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Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star |OT| Arturia BeenDraggin'

Come on Amazon, send it already! Also still salty about Assassin, Li Shuwen just doesn't look the part to me... but to be fair many don't look the part (looking at you "Archer" Gilgamesh).

Gil should have been his own class named Gil but until Jeanne came along as her own class Ruler, the classes were pretty fixed.

Alternatively, the OP servants should have their own class named OP, stick Gil and Karna in there for starters I guess.
 

Basoes

Member
Kinda feel misled with how the Nps aren't subbed yet they were in the trailers

Anyway finished the first mission as the best character and glorious Umus
 

T-Rex.

Banned
Fate has been well taken care of for a while now. If only TM could give the same love and care to their other franchises too
It has but this year in particular seems great. I mean we have Extella, more FGO, Heaven's Feel, GAR Kaleid movie, and possibly the Shaft Fate.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
It has but this year in particular seems great. I mean we have Extella, more FGO, Heaven's Feel, GAR Kaleid movie, and possibly the Shaft Fate.

And yet no Fate route remake/rewrite animated series :( I'll always wait
 

1upsuper

Member
And yet no Fate route remake/rewrite animated series :( I'll always wait

You and me both. Fate route was my favorite when I read the VN years ago. I was floored when I learned that a lot of people didn't like it nearly as much as UBW/HF. Did you like The Last Episode?
 

Plasma

Banned
Disappointing that the best Assassin isn't in this.

Ot3oTjH.gif
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
You and me both. Fate route was my favorite when I read the VN years ago. I was floored when I learned that a lot of people didn't like it nearly as much as UBW/HF. Did you like The Last Episode?

LE made Fate route and the VN for me truly complete. The original VN always left me cold because it felt like UBW and HF got pretty good conclusions(i even thought HF was pretty overdone which is why i prefer normal end over true end)

So i was glad when the Realta nua patch came in.

Not to say Fate route didn't have problems and limitations inherent of being the first introductory route, but i always felt it had much better potential to expand with a rewrite or a remake to fix it and really focus on the heart of the route, Arturia's past and Shirou and Arturia's relationship in addition to other things.

Infact i was crushed when i heard that that was exactly what Ufotable were planning to do initially after they had finished FZ, but decided to pivot to UBW instead for a reason still unknown to us.
 

1upsuper

Member
LE made Fate route and the VN for me truly complete. The original VN always left me cold because it felt like UBW and HF got pretty good conclusions(i even thought HF was pretty overdone which is why i prefer normal end over true end)

So i was glad when the Realta nua patch came in.

We're on the same page then. The Last Episode gave me some much needed closure. I loved the other routes but I couldn't help but feel a bit bitter until I read TLE.

You're right though, and Fate does have a heavy load to bear being the first route. That said, it's by far the most memorable for me, mostly for the reasons you mention, which I'd love to see expanded.
Saber and Shirou is by far the best pairing.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
We're on the same page then. The Last Episode gave me some much needed closure. I loved the other routes but I couldn't help but feel a bit bitter until I read TLE.

You're right though, and Fate does have a heavy load to bear being the first route. That said, it's by far the most memorable for me, mostly for the reasons you mention, which I'd love to see expanded.
Saber and Shirou is by far the best pairing.

No lies detected anywhere
 

Kumubou

Member
Q: Best girl?

A: Tamamo.
Hashtag truthfacts.

Fate has been well taken care of for a while now. If only TM could give the same love and care to their other franchises too
Well, if the rumors (and a couple of comments from their staff) are correct, French Bread's next game is supposedly a new Melty Blood game, and it would coincide with the Tsukihime remake coming out in 20XX. So maybe we'll see some other franchises get burn along with get blessed with an amazing 2D fighter
after a couple of patches.

Side question: How has there not been a Fate fighting game made since Fate/Unlimited Codes? And how the hell did Capcom manage to fuck up handling the Fate license?
The same way they managed to blow huge opportunities with the Marvel license.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Well, if the rumors (and a couple of comments from their staff) are correct, French Bread's next game is supposedly a new Melty Blood game, and it would coincide with the Tsukihime remake coming out in 20XX. So maybe we'll see some other franchises get burn along with get blessed with an amazing 2D fighter
after a couple of patches.

Side question: How has there not been a Fate fighting game made since Fate/Unlimited Codes? And how the hell did Capcom manage to fuck up handling the Fate license?
The same way they managed to blow huge opportunities with the Marvel license.

Knowing TM and Nasu's schedule, we'll never end up getting new content :/
 

Azuardo

Member
First reviews, courtesy of OpenCritic.


AngryCentaurGaming - Jeremy Penter - Buy
"A game that offers just enough uniqueness and speed to be worth it."

COGconnected - Thi Chao - 85 / 100
The AI don't really pose much of a threat until much later into the game.

