Review: Faery: Legends of Avalon, A Gateway Game to RPGs

A hero awakes to find they have been roused from their slumber by an omnipotent elder to save the realm from an unknown but evil entity. While the hero is weak now, in their travels, they will become stronger with others that will assist the hero on such a noble quest of discovery.

Sound familiar? Yup, it’s the basis of most Role Playing Games and Faery: Legends of Avalon is no exception. The story takes the player through four beautifully rendered and distinctly different realms through a main quest line  while treating the player to epic music. In each realm, the backgrounds and environments are very well rendered and quite varied. The main character’s look also changes with gear choices and metamorphoses.

The game has neither economy nor shops. The inventory is dependent upon finding hidden chests and completing quests. Equipment will boost spells/skills and when a full set is equipped the boost becomes even stronger. Metamorphoses are how the main character gains new skills. With each level gained, an earned skill point can be used to gain a new skill, grant a passive ability or augment an already acquired skill. Players should be aware that these metamorphoses are permanent and that they are pre-requisites for skills and abilities that are unlocked in later levels. Poor upgrading choices can hinder you character’s effectiveness towards the end of the game.

The battle aspect in Faery has been developed in the hopes it will be more accessible to new gamers. The difficulty can be lowered to the point where battles are nothing more than “Mash A, Kill Baddies” or raised to lengthen the battles, requiring more thought about skill and spell selection. The battles employ a VIS (Visual Initiative System), so the player can see in which order attacks will take place (think Final Fantasy: X) , chain attacks that become larger as the player gains levels (think Final Fantasy XIII) and if a chain attack takes out your target, any subsequent attacks in the queue are negated.

Ups
-Some quests can be solved by either fighting or other means
-As you change your equipment and skills, your character’s look changes
-Good music
-Skill/Spell/Attack Animations are done well

Downs
-No Money, No Shops
-Metamorphosis is permanent and later skills which are not revealed until later levels are reliant upon previous choices
-PROOFREAD YOUR SCRIPT!!!
-No Random Battles
-Seemingly finite number of battles and monsters and items

Bottom Line
For an XBLA game, it satisfies a hunger for classic turn based RPGs. It is easily accessible and appropriate for all players. I enjoyed my time playing it and while the possibility for replay is available, I do not think I would go through multiple times.