Even though I initially played for about 20 hours, lost interest and dropped it to rot my brains playing Apex Legends and other such dopamine addiction fixes, I knew this was an extremely good game from what I did experience. I recently returned to it, sunk another 20+ hours in and realized that Fae Tactics is easily one of the best indie offerings to the genre because it is unapologetically itself.
Many of the prominent indie titles of the past decade (Symphony of War, Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, Dark Deity, etc.) have kept their influences closely abreast as the tactics genre can best be described as "burgeoning" on PC. As a style of gameplay, SRPGs are quite niche. So understandably, the best route to more players will have these developers jockeying to give us the next FFT or Fire Emblem on PC, titles that have long been relegated to consoles. Many of these games are straight up unplayable without emulation, though the increased popularity of PC gaming and Square Enix's embrace of such has given the true believers a chance to revisit the classics (still no Final Fantasy Tactics remaster or port, though..) But the library of PC SRPGs has been steadily growing, thanks to lower barriers to entry.
Endlessfluff's Fae Tactics is in fact a port of an Xbox game, but it is very much in the new tradition of the PC indies I listed, a new-school SRPG developed by fans who grew up on the classics and hope to bring the genre to new audiences. But Fae is a somewhat stark departure from many of the others. While we have come to be used to the high fantasy environment and Japanese anime-inspired artstyles ushered in by the predecessors, Fae Tactics visual signature is far more distinct. It has the colorfulness and whimsicality of EndlessFluff's earlier work in titles like Valdis Story, bringing to life its various characters and biomes with an aesthetic similar to Ralph Bakshi's artistic direction in Wizards (1977). The emphasis on color and distinct sihouettes allows EndlessFluff's artist CaroMoya to transcend the rather generic art styles of its contemporaries and focus on designs that communicate personality, environment and race. And shoutouts to Sam English's wonderful score for further bringing this game to life.
The comparison to Wizards is apt beyond just the art style; as it brings together the same thematic and narrative elements as well- a world that has been reclaimed by the magical fae after a cataclysmic event; natural elements allowed to spread unhindered by human technological advancement but still coming into conflict with that which has been left behind, like scars that threaten to be reopened.
Fae Tactic's experimental heart permeates every aspect of its SRPG foundations; you're not playing a bishonen royal prince with a small company of knights in this game. Its main character is a precocious young witch in a world that fears her very existence and your initial companions are a bird with water magic and... a dog. (Shoutouts Faerghast, you did it first) Peony is a lovely character; instantly recognizable by her bright design and personality. Each new character you meet have their hearts and minds slowly opened by her unflinching altruism and childlike innocence, I could only join them in being won over. I was laughing every time she got embarrassed; felt my heart melting every time she cried. One of my favorite protagonists by a very, very long shot. Truly, women are powerful and Peony is the most powerful.
Fae Tactics also has an unconventional approach to how it develops its narrative. The game itself operates on a week-based calendar, with the passage of time affecting things like access to certain areas or quest timers. This works well for me, as it allows me to tackle the campaign at your own leisure. Generally speaking, until the lategame there will always be 2 or more major quests to challenge. So if you're struggling with one, you can just play another or do some "free matches" to farm scrolls. Thanks to each weekday being represented by an element, the system has strong ludonarrative significance with each day buffing its corresponding element.
This game flew under the radar if there ever was one, so finding information and discussion on this game was somewhat tasking. If there is a common sentiment I have seen about Fae Tactics, cribbed together from various posts through the years I have managed to find floating about the ether, it is that the game can sometimes present an unfair challenge. This is an interesting dynamic when you start to consider how pared down the actual combat mechanics are on the surface. You only have three actions: attack, assist buff or wait (self-buff). Further, Square Enix set a benchmark for build complexity with Final Fantasy Tactics by which most hardcore SRPG fans will anchor their expectations. Subsequent games within the genre focused heavily on customizability within your army. The ability to modify your units to your preferences with things like skill trees, inheritances, reclassing is now genre standard. Fae Tactics chooses to trade in some of that build complexity for a more streamlined experience- there is a smaller scope of progression for units outside of the basic stat modifiers as you level up. The main characters (dubbed "Leader Units") have all their passives by default and can only change these passives through very limited customization options. For example, Peony can swap between three different weapons, each bestowing her new element and some different passives.
Apart from Leader units, there is also a monster-collection subsystem in the game in which killing certain enemies bestows you summon cards, allowing you to bring up to three additional units to the fight. These monsters are a case of "what you see is what you get," their passives are set and only base stats can be augmented via scrolls. Thusly, the importance is placed on the team composition that will utilize these monsters to maximum efficacy. In addition, the monster collecting process is a welcome diversion from progressing the story- with rare monsters to hunt only available in certain locations on certain days. Satoshi Tajiri, eat your heart out.
