Fae Tactics

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TLDR for People who cant oncentrate on Text for 2 minutes:
If I had to rate the Game, I'd give it a 9/10, 4/5 or 91/100. The Gameplay is fun and stays fun, the Characters are all very likeable and the Story/Worldbuilding is decent. Well spend 70 Hours of Game. Recommended from me.
Here is the longer version:
Fae Tactics is one of those Games that you never heard of that turn out to be criminally underrated when you actually do play it.
I just finished it and I can wholeheartedly say that this were some very well spent 70 hours of Playtime. I almost fully completed the Thing too, but ultimately were too lazy to go for full 100 percent.
The Mechanics of the Game are simple yet intriguing and even if you are not usually at home in Tactics RPGs, this will not make you feel like an Idiot. You can choose from 3 Main protagonists and 3 Monsters you find along the Way that can fit into the Battle you currently face. You need to think, but your Head doesn't need to hurt afterwards. Its very decently balanced and most, if not all of the Fights feel pretty darn fair and if you screwed up, you can usually pinpoint quite quickly when and why.
Which brings us to the "screw up" part which has no repercussions. If you lose the mission, you can try again and its just that simple. Very nice cause its not frustrating you with going through like 8 different screens. It just says "retry" and badaboom baddabing, you're back in the Game.
The UI is easy to understand and althought it feels very simple, there is depth to it that gradually comes to you.
The choice of multiple Spells and Monsters you can collect feel rich and - although the "re-using skins with different attributes" is strong in this one - also rewarding cause they each bring something that feels like you wanna check it out.
Sadly, once you adjust your Mind a few monsters are SO good that you don't necessarily need the others anymore. That is to say that Balancing is partially bad, yes but ALSO that you can make it a bit harder for yourself by playing around, cause the Game allows for you to do that. There are some difficulty spikes particularly around some later Bossfights but all in all those are Rare and still feel doable.
One Mechanic I especially liked was how one Character could only ever be infected by one Status effect. If you overwrite it with a different one the old one is gone. So you can overwrite Blind, for example, with an Attack boost. Its a fun mechanic that adds actually alotta depth since there are some Statuseffects you can enter the Fight with, but can't as easily re-apply so you have to consider when and how to actually overwrite and such.
The other one I enjoyed was how the Characters had an Ultra Attack that could be used as support or Offense Move using a special gauge you filled up during combat. As you are forced to either use the Ultra now and waste it or not attack at all, it makes you manage that Resource - but that never felt boring or annoying to do, and moreso something that you want to take best advantage of. Well executed IMO.
I heard people complain you can't find some stuff without proper guides, but as I found every Weapon, almost every Spell and Monster and every optional Crewmember + did all the Optional Sidequests in the correct Order without guides:
Id say the Game does a very decent Job at dropping Hints. But only if you dont just completely skip every dialogue.
(But then play something else, the Story really is worth reading it.)
Which brings us to the Beef. The Worldbuilding and Storytelling which is - Phenomenal would be too much - but definitely very, very good. The whole game Captures a vibe thats really intriguing and draws you in. With its Art direction, Music and Storytelling it feels coherent and does not overdeliver on what it is or something. You want to know more about the World, you actually LIKE to do those Sidequests, because there are cool things happening and interesting Characters to meet.
Its a very likeable World all in all and I salute to the Writer behind it for really keeping me motivated.
However, there are drawbacks ofc.
The Story is - Fine. Really, thats not meant as an Insult, its fine like an actually good Story. There are Elements that made me lose my shit temporarily for how well written they were, and others just made me go "meh" on how it felt very generic. The Problem moreso lies in the Holes, which for me were easily spottable, sadly.
HOWEVER - if you allow yourself to roll your eyes quickly and look past those, its quite unique in many aspects and very enjoyable. Peony is luckily not one of those annoying brats that just feel like they didnt understand how existing works. For some it may be a bit cheesy, but it has - good - Fantasy Novel aspects that I honestly would have clapped about when reading it.
Big pluspoints for including different endings depending on the Things you did during the Sidequests and that Epiloque Bit at the end that made me smile.
Play it and you know what I mean. Prolly makes you smile too.
There is also a new Game plus to collect what you missed but... honestly, I think this is more of a onetime burner. Not really offers enough to justify a NG+. Feels like this was more of an "why not".
All in all, I had a Blast with everything the Game gave me. Sure, some of the Plotholes could've been better, a few more "original" monsters instead of reskinning the existing ones with new attributes but at the end of the Day, this was a great experience that led me to the Credits with a smile on my face.
And honestly, thats kinda why I play Games. So Kudos to the Devs. 9/10 from me. Would've been 10 if the NG+ would have followed the Idea introduced at the End.

