FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc Review

The power of anime meets wide world of sports with the release of tiny cactus studio, MASUDATARO, veryOK, and Kodansha’s FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc.

Does this fanservice spinoff manage to serve up a good time?

FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc Review

Although described as a “completely normal game of beach volleyball” with teams of two competing for the first to four points, FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc quickly proves to be anything but.

Then again, those well-versed in Natsu, Lucy, and the rest of the gang from the Fairy Tail anime, manga, and even JRPGs should have no doubt known that right from the start.

Need further proof? For one, every single pass in FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc causes the ball to leak a healthy dose of ether macrima. This fancy material can be swooped up to increase one’s magic gauge, with some truly fantastic moves available once said gauge is full. 

Scoring also leads to magic becoming enchanted, promising even greater feats of wizardry like Reduction (which makes foes teeny-tiny) and Giant Ball (which we think is self-explanatory).

Put simply, FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc’s magic system takes volleyball from bland to grand.

At least, in theory. 

FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc’s action certainly promises plenty of havoc, but the ball moves as slow as molasses during the beginning of each set. There’s also a moment where the characters freeze when hitting the ball, with things speeding up and slowing down all willy-nilly.

We gave it the old college try, but we just weren’t quite able to find our groove throughout the review period. Those weaned on a healthy diet of similar titles like Windjammers 2 and Lethal League Blaze will feel like the flow is a bit stilted.

Try as we might, the overall feel doesn’t prove to be as intuitive as one would expect – especially when there’s a sheer amount of modifiers and chaos on the screen popping up at any given time.

The same goes with FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc’s overall graphics. While we love its pixel-based art, its exaggerated scaling leads to some very chunky pixels. It certainly provides a unique effect, but not exactly a polished one.

FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc also manages to be a bit skint on content, taking away from its overall longevity. Players can check out a gallery and unlock characters multiples at a time, but there’s no major modifiers or even alternate courts to play on. Unfortunately, what you see is what you get in this title – and players just won’t get a lot.

FAIRY TAIL: Beach Volleyball Havoc lives up to its title with plenty of havoc, but this fanservice-laden sports title isn’t quite an ace. Fans of the time-tested series will appreciate its chaos, but don’t expect to spend too much time on its shimmering sands.

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