The Switch has had no shortage of RPGs since its launch, several of them coming from KEMCO. The company has now brought another of their games to Switch with Fernz Gate. Fernz Gate follows the typical KEMCO model, for good and for bad, and that may be a make or break for you.
Fernz Gate does a respectable job of being a turn based JRPG in terms of combat, but also has some issues with repetitiveness. The combat system tries to build on previous KEMCO games, but while the game brings some new ideas with how the party is placed and functions in battle, it still feels rather paint by numbers. This is not to criticize the game as lazy, but just that a problem is that with only a few exceptions, if you play one KEMCO JRPG then it feels like you have played them all. This is still a decent game in its own right, especially if you have not played a previous KEMCO RPG and want more traditional turn based RPGs after playing Octopath Traveler.
The game’s story is also an issue for me. The story feels rather been there and done that, and I know KEMCO can do better. The writing is fine and funny in spots, but overall I get the feeling that Fernz Gat just isn’t on the level of some of KEMCO’s best. You may wonder why I am not going into greater detail about the game, and to that I respond by pointing out what I have been saying about how similar Fernz Gate is to previous KEMCO games. There is a market for them, but after playing several of them on Switch and Wii U, I guess I just played too many of them to give a solid opinion anymore. There are good KEMCO rpgs that stand out, like Revenant Saga and Asdivine Hearts 1 and 2 (both RS and AH 1 are on Switch by the way), but Fernz Gate just did nothing for me. If you like RPGs and want more of them, then it is for you. But if you want more diversity in RPGs, then maybe look elsewhere.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided