A.W. Phoenix Festa (2016)

I’ve played a lot of anime games through the years with varying degrees of enjoyment, but I don’t even think being a super fan of the Asterisk War franchise would entice me to play Phoenix Fiesta any more than I already have.

A.W. Phoenix Festa does a decent enough job at transferring the characters and setting of the anime to the Vita but does a terrible job of explaining those things for newcomers. The combination of dating sim and battling works well but no individual part excels.

A.W. Phoenix Festa isn't bad, as some elements are mildly amusing. The building up of the character to compete in the final tournament is a cool element, but the game lacks depth on so many levels while punishing mistakes so hard that the whole thing becomes a grind. There is not much to see, not much to do, and how often scenes repeat is grating. What is seen in the first 15 minutes is in general what the next 5 hours are going to be like, and those first 15 were not that good to begin with. The elements in here have the potential to be a really cool game, but this is more like a framework than an actual game worth buying.

The game becomes pretty repetitive after a few hours. If you’re a fan of the series then this is likely worth buying, but otherwise you might want to check the anime out first or wait for a sale.

The ability the play not only through the main story but also as a different character entirely will please fans of the show. However, Asterisk War: Phoenix Festa is ultimately a very generic affair, riddled with tropes that will do little to draw in new fans to the series and will likely leave most gamers not familiar with its content confused.