Author: NotForMoney | Released Date: March 5, 2019 | Platform: IOS & Android

 | About author: NotForMoney is a professional video game critic who has reviewed many populous video games including Apex Legends, Auto Chess (Dota 2), Hearthstone etc. This is his first time writing review for mobile game. |

 

Background: Unexpected guests appear in Alova Fairy Land accidentally. Urashima Taro, the Little Red Riding Hood… What makes them break away from their fairy tale world? How will they find the way back home?

Summary: Collaborate with your partner to discover the unknown world. Two players are required to play. If play solo, AI will control the partner character. Two modes can be selected: auto-play mode and regular mode. 

Developer: He’s Entertainment

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Third-Person, Role-Playing

Number of players: Console & Lan game up to 2

Rating: T

Released Date: March 5, 2019

          (Dungeon, underground city…diverse maps can be found during adventure)

The characters in this game follow the traditional RPG conventions. Each character and creep has its class (eg. Warrior, Mage, Priest etc) , race (eg. Human, Elf, Goblin etc) and the classes are mutually restrained. For instance, Mage is good at long-range-attack so it can suppress melee DPS ( close-range combat character) like Warrior when they are in long distance. However, when getting closed to melee characters, long-range characters like mage and priest become vulnerable.

This game is actually beyond expectations because it innovatively combines fairy tale elements and traditional RPG together. The innovative part is that, unlike most role-playing games, the game breaks the wall between western and eastern culture by bringing different fairy tale figures together. Basing on the western RPG conventions, there are main characters for players to choose: one is Urashima Taro, who is a famous image in Japanese fairy tale; the other one is Little Red Riding Hood in western fairy tale. Many people may have heard about Little Red Riding Hood but unfamiliar with Urashima Taro. He was a fisherman in Japanese fairy tale who saved a tortoise and was rewarded by the princess of underwater kingdom. In order to make unique characters, the developer choose Urashima to represent water, and Little Red Riding Hood to represent fire.

Based on the two characters background, the developer designs distinct abilities for the two characters. In my trial, I only played Urashima Taro, one of the character that players can control in the game and felt it a challenging character. As described in the fairy tale, Urashima Taro has visited underwater world, so the developer deliberately incorporates this character by setting his class and ability based on his story. In the game, Urashima is a human druid who has talent to summon fishes for attacking and healing. By controlling fishes around friendly units, Urashima Taro can heal them; he can also command fishes to crush on enemies and make damage. While nearing water, this ability will be strengthened. The developer also sets many eater eggs such as the NPC immortal princess appears in the map “underwater palace”; the random boss called “creepy wolf” appears in the map “forest pathway” etc. It will definitely motivate gamers to explore and attract fairy tale fans. 

                         (The character information of Urashima Taro)

The game has a large open world map for players to discover. When a player discover a new area, the system will record and calculate a discover rate for that player. The discover rate will be shown on ranking lists. Players who rank high will receive daily rewards. Attention: Unknown areas are dangerous to players. There will be creeps with unknown abilities and traps waiting inside dark. There will not be any guide for players to discover unknown areas unless players purchase a monthly pass to unlock auto-play mode. In this mode, players can set their hand free and the system will control the character automatically in the backstage. However, characters may die easily because the creeps in unknown areas are randomly distributed and some of them may be invincible to players.

To prevent the accidental death, I recommend players to purchase items from the magic shop in the game. For example, players can purchase a buff called “whosyourdaddy” to be temporarily invincible and eliminate enemies immediately while meeting undefeatable creeps. Some of the items and buffs are costly but worthy because each creep has a possibility to leave items after its death. The more powerful the creep is, the better the item will be. Some of them may even be LEGENDARY. As result, as you defeat those “undefeatable” creeps, you may obtain better items than others who fight with easy enemies. BUY THE BUFFS! BUY THE BUFFS! BUY THE BUFFS! As you all know: I prefer to repeat important things for emphasis.

                         (Unknown creeps bring uncertainty to your journey)

Alova fairy Land Legends creates a fair environment to every player. Hard-core players can challenge themselves by improving their techniques of game control in regular mode, while casual players can save their time and set their hands free by playing auto-play mode. The game is also friendly to F2P players. I was a F2P players and I got a lot of fun from it. However,  I do appreciate the auto-play mode personally. I am not familiar with mobile gaming and I had troubles with game control when I first tried this game. The auto-play mode gives casual players, like me, to play fairly with experienced players. Even though it is costly, the fun you receive worth your pay.