Originally Published on the Official Blast Away the Game Review Facebook Page
Review by Dustin Murphy

Pros:
-An Insanely high sense of difficulty, which is refreshing in the turn based JRPG strategy genre
-Maps are differentiated and never seemingly appear the same, but their enemies do
-Graphics between the PlayStation 4 and Vita transition very well between each other
-Rather enjoyable despite which platform the game is played on
-Item farming is rather rewarding compared to what it could be expected to be.
-Character talent trees are very straight forward and well designed

Cons:
-Tutorials for this turn based JRPG strategy title will not be welcome to new players will not be welcoming and rather hard to learn at first.
-Camera angles can be disorienting to players who have never played a over the top title that switches to third person on an as needed basis.

 As a fan of the classic tactics game Final Fantasy Tactics, like many, it was my first endeavor into the strategy RPG world. Luckily that didn’t change all that much; the thing that did change? My want to actually find the next big strategy RPG that almost happened after playing “X-Com: Enemy Unknown” last year. Unfortunately “X-Com: Enemy Unknown” didn’t satiate my hunger. As years passed the need for the next big tactical game happens, and Kadokawa Games comes to the call. The question of the century is; did they do it? In ways they did not; NAtURAL DOCtRINE itself is severely lacking in the area of a decent story that can truly be understood to someone who doesn’t want to piece the game together word for word. The story plain and simple? You are a pluton hunter, but also an escort for those who decide to hire your character. Unfortunately, our brave main protagonist Geoff, manages to get himself into a bit of trouble under the lead of Anka, whom hires this odd fun band of adventurers. The story sadly doesn’t deviate much outside of how you meet new partners and take into account events that lead to the internal struggles of Feste that have arisen. Can we say rebellions and the likes aren’t always that great for a story? It would have been nice had they taken their time in order to build a legendary adventure that players would remember as time goes on. Sadly this didn’t happen, but we can only hope it does in time with a sequel or possible add on content.

 With the story aside, NAtURAL DOCtRINE is one of those games that is truly saturated with difficult learning, but also a steep curve of notes that needs to be taken. Best way to put it? The game is filled with tutorials, advanced tactics, but also Within the game, players will learn several basic tactics, how to guard, attack, set up Character Links, but also timing when to use abilities. As a focal point of this games combat, the links can also be a dismantling part of someone’s enjoyment. Much like your own set ups, enemies also use this system, and these links the enemies use can end many of the combat scenarios you will go through. After having spent multitudes of hours grinding (approximately 25 or so before reviewing), the game finally began to unearth its secret routines that players must take practice of so that they may find themselves taking out enemies. For some, this may not always work out and will ultimately set itself up for a Game Over, which will require players to start from a checkpoint or the beginning of that dungeon. As someone who was taking their time to learn the game, I found myself constantly restarting the levels or checkpoints in order to figure out where to start out the routes that should be taken so that I could take the enemies out one by one. Downside to this? I eventually would die because of this assumption I knew how to take them out.

 After countless attempts, it can easily be done, but the most infuriating part is the difficulty scaling. While starting out, the first few dungeons are rated within the ‘C’ difficulty, which means they aren’t that hard, and will have a slight learning curve to them. Within an hour they can easily be completed, but the downside to them is that shortly after an ‘A’ rating dungeon will be displayed, which can infuriate anyone. Think this difficulty is where it all begins to stack up via the learning curves? That is only the beginning where players will find themselves over time. As abilities are unlocked and dungeons are completed, players will quickly learn the importance of treasure chests. These treasure chests supply both pluton in small amounts that players can use to have Nebula power his spells. Unfortunately, the use of pluton will count against your score, but that’s something we will visit later on. It is a good idea that players take note of where chests are, but also where the higher level enemies are within those zones so that they may actually take out those enemies and obtain the hidden loot chests.  One thing that players will need to take note is that the scores for each mission is rated upon pluton used, enemies slain, time, and of course how many times you have died. The downside? Some of these chests are guarded by enemies that can one shot or possibly two shot your entire team if you are not careful. It is heavily advised to make sure that there is a plan for these chests, dungeons, and can overall hurt your score at the end of the day.

