Real happy to see a brand new Fate installment, because it's been a hot minute since Extella Link!
And I loved this one. Really cool new take on the Holy Grail War with Masters that have some really unique motivations and Servants that suit them perfectly.
The cast is fantastic - definitely one of my favorite Fate casts yet, mostly because it's in my opinion honestly pretty rare for them to be as consistent as this one.
The setting is great too, and I love how well it's characters and their motivations are acclimated to that; they all fit in really well.
And the music, although for the most part not too memorable, accomodates it nicely too.
My absolute favorite thing about this game is it's gameplay though, which is admittedly pretty rare for me! Something about the way it portrays the power dynamic between Masters and Servants through gameplay is unlike anything we've seen in the series before, and I love that.
Regular encounters definitely feel like your average musou fight, but when a Servant steps in (or when you've built up enough meter to play as the Servant you're with) the game changes entirely, in a really good way. Bosses can be terrifying here, and that's exactly as they should be when a Master like Iori runs into a fight meant for Servants. They're tough, but really fun and well-paced once you figure out how to fight against them and properly get your Ripostes off, and it makes beating them feel SO good.
Arguably the most interesting thing about this game however (which is definitely recommendable if you're interested in it's cast) is how much it hinges on a replay.
New Game+ is ridiculously streamlined - pretty much everything you've done in your first playthrough is carried over; so if you've done all you could, you won't have to worry about any side-content you've already done. BUT, if you want to - simply because you want to experience a Servant's sidestory again or just get it's rewards twice - you can! It'll simply be counted as Completed either way, and that's really neat.
But more than that, there's quite a few NG+ exclusive scenes, sidequests and even an additional ending that adds SO much substance to it's cast; and it lets you know what is and isn't new by making the original story's text gray and adding a feature skipping through all of that whenever it pops up.
It's a fascinating decision! Adding all of it to the first playthrough would've definitely messed with it's pacing a lot (of which the only issue in my opinion is already big groups of sidequests at the same time, so yeah lmao) and there's also a few scenes that are definitely made in mind with you already knowing the main story and what happens next.
I'm not quite sure if it's solely to preserve the pacing - it could very well be them being too proud of those scenes (they should be) and never being able to figure out how to properly squeeze it into the main game, but yeah, I've never seen anything like that.
I really liked it personally, especially with it being as fast as it is. Takes about 1/3rd of a regular playthrough, of which about 75% will be new content and the other 25% being the route you didn't take the first time around, so it adds a lot to the experience! Didn't feel right making this review until I've explored it fully, because yeah, it's major stuff.
Iori especially profits so much from it. NG+ essentially confirmed everything I thought about him through the foreshadowing the main story contained and goddamn man he's up there as one of my favorite TM protags yet. Insanely unique character.
So yeah, cool game. Definitely unique! In some ways good and some ways bizarre.
I had a lot of fun with it, and I hope there's more games like this in store to keep bringing some new perspectives to the Fate series in the future :)
And I loved this one. Really cool new take on the Holy Grail War with Masters that have some really unique motivations and Servants that suit them perfectly.
The cast is fantastic - definitely one of my favorite Fate casts yet, mostly because it's in my opinion honestly pretty rare for them to be as consistent as this one.
The setting is great too, and I love how well it's characters and their motivations are acclimated to that; they all fit in really well.
And the music, although for the most part not too memorable, accomodates it nicely too.
My absolute favorite thing about this game is it's gameplay though, which is admittedly pretty rare for me! Something about the way it portrays the power dynamic between Masters and Servants through gameplay is unlike anything we've seen in the series before, and I love that.
Regular encounters definitely feel like your average musou fight, but when a Servant steps in (or when you've built up enough meter to play as the Servant you're with) the game changes entirely, in a really good way. Bosses can be terrifying here, and that's exactly as they should be when a Master like Iori runs into a fight meant for Servants. They're tough, but really fun and well-paced once you figure out how to fight against them and properly get your Ripostes off, and it makes beating them feel SO good.
Arguably the most interesting thing about this game however (which is definitely recommendable if you're interested in it's cast) is how much it hinges on a replay.
New Game+ is ridiculously streamlined - pretty much everything you've done in your first playthrough is carried over; so if you've done all you could, you won't have to worry about any side-content you've already done. BUT, if you want to - simply because you want to experience a Servant's sidestory again or just get it's rewards twice - you can! It'll simply be counted as Completed either way, and that's really neat.
But more than that, there's quite a few NG+ exclusive scenes, sidequests and even an additional ending that adds SO much substance to it's cast; and it lets you know what is and isn't new by making the original story's text gray and adding a feature skipping through all of that whenever it pops up.
It's a fascinating decision! Adding all of it to the first playthrough would've definitely messed with it's pacing a lot (of which the only issue in my opinion is already big groups of sidequests at the same time, so yeah lmao) and there's also a few scenes that are definitely made in mind with you already knowing the main story and what happens next.
I'm not quite sure if it's solely to preserve the pacing - it could very well be them being too proud of those scenes (they should be) and never being able to figure out how to properly squeeze it into the main game, but yeah, I've never seen anything like that.
I really liked it personally, especially with it being as fast as it is. Takes about 1/3rd of a regular playthrough, of which about 75% will be new content and the other 25% being the route you didn't take the first time around, so it adds a lot to the experience! Didn't feel right making this review until I've explored it fully, because yeah, it's major stuff.
Iori especially profits so much from it. NG+ essentially confirmed everything I thought about him through the foreshadowing the main story contained and goddamn man he's up there as one of my favorite TM protags yet. Insanely unique character.
So yeah, cool game. Definitely unique! In some ways good and some ways bizarre.
I had a lot of fun with it, and I hope there's more games like this in store to keep bringing some new perspectives to the Fate series in the future :)