Kitaria Fables takes a lot of concepts found in traditional RPGs and combines them for an outstanding fantasy adventure. With the protagonist attempting to repel rising darkness and learning why magic is such a taboo subject. It doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel with its systems but instead took what worked in other games of similar genres and used them to create a brand new adventure. Kitaria Fables doesn’t have a lot of original qualities but combines them into one amazing adventure.
 

You take control of a soldier named Nyan. The Empire sent you to defend Paw Village from increasingly hostile enemies. While attempting to save the town you eventually learn that you can harness magic which is against the law of the Empire. Magic is forbidden and if anyone knows Nyan can cast spells it’ll spell doom. The worst is that the creatures are usually docile but have become increasingly hostile meaning that the darkness that once plagued the land is returning. You’ll have to solve why this is happening.

The world of Kitaria Fables is beautiful and the characters are excellently written. While not everyone gets a lot of screen time the writing is serious when necessary and fun during most of the adventure. Each person has their own unique personality and it comes out well thanks to solid writing despite not having any voice acting. This is complemented with a well-tuned musical score that captures intense boss fights and somber moments. The visual design is definitely the highlight of the adventure with a variety of colorful animals and environments. Each one holds distinct enemies and a lot of attention to detail went into their design.

Outside of main story missions side tasks can be undertaken and these serve more than just filler. Many of these offer access to more items and they’re easy to spot with distinct icons over specific characters. Many of these do help support the player in locating items that will later become important in the game. However, even if you miss out the mission description gives you all the details needed to find what is needed.
 

The adventure takes place on an isometric plane that is easy to navigate. Thanks to colorful level design and unique layouts navigation are easy with the use of landmarks. Each area contains a specific set of enemies that alter base on the game’s night and day cycle but since you can only carry so much you’ll have to manage your resources to maximize profit and secure rare items. Space is limited but you can increase storage with upgrades. I did wish you could shift from night to day though.

If you happen to die you’ll keep all your items and return to your last safe area, Inn, or your home base. This doesn’t mean death doesn’t carry consequences as you’ll need to travel base to the area. In dungeons, this can be damaging since you’ll have to start from the beginning. There are fast travel crystals but these only limit travel to specific locations and checkpoints can be travel to but not from.

Kitaria Fables' leveling system isn’t tied to experience but instead equipment. The resources you earn allow you to craft and purchase new items to power up your character. Many of these items require not only the game’s currency, Paw Pennies, but items found in the environment. This does lead to a lot of grinding as you earn items to both sell and craft the items needed to progress. Since players must craft the lower tier items to gain the higher tier equipment you’ll need to take your time getting everything for those exotic items. You can play the game without these items and create artificial difficulty if you wish. The game doesn’t attempt to gatekeep content based on equipment, only if you complete the mission needed to progress.
 

Farming does play another major role in the game but it’s simple for players to grasp. You’re given a specific piece of land and can grow a variety of crops. Just clear the field, hoe the land, water the crops each day, and harvest them when they grow to maturity. Each crop requires a specific amount of time to grow and can be sold for a profit or used in crafting unique resources needed for powerful items such as better farming equipment. This does take time and adds to the grind of obtaining the most powerful weapons and armor. It can get very addicting at times as farming serves as an excellent way to earn money plus getting that perfect yield is so rewarding.

I did wish there were some quality of life improvements made to the storage system. You have access to several crates that you can store items but each one is individual and in separate parts of the world. I wish you could have access to all the materials stored at your home base and when crafting the game would automatically detect if you have the right materials. It's a chore to have to go back and gather them from your storage, especially when it's in a different part of the map.

Combat itself is basic but fun. It plays more or less like any isometric active combat title but leans heavily towards Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. You can equip a sword, bow, and magical attacks. Magic is limited to fire, water, wind, and earth with each has unique spells that can be upgraded similar to your equipment. Each spell requires the player to learn the weaker spells and specific items. You can then link that spell or weapon ability to a hotkey for use but requires a cooldown to use again. Spells are unique in that they require Mana that only charges when you use physical attacks, so you cannot just spam these powerful attacks.

Defense is encouraged as healing is limited. During dodge rolls, the protagonist has large invisibility frames but during hectic fights, you start to see why. Enemies don’t attack 1 at a time and sometimes can easily cover the useable field leading to nasty negative effects combined with damage. This coupled with limited stamina and you can easily find yourself in a dangerous situation if you get cocky. You can upgrade to heavy armor at the cost of movement to increase protection or use light armor for less shielding but better mobility.
 

Customization is limited but available to an extent. You and choose to focus on a bow and arrow or a sword and upgrade whatever you choose but you’re never locked out of the other. This goes for light or heavy armor and magical attacks. Mix and match all you want but getting all the best weapons and magics will require need investments. Your cat can also be altered to various different cats at any time from your room.

In terms of performance, Kitaria Fables operates well. I never experienced a crash during my 40 hours playing however the game doesn’t include a quick resume option on Xbox for some reason. Also, enemies tend to pop in especially in the Swamp area. This can be vexing since some of these areas contain powerful creatures that can easily drain your health and hit you with a lot of status effects.

You can play the game with a cooperative player but unfortunately, there's no online option. Because of this, I was unable to test this feature.
 

Kitaria Fables appeals largely to the resource-hungry gamer. Kitaria Fables is all about the gamer who loves to hunt for resources and reap the benefits of proper planning. Leading to powerful equipment and lots of money but if you want a challenge you can forgo all of that and progress with the bare minimum. What shines is that the developers had an exact vision and dedicated themselves to that. While that comes at the sacrifice of original concepts the execution provides a well-paced and complementary adventure where all the systems come together perfectly.
 

Adam Siddiqui,
Managing Editor, NoobFeed