DualShockers - Azario Lopez - 8 / 10.0
I enjoyed my time with Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star as it satisfied my craving for a game in the Fate universe. The fighting controls are tight and responsive, and the action is intense. The lack of enemy variation was disappointing, but it didn't take away from the frenetic fun of pulling off well animated combos against thousands of aggressors. This game might not be for newcomers to the Fate series, but offers a fun and impressive story arc to the franchise.

Gaming Nexus - Nathan Carter - 8 / 10.0
Fate/EXTELLA is a great hack and slash game that will most likely please fans of the series and please non fans who are looking for a great action game to play on their PS4.

Hey Poor Player - Kenny McKee - 4 / 5.0
The Fate series itself is a combination of strange things end up being cohesive, and this game is no exception to that rule. Fate/EXTELLA the took series in a new direction thanks to an dramatic witch in game genres and, if you ask me, it ended up paying off thanks to a solid combat system, good amount of character depth, and surprisingly large amount of story content.

God is a Geek - Mikhail Madnani - 7.5 / 10.0
Fate/EXTELLA is a fun musou game for fans of the Fate universe that is let down by a lacklustre story and visual inconsistencies.

Level Down Games - Bryan Clutter - 75 / 100
If you are already a fan of the Fate franchise, this game will absolutely appeal to you. If you've never heard of this series before, but you've played previous musou style games, this game will also appeal to you. Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star has a lot to offer for fans that enjoy one or both of those scenarios just mentioned. The intense and quick in-your-face style of combat, mixed with the anime art style and graphics, works better than you would think.

Hardcore Gamer - Jason Bohn - 3.5 / 5.0
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star has a title that makes as little sense as its punctuation to an outsider, but it serves as the glue that holds everything together.

Push Square - Robert Ramsey - 7 / 10
A rock solid hack and slasher, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star offers non-stop, totally over-the-top action from a fantastically fun cast of playable characters. Our only real complaint is that repetition can bleed into the experience over time, but give yourself a few days to recover from the fatigue, and you'll come back to a welcoming brawler that's stuffed with content. It's not quite up there with the best musou games on the market, but The Umbral Star scratches that button bashing itch and then some.

Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 7 / 10.0
Fate/Extella: The Umbra Star is a perfectly ordinary Dynasty Warriors clone that's been slightly elevated by its license. The gameplay is fun but strictly average, and there's not much that makes it stand out beyond the plot and characters. If you're a fan of the Fate franchise, you'll probably get your money's worth in the story and characters. If you're looking for a brawler, this doesn't have much to offer. The lengthy story sequences filled with metaphysics might make it even less enjoyable than a standard game.

RPG Site - Josh Torres - 7 / 10
Caught between a rock and a hard place, Fate/Extella's fundamentals are solid and fans will certainly love it, but newcomers to the Fate series should beware.

Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 3.5 / 5 stars
It's made me into a fan of Fate. If that's not a sign of a quality game, then nothing is.

Crash Landed - Dave Robinson - 3 / 5 stars
Fans of the anime will likely be disappointed with the story on offer within Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star, that whilst manages to heat up in its final arc, is more akin to a fighting game than an in-depth story and pales in comparison to the far superior anime counterpart.

But playing as each and every Servant - those made famous through the show and those not - is a heck of a lot of fun, with gameplay that is both cathartic and successfully brings an element of strategy along for the ride. Whilst there are some minor niggles within the combat gameplay that stop it being a cornerstone of the genre, there's nothing that truly dissuaded my enjoyment in the complete package developers Marvelous have managed to offer fans.

Whether you are seeking it out as a Musou title - an area it excels at - or just looking for something to sink quite a few hours into - on console or on the ago - then Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star exudes that experience in spades.

Cubed3 - Drew Hurley - 6 / 10
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is something of a mixed bag. This style of game works well with the Fate backdrop, and the actual Area Supremacy Battle makes for fun and addictive gameplay, but the presentation of it leaves a lot to be desired, with battles that feel too brief with far too much story interjected in between them. Not to mention that this story is terrible. Even the side stories for the supporting cast are heavily uninspired.

PlayStation Universe - Garri Bagdasarov - 6 / 10.0
It may have the Fate name in its title, but it doesn't present itself like a Fate title. The Umbral Star tells a bonkers story that only a Fate franchise can produce. The game itself is fun and features some awesome animations, but it's instantly dragged down by terrible team AI and almost no sense of accomplishment.

Destructoid - Dennis Carden - 6 / 10.0
For as much as I enjoyed Fate/Extella, I must admit that there simply isn't enough to keep most people interested in it. This is definitely one for the fans.

CGMagazine - Elias Blondeau - 6 / 10.0
Not awful but far from good, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is a title that lets down fans and keeps away newcomers with a pithy story, mediocre gameplay, and a generic art direction that betrays the franchise's roots.