Fae arguably succeeds in streamlining the process, as builds are much simpler and straightforward and the much of the "planning" phase instead centers around macro-level strategy. Rather than spending hours tweaking individual values on the characters, you instead match teams based on elemental affinities and passives that "combo" together well. Thus combat is focused how well you effectuate these combos, and the inability to optimize will significantly contribute to the difficulty.
The difficulty of the game boils down to two factors: 1) the enemy level scales with the highest level member of your party (and since she is mandatory for every encounter, that is almost always going to be Peony unless you intentionally do not use her) and 2) the enemy has access to the same powerful offensive and defensive buffs you do, often multiplied to insane values. Bosses in this game can easily stack upwards of 200+ defense, high amounts of damage reduction, and will one shot you if you are not properly built to take their hits.
The solution to this, however, is actually quite simple thanks to the nature of the game's overall mechanics. You pick the element that is advantaged, equip and upgrade things that will buff that element, and take advantage of the "weekday" you are choosing to fight. Even though the bosses may sit across the map permanently buffing themselves until you reach them, I have yet to meet a challenge that was insurmountable during my playthrough. There's always clear answers to specific enemy tactics, ie. you have an enemy stacking defense buffs? Bring defense imperils. The level scaling makes things difficult, but imo it also keeps things fair. The enemy keeps pace with you statwise, and can easily destroy you if your plan of action isn't solid- and I think this overall creates a satisfying level of challenge in which you cannot simply dominate the enemy on stat differential alone. And to be sure, there are very, very broken passives in this game (Protector, I am looking at you) that can make even the most impossible-seeming scenarios in this game doable. But I can hardly call this a demerit. The greatest games in the genre have been deconstructed ad infinitum to come up with strategies that trivialize the hardest content; for me, this is part of the allure of the strategy RPG.
Then, my major criticism can mostly be boiled down to technical deficiencies that came with it being ported from consoles to PC; but for the most part these can be overlooked. The game has too much going for it for any of my criticisms to diminish the overall experience.
Fae Tactics does things different, it plays with its food and is focused on innovation and expressing itself over sticking hard and fast to the classics. This experimentation is only to the games benefit, its missteps end up being more interesting than something like Dark Deity's most faithful and successful recreations of the formula. We need more games in the genre like this that seek to push boundaries, rather than reify them.
Many of the prominent indie titles of the past decade (Symphony of War, Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, Dark Deity, etc.) have kept their influences closely abreast as the tactics genre can best be described as "burgeoning" on PC. As a style of gameplay, SRPGs are quite niche. So understandably, the best route to more players will have these developers jockeying to give us the next FFT or Fire Emblem on PC, titles that have long been relegated to consoles. Many of these games are straight up unplayable without emulation, though the increased popularity of PC gaming and Square Enix's embrace of such has given the true believers a chance to revisit the classics (still no Final Fantasy Tactics remaster or port, though..) But the library of PC SRPGs has been steadily growing, thanks to lower barriers to entry.
Endlessfluff's Fae Tactics is in fact a port of an Xbox game, but it is very much in the new tradition of the PC indies I listed, a new-school SRPG developed by fans who grew up on the classics and hope to bring the genre to new audiences. But Fae is a somewhat stark departure from many of the others. While we have come to be used to the high fantasy environment and Japanese anime-inspired artstyles ushered in by the predecessors, Fae Tactics visual signature is far more distinct. It has the colorfulness and whimsicality of EndlessFluff's earlier work in titles like Valdis Story, bringing to life its various characters and biomes with an aesthetic similar to Ralph Bakshi's artistic direction in Wizards (1977). The emphasis on color and distinct sihouettes allows EndlessFluff's artist CaroMoya to transcend the rather generic art styles of its contemporaries and focus on designs that communicate personality, environment and race. And shoutouts to Sam English's wonderful score for further bringing this game to life.
The comparison to Wizards is apt beyond just the art style; as it brings together the same thematic and narrative elements as well- a world that has been reclaimed by the magical fae after a cataclysmic event; natural elements allowed to spread unhindered by human technological advancement but still coming into conflict with that which has been left behind, like scars that threaten to be reopened.
