Fae Tactics

This is a long review, here's a tl:dr.
Solid game with tactical depth, worth the money. If you were/are a fan of Final Fantasy Tactics, then get this game up. If you're going to purchase this, think about going to the Humble store directly to purchase it.
Before I give my opinions, I'll give a basic explaination on how the game works. If I miss something, sorry, this isn't meant to be a guide.
Gameplay
The gameplay concept is simple enough and standard for most turn based tactical RPGs. The bad guys have characters speckled across the map and you also have characters in squares on the map. Every character has a speed or initiative value, which determines turn order. Each character takes their turn to do actions until you either fail or the win condition is achieved. Each character has an element associated with them. Fire, ice, water, earth, wind, electric, arcane, or physical. Most elements are weak to and strong against other element types. For example fire is strong against ice, but is weak to water.
Cooking
The cooking mini game is simple. You have a grid of 16 squares and you play the game Memory. Click a square to try to match it somewhere else in the grid. There's a timer counting down once you start. Each match you make adds a stat to the next battle. Hp, increased attack, or many other options. You can enhance these bonuses with your camping points, which you get in the grid as well.
Party Management
The party management menu is very simple. Each character has two gear slots. Their weapon and a scroll. You can obtain scrolls from enemy drops and chests on your missions. There's a large amount of scrolls that can be found that have bonuses like more hp for certain types of allies, jump higher, or move further. Weapons change the element of the character and quite often, their whole playstyle.
Each of the main characters gain a trait point when they level up. You can place that point in one of three categories; offense, defense, or utility. Each category has two things that it increases the value of, but the second is different for each character. Example: both characters are spending points in defense, character 1 gains HP/MB (Hit Points/Magic Barrier) and Defense for each point spent while character 2 gains both HP/MB and increased resistance. These second bonuses are gained and increased for every 5 points spent in that tree. These points can be freely redistributed at any time when you are not in an active battle.
Summons
Obtain talismans to summon creatures at the start of the battle. These characters work just like your main characters, but you don't get to equip them with anything. At the start of combat, the summons you have equipped will be brought into the battle, and if they die they are out for the remainder of the battle. You can get some really interesting combinations.
Now on to what I think about the game. I'll give each category a score out of 5.
Gameplay - 5 - Really good and deep combat gameplay.
Story - 3 - Average story that doesn't break any molds and can get a little dark at times.
Sound - 4 - Music is nice and the sound effects are very well done.
Graphics - 3 - It's pixel graphics.
Options - 2 - The available gameplay/sound/video options are very limited.
Replay Value - 3 - Mostly a one and done playthrough.
Stuff I Didn't Like
1. One of the draws of this game is supposed to be the "menuless" tactical RPG experience, and for the most part, it's well done. However, it's also one of the biggest problems for me. Access to information is done very poorly here. I received an item around hour 2 of my playtime that gave +1 Teamwork. I was 15 hours into the game when I got access to see what Teamwork actually was. Unless I'm missing something pretty big here, the only way to know what a keyword means/does is to have a character with that keyword as part of their kit. Another example is one of my characters had the ability to Cripple opponents they hit. The only way to find out what that actually did, was to proc the cripple on an enemy and mouse over the tooltip for the debuff. In a game that's all about positioning, knowledge of the enemy, and how to tactically distribute your tools, not having access to keyword information is a pretty big failure.
2. You have no control over the placement of your characters at the start of a battle. 99% of the battles you fight aren't ambushes, so there is no reason that in a tactical game I shouldn't have the ability to place where I want my characters to start. In games like XCOM it's fine to not have that because your starting position isn't deadly. The number of times one of my summons was killed before I even had a single turn because it started within range of an enemy that got to act first is absurd. This should never happen. There is also a bug as a result of this where you can summon your characters off the map, which prevents you from continuing the game.
3. This is a personal preference and not a flaw in the game, but damn I am tired of pixel graphics. I played my Nintendo Entertainment System 30 years ago, I'd like something more than an 8-bit PC game please.
4. Level grinding for summons. I feel there is a big missed opporutnity here. If you want to use summons that are earlier in the game, you're going to have some griding to do to catch them up. I don't mind grinding out levels for main characters, but because the summons setup is so diverse, it can pigeonhole you pretty bad into using specific ones because of the level differences. Picking up ultra balls in combat with the summons does help to catch them up, but I would have much rather seen the possibility of summon talismans dropping that would boost the level of that summon if you already owned it.
5. No rotation of the map. So many times it was a challenge to select the right square or character because they were hidden behind something else. Fortunately this didn't punish me gameplay wise as it's pretty easy to cancel movement and you have to confirm an action, it was just very frustrating.
Things That I Thought Were Done Well
1. Every battle is an evolving puzzle to solve. The first several hours were REALLY easy and I quickly found a strategy that I thought was the go to strategy that would win everything. I was wrong. I must admit, I got frustrated and mad at the game for getting all up in my butt like a boar hog on a corn cob, but I learned that I had to adjust my strategy. Once I did, I steamrolled that battle that was wrecking me. Now I'm in the habit of adjusting to solve the puzzle for each map and it's increased my enjoyment a lot.
2. Each character is unique and flavorful. I love all of the characters in the game, so far. They are cute, funny, weird, and heartbreaking. Only being able to take three of them into a battle is a really hard choice for me. Each character has it's own strengths and weaknesses and since the traits are not locked in, you can create some really interesting and fun builds for the characters.
3. Depth of team composition. I can make some really good and flavorful teams. Not only are the characters themselves unique and powerful, you can complement them extremely well with your summons. Not using a dedicated healer? Get a summon for that. You can adapt to the battlefield extremely well by using your summons correctly.
4. Combat is fun and engaging. Not really a lot to say here, I dig the meaty feel of a bird in boxing gloves punching the spit out of a dynamite throwing unicorn squirrel.
5. Enemies feel dangerous. With the right setup for the map, you can cakewalk your way to victory, but if you underestimate your enemies and try to brute force your way through, you're going to have barrel of whoopass opened up on you.
6. Side systems like cooking and crafting are nice additions. They aren't complicated and not something you have to focus on. The parts for crafting come naturally. The only caveat to the crafting is the increased summon limit feels absolutely required to have.