In NAtURAL DOCtRINE I was capable of finding several things that were honestly the most problematic. The easiest one to point out is screen clutter with the scrolling menus, text, and even combat options that show up in small menus on the left side of the screen. In truth, the game felt like it was being developed for mouse and keyboard versus joysticks and a d-pad, but with that put aside the game works. Even with these minor irritations such as screen clutter, players can easily adapt to it and learn how to overlook it, but that’s just one minor irritation. One of the bigger ones is how character turns are placed. The characters will move based on an initiative that can be upgraded by leveling up and selecting certain “perks” within the talent trees so that players can find themselves capable of moving faster than the enemies. This will not happen though till at least 15-20 hours in, which is where I found myself before writing this. After that time frame I was capable of doing several things that helped boost my damage, which included reworking characters talent trees from the ground up, but also farming for the equipment I was able to take note of in the first few dungeons. Luckily in this time, I was able to able to expand upon the basic rules of the game when it comes to maneuvers. Why did it also take this long to figure it out? The excruciating annoyance of having to watch the enemy take their turn regardless of if they move anywhere or use any abilities. This is something that we can only hope will be changed as well as the being forced to actually watch all combat scenes whether it is your own or the enemies. The downside? Between each of these scenes there is no ability to interim save. Instead there is only a save when outside of the dungeons, which is a huge downfall for those wanting a user friendly game.

The most charming thing about the game besides being able to move between the console and handheld version was the fact the game does have such a high difficulty rating and challenged me to try harder than ever to nail out each dungeon with perfection. This is something I’ve done a lot to ensure that each character has the highest of abilities, weapons, and quick clear times. These clear times allowed for me to take out every enemy possible, but also proceed further into the games story by beating each mission with some form of ease, but also trial and error. With a little bit of patience, nerves of steel, and the will to press on; there is a lot of progress to be made with this game. Overall the rewards are very satisfying, rewarding, and allowed for me to want to continue, to keep playing, but also to return to the game post-review. I can truly state, however, this is definitely a hidden gem that should be picked up, enjoyed, and played with the knowledge that the game is not an overnight completion. Instead it could very well take some players weeks, months, or even a year to beat due to how challenging and denying it can be at times.

So what does NAtURAL DOCtRINE trick us into with its charm and difficulty? Even with a subpar story and an insanely high difficulty, I couldn’t help but say that the game has managed to earn itself a solid 7 out of 10.

Reviewers Note: Due note that our our review is based on a pre-release retail digital copy of the game this also means we were unable to experience the multiplayer at this time and will revisit it at a later date. This also means any future patches and or information that will be applied has not been done so on this version, which means that user experiences may change upon the games intended release on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita on September 30th, 2014 for North America. Our friends in Europe can expect this title to slay its way through Goblins onto their consoles on October 3rd, 2014.

Originally Published on the Official Blast Away the Game Review Facebook Page
Review by Dustin Murphy

Pros:
-A hysterical cast that will leave players rolling in their chairs
-Very forgiving combat system for new players to Compile Heart titles
-Nobuo Uematsu’s score sets the mood for the game and does not disappoint
-An insanely large amount of tutorials that will help guide players through the title
-A simplified dungeon selection that makes exploration a tad bit easier to handle

Cons:
-Characters come and go, which itself, can be annoying
-Loot drops seem far and few, but doing side quests from the pub makes up for this.
-The plot at times loses its focus and its charm, but does regain it a bit down the road.
-World shaping for many can be confusing and tedious when figuring out what to do.

Ever wondered what would happen when the publisher of Prinny, Hyperdimension Neptunia and Disgaea can do with a new IP? You get something as amusing as Fairy Fencer F, which follows the story of our overly hungry, grumpy, and whiny as well as comical lead character known as Fang. Fang is one that has had the mishap of becoming a Fencer or rather a hero, but has no care to do it, but how did he become one? His luck got the best of him when he pulled out a magical sword from within the ground, much like King Arthur did with Excalibur, and let it be told; he gained a fairy. Once he removed the sword his new traveling partner Eryn comes aboard, with her sense of humour and bubbly attitude, it’s only a surprise Fang hasn’t left her behind to wonder endlessly or just vanish. Taking her along, Fang begins his journey to help Eryn unseal the Goddess and bring world peace upon the world.

Following the well known Compile Heart style we saw with past titles such as Hyperdimension Neptunia and Hyperdimension Neptunia PP, we see a lot of humour, but unfortunately the sexual innuendos that come out full force. This is only one of the small underlying issues though, but this does not take away the humour and or the silliness that made this game just a bit more than just a genuine adventure. The game is downright hysterical and for anime fans; comical through and through. Carrying forth through the title, players will easily be able to see how each of the heroes that join the party come across with their own unique fairies. Personally, the game is enjoyable because of the laid back and silly conversations that take place, in many ways it reminds me of several anime titles I loved bunched into one, but their names won’t be stated her.

