I love Fairy Fencer F, and not just because one of the characters, Tiara, has a short skirt that bounces around nicely as she runs around, and some lovely blue panties underneath. I mean, that doesn’t hurt matters, but it’s not the reason I love the game. In all sincerity, it was an exceptional JRPG from 2013 from Idea Factory (the first in the Galapagos RPG project, which includes Omega Quintet, Death End re;Quest, and Dragon Star Varnir), with a more serious combat system than the Hyperdimention Neptunia series, and some serious creative talent behind it. Just look at this lineup: Yoshitaka Amano as the concept artist, Nobuo Uematsu as co-composer, Tsunako as character designer, and Toshiki Inoue as a screenwriter. That’s an all-star cast.
Anyhow, I didn’t expect that we’d see Fairy Fencer back. It seemed like it was going to be a one-off. However, nine years later, Idea Factory has surprised us by partnering with Sting to create a tactics game set in the Fairy Fencer universe. It will release on PlayStation 5, 4, and Nintendo Switch in September in Japan. No word of a western release at this stage, but Idea Factory localise almost everything. I would expect to see this one too.
All we really know at this stage is that your favourite characters from the series will return (including Tiara!), and that there’s a pretty neat-sounding mechanic called “Dramatic Resonance,” which is a high-risk, high-return element that can strengthen both sides of the battlefield, it occurs when an ally or enemy songstress sings.
Other than that we’ll just have to wait for more details. The last time Sting collaborated with Compile Heart for a tactics JRPG, we got Hyperdevotion Noire on the PlayStation Vita, which was a perfectly decent game in its own right (and needs a Switch re-master!). Sting also worked on the Utawarerumono series. They really know their stuff, so I’m very much excited to see this game – and Tiara – in the near future.