For this review, I'm going to compare Fae Tactics (FT) with Final Fantasy Tactics (FFT).
The initial disappointment for me was the lack of a job system like FFT. However you still get a lot of customization options for each character via traits, weapons and scrolls. Traits affect your basic stats (e.g. Attack, Health). Weapons and scrolls allow you modify and add more abilities (Accuracy, Regen, MP drain, etc).
Parties are limited to 6 units - 3 leaders and 3 fae. Leaders are main story characters. Fae are summoned units you capture when you kill and pick up their summoning cards. However you can't have 2 identical fae in your party (unless you use a mimic fae).
This makes FT a lot harder than FFT because you can't just build 5 Dual-Wielding Ninja-Monks and steamroll the game. ^_^
Battles are heavily elemental based (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind). Before each battle, you're allowed to study the enemy units on the battlefield and prepare your units. You are also allowed to select a maximum of 3 spells. Easily winning a battle means selecting the right elemental weapons, spells and fae. There is another type of Element (Arcane) that is mostly neutral and you could just build your entire party around it, but it would be suboptimal in certain boss battles.
The UI and controls are pretty good. The game is way more forgiving than FFT in terms of testing moves and showing attack results. Every attack will show you the expected damage and chance of missing. Also the entire game can be played with one hand via a mouse. There is no 3D rotation in FT though, the game is strictly a 2.5D isometric game. But the battlegrounds are well designed and I never felt the need to rotate the camera.
The music is excellent. Even in negative reviews of the game, FT's soundtrack is often praised. It's on par with any big budget Final Fantasy game.
The story was better than I expected. Characters were all interesting, and there were plot twists along the way. I had expected a generic throwaway fantasy story, but there are certain moments where I thought - hey that's pretty cool.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the game a lot. But don't expect a FFT clone. Instead enjoy the game for its own unique characteristics.

The whole game took about 30-40 hours without trying to 100% it on first try. It took me nearly the same amount afterwards on new game+ for 100% the game.
The game is a SRPG\TRPG game in the vein of FF Tactics and the earlier HB bundled Fell Seal. This was a recently released game and was quite shocked that I get to play it already in Humble Bundle.
It has the same gameplay style as most SRPGs but it still has its own charms and rules. I never felt it was stale even replaying the game as soon as i finished the main story. Replaying the game also lets you continue with your level and stats intact but the enemies are also leveled up.
This is one of the few games that i didn't speed run on the new game+ and it still felt Great replaying the game. There are some bonuses from the storyline that pays off in the end that there were already some hints happening at the start that i didn't notice until i replayed the game.
The artstyle reminds me a lot of PS1 Legend of Mana. (That needs a remake or remaster) Story is memorable and having different character endings shows everyone's stories end nicely. Their is still a chance for a sequel which i'll gladly look forward to.
I still cannot go over the fact that this game made me replay it and I still enjoyed the story the 2nd time.
Pros
- Great Story and Artsyle
- Just the right difficulty with some HARD bosses sprinkled that will require you to change "tactics"(heh)
- I REALLY appreciate Epilogues for games that have character storylines
Needs improvement
-There are still some bugs but haven't encountered game breaking ones. I only had 2 crashes\hangs at the start of the game but nothing on my 2nd playthrough
- Randomness of Scroll and Fae talsmans drop rate
Cons
- Missable content - Some of it i can understand when there are already hints so replaying the game will add new experience but there are still some that may need an explanation to be more clear