I bought Fae Tactics to scratch a 'tactics RPG' itch and it did a really good job of doing that. Overall, the gameplay way engaging and there was enough in the game to keep me going until I had collected and unlocked everything possible in a single playthrough. I have gripes about the difficulty in places and the presentation but those didn't take enough away from my experience.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Pros:
-I loved the various customisable collectables throughout the game and kept playing to collect all the characters, spells, weapons, scrolls, summons etc.
-You can view all the details of every battle before you begin to maximise your chances of success. This together with the first pro makes for a really fun gameplay loop.
-The in game sprites and environments are fun and colourful.
-Defeating 'Fae' in order to have a chance at being able to summon them yourself is a fun system.
Cons:
-Certain loss conditions can feel cheap. Especially if it only takes losing one party member or AI member to lose a mission. Being pushed off a ledge or into water can be a frustrating way to lose a 30 minute battle.
-I find the UI and art direction to be pretty unappealing.
System: Steamdeck

Although I recommend this game, It's kinda hard to wholeheartedly do it. The art and characters are great, the game mechanics are interesting, but eventually the game starts to drag on and you start wondering if there are any actual tactics to employ to get through the game any faster. It almost scratched my Fire Emblem/tactic itch, but not quite what I was looking for

Don't let the awkward UI dissuade you, this is a fantastic game. Tactics fans might not like the lack of classes and jobs and whatnot, but here simplicity breeds creativity. There isn't a way to overlevel an OP party combination and roll with it through the whole game.
I love how the calendar influences each battle. At the start of the game, your choice of birth day determines which summons and spells you'll get first. Also, every day of the (in-game) week favors one elemental type, meaning that you can choose the best day to have an advantage on missions. This system also encourages party switch-ups, since no characters (except for the protagonist) have access to all 7 elements.
The story is pretty nice. Lacks a bit on the writing part, but it's quite unique. It almost has a sort of Mass Effect feature where bringing different party members to missions changes the dialogue. Some of these occurences are even tied to party members' unlock and best ending scenarios. The soundtrack is amazing, albeit not lenghty enough.
On the bad side of things, there's not much to complain about. They should increase the UI resolution and fix how the list of character traits breaks once you stack too many effects in the planning phase, before battles. Some of these effects don't have an explanation to be found anywhere but the online forums.

An exceptional SRPG which has a couple of frustrating battles. It's a really strong recommendation for fans of the genre, and one of the more unique offerings as well. While certain stylistic influences are apparent at times, this game is a true original. This can be very refreshing if you're sick of games like Dark Deity or Fell Seal which are content to completely copy existing franchises (FE and Tactics Ogre respectively).
Aside from the very-occasional difficulty spike, there are only two minor criticisms I have with Fae Tactics: the lack of a dialogue skip (which can get annoying for repeating battles or doing a NG+), and the sometimes sketchy translation. Apostrophes tend to find themselves in places where they shouldn't be... meanwhile, commas tend to find themselves noticeably absent from some places where they should be.
But when that's all the negative stuff I can say about the game, it's pretty clear that I've found a real gem.
Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Fae Tactics was its level of challenge. Way too many SRPGs err on the side of being too easy. Fae Tactics isn't afraid to throw you some battles which force you actually think. And this is a very good thing, even if a small handful of these battles end up being a little bit frustrating. Fae Tactics isn't grind-based, either; monsters will scale with your level, so you can't simply grind your way to victory unlike in badly-designed SRPGs such as Mercenaries Saga or God Wars. Fae Tactics certainly understands that STRATEGY RPGs should have STRATEGY in them. Again, a very good thing!
Characters are fairly well-designed too, with creative gimmicks to distinguish each other. Some can tank, others are long-ranged snipers, and others are hybrid support/ranged attackers. There's a certain degree of customization, too: you can equip different scrolls and weapons, and you can also level up characters' stats in 3 categories, sort of like in XCOM. Yet, customization is not COMPLETELY open-ended to the point that every unit can do everything. This is also a good thing as far as SRPGs are concerned; what's the fun in playing a strategy game where every unit is the same?
Fae Tactics has got quite a few hidden secrets, too. Boss fights that can only be found on certain days, extra dialogue options, extra items, etc. Maybe I'll have to replay this one at some point.
All in all, a modern-day classic.

Fae Tactics is a unique monster collector/tactics battler with some innovative concepts around unit equipment customization, support abilities, and even the concept of a passive action that takes place when a unit doesn't otherwise do something on their turn. There's no story to speak of here and a relative lack of unit variety, so it gets pretty grindy over time, particularly when forcing you to complete multiple maps' worth of fights back to back or replay a map when one of numerous units gets knocked out. It's worth messing around with some.