GameSpew - Mark Sammut - 5 / 10
Fate/Extella offers mindless fun, sure, but there are a slew of other Musou titles also available on PS4, and nearly all of them are superior to this.

The Digital Fix - Jess Robinson - 5 / 10.0
While the gameplay is fun the whole experience is overly repetitive. Add in a confusing setting and a complete tonal shift from the anime and you get a game that does not live up to expectations.

Cubed3 - Chris Leebody - 5 / 10
The real trick of making a game work in this style is to ground it in some sense of normality. Where the Musou series excels, and indeed how it has survived for such a long time, is that for all the Japanese humour and charm, the core story is a simple one of warring kingdoms fighting battles. It is awesome when a story doesn't hold back on its vision and complexity and does not abandon its world. However, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star gets lost in this vision at the expense of its Western audience. With that said, where it does succeed is in making a fun, if forgettable, action title that has plenty of content to work through, even if it does tend to get a little predictable and stale after the first few hours. There is definitely something to work on here for future titles, though, and it is great to see the Warriors style reimagined by another developer.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
:( lack of name recognition of fate is gonna kill it.

Its basically just fate fanservice
 

Accoun

Member
Haha, damn. It sounds like that must have been a real pain in the ass to figure out for the Japanese version.

I remember talking about it with someone who was playing the Japanese version and yeah, it was a pain. I think I remember him mentioning that at that time there were some people who unlocked her and they still didn't know how.
 
Im unfamiliar with the franchise, but I love me some musou games, and watching some of the videos, definitely looks like a blast to play. Shouldnt be buying this with the slew of games releasing in the next month, but very well may pick this up off PSN after work.
 

kewlmyc

Member
The former's understandable, especially since they all are Saber-faces. Its a bit of a running gag at this point in the franchise (and partly the fault of co-founder of Type-Moon and character designer Takashi Takeuchi who loves Arturia).

The Saberface club includes:

-Saber (aka Arturia)
-
Saber Alter
-Saber Lily (younger Arturia)

-Master Artoria (some alt-universe/idea version of Arturia as a master and not a servant)
-Saber of Red (
Mordred
)
-Nero

-Souji Okita
-Devil Saber
-Gray
-Jeanne (and she has alternate versions like Arturia does)
-Chevalier d'Eon

Those that I can remember, at least.

You forgot

Lancer Arturia
the true adult version of Arturia had she not been cursed with immortality through Caliburn/Excalibur/Avalon, who has become a demi god half fairy and lived for over 7 centuries

Lancer Arturia Alter
the above except she has become corrupted by darkness of the weapon she wields

Mysterious heroine X -
The Arturia who was born to kill all Arturias.

Beach Arturia - Arturia on the beach

Santa Alter -
Arturia Alter
as Santa.

tumblr_ody6o3xqI91s78aw1o3_500.png


Of course with this we can cement Takeuchi-san as a true legend.

I'm only familiar with the bolded. This franchise sure has evolved over the years.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I'm only familiar with the bolded. This franchise sure has evolved over the years.

To be fair, a decent amount of these have only showed up in the past few years, certainly there were a decent amount introduced in Fate/GO.

But yeah, they have been steadily filling out the Arturia army, although i can't say i am sad about it >:)
 
2017 is gonna be a great year to be a Fate fan.

Specifically the year to be a fan of the best Saber :p.
I only know of Red and Blue and I prefer Red, don't kill me please >_<.
Emperor_Saber.png

Has there been any new info on the Fate Extra anime? aside from the initial announcement I haven't heard anything new.
 

Karak

Member
I reviewed it for ACG gave it a Buy.

It does have some issues but what it offers to the genre is unique enough, its gameplay is fast enough, and of course the fiction is deep enough to make it worth it.
 

T-Rex.

Banned
Specifically the year to be a fan of the best Saber :p.
I only know of Red and Blue and I prefer Red, don't kill me please >_<.
Emperor_Saber.png

Has there been any new info on the Fate Extra anime? aside from the initial announcement I haven't heard anything new.
She won me over the second I heard her NP lines tbh. I agree, she is the best Saber.
 

Moofers

Member
There's a character named after Elizabeth Bathory, the crazy murderess who slaughtered scores of young women in her mansion so she could become immortal by bathing in their blood? That's fucked....

Anyway, I was almost on board for this game but the two reviews I've read so far have both agreed that the story is really hard to follow unless you've played the previous games, one of which never saw release outside of Japan. I do like reading multiple takes on game though, so I'll be popping back in here after the game releases so I can see what more people think on that.

Regardless of the story, the game looks really pretty and vibrant!
 

Dragoshi1

Member
There's a character named after Elizabeth Bathory, the crazy murderess who slaughtered scores of young women in her mansion so she could become immortal by bathing in their blood? That's fucked....

