The fairies and Capcom have bloomed something akin to a T-1000, which is surprisingly not a joke.
"Fairy Bloom Freesia" is a beat 'em up released in 2011, 2012 worldwide on Steam and more. "Fairy Bloom Freesia" is a sequel to the original 2005 freeware release "Fairy Bloom," which got a remake in 2014 as "Fairy Bloom: Ultra Encore."
"Fairy Bloom Freesia" was developed by Edelweiss. They've made a small number of titles, such as "Astebreed," "Ether Vapor" & its remaster, and their most popular title "Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin." Including the other "Fairy Bloom" titles, this is their entire game library.
"Fairy Bloom Freesia" was published by... Wait, Capcom?! Wait, but the Steam store says the publisher is Nyu Media, who publishes and localizes indie games from Japan. Also, double wait... The ESRB rating website says it's Capcom and an admin on the Steam forums for "Fairy Bloom Freesia" brought up Capcom.
It's weird since Capcom being the publisher isn't advertised anywhere. I had to dig for a while to make sure Capcom had a part in publishing the title.
For my own history with "Fairy Bloom Freesia," I picked it up in 2014 after playing the demo on sale. I then went ahead and beat the game in an afternoon, but still completed what I could barring some achievements.
I remember really liking "Fairy Bloom Freesia," while having its flaws, I had a lot of fun. However, I was young, impressionable, and still had no idea an Apple phone wasn't edible, Apple, more like apeeple. I now know they're pears, so let's see my new maturity tackle this game once again.
Weapon of Mass Destruction
Premise
Freesia is a fairy that lives in Lita Forest, protecting the Jomon Tree, her tree dad, from slime monsters and humans. The humans want the stone inside of the Jomon Tree, but if it's removed, the Jomon Tree will die.
Honestly, the story is barebones, even younger me thought it sucked. The characters are one-dimensional, the story isn't engaging, and it's too short to get invested in anything. This becomes clear with the ending that tries to be emotional, but gives me bored face syndrome instead.
The character designs are also confusing. Listine and the King look like they are from the 1700s or earlier, Ralph is a modern scientist, and Shyine has an outfit that screams fanservice. What period are these people in?!
It makes it glaring that the story and characters weren't the focus, but rather, the gameplay involving an adorable little girl becoming a weapon to surpass Metal Gear.
Basic Mechanics
Freesia can attack, jump, dash, dodge, use special skills, and block. Special skills use MP, while blocking only works until the guard gauge fills up. Once filled up, Freesia's guard breaks.
The controls take a bit of time to figure out since the tutorial is... Honestly bad. The game expects you to read text that quickly disappears while pummeling enemies. Clearly top-tutorial design.
Thankfully, the mechanics are simple, being a lot of fun and addicting to mess around with. Attacks alone are beyond satisfying due to the sound design and because the enemies are annoying as f-
The Enemies and Bosses
I'm not expecting enemies to go down without a fight, but man are these guys aggravating. Small slimes have annoying projectiles; tall slimes have a far-reaching, sudden, melee attack; flying enemies teleport & well, fly; and more.
The sudden attacks, attacks that come off-screen without any visual cue due to the camera not showing those areas, and lack of invincibility letting Freesia get juggled like a bouncy ball makes the enemies beyond frustrating.
This is even worse during boss battles as enemies often get in front of the boss, attack behind the boss, or shoot projectiles from a distance which adds extra stress to the guard gauge. This genuinely ruined some of the boss fights and had me yelling "come on" a lot. For some reason, every time I yelled that, there was a new hole in my wall. Spooky.
It's a shame too because the bosses on their own are well designed with challenging attacks that test the player effectively. The addition of having a breakable guard that stuns the boss into a combo is awesome too.
However, I can't appreciate most of them because of the common enemies adding unnecessary frustration to their fights. It's no wonder the final boss is my favourite, it's a proper one versus one.
There only being five enemy types doesn't help either. While there are variations, the differences boil down to a different projectile and colour.
But if you close your eyes~
Levels and Upgrading Freesia
Days, the levels, give the goal of defeating every enemy without remorse. After each day in Story Mode, Freesia can use Mana collected by defeating enemies to get more Basic Skills, Special Skills, and to get & upgrade Optional Skills.
Only four Special Skills and two Optional Skills can be equipped at once. The placement of Special Skills also decides how they activate.
These can range from an area-of-effect attack, projectiles, stat boosts, and more. The most essential of the skills is Just Guard, which won't fill up the guard gauge if Freesia times her blocks exactly right.
I found myself favouring Regenerate & STR Boost as Optional Skills. Pigeon, Shrike, Mother's Breath, and Arc Slicer were my go-to Special Skills. Shrike alone is a "Dragon Ball" moment, so it's necessary.
Apart from Shrike, STR Boost, and Mother's Breath, this is interestingly close to my loadout when I played "Fairy Bloom Freesia" back in 2014. Although, for some reason, I had the Pigeon ability twice... I guess I just really liked pigeons.
There are plenty of skills to play around with to fit your playstyle, with more unlocked overtime to encourage experimentation even late into the game. It adds some fantastic customization to the game.
