Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force

[regemond]

So. Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force. Brought to you by the geniuses behind the Mega/HyperDimension Neptunia series, it's a medieval JRPG for the ages. Ok. It's not. It's a bit of a pervy game wrapped in a lovely little Dark Ages anime art style.

 

@Sly Reflex was asking me about it last night, and the only answer I really had was that it's inoffensive. Which I then immediately clarified by saying the GAMEPLAY is inoffensive. The story itself just seems to be an excuse to get questionably aged female characters into questionable states of undress. One character in particular, Harley (who thankfully, looks of age), has a particular comfort with herself, so gets herself into situations like this...

 

 

Anyway, I've just discovered this game is a remake of a 2013 PS3 game. It uses a modified version of the Neptunia battle system, so it's a turn-based JRPG. You have a circular battle arena and your characters make their moves, then the enemy makes theirs (obviously depending on speed levels). When it's your turn, each character gets an area they can cover, where they have to get close enough to an enemy to make an attack. Or far enough away if you're defending/healing.

 

It's easy enough to get to grips with, and as you progress they introduce more and more twists on the formula. You level up as per RPG rules, then also gain a kind of ability points that allows you to increase your attack, defence, movement and attack range, as well as the amount of physical attacks you can do in a combo. It's a nice idea and lets you personalise each fighter to your play style.

 

The story involves finding swords - known as Furies - and using them to release the Goddess. Well, in my story that's what's happening. You can also release this other dude - he's a bad guy - or there's a third option. I'm not sure if you can release both or what. I assume so.

 

A few other systems are in place, but that's the main gist of the important stuff.

 

After about 10 hours of gameplay I'm around level 10-12 and have 4 characters in my party - Fang (the main character), Tiara, Harley and Galdo. All 4 have three hits in their combo, I've unlocked a few extra moves for all of them, and they all have a Fairy giving them benefits/bonuses.

 

It's good. Not great. But there's enough there - besides the perviness - that's keeping me playing, so i'll carry on at some point this weekend.

[Rikzilla]

I hate the fact that I kinda want to play this.

[mmmark]

How many of those 10 hours were spent playing the game and not with yourself?

[regemond]

6 hours ago, wiivo 2.0 said:

How many of those 10 hours were spent playing the game and not with yourself?

 

2 and a half-ish. I mean, Harley keeps forgetting her underwear - what am I supposed to do??

 

@RikSP honestly, I think I got it for less than a tenner in the sale. It's worth it for the laugh. The dialogue is cringe-inducingly bad, but the gameplay itself is brainless and relatively fun.

[regemond]

So I've put a little more time into this after getting distracted by other more shiny things over the last few months, but I've found a new appreciation for it to be honest.

 

ComplieHeart games seem to be little more than an excuse to get anime girls of a questionable age into precarious clothing situations (see: the entire Hyper/Mega/UltraDimension Neptunia series). This one is starting to show a little depth that I wasn't aware of.

 

Ok, so in my first post I said this:

 

Quote

The story involves finding swords - known as Furies - and using them to release the Goddess.

 

Now it turns out that's not their only use. Once released, these Furies can also be used for World Building. Basically, the swords unlock different levels as you progress through the game. These swords are stabbed into the map. For the whole game I've been just stabbing then removing the swords because they haven't been much use. On Wednesday I spent a little more time paying attention to the game and discovered that the swords can have different effects on the level, both positive (more XP, switching up enemies) and negative (less XP, weaker P/M-Defence). You can also stack these swords. So I had 2 +30% XP bonuses, as well as a P-Def down and something called No Seal. Still no idea what that one is.

 

But it's just a nice little touch that I wasn't expecting from this game. I'm actually quite impressed.