Kitaria Fables | Xbox Review
I really wanted to love Kitaria Fables. Twin Hearts Games’ game is labeled as an action/RPG with crafting and farming elements. Add in a cat protagonist with a cute graphical style and this should have been a big hit. Sadly, it failed to strike a chord with me. It didn’t live up to any of its promises and ended up being a pretty major slog.
The Simple Life
Kitaria Fables’ story is basic but does sprinkle in messages on the importance of friendship and being kind. You play as Nyanza, an adorable cat who is determined to protect the land of Canoidera from an onslaught of demons. You inherit your uncles’ farm in Paw Village and set off from there to learn magic to aid you on your journey. The catch? Magic is forbidden and anyone caught practicing it can land in hot water.
The narrative is what kept me wanting to play, even if it was somewhat formulaic. The main quest introduces new characters who add wrinkles and layers to your journey. Everyone and everything is so adorable that it’s almost tooth-rotting, and the farming aspect is simple to grasp yet ends up being sidelined after a few side quests. The score is wonderful and suits each area that you enter. I also found the combat to be satisfactory, if fairly limited. This is sadly the extent of my enjoyment of this title.
Bumps in the Road
The biggest source of contention with Kitaria Fables is the sheer amount of grinding that occurs. It took me a little over sixteen hours to complete, but the majority of that time was spent battling the same enemies and bosses for hours on end to obtain the materials I needed to upgrade my armor, weapons, and spells. You don’t gain any XP from battles, so you’re forced to grind to level up. This became exhausting very quickly and seemed to be never ending. Even the side missions are all fetch quests. After being told to gather X amount of Y over and over again, I became pretty tired of the gameplay experience.
Checkpoints and teleportation locations are sparse, making traversing Canoidera a chore. Nyanza is a pretty slow moving character as well, and the fact that each new area triggers a loading screen doesn’t help matters. On the Series X, these screens only last a few seconds, but it still pulls you out of the game.
There is also an insane difficulty spike that comes out of nowhere. Most of the game is fairly easy, then at the end they throw the kitchen sink at you. Even if you’re at a fairly high level, you’ll be dead within one or two hits if you’re not careful. The inconsistent difficulty is extremely jarring and it put even more of a damper on my time with this title. To add to the litany of issues I had, I encountered a weird bug that prevented me from even opening the title menu for a week. It’s probably not a huge issue and it eventually was resolved for me, but it didn’t help matters.
The Final Verdict
Kitaria Fables was a highly anticipated game for me, but it let me down severely. Its cute characters and graphics, good score, and solid combat were overshadowed by the massive amount of grinding that is required, the sudden extreme difficulty spike, and the plethora of loading screens mixed with slow movement and lack of fast travel locations. It was a chore to play this, and it pains me to say that.
This review is based on an Xbox copy of Kitaria Fables provided by PQube for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
Kitaria Fables
$19.99
Pros
- Everything Is Adorable
- Solid Combat
- Good Score
Cons
- Way Too Much Grinding
- Insane Difficulty Spike
- So Many Loading Screens
- Dull Fetch Quests
- Slow Travel Between Areas