The Coldest, Brutalist Visuals You'll Ever See
If seeing Freesia for the first-time instilled fear into you, you may find the following section disturbing. With that said, "Fairy Bloom Freesia" is adorable as h*ck.
While the presentation isn't mind-blowing, the presentation looks lovely with wide variety, clean visuals, and beautiful backgrounds.
The portraits look a little off, but they have their charm. Except for this face.
This face makes me want to call the police. Or, I guess in this case, the Night Watch.
The music of "Fairy Bloom Freesia" is the biggest highlight with catchy, upbeat tunes. I'm still humming these tunes eight years later.
Unfortunately, the game does have a pile of bugs. Freesia and bosses sometimes t-pose, likely as a final attempt to assert dominance when their guard breaks. Other times Freesia will zip to a lower platform.
Other OTHER times, the title screen's lighting won't work properly, or the title screen will just break completely. The title card itself once minimized to the left, which had me do a genuine double take.
These glitches aren't major, but they do break immersion sometimes. However, they're also funny, so it's not a big deal or anything.
Story Mode vs. Guardian Mode
"Fairy Bloom Freesia" is split into two modes. Story Mode has Freesia travel five days per stage with specifically crafted levels. Guardian Mode has Freesia going through 100 days (about three and a half months) with the difficulty increasing each stage, but with more freedom on how to approach the chaos.
Freesia is only upgraded through day intervals, mostly every five days, with no way to upgrade Freesia in-between. Between each interval also only allows three continues, with the player having to start from the last save point if all continues run out.
Guardian Mode unlocks after beating Story Mode, which makes sense. I mean, you need to break 25 eggs to make 100 omelets... Wait, is that how the saying goes?
Both modes have their pros and cons. Story Mode is more balanced in difficulty barring a few bosses. On higher difficulties, Story Mode is easily the hardest between the two.
Guardian Mode lets you unlock every ability by Day 25, barely has any story, and there's more to do. However, Guardian Mode is more repetitive and less organized. Level layouts are often repeated with the same platforms, enemy spawn patterns, and more.
It gets old fast repeating the same levels. I feel less like a guardian of the forest, and more like a guardian for my own patience.
Sometimes the level types, normal and vortex levels, are repeated. For example, you could have five to nine vortex levels in a row. IN A ROW!
In vortex levels, a vortex or three spawns. Enemies tend to target them and it's your goal to protect them. If at least one vortex is destroyed, you lose the level. As a benefit, Freesia being close to a vortex heals her... Assuming you don't get knocked away... Or that it doesn't teleport away...
Vortex levels also appear in Story Mode too, and in both modes, they're aggravating to play. It's difficult to protect a vortex with the number of enemies and projectiles sometimes, and it's difficult to manage three at a time.
However, vortex levels do add variety and I appreciate their presence... In Story Mode Unfortunately, when you must play so many in a row in Guardian Mode, it drives you mad. The same goes for a bunch of regular levels in a row too, those get tiresome too without the vortex levels to freshen things up.
Story Mode balances the variety well, Guardian Mode has no clue what moderation is.
Fortunately, Freesia is well-equipped to handle the repetition. It's at least worth enduring the repetition for the EX-versions of the bosses, which supply a wonderful, chaotic challenge.
Completionist Elements
"Fairy Bloom Freesia" includes new game+, letting the player carry over their mana and skills to a new save file in either mode. Freesia will still start at level one, but you'll be able to Kamehameha enemies even earlier.
By completing each mode, including at higher difficulties, gallery sections will be unlocked. These can include the stage viewer, character portraits, backgrounds, and more.
It's satisfying to complete the gallery list, with the stuff in the galleries being neat too. It gave me all the incentive I needed to do the higher difficulties back in 2014, I love lists.
L
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Amazing. There are also awards, which are in-game Steam achievements. These range from defeating up to 10,000 enemies, dealing 1,000 damage in one hit, and more.
The awards/achievements act as some nice replay value, but unfortunately, you don't get anything in-game for doing them all. Which is standard for Steam achievements, but I figured there'd be something special in-game since the achievements are listed in-game.
Some of these aren't easy either. For example, Fab Five requires achieving an attack modifier of five, which... I didn't know was even a thing.
Despite following a guide, this was painful to get. So many mysterious holes on my wall now...
The achievements can also be buggy. Sometimes the in-game awards would reset. The glaring one being how achievements aren't unlocked in Training Mode, accessible when upgrading Freesia, until after you exit the game. This results in no unlock date for the awards in-game.
I could just say this was the doing of ghosts, but... N-No, it's just a weird glitch.
Overall (C+)
"Fairy Bloom Freesia" hasn't uh... Aged the best. I still love the simple combat, challenge (mostly), and presentation. However, the story is barebones, enemies are aggravating, bosses are mixed, vortex levels are annoying, Guardian Mode is repetitive, and there are several bugs.
Going back, I found so many more problems than I did back in 2014. Before I only minded the story, now I mind the gameplay elements. I guess I just forgot the cons overtime or didn't notice them before.
With that said, "Fairy Bloom Freesia" is still an enjoyable time. If you have an afternoon to kill, it's the perfect game for that sort of thing, with Story Mode being two or three hours long. While critically, I can't call it good, I can easily call it the weirdest Capcom game I've ever played, and that must be worth something.
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