Fate/Extra Game Sample - PSP
0Ahh...the "Fate/" universe. It's a popular world under the Type-Moon name, co-founded by Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi. Type-Moon has been enjoying much success lately and it's no wonder to those in the know; since both Fate/ and Tsukihime are the brainchild of TM. TM's work is now globally known and we're even getting a couple of the company's works in North America (officially, not fan-translated). Fate/Extra is the latest Fate/ game that North America was lucky enough to get...and it's an RPG too. We have Aksys Games to thank...but just how good is the game anyway?
Being set in a parallel universe to the visual novel "Fate/stay night", F/E has you control a nameless protagonist (who can be either male or female) whose main purpose is to answer one integral question..."Who am I?". A good question indeed. After all, who doesn't wonder who they are at some point in time? Thankfully, the game does possess an intriguing narrative because in all honesty (given my cynical nature), "Who am I" can be a rather generic and lazy subject without proper care. All things considered, Aksys did an okay localization (though I noticed a few typos).
You are a "master", who controls a "servant". Your servant fights for you and if you are a good master, they heed your instructions well. You are in a sort of virtual world fighting in the "Holy Grail War", where you will meet and defeat other masters and servants in an attempt to win the prize of a wish as well as discover your reason for being. The game has two areas that you conduct business: The school grounds (which consists of a few areas like a commissary/shop and chapel to raise stats and gain abilities) and the arena (which is a dungeon where you fight and grow stronger).
The main issue with F/E is that the game follows a very systemic game flow that is seldom exciting. You go through every chapter going into the arena, gaining cipher keys (needed to progress), discovering "information" (the game makes information an essential game-changer during battles against enemy masters), going to the chapel to distribute stat points and learn skills, going to shop and obtaining formal wear (to let your master use up to two spells in combat to assist the servant). The game does have "dead ends", but they are rare and the answers are pretty obvious and merely give you a game over should you choose wrong (they don't change the story).
The game is even systematic to the point where the three classes you chose share animations...I mean, Caster flips in the air and slams like Saber and Archer during her extra turn...really? There's only three of them and the game's combat is not very diverse. It wouldn't kill anyone to make them a little more unique. Visually, F/E looks sharp enough on the PSP, but if you look, the models are actually pretty grainy. This is made more apparent when you play it on a T.V...F/E is grainy compared to quite a few PSP games. If this were a game earlier in the PSP's life, it wouldn't be such a big deal. That aside, the special effects are also pretty limited, but the few that exist are okay. The dungeons have different backgrounds, but the design is very samey to the point of getting old fast...especially since the arena only goes to two floors, ever. That's pretty sad no matter how you slice it.
F/E's visuals aren't its selling point. It's the story, which reads quite heavily like a visual novel, which makes sense since Fate/ originally was one. The music is pretty good, but it too is limited in number. Combined with the visuals, a lot of people have likened the design of F/E to that of a Persona portable title, but with only a fraction of the gameplay. The battles function like "Janken" where no base command is dominant over another. There are semi-exceptions though. Code Casts (master spells) always have priority if you have the MP. Skills "break even" and both activate under most circumstances. You learn a limited set of skills for the servants and the game gets very redundant...every new level of the arena has you fight lots of enemies to level up and to get "information" on them to "see" more of their actions ahead of time to make fights easier. I can't fit everything here, but F/E is an okay game and it's good for North America to get more games from the popular Fate/ series.