Philna Fantasy Review: Reliable, But Way Too Ordinary Action RPG

I usually balance playing huge, lengthy JRPGs with smaller, more relaxing indie games. It’s a nice way to reset before diving back into complex stories. So, when I got the chance to review Philna Fantasy and learned it would take around 15 hours to finish, I was really excited.

I’d seen a trailer for the game before, but I didn’t know much about it, except that it was the first game from a new indie developer, Sailike Game, and had beautiful, appealing pixel art. What I discovered was an action RPG with gameplay and a leveling system that felt quite familiar, and a lot of collectibles for players who like to find everything.

I finished the game after about 16 hours, completing every optional quest, collecting all the rare items, and fully leveling up my crafting abilities. While Philna Fantasy seems designed to encourage multiple playthroughs, I enjoyed it well enough, but I wasn’t interested in playing again once I saw the ending credits.

Run of the Mill Story

Let’s be honest, the story in Philna Fantasy isn’t particularly special. It starts with a promising premise – you crash-land on a new planet with no memory of who you are. This mystery is interesting at first. However, it quickly falls into a typical pattern: you join a guild and begin helping the Kingdom of Votland with its problems.

The writing and conversations weren’t amazing, but they got the job done and kept the story progressing. Unfortunately, the quality declined as I played. The script became noticeably weaker, and I started spotting errors like extra spaces and even text that hadn’t been translated. This was especially distracting during an important late-game explanation of the story, and I actually missed a key plot point because of it. Eventually, I found myself focusing more on the mistakes than on what was happening in the game.

While Philna Fantasy attempted some surprising plot twists, they didn’t really work. The characters weren’t interesting or memorable, and even the cute visual effects couldn’t make me invested in the story. Overall, the narrative left me feeling disconnected. Luckily, I did enjoy playing the game itself.

A Tried-and-True Gameplay Loop

This action RPG lets you choose from four different classes – Berserker, Ranger, Chrono Mage, and Assassin – each with unique abilities and ways to play. I tried out both the powerful Berserker, who wields a huge axe, and the Chrono Mage, and they feel very different. Each class offers a distinct playstyle, with everything from simple attacks to more complex special abilities.

The game quickly fell into a predictable pattern. I’d go into a dungeon, defeat monsters, and gather loot and materials until my inventory was packed. Then I’d return to the city to sell things or make new equipment before repeating the process. It felt like I’d done it all before, and honestly, I had.

This game feels a lot like Diablo, but with charming pixel art that’s sure to bring back fond memories. Enemies drop equipment of different qualities and with unique bonuses. You can either spend time battling to find better gear, or craft it yourself – improving your crafting skills will let you create even more powerful items. Once you’ve cleared a dungeon or reset it, all enemies and resources will reappear.

Every character class has a distinct way of playing, with options from simple attacks to more complex, resource-based abilities.

As you defeat enemies, you gain experience, which helps you level up and earn skill points. Each character has around eight skills, but you can only assign four to hotkeys, so you’ll need to choose wisely. Spending skill points unlocks new passive abilities, letting you create unique character builds. I immediately chose the Whirlwind attack for my Berserker – who doesn’t love seeing a warrior spin with a huge axe? My enemies certainly didn’t!

I’m enjoying Philna Fantasy so far – the core gameplay loop is solid and works well. But honestly, I quickly got frustrated when the story kept sending me back to dungeons I’d already cleared. That’s when I realized everything is pretty static. The levels, enemies, and items are always in the same place. It’s not a huge deal if you only play through the game once, but it does mean there’s no random generation to keep things fresh.

While the game is fun to initially play, repeating it with different character classes or doing side quests quickly becomes repetitive. The dungeons, especially, lose their appeal. There are collectibles that become stronger as you gather more, including special items dropped by monsters that can be turned into cards with helpful abilities. However, because enemies don’t get harder to defeat, revisiting old areas feels pointless, and you stop gaining meaningful experience or facing any real challenge, ultimately killing your motivation.

