The recent spate of Japanese RPGs on the PS3 has followed safe and predictable patterns. The presentation needs to be good enough, the combat needs to be interesting, and the story needs to be wacky enough to deliver fan service. There's nothing really wrong with going this route, and there are certainly fans who will pick it up, but those expecting the halcyon days of the genre on the PSone and PS2 will only find those in blips as the PS3 enters its twilight years. Fairy Fencer F, the latest game from Hyperdimension Neptunia developer Compile Heart, follows this blueprint with expected results.

Long ago, the great beings known as the Goddess and the Vile God fought for control of the world. The battle ended with both being pinned by swords (called furies) infused with fairy life. While multitudes of the swords pierced the bodies of the heavenly beings and forced them into a deep slumber for thousands of years, other swords missed their target and fell to Earth. Those who are able to pick up those swords became known as fencers and can harness the power of the fairies. You play the role of Fang, an extremely lazy sort who enjoys eating and sleeping. One day, he pulls a fury that's embedded in a rock and hopes to get his wish granted. Instead, he frees a fairy named Eryn who has no memories except for her name and her desire to find the 100 furies scattered around the world. Despite his reluctance, Fang is pulled into the quest.

From here, the plot progresses in the expected ways. There's a corporation that everyone seems to benefit from but has hidden desires concerning world domination. There's a motley cast of supporting characters who you'll run into and team up with. The plot is predictable but serviceable, as it hits all of the beats without becoming too boring. If there's one thing that fans may dislike, it is that the characters fail to evolve and seem content in their stereotypical roles. Fang remains lazy from beginning to end and never ceases to talk about food. Depending on your outlook, the characters vacillate between likeable and eye-rolling, but don't expect anything deeper than what's given in your first encounter with them.

If you're familiar with the last few titles developed by Compile Heart, you won't be surprised to learn that a good chunk of the game plays out like a visual novel. All of the dialogue plays out in the same manner, with large character portraits shown over the environment. Their mouths move, but it's never really in sync, and nothing else moves, so they look like still pictures. Any sort of movement calls for a complete portrait change, and you only see a maximum of three characters on-screen at any time.

Town exploration and world exploration is done via menus and overworld maps. Everything from interaction with merchants to interactions with regular townspeople with meaningless dialogue is done with a menu/visual novel combination — but without voices or sound effects. Meanwhile, traveling in the world is a simple matter of pointing where you want to go and confirming you want to go there. On the one hand, these mechanics make the transition to the battle sequences go faster since you can quickly jump between areas without much manual navigation. On the other hand, the sense of immersion you normally get from an RPG is gone, replaced with what some may view as boring but necessary activities before you get to the meat of the game.

The minute you get into combat, Fairy Fencer F starts to get interesting. During the exploration sequences, you can control the party in areas that act like compact third-person adventure levels. These segments have simple platforming sequences, items, and save points scattered throughout the environment. Enemies are also visible, with the expected rule of first contact governing who attacks first. Combat mimics the Tales of series in that you're placed in small arenas where you have limited space to move in each turn and can only attack enemies that are within range. You can choose to perform basic attacks or magic spells, but you don't have to spend points to move around, so you're free to set things up without worrying about wasting abilities.

While you can get away with basic slashes and magic spells early on, the later levels force you to use other battle mechanics that add much more to the fighting. The game features a tension system that lets you enter a "fairize" state where you fuse with your fairy for a large stat boost. The meter depends heavily on attacking and being attacked, so defensive moves, like evading or waiting, make the meter decrease. It really promotes a more active and aggressive approach to combat that is complemented when you employ other things, like combo systems between players and abilities that only appear when certain teams are created.

Other mechanics also provide the game with some more depth. Leveling up and completing tasks give you points that let you add points to different stat categories. Finding fairies of different classes also lets you unlock different sword types, which let you upgrade your fairy faster and modify the dungeon you're exploring with different boosts and detriments. Those same fairies can also be leveled up and equipped to your character to supply more boosts and abilities, like elemental resistance or increased attack power. With over 100 fairies to choose from, it also encourages the player to partake in lots of side-quests in the hopes of getting additional fairies.

The focus on a more aggressive and offense-oriented style of gameplay is nice, but the first half of the game feels easy. With so many powers at your disposal early on and your ability to fairize in an average of three turns, you can mow down any enemy unless you don't pay attention to defense or healing. This happens despite the fact that distance and positioning of characters in relation to each other doesn't seem to affect damage or defense. Past the halfway mark, you get a large difficulty spike, but you also get into a big backtracking endeavor as you have to replay through old environments. The second half feels like lazy padding to compensate for a lack of new places to explore.

As far as the presentation goes, the most disappointing aspect is the graphics. The character designs are good but nothing special, and the monster designs don't seem to be that imaginative. They're not terrible, but you won't exactly be amazed by them. The environments that aren't part of the visual novel style are quite bland and look like they came from an average PS2 game. There's a large blur covering the whole thing that reduces the quality even further, and the camera is shot so close to the party leader that it becomes difficult to see your surroundings. You'll often walk into an ambush before you realize it. One of the more perplexing traits of the graphics is with the poor frame rate. Despite the overall graphical package and lack of elements that could tax the engine, the game often hovers around the low 20s in frame rate. Battle sequences fare better, but the performance shows the system in a poor light.

The sound is quirky but still solid. The Japanese voice cast is fine, as is the English one, and there aren't any bad performances. There is an issue with some of the dialogue playing at a lower volume than some of the audio at default settings, but you have the option to manipulate all of the different audio elements. The music isn't anything special, but the tones are all over the place. You've got a haphazard blend of hard rock anime-style themes, silly melodies, typical adventure material, and generic town-style music. The frantic changes between modes work well enough when you consider how the story goes, so while it is odd, it isn't exactly out of place.

As far as most Japanese RPGs go, Fairy Fencer F is fine. The combat system is quite good, as it provides depth without feeling too overwhelming. It allows players to easily grasp all of the systems that are introduced rather early in the game. However, the story feels rather repetitive, and the game engine feels like no optimization was done. RPG fans will enjoy the game, as it is still fun despite some of the obvious flaws. However, this title won't bring new fans into the fold.

Score: 6.5/10