Fairy Bloom Freesia is a neat little doujin beat 'em up game put together by the Japanese development team Edelweiss. Initially released on the PC during Comiket 80 last year, the game has now been published for a western audience by Nyu-media and is now available on Steam and Desura.
The game is set in the Forest of Lita, which our heroine and protagonist Freesia must protect. The general aim of the game is to not only to defeat the invading golems, but to protect the spirit stones that golems and humans alike would like to get their hands on. As protector of the forest, this is a big no-no for Freesia as the stones provide the forests life energy. The progression through the game is linear, but given its genre it?s not really a point against it. Despite the game throwing you right into the action without much say on the matter, it is littered with storyline between stages. Whilst it?s not poorly done, the switch from pummeling your enemies to death and chatting away with the human invaders can feel ill-timed at points, but a relief at others. The characters in Freesia are archetypal of those found in anime, which proves to be silly at times, but enjoyable.
Fairy Bloom Freesia?s stages are divided into days, that corresponds to the duration of the level. The arenas are what you would expect from a 2.5D style brawler ? stages are set in enclosed arenas against waves of enemies and as you defeat each wave, others will spawn until the stage is complete. After each stage, the game will lead you into an ?intermission? which is generally used to save, buy upgrades and manage your special combos. It is rather reminiscent of Chaos Legion where points collected during each stage could be put towards various upgrades ? which the game has plenty of. Levelling up is also automatic and you lack the freedom to allocate points into Freesia?s attributes, but the bonus upgrades that the game has to offer provides you with a way to tip battles into your favour. The only limitations in this is that you can only equip two of these upgrades at a time, so upgrading everything in hopes of strolling your way through the games isn?t something you can achieve. Swapping your upgrades around depending on your situation in each stage seems to be an intended move by developers to keep the game challenging.
Despite the game being a brawler, the varying types of enemies that appear may call for more than just some simple button mashing. At times, I found myself needing to swap out upgrades in favour of ones I wouldn?t normally use to boost my defence against certain attacks. Blocking attacks in battle is only situationally reliable ? even if you do time your blocks correctly, the amount of times you get attacked could exceed what your block can withstand, and still leave you taking a large amount of damage for your trouble. Other times you may simply want increased attack damage, especially during stages where you must protect one or more points and must defeat golems expediently. Similarly, changing your regular attacks out for more aerial combos in a platform-based arena may boost your effectiveness. Boss fights seem to call for a more defensive technique, as the main challenge during them is to balance your attacks and your blocks. Being caught in defenseless in the middle of a deadly combo isn?t something that you want to risk HP on, and having an increased block meter can give you that little extra you need to survive your way through it.
One thing I noticed almost immediately about this game was that it is both insanely easy to button mash your opponents to death as it is to die to the oncoming torrent of attacks. The controls are simple ? there is a normal attack, jump, block and special attack button, and to access some of the moves you may have unlocked whilst playing there are various combos you can execute based on what you have equipped. Whilst spamming combo moves and throwing around enemies into each other are fun - it?s also infuriating to be caught in a flurry of attacks that you were unable to block at the right time. Despite being a person who loves to play around with different combos and techniques during stages, sometimes there is not a fun or stylish way to get through fights (such as the aforementioned boss stages); however, this can be easily overlooked as the gameplay in itself is already quite enjoyable.
Artistically, the look of the game fits together rather well despite the affinity for anime-styled games to lean towards to the 2D medium. It?s difficult to ignore how nice everything looks and blends together. The game does not stand up to other graphically taxing titles, but that is not a point against its favour. Even the audio is nice, and fits appropriately with the rest of the game.
Overall, Fairy Bloom Freesia is undoubtedly a fun game, and definitely delivers what you would expect from it at first glance. If you?re a fan of doujin games, JRPGs, or brawlers, the small price tag attached to this game is definitely worth it if you?re still undecided on this title.
[small]As this is the first review I've ever written, or posted - feedback is greatly appreciated. Just be gentle with me. Dx[/small]