Much like a few of Compile Heart and their past titles, this one easily could adapt itself to their other franchise (Hyperdimension Neptunia), and speculatively been designed to use that system on purpose, but it works and it works well. In Fairy Fencer F, players will be able to use the new combat system that we witnessed in Hyperdimension Re;birth 1, which allows players to get multiple targets into an attack range, and do so with simple, but slightly complex combat menus. One of the many things that was rather amusing about this games combat system was the uniqueness in going between ‘tension’, which helps players ‘Fairize’ (think Hyperdimensions HD mode for Neptunia and her friends) and in turn, deal more damage. This is something that will make players, much like myself, save up as much tension and SP as possible and go to town on enemies. Unfortunately, this does not always work, and can easily upset players since the difficulty of the title is a mere joke in the beginning compared to how it plays out later into the game.

The goal is simple, however; clear dungeons, beat the bad guys, and ultimately earn a new Fury, which in turn helps save the Vile God or the Goddess. This becomes even more repetitive as players will find themselves using Fairies to work with. By “equipping” them in the equipment menu, I found myself quickly boosting my damage for Fang by spending all my points, literally, into his attack, combos, magic attack, and even his defenses. This is one of the few things I found disappointing and taking away the classic JRPG feel I’ve come so accustomed to, but they make it work and very well.

 Once players have gone through the combat system, which is quickly explained as well as taught, players will be clobbered in tutorials. These tutorials will describe everything from leveling, combat, dungeons, boss fights, character interactions, what vendors do as well as how, clear down to how world shaping works. Some of these tutorials seem very misplaced and honestly unwarranted. The one that was the most useful was what we will discuss next; The Vile God and the Goddess.

As many of you know by now, Fang is on the quest to revive the Goddess and or the Vile God, which in turn, brings about massive forces to once more walk the planet. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Players will need to clear the dungeons, as stated before, which in turn gives them fairies to use in order to “fuse” them with a fury that has the Vile God and the Goddess in a sleeping state. As these weapons are removed, they will initiate a fight, which includes a boss. Some of these bosses will be between five and ten levels higher than the player. This means you may not want to go unprepared and if you do, prepare to pay the price. Once the Fury’s encounter has been cleared, the weapon will affect the character that wears them with damage modifiers for certain elements, dungeon modifiers, but also, they do have a negative effect sometimes. There were instances I did find that shifting fairies around was for the best. The downside? Each of them have to be leveled as if they are an entirely new character, but luckily, only by equipping them.

 In return, fairies can be used in order to change how dungeons function. The most helpful one is the capability for higher loot drops, and lowered XP (experience) gain. Since XP is so easily gained that farming seems like a joke. Though some of them can make the game harder, which is a pleasant sign since the difficulty barely changes and leaves players hungering for more. For those wanting some fun, this is up your alley, but for those wanting a hard challenge could easily find themselves turned away unless they find the storyline as amusing as it is. The downside to some of these fairies is some of them will have something like this at C Rank “+1 Magic Attack” and gives your character of choice a “-1 Physical Attack”, these trade offs are unfortunate, but can easily be countered by finding what stat weights are best for the character that equips that fairy.

With the combat system and dungeon crawling put aside, there was something unique that can be noted; the soundtrack. When playing the game I found myself rather amused by this as it easily resembled songs I’ve heard before, most of them having vocals of which some could compare to Skyrim’s ‘Dragonborn Comes’, while others turned my ears even more so that I could enjoy the J-Pop listing. The best soundtrack in there? The Fairize theme. I found myself constantly tapping my toes to it, which in turn demonstrates Nobuo Uematsu’s taste for capturing the games target audience. Within a few hours? I found myself humming many of the games songs and even themes, which leads to show that Nobuo Uematsu’s departure from Square-Enix in ways worked in his favor. Though the game does take a hint from some of my favorite animes. The music changes over time in a ‘episodic’ type of format. This is a welcome change instead of hearing ‘Full Contact’ all the time, which alone, is a blessing since the song itself is amazing.

 With that being said, the game is a simple dungeon crawler with very anime like themes. With how well it has already been received, Compile Heart has already announced that a sequel is in the works at their pre-TGS show. What comes in Fairy Fender F: Advent Dark Force? The original Fairy Fencer F, but also the sequel. Where will it be going? To the PlayStation 4. This leaves room for many of us to question, will it make its way to the PlayStation Vita? For now, the game is charming where it is, and makes itself right at home on the PlayStation 3.

So what has Fairy Fencer F charmed itself into a score of? A wonderful 7 out of 10.

Fairy Fencer F is now available at all online and local retailers, but also through the PlayStation Store as a digital download. For more information, please visit the official Fanry Fencer F Website: http://nisamerica.com/games/fairyfencerf/