Originally posted December 26th 2014 on the Seafoam Gaming forums

Title: Fairune

System: 3DS eShop

Price: $2.99

Release date: 12/18/2014

The main game/story

In this action RPG, inspired by the likes of Ys and Zelda, you take control of a nameless protagonist as you go to collect three sacred idols in order to stop an evil demon from taking over the world! Yet another game inspired by retro titles, except this one has a PC88 feel to it, just like Ys.

Graphics

Rather simplistic with simple animations, being based off of an older system. You can either have it be displayed on the bottom screen with a nice border, or have it take up the entire bottom screen with scanlines (Similar to a PC88). Both ways look great and it adds to this game’s retro charm.

Music and sound effects:

I really liked the OST in this game. A lot of great songs that help fit the theme of each area you visit, along with satisfying sound effects, Fairune has a lot of variety, and they are all top notch tunes. So good in fact that I downloaded the OST for this game off of the developer’s website, which I rarely do for indie games. My personal favorite theme is the Lava area, due to the sense of determination in the song.

Gameplay

Being similar to the earlier action RPGs, combat doesn’t revolve around you swinging a sword with a button. Instead, you ram right into enemies, taking their health away while removing some of yours as well. It may seem like a bad idea at first, but after you play for a while you’ll get used to it and it becomes quite addicting. Healing spots are common and level ups don’t take forever, so you can easily defeat enemies, heal, defeat more enemies, and repeat until you level up enough so that you can survive the next area. You see, when you are at a high enough level, all weak enemies do nothing to you, and you can just run right through them. However, the stronger enemies can pretty much do the same to you if you are at a lower level, so be careful.

The other gameplay element of this game revolves around puzzles. Sometimes you need to know where a special item is in order to progress, or you’ll even need to find a secret path. There are numerous clues around the overworld, and none of them are too frustrating, so it’s a nice change of pace from all of the action, allowing you to explore for a little bit.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Fairune is an excellent budget title on the eShop. It’s not too long, as it took me about 2 hours to beat when I didn’t know what to do and 55 minutes to beat when I did know everything, but it encourages replays thanks to achievements and other unlockables. That combined with the good price and addicting gameplay makes this game easily recommended. I really hope the developers make the sequel, and I think Circle did a great job publishing this gem on the eShop. I give Fairune a 9 out of 10.

Thanks to CIRCLE Entertainment for the review code.