Hands On In-Play Notes: Faery is rough around the edges, but a fantastic score and inviting world make it worth playing
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As the first game released by Spiders Studio (working on Mars, Sherlock Holmes v. Jack the Ripper, and Grey Matter) Faery Legends of Avalon is a RPG game that despite being rough around the edges, does enough that's compelling to make it a worthy pick up.
What's Great:
The Musical Score: billed as being reminiscent of Tchaikovsky's work, I must say that I just love the score. Most games' music is either annoying or good but only as background aesthetic. There are exceptions of course (i'm thinking Dragon Age in particular) but few games' music are such a highlight as here. Playing Faery, I feel like the music is front and center, and one of the true pleasures of playing the game.
The relaxed, puzzle-solving approach. The focus on exploration and NPC interaction might turn off those who are more hack-n-slash hopefulls, but Faery's approach to the RPG genre is quite lovely i think. Rather than thrusting you into one combat engagement after another, or heavy dungeon crawling, in Faery while you do plenty of combat here and there, the emphasis is much more on NPC interaction, problem solving, and exploring the world around you. Combined with the stellar musical score, it makes Faery seem like a magical world brimming with opportunities to engage with. I'd also add that this is a very kid-friendly game, which is rare in the RPG world these days, but as an adult I'm very much enjoying the relaxed approach.
Leveling/Evolving your Faery: While initially you're able to choose gender, face, skin color, and hair/color, as you level you unlock all kinds of ways to evolve your faery. Each evolution effect skills and abilities you have in combat, and changes the look of your protagonist. In most RPG's, leveling is a very "internalized" affair, never affecting the look of your character. One of my favorite things about Faery is that leveling is "externalized" to the look of your character.
What's Fine:
Combat: Faery doesn't reinvent the wheel here, as your combat is standard JRPG turn based play. While I can say that the system works just fine and doesn't do anything out of line, it doesn't make for very compelling play either. Still, combat takes a backseat in Faery in my opinion, so it's not a huge problem either way.
Overall Aethetics: The score is great and the artwork is lovingly detailed, but you'll find some of the environments to look rather rough/pixelated as if it were a PS2 release. Now, unless you're an AAA game player only, that shouldn't be a problem, largely because the environments are engaging, well crafted in terms of presentation and layout, and are a pleasure to explore. Just don't expect top of the line visuals.
What's Poor:
Lack of voice acting/Text based quests: Sure, not every game needs voice acting, but it is the standard these days. And even if you're not expecting full voiced scripts, you'd still expect character murmurs, perhaps simple voiced interactions like greetings (like in Borderlands) etc. In Faery, no character is voiced at all, which makes it a tad jarring in play to be honest. Thankfully the texts aren't long to read and you can check through them quickly, but it's the single largest factor which limits player immersion into the wondrous world.