Game Review: ‘Key Fairy’ Is Full of Fantasy and Wonderment
Key Fairy is a new action role-playing game with bullet hell elements, developed and published by the Australian-based studio Owl Machine. Key Fairy is not a short game, nor is it an easy one. What it is, though, is a delightfully fun and whimsical game. You’ll get to explore beautifully hand-drawn areas, strategize against dangerous creatures, and look forward to non-linear storytelling. I don’t think I’ve crossed paths with a game exactly like this one before. Even if I have, nothing else has been able to match the game that I just experienced.
I’ll admit that when I first played the demo to Key Fairy, I was baffled on exactly what I was meant to do. While I was initially confused, playing the final version of this game turned that confusion around. The beautiful world that Owl Machine designed is full of mystery and adventure, two things that made this game unforgettable. Get ready to embark on an impressive action-adventure game. You can play it right now on PC and can be purchased on Steam.
Pacifism and puzzles
As you take on the role of the titular “key fairy”, you’ll have to take a different approach regarding encountering enemies, as there is no traditional combat here. While most traditional RPGs and bullet hell games involve the player attacking and defending against their enemies, Key Fairy requires a pacifist approach.
Upon my first enemy encounter, I was baffled as to what to do. The primary method of subduing enemy creatures is through avoidance and collecting the shattering stars that leave their bodies. Depending on the type of fiend, the amount of stars needed to end the battle will vary. Now, all of that might sound easy, but let me be the first one to warn you that these battles will be difficult, especially when you’re still learning the ropes.
The monsters use everything at their disposal to harm the precious fairy. This can include projectiles, beams, and even thrusting their own bodies at you. How exactly will you be able to handle these encounters? Sure, you can try to move out of the way of their attacks, but with how floaty the fairy moves, it may seem impossible to avoid every attack.
Thankfully, there is a very useful tool at your disposal. You will start off with a grappling hook that can be attached to nearly every surface, including some of the beasts you’ll come across. The grappling hook has three uses: avoiding enemies, faster traversal, and solving some puzzles. One of my favorite things when using the grappling hook is to build up speed and slingshot myself across a whole scene.
As you progress through the massive world in Key Fairy, you’ll notice glyphs on the ground that will require them to be activated all at once. How do you do this? Well, grab onto a pillar using your trusty grappling hook and spin all the way around, gaining momentum, and you should be able to complete the puzzle in no time. Even if you feel stumped in what a solution may be for a more complex puzzle, it is through discovery that will bring satisfaction.
Key Fairy showcases a beautiful and dangerous world
The lands that you’ll explore in Key Fairy are vast and full of dangerous fiends. Once you subdue the enemies, you’ll find out exactly how complex their minds are. Some will have conflicting emotions, and some will ask you philosophical questions. You’ll even have a chance to better reflect on your own journey through these conversations.
What surprised me most about these dialogue moments is that while they may at first seem inconsequential, they are an important part of the story. You’ll piece together the story in bits from these little exchanges, and better understand what has happened to this world.
Key Fairy is one of the most beautifully designed games that I’ve seen in my long history of playing them. The limited color palette of black, white, some reds, and some greens shows off how I believe this game to be an artistic masterpiece. The development team states that nearly everything you see in this 2D game is hand-drawn, with few elements being photographed and edited in a collage of sorts.
These design choices bring forward an almost otherworldly quality, because even if this game only had mediocre gameplay, which it surely does not, it could stand out on its own. Every time I unlocked a new achievement, I was also given a new color palette to choose from. Even though I had unlocked other color options, I never felt like any colors in this selection stood out more than the palette you start off with.
There are multiple endings in the game, most of which can be unlocked through the natural progression of playing. There are NPCs you can speak to and listen in on, often with being rewarded with an achievement, a new color palette, and being kicked back to the main title. I would describe these as “false endings” because it happened quite a lot, each time leaving me more satisfied with what I had just done. Every time I put together another piece of the story, what was mysterious began to help me better understand what exactly was going on.
This world is huge, and you will get lost a lot. There is no map here, but I never felt frustrated with this, as each section of the game could be both identified by the name of the area when you enter it and the way each area was designed. You can tell when you’re in the thicket, on the castle grounds, underground, or around the spire.
Each part of this game will have creative boss battles, and while I died many times facing them, I would push myself and eventually end up as the victor. The development team at Owl Machine somehow designed a welcoming realm, even if it is incredibly hostile.
Final thoughts on Key Fairy
Key Fairy is a fantastic game that recognizes both its difficulty curve and scope without insulting the intelligence of players. The game isn’t brutally difficult, even if there were times that I had to put the game down for up to 24 hours to “reset” my brain due to the string of defeats that were wearing me down. Indeed, there are moments in this game that are formidable but I never once felt like I had to stop playing altogether and uninstall it.
This game also has a lot of replayability. Even after I made it through four different endings, I still discovered new stuff on my second and third playthroughs. There are so many other things I didn’t mention, but I will omit some surprises from this review for you to discover on your own.
My rating for this game is 5/5
When there are discussions about whether video games can be considered art or not, which they are, then look no further than Key Fairy. You will be astonished by everything this game has to offer.
If you’re anywhere near the fence on wanting to check out Key Fairy, there is a free demo available on the Steam store listing. If you are like me and love the game even more after playing the demo, definitely give the full game a shot. I loved this game so much. In fact, I wish I could go back in time and actually avoid the demo so I’d be able to go into this game with fresh eyes for the full game. But that’s just my own personal preference.
I am amazed by this title. I strongly recommend it to everyone I come across that has even the slightest interest in fairytale-style games. You can purchase Key Fairy on Steam today.
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