Let me preface this review by saying that I weigh aspects such as gameplay MUCH higher than other aspects (like story), so keep that in mind.
Some people might look at this game and go "Wow this looks like Final Fantasy Tactics!". To be clear, this isn't FFT (if you want that, go check out Fell Seal). Instead, Fae Tactics is its own breed of Tactical RPG, which, while it might be simpler than an FFT-like game, puts the pieces together in a fun and compelling way.
So how does this work?
Each battle you can deploy 3 "Leader" units and "up to 3 Fae summons". At the beginning of the game, you only have 3 leader units, and won't find more till you progress in the story a little bit. As for the Fae, you will acquire a couple initially (which Fae you're given at that point is determined by the birthday that you entered at the beginning of the game / which astrological sign that corresponds to your birthday) and get more as you play. Obtaining more Fae is quite simple -- during battle, sometimes Fae will drop a card which one of your units can pick up -- adding it to your collection.
You also have access to 3 spells which you can cast on the battlefield. The idea is: you select which three you want before battle from your spell collection and that's what you get to work with. Spells have cooldowns (like 3 / 4 / 5 turns etc) and start battle on cooldown. Furthermore, you can only cast 1 spell per round, and the spells can be cast anywhere, regardless of where your main hero (Peony) is on the battlefield (somewhat similar to the Heroes of Might & Magic series, if you're familiar with those). Because of these factors, which spells you chose to take each battle actually makes a pretty big difference; yes, you can take 3 powerful spells, but be restrained by their cooldowns, or perhaps take a small variety of cooldowns to be able to get benefits sooner and more frequently.
"So you said this wasn't FFT, so how CAN you customize your units?"
For the Fae summons, they are basically "canned" or "pre-determined" in terms of their stats / specials / etc. In themselves, they aren't particularly customizable, however, you have so many Fae, that the idea is "using the Fae you think would be best for this encounter that I'm on right now".
For the Leader units, they have two equipment slots: Scroll slot for minor stat bonuses, and a Weapon slot which fundamentally affects how that unit plays. Lastly, they have "Trait Points" (1 / level) where you can assign them to three categories of Offense / Defense / Special, which have varying effects based on which specific Leader unit it is. Note that equipment and Trait Points can be reassigned any time outside of battle so it's super flexible and you don't have to worry about taking the "wrong skills" or something -- quite nice in my opinion.
"If this isn't FFT, how do abilities work?"
Fae Tactics utilizes a more-streamlined system of contextual actions. Basically, with your units, they have:
Attack
Assist (heal / buff ally type actions)
Wait Power (various kinds of effects / buffs etc)
The point is that there aren't menus of "selecting your action", instead, you just move your units, tell them to do one of the above actions, and go for it. (Side note: yes, there is a "delay turn" action as well)
Small mechanical spoilers:
At level 5 units gain access to a Reaction ability, which has all sorts of cool effects, like reactive heals / counterattacks / etc, depending on the unit. This Reaction ability has a % chance to trigger, and there are ways to improve the % chance.
At level 10 Leader units gain an Ultimate ability, which charges up as they do actions / take hits. This action as well is contextual in nature, to where you can use it offensively for a supermove, or as an assist power for cool effect.
At level 20 Leader units gain an EX ability, where they can utilize some of their special charges to power-up their action instead of just spending them all on a fully-charged Ultimate ability. Nice flexibility for when you need it, even though the Ultimates are likely stronger in nature.
Miscellaneous notes:
There is a basic "upgrades / tech" section which utilizes some crafting materials you find. Pretty simple, but decent.
Things you do in game make a difference. There are some encounters where you can get bonuses if you save VIPs on encounters (or even miss things if you fail those sub-objectives), and things like that. This can be nice, but also for completionists, you need to be aware of this. If you're concerned, I'd recommend making multiple save files because the game auto-saves very often, so "just reloading" can be a little difficult. Yeah, it's extra effort, but -- that's up to you.
Mini-games exist, and they're perfectly fine, but definitely not something you spend forever on like Triple Triad / Blitzball / Gwent. Background: Fae Tactics is storyline-wise a sequel to a Match-3 game which came out a long time ago, so...knowing that will make one of the minigames make more sense...
Closing thoughts:
Overall, I'd say this game is quite worth it, especially at a base price of only $20 USD. For those concerned about gameplay time, give or take a little bit, the devs claim that it's about a "60 hour campaign", which I've heard confirmation from other players that that's pretty accurate. There is NG+, but it doesn't really "add much new", so, whether you care about that or not is up to you. Just because a game is perhaps "simpler in nature" (especially when compared to FFT-type games), that doesn't mean it's "bad". In fact, I would claim that the various moving parts of Fae Tactics come together quite well and will lead to an enjoyable gameplay experience.
If you'd like a more-extensive and in-depth review of this game, I would recommend checking out a friend's Steam review / review site article found here:
Note that there might be an aspect or two which he mentions which may have changed since he wrote that, as the game has already gone through a few patches addressing bugs / balance concerns (such as making sure units' exp doesn't fall behind others as easily).

