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Fairy Tail dev breaks down how the game's delay let them improve multiple aspects of the experience
Fairy Tail was delayed from its original March 19th release date to June 25th, 2020, which is a considerable amount of time. What has the dev team done with the extra months? Producer Keisuke Kikuchi explains in a NoisyPixel interview.
We utilized the additional time to brush up on various aspects of the game, including gameplay mechanics, game balance, and visual effects.
In particular, we improved on three major game mechanics.
First off, FAIRY TAIL’s creator Hiro Mashima oversaw and helped create new Unison Raids, all of which are exclusive to this game and did not appear in the original manga. We are confident players will enjoy these new attacks which can only be experienced in FAIRY TAIL.
Our team also improved the rank system, a feature in the game which allows players to upgrade their favorite character. Points received from completing requests can be freely assigned in order to increase a character’s rank. For example, as a mage increases in rank, they learn new skills and gain access to additional features. This allows each character to become stronger in aspects that differ from those received when leveling up.
Players can also utilize various materials to produce a variety of equipable Lacrima. Our team increased the total number of available Lacrima and improved their functions so that players can make even greater use of this system.
In addition to game mechanics, we also worked on a number of other aspects of FAIRY TAIL. The camera and visual effects during battles were improved, along with lighting and object behavior in order to enhance the game’s atmosphere. Character animations and facial expressions during events were refined as well.
Finally, we made great efforts to increase the balance of boss attack patterns and attack strength, along with fine-tuning the distribution of experience points among party members and in other aspects of the game as well.