A little over a month ago, Sting and Compile Heart’s new in-development Tactics JRPG Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord was announced. Ever since, we’ve been teased with all sorts of sneak peaks into its features and aesthetics, and now we have a new gameplay trailer to enjoy.
So let’s recap what’s happened thus far:
- The original Fairy Fencer F is far from a new, with its initial release in Japan in October 2013 (2014 for us westerners).
- The game was notable for improving on the Hyperdimension Neptunia series’ combat mechanics.
- Despite various console ports, and the release of an expanded version (Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force), we hadn’t seen much news on a sequel for almost a decade, leaving many to believe Fairy Fencer F to be a one-off.
- In May 2022, we finally DID see the announcement of the unexpected sequel, essentially upgrading Fairy Fencer F from an excellent standalone game to a welcomed, budding series.
Compile Heart’s most recent videos have been focusing on a display of gameplay mechanics, and it’s looking pretty polished so far. We’ve got different levels of elevation in the world, complete party customisation, a brand new ‘World Shaping’ treasure hunting mechanic, and the addition of ‘Divas’: a sort of support character who can buff the stats of your other party members.
And, of course, we’ve been blessed with a bit more ‘visual’ content for the upcoming release as well. Compile Heart’s inclusion of fanservice in the original Fairy Fencer F has been anything but scarce, and I am pleased to officially announce its continuation in Refrain Chord! Not only that, but with a blend of characters new and familiar.
Although that’s well and good on its own, I’m also predicting that we’ll see the same in-depth character interactions that were in the original game, fleshed out even further with these new folk joining our parties.
The release date in Japan is still set for mid-September of this year, and we should keep a lookout for details of a western release, but I’m hoping for Refrain Chord to be an exceptional take on the Tactics JRPG genre, while retaining familiarity to everything good about the original Fairy Fencer F.
