Fearless Fantasy Review

The first time I was able to give Fearless Fantasy a try was last year, and it was the PC build. At the time I though it was pretty neat, but I just kept thinking about how much more fluid the seemingly made-for-mobile controls would be on a touch screen.

Turns out I was right.

Fearless Fantasy tells the story of an unlikely trio as they wander the countryside fighting monsters and evil tyrants - possibly evil tyrant-monsters. Granted the story isn’t super interesting by itself, but the characters have done an admirable job of keeping me invested. They’re a nice mix of silly and charismatic, even if some of the voice acting is a tad spotty.

Much like the audio, the graphics are actually quite impressive despite a few missteps. The visuals are colorful and sport an illustration-like quality (perhaps because they're illustrations), the animations are interesting, and many of the enemy designs are absurd in the best possible way. However, most of the human faces look kind of… off.

It’s the combat that really drives Fearless Fantasy though, and it does a great job of it. Each level is a set number of enemy encounters, and you’ll have to survive all of them in order to unlock the next one. Combat is handled almost like a traditional turn-based RPG, with each character using a basic attack as well as a number of un-lockable and upgradeable specials - also items, resting, and taunting. I say “almost” because each attack, special attack, and attempt to block an enemy attack will require you to perform some dextrous finger gymnastics.

For example, a simple melee attack might task you with swiping through a couple of arrows in the appropriate direction and with the proper timing, while a special attack might toss a bunch of jumbled arrows at you that you’ll need to swipe across at exactly the right time as they move across the screen and clump together. It’s surprising just how much more engaging this system is when compared to more typical RPG battles.

What’s also cool is that each level can be played on one of three different difficulties, which will increase the damage output of all characters and enemies as well as jazz up the attack and defense action requirements. So while it might become significantly tougher to get a Perfect on a multi-hit special, it also does significantly more damage - and feels all the more satisfying to pull off.

It’s not a blockbuster RPG, but I believe that works in Fearless Fantasy’s favor. Without those big budget expectations, tinyBuild was able to play around with the world and characters to create something that feels incredibly unique and inspired.