The sights and sounds (maybe even the smells) emanating from an old timely inn must be beyond compare. Imagine the mixture of gallant soldiers returning from or heading to war, a rotation of ladies of the night, flea-bitten beggars, and wanted men or varying notoriety passing through the doors. Rather than lean into the aspect of folk from all walks of life looking for a hearty meal and somewhere to kip, it’s the waiting staff that are the attraction here – a group of irregularly proportioned anime girls with brightly coloured hair. In comparison, they make their clientele seem ordinary. One even carries a spear. Handy for stirring soups. Chopping mushrooms? Not so much.
The Sword and Fairy series dates back to 1995, originally released on Chinese computers. Now on its seventh main entry, it has even spawned a TV show and a stage play. The franchise has started to gain traction in the west, fuelled by the forever growing popularity of RPGs and the ease of digital distribution. As the name suggests, this is a management spin-off starring already established characters. It first released on PC in 2022, then the Switch in 2023, and now heads to PlayStation and Xbox formats. Its roots aren’t too obvious; had I been made to guess I’d assume this was a mobile game originally. Most of the action is consigned to isometric single screen locations, the controls aren’t particularly intuitive, and it is largely menu driven – with only the town location granting control over a chosen character in a scrolling 3D environment.
The concept is easy to grasp. You’re presented with an upstart inn and must hire staff before allocating roles such as chef, waiting staff, cleaner or manager. The pantry is full of stock to begin with and the menu is small, featuring a meagre assortment of traditional Chinese dishes. Initially, you must tend to customers in the waiting area, but as soon as appointing a manager this is handled automatically – meaning you can sit back and watch a day cycle pan out, with customers coming and going. Happy punters leave a tip, while those frustrated with the menu choices or service will storm out. Then at the end of the day, your profit total and ranking are revealed.
At night it’s slightly more management focused. After closing, staff can be trained to improve their speed and strength – with every chibi style employee having unique stats – and the quality of items on the menu can be enhanced, with both actions requiring a small outlay. Every single dish starts out with a paltry one-star ranking; even the recipes handed down from family members. Thanks, Grandma. To increase footfall, you’ll need to gradually improve everything on the menu, one star rating at a time. It’s a very slow process.
Initially, it doesn’t seem that Sword and Fairy Inn 2 has a lot going on. Most days see a steady profit, and you don’t need to juggle the allocation of your workforce all that much. Then you’re hit with a sudden realisation – the ingredients in the pantry need to be replenished. This can be achieved either by heading into town and visiting the half-a-dozen vendors, all of which are found in the same location daily as if they’re rooted to the spot, or by buying seeds and planting them in the inn’s backyard. Crops take three days to grow, and the results are bountiful – yields are huge, often putting stockpiles into triple figures. Adding depth, certain harvested goods can be traded for raw materials used to upgrade the inn.
It’s also possible to alter the menu, removing items time-consuming to cook (with cooking handled automatically behind the scenes) or too cheap/expensive for customer’s taste. Over time more dishes are added, ergo adding more ingredients to purchase. Some can be acquired by forming a scouting party and sending them off into nearby towns – a feature that unlocks a couple of hours in. Heading into town at the start of each day to buy goods quickly grew tedious, to the point where I would sometimes open shop with only a handful of dishes available. Just like in real life, doing a ‘big shop’ saves greatly on time.
For something billed as a management sim, Sword and Fairy Inn 2 doesn’t offer a great deal to manage. Sure, it’s possible to hire more staff, but often the benefit of having an extra pair of hands isn’t always noticeable – and it can be quite costly, with the inn only turning a modest profit per day. The means of progressing are incredibly gradual – a new dish or upgrade once in a while, and regular incremental upgrades to dishes and staff’s stats. It’s the events that are meant to be the draw, with various characters checking in for a few days and the chance to play button matching culinary battles, but nothing here is wholly compelling. It is, at best, a pantry management sim – stock up and make smart decisions or miss out on sales. If the Sword and Fairy series is to be taken more seriously in the west, it’ll need stronger spin-offs than this.
Sword and Fairy Inn 2 is out 30th July on PlayStation and Xbox formats. It’s also available on PC and Switch. Published by eastasiasoft.