"Look how they massacred my boy"
Don Corleone.
The Godfather.

I loved Fairy Fencer F Advert Dark Force (My favourite Compile Hearts game), but this spinoff/squeal hybrid is a frustratingly disappointing poorly constructed mess of a game that lacks purpose, charm and substance.

SJRPG combat is dreadful as it's the same enemies models over and over even when their change colour at times.

Terrible leveling up progression where you can only level up, by performing actions during fights, resulting the game to be a aimless grindfeast.
Barely any strategy to the combat, most sub fairys are worthless to your arsenal.

Story and characters, one of the best aspects of Advert Dark Force, is a drastic downgrade.
The story feels like a uninspired fanfiction of it's former self and the writing took a major hit, causing plot holes and various bad writing that barely existed in Advert Dark Force.

While it's was great to see the Fairy Fencer F cast again, they were done dirty here.
Many of them are given nothing to do and they just along for the ride with barely any substance.
The new characters are all terribly written and bland as rocks.

The graphics, when it comes to combat is embarrassing bad especially on PS5.
Ugly, janky and unpolished across the board.

In conclusion, Fairy Fencer F Refrain Chord is a boring waste of time and a awful followup to the underrated Fairy Fencer F Advert Dark Force.

I may not a fan of Compile Hearts games are they filled with meandering plots, poorly executed ideas and repetitive gameplay/asset reuse, (barring the aforementioned Fairy Fencer F Advert Dark Force, which did a good job at avoiding many of those issues), but this alongside Neptunia Sister vs Sisters, have reached a new pathetic low.
They are the LJN of the JRPG gaming industry.
It's frankly baffling that this poorly produced game that has no English Dub was sold on PS5 for £50.

One of the worst JRPG games of 2023 by far.

You done f* it up!!!

Reviewed on May 30, 2023


1 Comment


10 months ago

I am SO glad someone else gets it. All I've seen so far are positive reviews that don't even mention all the bad points and just talk about how the cast are back and interacting again (admittedly the only redeeming quality for me)