The way gear improved was frustrating. While getting new equipment felt good at first, I quickly realized it happened on a predictable schedule. Every few dungeons, the gear tiers would upgrade, and even the worst version of the new gear was significantly better than my best old gear. It made grinding for specific stats feel pointless – why bother perfecting a build when the lowest-level item from the next area would instantly make me much more powerful? Eventually, I just stopped worrying about optimizing my gear and started rushing through the game.

I really only enjoyed playing the game the first time. While there were some issues with the story and having to revisit areas, the fighting itself was consistently good, particularly the boss battles.

All In on Boss Fights

As you explore the dungeons, you’ll encounter both regular enemies and stronger, elite ones. With good equipment, these enemies will become fairly easy to defeat. However, the bosses are truly challenging and cleverly crafted.

The boss battles in Philna Fantasy are all incredibly well-designed. The initial bosses are fairly easy, but things get really chaotic later on. During the final fights, there was so much happening on screen – tons of attacks and special effects – that it was hard to keep track of everything. I didn’t have much trouble with regular enemies, but the bosses could defeat me instantly if I wasn’t prepared and didn’t understand their attack patterns.

The music during boss fights is incredible and deserves a lot of praise. While the music during regular gameplay is decent and fits the atmosphere, it completely transforms when you enter a boss arena. Suddenly, you’re hit with powerful, high-energy metal – it’s like the composer unleashed their inner rockstar! It’s captivating, perfectly complementing the intense, fast-paced action, and you can really feel the composer’s passion and enjoyment in their work.

Puzzles Galore

Before you can fight the bosses, you’ll need to explore the dungeons, and they’ll really make you think. Philna Fantasy is full of puzzles – sometimes there are just too many! Most are original and cleverly use the game’s mechanics, but a few are based on familiar games like Tic-Tac-Toe or those frustrating sliding puzzles (which I personally struggle with).

Every boss fight in Philna Fantasy is top-tier.

The game gives you three new ways to move around, adding a bit of a Metroidvania feel to exploring and solving puzzles, which makes things more interesting. I couldn’t figure out one puzzle, but thankfully it wasn’t necessary to complete the game. There are lots of optional areas to find in the dungeons, and while completionists might enjoy finding everything, they’re probably not worth the effort for players who just want to experience the main story, as most rewards just lead to more repetitive gameplay.

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While the game offers welcome breaks from fighting with puzzles and exploration, those puzzles don’t have difficulty options like the combat does. This means if you get stuck, you’ll likely need to ask for help from someone clever or find a walkthrough online. Otherwise, you might be waiting for Sony to create an AI to solve them for you!

Way Too Ordinary

Ultimately, Philna Fantasy offers a straightforward and dependable gaming experience. It’s comforting in its predictability – you always know what to expect. But while consistency is valuable in fields like science and math, it’s less ideal for art or games. Throughout the entire RPG, I never encountered anything unexpected.

The game felt familiar – I’d seen similar ideas done countless times, just with a new coat of paint. It works fine, but honestly, it doesn’t feel special enough to justify playing. There are so many games coming out these days that we need to be careful with how we spend our money, but even more importantly, how we spend our time – that’s the most valuable thing we have.

Some players will likely enjoy Philna Fantasy. I often like simple, mindless fun with a lot of enemies, and this game offers that. However, if I were seriously looking for a deep and engaging Action RPG, Philna Fantasy wouldn’t be my first choice.

Closing Comments:

Okay, so I just finished Philna Fantasy after about 16 hours, and honestly, it was…fine. The story was totally forgettable, and I didn’t really connect with any of the characters. It’s a pretty standard action RPG – if you’ve played dungeon crawlers before, you’ve seen it all. Switching between characters was fun for a little while, but the game quickly felt repetitive because it didn’t really offer anything new. The puzzles were pretty clever, and the boss fights were a highlight, but once you beat them, that’s it. When the credits rolled, I was ready to move on – I didn’t have any urge to replay it.

2026-01-15 16:11