This is a very fun and charming take on a tactics game, but don't let the cute graphics fool you - there is plenty of challenge here as well! Considering that Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my all-time favorite games, this one definitely scratches a different kind of itch.
I like that you can collect and level up monsters (fae) to summon as allies at the beginning of each battle, rather than the standard job/class grind that other FFT-esque games follow. Also, managing which talismans (spells) to take with you into battle, and carefully planning out how to use them, is an interesting way to help control the field.
Overall, Fae Tactics feels polished and well-balanced, hitting just the right spot for those who want to stay engaged in a not too complex, but still very satisfying game. I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth, and I'm not even halfway done yet! Would obviously recommend to anyone who enjoys tactics games! :)
Update: Now that I have finally finished Fae Tactics, I can easily say that it is one of my favorite tactics games ever! So happy I gave it a chance! :D

Fae Tactics is enjoyable. I actually came into the game only slightly more positive than neutral. I expected it to be competent but I did not expect to be enraptured, and yet I was. I kept finding myself wanting to do one more stage and even now, with the game finished, I am finding myself going through stages trying to hunt the items I missed hoping to extract a little bit more of the joy I got from playing it out. I want more and I will play it again soon, and that alone is usually enough for me to recommend it to people who enjoy the genre.
What makes Fae Tactics different is that I want to recommend it to most everyone who has the slightest bit of inclination to play a tactical turn-based RPG due to how effectively it manages to balance simplicity with depth. Even if you have a low degree of tolerance for convoluted rules systems you should be able to get into Fae Tactics. If you are someone who likes lots of crunchiness with a variety of options to explore then Fae Tactics should satisfy you. It is a crowd-pleaser and frankly exceptional. Get it. Play it. Enjoy it.
Pros:
Excellent stage design, with a variety of goals and challenges
Character development continues to the end of the game and beyond
High replay value
Enjoyable story and setting
Cons:
Somewhat imbalanced characters, gear, and spells
Slow start
Tough to keep characters at equal strength
Lack of keyboard options can make some actions tedious
If you want a larger explanation where I go in depth you can see my review at Turn Based Lovers which you can see here:

Definitely one of the most interesting SRPGs I've played in a long time, and as a fan of the genre I really appreciate that this game aims for something different rather than simply trying to emulate Final Fantasy Tactics / Tactics Ogre (like so many other games do).
The thing that sets Fae Tactics apart is how mechanically lean it is. Each of your unit’s moves are determined by context; if you target an enemy you will attack, if you target a friendly unit you will assist them and if you choose to wait you will get a passive buff. As a result, you don’t have a large range of skills to choose from; instead there is a much greater focus on tactical positioning and setting up combos with other units. Despite the art style evoking Final Fantasy Tactics the moment to moment gameplay feels closer to something like Fire Emblem.
This streamlined philosophy extends to the other game systems; there is no real micromanagement of unit equipment or large skill trees / job systems to explore; rather, the focus is on selecting a group of fae creatures with complimentary elemental types for the battle at hand. I personally found this singular focus on the tactics rather than the “RPG elements” synonymous with the genre refreshing, but I suspect it will rub some people the wrong way.
I’d recommend this game pretty universally on its mechanics, and the pixel art is so incredibly charming as well! High up on my list from 2020 so far.