Fairealm is a very classic feeling RPG that was a pleasant surprise at the 99 cents price point. But not without it’s frustrations.
Let’s start with the story. You are thrust into a tale that is fairly easy to follow, despite not knowing anything else about the world. You have a main character, that you get to rename if you wish, that is the captain of a levship, which I assume is short for levitating ship. The levship goes down in the forbidden lands of Fairealm and your captain is separated from their crew. After leaving intro area, you are introduced to your first companion. She is on her own mission to find the Crown Prince of the land but is willing to join you to help find your ship in the hopes that you can accomplish both goals.
After a little exploring, the game directs you where to go with your new companion saying to head north. Very helpful in making sure you stick to the plot. Soon after, you encounter a wolfman that serves as the games merchant. I later learned he is arguably the most important character in the game. You’re also able to interact with your first campsite, that “acts” as a save point and place to fully heal, and a crystal that allows you to fast travel to areas you’ve already been. After avoiding some traps, fighting some baddies, and leveling up, you come to your first boss of the game, which is where I almost quit Fairealm.
This is where I learned that some of the mechanics of this game are a little bit…broken. Right off the bat just going to say, poison damage is way to OP. But that’s the least of my concerns. You enter an area of the map where you see a sleeping giant of a creature. Your character freezes as the music changes letting me know that I have entered a battle. A battle that I didn’t necessarily want to take part in yet, but here goes nothing. I quickly learned the folly of not having poison resistance, or the ability to act first. My characters fought valiantly, but alas were slain. No big deal, the campsite I saved at wasn’t too far away so I’ll just reload, level up some more and then tackle the boss again. Expect the save point was in fact not created at the campsite. It was instead created after I had entered the area of the map where the sleeping giant is. Meaning I couldn’t move and was forced back into combat. So I tried again and lost again. After two more attempts, I decided to start a new game, assuming I needed to spend more time grinding out some levels before approaching that area. So I did just that. And again, I lost encounter after encounter with this giant green jerk. I closed out of the game and considered uninstalling. I had hit a point I couldn’t get past.
Day two of Fairealm.
I started another save file and meticulously went through every area I could, leveling up along the way. Then it struck me. I should talk to my wolfman friend again. Turns out, if you talk to him a second time, he gives you a warning about the monster ahead. And the devastating poison attacks you are about to be hit with. He just so happens to have an accessory that negates poison damage. Convenient. I blame myself for not taking the time to talk to this character more in the first place. Whenever we meet again, I’m sure to chat him up to learn what I’m up against and what he’s selling. Luckily, everything he has to sell is very fairly priced. After properly equipping myself and leveling up, I was able to take down this first boss that almost ended this game entirely.
With that mess behind me, I was able to focus on the overall game again, and actually quite enjoy myself. Shortly after defeating Green Grug, you meet back up with the first mage from your levship, who joins your party and claims to know where the Crown Prince went. You follow his path until you get to a locked fortress with an obelisk outside containing a riddle. This is where the major plot of the story begins. Fairealm has a classic formula of having to find four orbs of different elements, hidden within four fortresses. Once you find those you are able to unlock the original fortress where supposedly your levship crash landed. I say supposedly because as of this write-up I have not actually finished the game. I unfortunately ran into yet another boss fight that I was not prepared for and can’t escape from. And I have not mentally prepared myself to run through the hours of content from my last save.
The combat is fun, albeit a little monotonous, hence why I’m in no hurry to start over. Again. The leveling system seems to be fairly generous, though there is no indication of how close to leveling up you are. Just a hope and a prayer after each combat. Every character has different spells to cast and you are able to level those up with the help of different obelisks you find. Overall it’s a pretty enjoyable game that I do intend to finish. The biggest complaints this game will run into are that there is no map to show where you’ve been and the campsites don’t actually act as save points. I did later find out that you can manually save your game. I guess you could save every time you camp, but that’s not how they are advertised.
Oh and lastly, I almost forgot to mention that the game is supposed to be mouse or keyboard. That’s right, either or. Controls are introduced at the start of a new game. Steam will say that controllers are not supported and the game makes no mention of using a controller, but I was able to play with an Xbox controller.
If you’re looking for a cheap RPG to play for a few hours, maybe something to kill some time between game releases you’re excited about, then why not pick up Fairealm. It’s only 99 cents, has a decent story, and overall is pretty fun, as long as you remember to save often and buy everything you can from your friendly wolfman.
