I must admit I’m much more excited about indie gaming these days than most of the big AAA titles. That includes Western developed games as well as the Japanese Doujin scene. So I really appreciate the efforts of people like Carpe Fulgur and now Nyu Media in bringing us indie titles from the Far East that I would have never thought would see the light of day in the U.S.

Nyu Media’s latest release, Fairy Bloom Freesia, borrows familiar elements from other action and fighting titles to create a unique little brawler full of flashy combat and cute characters. But will that be enough for Freesia to fight its way into your game library? Let’s take a look a closer look.

Fairy Bloom Freesia (Windows PC)

Developer: Edelweiss
Publisher: Nyu Media
Release Date: October 17th, 2012
MSRP: $7.99

Story: As you might have guessed, Fairy Bloom Freesia is the story of a fairy named Freesia. By all appearances she looks like an innocent young girl, but she is actually the guardian of Lita forest and a fierce fighter. Her skills are put to the test defending the trees from golems, as well as the humans who have entered the forest searching for a powerful stone.

Freesia’s story, told mostly though visual novel style cut scenes, is pretty straightforward and ultimately inconsequential. It’s a nice touch to help establish a little context to the brutal beatdowns you’ll be handing out, but not much more. For other types of games this might be an issue, but let’s be honest here, you didn’t buy this game for the story. The fact that they put as much effort into the narrative as they did was kind of a surprise, so consider it more a bonus than a loss.

Gameplay: Freesia is a fast flashy brawler, pitting you against waves of faceless enemies in small, 2D arenas. For context, probably the closest comparison I can make is the single player experience of Smash Bros. – tight fierce battles with light weight enemies flying around and bouncing off each other like pinballs. There are some attempts at mixing up the action by occasionally  setting up check points to defend as well as the boss battles that require more focus to defeat, but it all boils down to you doing a lot of fighting.

The combat itself works great with tight controls and an extensive, customizable move set for racking up huge combos. There are some light RPG elements as Freesia gains experience points to unlock new abilities and earns mana to purchase them. These include the usual stat buffs you would expect as well as new special moves that can be equipped in between battles. There is a healthy number of skills, and trying out different builds helps vary the gameplay a bit.

Probably 90% of the fun in Freesia is the physics. Your blows hit with a satisfying “thwok!” and feel like they have some weight to them. Enemies are easily hurled into each other or launched through the skies for an air combo, multiplying that feeling exponentially with each blow. It’s kind of like taking the satisfaction of an action game like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry and distilling it down into its most raw, primal form. Just the pure, simple joy of smashing things up.

Gameplay wise that’s some high praise, but when I say “primal” I mean this is a very simple game. There are only a handful of enemy types and the small arena style levels offer no more variety than different platform placement. Despite the respectable amount of available skills, most take some time to unlock and you can only choose four to equip. So once you’ve settled into a set you’re comfortable with, the combat can get pretty repetitive. And with no exploration and hardly any story, the combat is all you’re going to get.

As far as game modes there is the self explanatory Story mode, as well as a higher difficulty level and “Guardian” mode that are unlocked once you’ve completed the game. Guardian mode sends endless waves of golems at you, with less intermissions to manage your skills and a limit of three continues. I found the Story mode to be on the easier side on my first playthrough, so the added challenge and new mode are nice incentives to come back. But ultimately that may not matter, as your lasting enjoyment of Freesia will come down to how much of the combat you can take before it starts to feel too repetitive.

Presentation: Freesia looks quite nice for a doujin game, with 3D graphics falling somewhere along a high end PS2 game in HD. Freesia and the human characters are designed and rendered well and the level design is plain and pretty. The soundtrack is fun and appropriate, and a few of the piano tracks are quite pretty. For the most part, it’s an above average presentation for an indie title.

Where Freesia does show some cracks is in the monster designs. As mentioned there is only a handful to begin with, and they’re all basically amorphous greyish/brownish blobs. It probably wouldn’t make any difference gameplay wise but it would be nice to see more variety. Beyond the enemies, some of the character portraits look a little amateurish during the cut scenes. When you see Listine’s “nosebleed face” you’ll know what I’m talking about. Again, a small detail, but for a game available on Steam and playing with the Big Boys I feel like I should mention it.

Overall Value: Freesia is an easy recommendation to make at its price point. Story mode will net you about 3-5 hours of gameplay, and Guardian mode with its endless horde of monsters in theory adds unlimited replay value. I have to say “in theory” though as not everyone will have the desire to keep coming back. If you’re an action game combo fiend who obsesses over higher and higher scores, this is a great game for you. More casual players though may find the gameplay too repetitive and move on.

Overall though, Freesia’s satisfying battles and charming presentation are worth experiencing for yourself, even if you never end up sinking a lot of time into mastering the combat. A demo version is readily available through Steam or the game’s website, so go ahead and check it out.