In terms of the base abilities, each character is supposed to have different strengths that set them apart. Alesha (or Alyosha, they could never decide on proper spelling) is an archer who can aim at a specific point, useful for some missions. Dobrinya is a lummox who can jump over water and land in a terrible ragdoll animation. Ilya is a bigger lummox that talks faster but with less emotion and carries a sword and shield. You’ll need to make use of each character in a few annoying missions that require precise placement at just the right times, and will likely take several attempts to get right.

Don’t expect to be dying because the game is actually difficult. Expect to die because you mysteriously fell through the level after a cut-scene. Or perhaps your comrades tell you not to kill a specific bandit but then go and whack at the guy themselves. Or they could just walk right on by a bandit altogether without even trying to attack. The list of bugs and glitches that will wreak havoc on your game is about as long as Santa’s scroll of naughty or nice children.

Lastly, the loot. One typically expects plenty of excellent loot in a role-playing game, but in Fairy Tales you have none. There are a ton of healing and support items you don’t need and will never use, but when it comes to weapons and armor you are limited. In fact, with the exception of Ilya, there is no armor. One character can use shields and that’s it. The rest of the loot are the same handful of weapons you’ve already walked on by that offer the same incentives. Strong power but slow speed, or fast speed but weak strength. If speed was only an issue in combat it may be a less annoying trade-off, but the stronger weapons will physically slow you down while wandering the level. If you want to deal damage you have to be willing to spend more time in the game than anyone would really want to. 

I’d like to say Fairy Tales: Three Heroes isn’t a bad game. I’d like to give the studio a break as the game is technically playable enough. It’s just not fun though. If you don’t frequently save manually after completing objectives you’ll probably run into enough bugs that send you back to replaying an entire map multiple times. The combat is simple and uninspired with loot that gives you poor choices in speed or stength. The writing is horrible and voice acting worse.

The only saving grace is that the art style is pretty to look at. Next time, keep the game in the oven a little longer. This one wasn’t done yet.