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STAFF REVIEW of Kitaria Fables (Xbox One)


Tuesday, September 28, 2021.
by Peggy Doyle

Kitaria Fables Box art Kitaria Fables, developed by the Indonesian studio Twin Hearts, is an action/farming RPG hybrid that’s as frustrating as it is cute. While I loved the anthropomorphized cast of adorable critters, I found the fighting and gameplay more frustrating than enjoyable.

In Kitaria Fables you play as an adorable kitty soldier/adventurer, Nyanza von Whiskers (Nyan) who is dispatched to Paw Village to help after a threatening invasion of evil forces in the world. He is accompanied by his companion Macaron, who is with you in dialogue scenes but not in combat. According to the legend, many years ago, The Calamity threatened the world but was driven away by a hero. Since then, there has been peace until recent developments seem to be a troubling omen. The setting is fairly standard for an RPG, but the writing kept things a bit more fresh than other games I have played. While receiving quests from the cute cast of bunnies, puppies, bears and other animals, there is also some underlying darkness in the writing. In the beginning you are warned not to let the villagers know that you have learned magic abilities, or you may possibly get dragged off in secret. Magic is something you use often in the game, but seems like the villagers are nervous about it. I never really found out why.


The cast of characters you meet through the game are adorable, and a few managed to elicit smiles out of me every time I saw them, particularly the children in the villages. There is a one particular tiny bunny who is always dancing when you see her, and a mouse who is always asking you have any candy for him. While you are restricted to only playing as a cat, there are some customizing options in your home for you to create a character to make it feel individualized.

Visually the game was very appealing. Bright and colourful with a hand painted 2D look. There are interesting areas to explore as you move around the map to complete your quests. The map wasn’t very helpful other than to give you a vague direction in which to move though. I do wish the transition between zones on the map was more fluid, but as you crossed the dotted lines indicating borders there was a brief ‘black screen’ when you transition. There were some fast travel and save points you open while moving through the game, but most of them were one way only. Handy for getting from your main checkpoints to places, but not back to the main points to turn in quests. I could almost overlook this if you didn’t walk so comically slow in the game, and there was no button to sprint.



The UI was well designed and attacks were animated nicely. Unfortunately, the enemies weren’t designed as well and felt a bit uninspired. You had a variety of skills to learn to fight, including magic and a sword and bow, but really only able to roll out of the way to use as a defense mechanism. Because you only have one method of defense, I was happy that the enemies’ attacks were easy to read. The game gave you a large warning for the area of attack. While this made defense easier, it really took me out of the game, and I was hoping for a more immersive experience in the fights. The fighting in Kitaria Fables also felt basic and got boring quite quickly. With only a few attacks, most fight were broken down to a formula of dodge, spell/melee attack, dodge, attack, repeat.

Most RPGs are known to have a certain grinding component to them, but I found Kitaria Fables to be exceptionally grindy for no particular reason. To get a new spell you must craft it by killing a lot of enemies and collecting materials. To complete a side quest, you have to kill a lot of enemies and collect materials. To upgrade your weapon, you have to kill a lot of enemies and collect materials. I think you get the point I am trying to make.



When I first saw the trailers for Kitaria Fables, I saw farming and cute characters and that’s what drew me into doing this review. Sadly, other than a few quests that require you to harvest items in the beginning, the farming is strictly for making money in the game. Even the farming was grindy though. Plant seeds, water every day or they will die, forget to harvest on time and they’ll die. The easiest way to farm in the game became plant, sleep to progress to the day, water, sleep, water, sleep and continue until the harvest time for the crop. Sell your goods and repeat the process.

Kitaria Fables' visuals were great; music was a delight (feeling like it was pulled from a fairy tale), and the story was charming. It is definitely not a game for everyone, but what game really is for everyone? The combat and quests were grindy, but if you are the type of person that feels accomplished by completing lengthy tasks you will likely enjoy Kitaria Fables.

*Kitaria Fables was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X*





Overall: 8.0 / 10
Gameplay: 7.5 / 10
Visuals: 8.5 / 10
Sound: 8.0 / 10

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