Fae Tactic's experimental heart permeates every aspect of its SRPG foundations; you're not playing a bishonen royal prince with a small company of knights in this game. Its main character is a precocious young witch in a world that fears her very existence and your initial companions are a bird with water magic and... a dog. (Shoutouts Faerghast, you did it first) Peony is a lovely character; instantly recognizable by her bright design and personality. Each new character you meet have their hearts and minds slowly opened by her unflinching altruism and childlike innocence, I could only join them in being won over. I was laughing every time she got embarrassed; felt my heart melting every time she cried. One of my favorite protagonists by a very, very long shot. Truly, women are powerful and Peony is the most powerful.
Fae Tactics also has an unconventional approach to how it develops its narrative. The game itself operates on a week-based calendar, with the passage of time affecting things like access to certain areas or quest timers. This works well for me, as it allows me to tackle the campaign at your own leisure. Generally speaking, until the lategame there will always be 2 or more major quests to challenge. So if you're struggling with one, you can just play another or do some "free matches" to farm scrolls. Thanks to each weekday being represented by an element, the system has strong ludonarrative significance with each day buffing its corresponding element.
This game flew under the radar if there ever was one, so finding information and discussion on this game was somewhat tasking. If there is a common sentiment I have seen about Fae Tactics, cribbed together from various posts through the years I have managed to find floating about the ether, it is that the game can sometimes present an unfair challenge. This is an interesting dynamic when you start to consider how pared down the actual combat mechanics are on the surface. You only have three actions: attack, assist buff or wait (self-buff). Further, Square Enix set a benchmark for build complexity with Final Fantasy Tactics by which most hardcore SRPG fans will anchor their expectations. Subsequent games within the genre focused heavily on customizability within your army. The ability to modify your units to your preferences with things like skill trees, inheritances, reclassing is now genre standard. Fae Tactics chooses to trade in some of that build complexity for a more streamlined experience- there is a smaller scope of progression for units outside of the basic stat modifiers as you level up. The main characters (dubbed "Leader Units") have all their passives by default and can only change these passives through very limited customization options. For example, Peony can swap between three different weapons, each bestowing her new element and some different passives.
Apart from Leader units, there is also a monster-collection subsystem in the game in which killing certain enemies bestows you summon cards, allowing you to bring up to three additional units to the fight. These monsters are a case of "what you see is what you get," their passives are set and only base stats can be augmented via scrolls. Thusly, the importance is placed on the team composition that will utilize these monsters to maximum efficacy. In addition, the monster collecting process is a welcome diversion from progressing the story- with rare monsters to hunt only available in certain locations on certain days. Satoshi Tajiri, eat your heart out.
Fae arguably succeeds in streamlining the process, as builds are much simpler and straightforward and the much of the "planning" phase instead centers around macro-level strategy. Rather than spending hours tweaking individual values on the characters, you instead match teams based on elemental affinities and passives that "combo" together well. Thus combat is focused how well you effectuate these combos, and the inability to optimize will significantly contribute to the difficulty.
The difficulty of the game boils down to two factors: 1) the enemy level scales with the highest level member of your party (and since she is mandatory for every encounter, that is almost always going to be Peony unless you intentionally do not use her) and 2) the enemy has access to the same powerful offensive and defensive buffs you do, often multiplied to insane values. Bosses in this game can easily stack upwards of 200+ defense, high amounts of damage reduction, and will one shot you if you are not properly built to take their hits.
The solution to this, however, is actually quite simple thanks to the nature of the game's overall mechanics. You pick the element that is advantaged, equip and upgrade things that will buff that element, and take advantage of the "weekday" you are choosing to fight. Even though the bosses may sit across the map permanently buffing themselves until you reach them, I have yet to meet a challenge that was insurmountable during my playthrough. There's always clear answers to specific enemy tactics, ie. you have an enemy stacking defense buffs? Bring defense imperils. The level scaling makes things difficult, but imo it also keeps things fair. The enemy keeps pace with you statwise, and can easily destroy you if your plan of action isn't solid- and I think this overall creates a satisfying level of challenge in which you cannot simply dominate the enemy on stat differential alone. And to be sure, there are very, very broken passives in this game (Protector, I am looking at you) that can make even the most impossible-seeming scenarios in this game doable. But I can hardly call this a demerit. The greatest games in the genre have been deconstructed ad infinitum to come up with strategies that trivialize the hardest content; for me, this is part of the allure of the strategy RPG.
Then, my major criticism can mostly be boiled down to technical deficiencies that came with it being ported from consoles to PC; but for the most part these can be overlooked. The game has too much going for it for any of my criticisms to diminish the overall experience.
Fae Tactics does things different, it plays with its food and is focused on innovation and expressing itself over sticking hard and fast to the classics. This experimentation is only to the games benefit, its missteps end up being more interesting than something like Dark Deity's most faithful and successful recreations of the formula. We need more games in the genre like this that seek to push boundaries, rather than reify them.