The one thing that always causes me to shy away from JRPGs as I get older is the insurmountable time sink they are. As much as I love playing through them, grinding for levels, and inevitably saving the world, I don’t have the time to play them anymore. When you add in my play style of exploring everywhere and intentionally going the wrong way to find secrets, that 80 hour JRPG could take me twice that.
There were two things that drew me to Light Fairytale Episode 1. The look of the game itself tugged on nostalgia for old school PS1 JRPGs (specifically Final Fantasy VII) visually and the promise of a three-hour JRPG did it for me.
Light Fairytale is a turn-based Japanese-style RPG series set in a dying underground world ruled by an evil empire.
The goal of this project is to bring back the immersion and emotion of 90’s era JRPGs on current platforms with the expected evolution in both design and technique.
Each episode is a standalone game, approximately 3 hours long for a first play-through, double it for a full completion of all the achievements and secrets.
Episode 1 is the start of the adventure. Play as Haru and his childhood friend Kuroko as they fight a dark empire in the underground ‘Lower City’.
So the first thing that attracted me to Light Fairytale Episode 1 was the visual look of the game. Beyond the anime art of the characters themselves in the promotional game art, the in game action itself looks inspired by classic and generation defining JRPG Final Fantasy VII. As someone who has fond memories of that game and some built-in nostalgia, this really appealed to me.
The world of Light Fairytale Episode 1 is all underground in a dark and grungy city. The city is filled the darkness of a living space carved into rock and also the bright lights of the neon bringing the city to life. The city is separated into levels, with the lower class citizens. As the protagonist Haru and his childhood friend Kuroko begin on their quest to find the world beyond their world, they end up on the run.
The relationship between the two of them feels like it’s right from an anime. The young boy ‘would be’ hero with the childhood friend that is clearly smitten with him. A not-so-subtle secret that is obvious to everyone around him, though he’s clueless to her affection.
The game is broken up into small areas that you navigate through. Whereas Final Fantasy had pre-rendered backgrounds, the areas in this game are fully 3D but resemble the simplistic look. While they’re simplistic on the surface, some of them have quite a bit of life and movement to them. The characters in the game itself take on a super-deformed chibi appearance while in dialogue boxes they are shown in their full anime form. It’s a cute look, if a bit simplistic.
There are a couple of fun features in the game. In an effort to make the game accessible and help you if you get stuck, there are two features to help you out. The first one is a handy option in the menu to ask for a hint on what to do next. Cutely, the anime cat-girl that pops up to give you a tip on what to do next is actually the mascot of the developer of the game – Neko.Works. Not only that but you’ll eventually run into this character in the game as well.
The second helpful feature in the game are AR goggles. These allows you to get on-screen markers showing you where the exits on the screen are, any special interaction points and characters, and also the zones where battle encounters take place.
Being an RPG this game has turn-based battles. The battles don’t load onto a separate screen like a lot of role-playing games, but take place right in the environment itself. If you’re walking on a catwalk the battle takes place right there with the enemies (and your partner) popping up onto the screen.
The encounter rates in battles seem to be locked so that you after you have a set number of battles in an areas they will stop spawning. I think it’s a way to help you not over-level yourself, especially since the game has a short life you don’t really need to grind levels.
The music in the game is amazing. From the relaxing music that plays while you explore the areas, the sinister music that plays while dealing with the military, and the intense music during battle sequences, the music is great.
There is a second episode already available and two more entries are also on the horizon beginning next year. And once you beat the game you can replay it from Kuroko’s perspective for more of the story.
I really enjoyed my time with Light Fairytale Episode 1. It was a cute, fun, short indie Japanese role-playing game.