Anyway, I was almost on board for this game but the two reviews I've read so far have both agreed that the story is really hard to follow unless you've played the previous games, one of which never saw release outside of Japan. I do like reading multiple takes on game though, so I'll be popping back in here after the game releases so I can see what more people think on that.

Regardless of the story, the game looks really pretty and vibrant!

Yep, and she's an Idol in the game, too. Complete with Character Song during the first stage.



I'm enjoying it so far, but DAMN, stage 3 was brutal, or y'know, the one with Medusa.

Lu Bu kept following me everywhere, and he beat my other generals, but I managed to juke it enough where I got the 3 areas taken over and killed him. Took me almost an hour, as I had to keep stopping to recapture areas.
 
Yeah I expected those review numbers. It is a Musou game that is also a quite niche game series. I am excited either way my package is waiting at home when I get off work.
 

Ashilyn

Member
Picked my Noble Phantasm edition up. The artbook that they included in this is really legit, way better than I was expecting. About to dive in, I can't wait to get into this game. This is pretty much the Fate game I've been waiting for since I really came to understand how the universe worked.

Also, looking at the backs of the cards that came with this, they all have glossy spots on the back... I'm pretty certain if i laid them all in order upside down, they'd make the protagonist's command seal. Will have to see later.
 
So I just booted into the game and went into the servant viewer to get a better idea of how the game's graphics look. Now, I don't know if this is due to the anti aliasing solution at play here or whether the heavy cell shading is the one doing this, but the game looks very sharp. No idea whether downscaling is happening here on my 1080p screen but if the game running looks as clean as this viewer makes it appear it is, this could be pretty neat, downscaled or not.

Is there official confirmation of Pro benefits on this game anywhere?

Can't play now but I'll be doing it tonight. I'll share some more impressions then.
 

Tohsaka

Member
So I just booted into the game and went into the servant viewer to get a better idea of how the game's graphics look. Now, I don't know if this is due to the anti aliasing solution at play here or whether the heavy cell shading is the one doing this, but the game looks very sharp. No idea whether downscaling is happening here on my 1080p screen but if the game running looks as clean as this viewer makes it appear it is, this could be pretty neat, downscaled or not.

Is there official confirmation of Pro benefits on this game anywhere?

Can't play now but I'll be doing it tonight. I'll share some more impressions then.

It says PS4 Pro Enhanced on the back of the case; I don't know what that entails, though.
 

Ashilyn

Member
Is it sad that I'm excited this game comes with an actual manual? I never really though I'd miss those, but it's really neat to get one again.

I just finished the second map. Game is a lot of fun so far, it's pretty much a straight musou with some equipment crafting and leveling up. I really appreciate how they allow you to zip from battle area to battle area within a map. As much as I like Warriors games, spending time running around a battlefield looking for something to fight gets really boring, particularly as battles go on and enemy forces diminish. This is a really good way to do away with that and make the concept work better as a whole on the Vita.

Calling the story dense would be an understatement, and nothing from F/Ex is really properly explained at all. I don't really expect anything else from a Type-Moon game, but god help anyone trying to play this without finishing F/Ex first and, if they're feeling spry, reading up on Ex CCC. The core of story seems easy enough to understand, but specific details and the terminology are going to be even more lost on people than usual.
 

Strimei

Member
There's a character named after Elizabeth Bathory, the crazy murderess who slaughtered scores of young women in her mansion so she could become immortal by bathing in their blood? That's fucked....

The servants of Fate come from all over the place (and some (many) may not always been thought of as "heroes" by people), its pretty impressive. Particularly with Fate/Grand Order (the mobile game) expanding things considerably.

Hashtag truthfacts.


Well, if the rumors (and a couple of comments from their staff) are correct, French Bread's next game is supposedly a new Melty Blood game, and it would coincide with the Tsukihime remake coming out in 20XX. So maybe we'll see some other franchises get burn along with get blessed with an amazing 2D fighter
after a couple of patches.

Hah, yeah I'll believe a new Tsukihime (or remake) when I see it.

Isn't it sad, Sacchin?
 
The servants of Fate come from all over the place (and some (many) may not always been thought of as "heroes" by people), its pretty impressive. Particularly with Fate/Grand Order (the mobile game) expanding things considerably.

You know I do find it kinda funny how Nasu set so many "rules" for Fate/ and then just outright came up with excuses to just straight-up breach them instead of finding Asimov loopholes to break them with.

Like, the Grail summoning evil "heroes" is
the product of Angra Mainyu's corruption of the grail in the 3rd war
- Otherwise the Grail would only allow the summoning of genuine heroes.

Or that Servants have to be heroes from the past bearing pre-industrial weapons, which has been breached countless ways starting with
GARcher
in the original VN (Hammered in further by /Extra) and reaching a peak with a quarter of Grand Order's Archer roster (And a few in other classes)
 
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