assumed, at first, that this would lead to very samey characters and abilities, but while there is a little bit of that, the is a surprising amount of complexity there nonetheless. Between different stat setups, the ability to choose your 2 accompanying party members (you always take Peony), and up to 3 summons, as well as 3 spells, and terrain effects, there's a lot of stuff to do with just these few simple controls.

You also have full freedom to customize your characters builds before each and every fight, and since things are simple enough, it doesn't feel like a slog or overwhelming to do so. Give the map a once over, see what you're working with, and you can setup the right elemental attacks, equipment, and even your little level by level stat boosts (I've had a couple of fights where I was forced to use only one or two members, and having just the right stat bonuses made all the difference).

The game has a lot of faults, but honestly, it is definitely worth looking into for those who are fans of tactical turn-based JRPG style games. If you miss the Tactics Ogre series, I'd say you should give this one a look.

Well, this is a bit of a rough launch. There's a lot of potential for the game, but I'm having gamepad related crashes and wasn't warned that an option would cause progress to be lost, causing me to lose about an hour. I've informed the devs about both issues and they are communicating well to fix it, but it may be worth holding off on this until some of the bigger kinks are ironed out.

There's also some real issues with how the game communicates information. They went for a menu-less design, which I like in concept, but they didn't quite figure out how to display all of the relevant information. I don't think there would need to be that many changes to fix it, though.

That said, I think the basic mechanics are solid and I enjoy the art direction. I very much enjoyed their previous game, Valdis Story, so I hope they can get this one into shape. For now, I'm moving on to something else and not rating the game here or on Steam.