When I published my previous post about my favorite Kemco games, I saw a comment on Twitter that asked for more details about the games. Since the most recent Kemco game I’ve played is Fernz Gate and it recently became my favorite Kemco game, I’ve decided to review it for fun.

Fernz Gate is made by Kemco and Exe Create, whose games also include titles like Asdivine Hearts & Alphadia Genesis. I’ve played these two games in addition to Fernz Gate and based on my experience, their collaborations tend to yield pretty decent offerings.

Fernz Gate begins with a schoolboy named Alex waking up in a land known as Fernland. He befriends a young girl named Toril, who tells him that Fernland is a waypoint for outworlders, people who have vanished from their homeworlds.

In order for the outworlders to return to their own worlds, they must defeat The Overlord, who has overtaken the land and made Fernland’s Goddess disappear. The game brings together Alex, Toril, a teen girl named Lita, and a male warrior named Kodan as they slowly come into their role as heroes and learn more about Fernland.

Right off the bat, the characters become one of the best aspects of the game. Characters in most Kemco games tend to fall into JRPG or anime tropes like the orphaned teen, the lovey-dovey girl (the deredere), and the loveable rogue. While some of Fernz Gate’s main leads do have traces of certain tropes, they manage to be developed as fully fleshed out characters.

For example, Alex is kind hearted and considerate as one of the game’s male protagonists. Early in the game, he decides to help Toril search for outworlders because he reminds her of his little sister and he doesn’t want her to get hurt. Later on, he encourages Lita, the game’s other female lead, to not just do things for his sake, but also for herself.

After playing more than a few JRPGs with brooding male protagonists or clueless male protagonists, Alex was a breath of fresh air. Lita and Kodan were also favorites. Although Lita has traces of the “mysterious dark haired girl” & “tragic anime girl” tropes, her ability to solve puzzles & understand languages is used frequently in the game. I also loved using water magic with her, as it balanced her with cool offensive magic as well as support magic.

Meanwhile, Kodan was a standout partly because is one of the few Black characters I’ve seen in a JRPG. His fire magic and ability to wield a halberd were fun and his pragmatic interactions with the characters and his animal sidekick Vibachi were entertaining. The only issue I had was how other characters would frequently point out how strange his Afro was.

Of course, the characters wouldn’t be as great without nice graphics and an engaging battle system. The graphics are mostly 2-D sprites, with some flashy battle effects for magic and physical skills. Characters are drawn nicely for dialogue scenes too.

With the battle system, it mainly consists of a team battle system and a skill list. Team battles involve the characters fighting in twos, either with another human party member or with creatures called Buddies. Buddies are are unlocked via rings found throughout the game, and have different physical and magic skills and status effects that can be used.

On the other hand, the skill lists consists of elemental magic, unison magic, physical skills, shared skills, and Brave Strikes. Elemental magic involves equipping fire, water, or earth rings to a character to let them learn its respective magic. Unison magic involves a team combining magic skills to use powerful attacks, and physical attacks are skills used with an equipped weapon.

Meanwhile, Shared Skills are taught to you by NPC’s or other characters and can be used by the entire party. Finally, Brave Strikes are a special skill charged up via a bar and consists of either powerful physical attacks or powerful status effects.

Although my favorite parts of the battle system were the elemental magic and unison magic, I did wish the Buddies could’ve been a bit more useful in battle. Unless you equip certain rings, use certain Unison magic or Brave Strikes, or place it on a stand for battle status effects, there isn’t much you can do with them. Their skills are weak on their own, but finding Buddies & experimenting with teams is enjoyable.

When it comes to content, the main storyline managed to have some surprising twists, especially if you play through the Normal and True endings. Since I’m in the middle of my second play through, I’ve yet to reach the true ending of the game. However, I found the Normal ending quite satisfying.

Besides the main storyline, there are also sub-quests, a battle arena, and some special areas to discover during the game & after you get the Normal ending. If you love exploring, grinding, or doing anything other than the main storyline, this game has you covered.

Overall, Fernz Gate is the best Kemco game I’ve played to date. With refreshing characters, an unexpected storyline, nice graphics, and a fun battle system, this game will more than satisfy your JRPG cravings.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, feel free to make a small monthly donation to my Patreon page or give a one-time cash tip to my Paypal. Thank you for reading!