A lot of anime games are full of personality but lack refinement and polish. Fairy Tail undermines those expectations by being well made whilst still capturing what made the original manga so special. Newcomers may find the limited retelling of the plot hard to follow but franchise veterans should have a blast.

Overall, it feels as though Fairy Tail is targeted toward players who have knowledge or experience of the franchise already. As someone who knows Fairy Tail, it was very easy for me to understand and enjoy the game. While it starts at a point that makes sense for the purpose of the game, it does seem like it may alienate some who are hopping in for the first time. Despite this, Fairy Tail’s premise should still allow for newcomers to enjoy the experience, and perhaps lead them toward the source material as well. While Fairy Tail doesn’t do anything new, it does a lot of the common RPG elements well enough, and ties in the source material effectively as well. For fans of the series, this game is a no-brainer, for everyone else, it could be worth a try.

Fairy Tail is a decent RPG experience, designed almost exclusively with fans in mind.

Fairy Tail is a very similar game to the Atelier series, only one borrowing characters and story direct from another source material. The story here, based on two separate narrative arcs, works well with how it's laid out and is laid out in a way that doesn't stop newcomers to the franchise. Other aspects, however, are mixed. The turn-based combat is far more tactical than the average JRPG, offering an interesting grid-based system that helps to keep it engaging. There's a decent amount of character interaction and humour to be found within but the massive, overhanging issue is that the quests and the game in general demand far too much busywork of you in terms of building your guild, character relations, character and guild ranks and more than I care to remember. Fairy Tail has somehow managed to keep my interest but I can't deny it has too much grinding that gets boring.

While fans of the series will certainly enjoy having all their heroes back in a colourful game faithful to the original material, the others will probably be harder to convince. Except for the story and the anime side of the title, the production is rather unremarkable with regrettable inconsistencies. The turn-based combats are quite repetitive, but are fortunately compensated by the regular addition of new gameplay elements. If you're a fan of the series, you are likely to be seduced by the enchanting universe of Fairy Tail and its characters. Otherwise, you should probably wait for a more appropriate price for the experience.

For gamers who love the anime the game is based on, it might be a dream come true. For everyone else, it is just an average JRPG. The missions are monotonous, there are no puzzles and if you don’t know the anime, you won’t understand a lot of the story.

Fairy Tail is a rushed spinoff that rarely has an ounce of the energy shown in its source material. It’s more ambitious than many other anime games, but the execution is severely lacking. So much so that, if Fairy Tail was just another cookie-cutter arena fighter instead, it probably would have been a better game.