Omega Force continues their trend of successfully adapting the musou combat style to the quirks of other franchises, and Samurai Remnant is no exception.
Set in 1600s Edo, Japan, Samurai Remnant follows Miyamoto Iori as he is drawn into the Waxing Moon Ritual, an off-shoot of the series' Holy Grail war. Masters are selected and servants are summoned, and they must fight for the Waxing Moon to grant their wish. For being a musou game, the game actually is fairly text heavy (as is known for the series). Battles are smaller scale than you might expect too (usually no more than 30-40 at a time) as you hack, slash, and use magic as both Iori and a wide range of servants who have their own playable moments.
Overall, as a fan of Omega Force the combat is pretty fun. Iori has numerous different blade styles to choose from for different situations and a huge skill tree to improve them. He can also tag in his servant when the meter is full to temporarily play as them and dish out big damage. To compensate for the smaller enemy counts, some magical enemies have a 'shell gauge' that must be broken which prolongs fights to last more than ten seconds. It works well enough, and reinforces how strong certain foes are.
Instead of traipsing across large battlefields, the game consists of a huge number of districts across Edo. Visit shops/food stalls, complete little trials for the townspeople, and pet animals. Enemy encounters (outside of the plot) are clearly marked on the map, so the player really can go at their own pace and decide how much extra combat they want to engage in. There are also periodic 'Font Battles', which are tactical territory capture battles that take place across the map. Try to capture all the spirit fonts you can while routing enemies and going into mini-encounters. It's fun, if a little bit easy to outsmart the AI.
My main detractors however unfortunately come from the narrative. There are certain aspects I love (Iori's dynamic with his servant is certainly the highlight), but a lot of stuff just feels undercooked. There are a couple choices you can make during the game to change the outcome pretty significantly, but depending on which route you are on, some characters are inexplicably absent. This feels more like an excuse to add more replay value than there should be, but I guess I really just wish the character development (of characters who aren't the main pair) could be on the same level as Stay Night or even Extra.
Still, if you are into the Fate series or even just like musou games, this is a solid entry for both fans and newcomers alike. No prior knowledge of the franchise is needed to jump in, and if you DO like it, I highly recommend checking out the aforementioned Fate games. This is as good a place as any to start.
Set in 1600s Edo, Japan, Samurai Remnant follows Miyamoto Iori as he is drawn into the Waxing Moon Ritual, an off-shoot of the series' Holy Grail war. Masters are selected and servants are summoned, and they must fight for the Waxing Moon to grant their wish. For being a musou game, the game actually is fairly text heavy (as is known for the series). Battles are smaller scale than you might expect too (usually no more than 30-40 at a time) as you hack, slash, and use magic as both Iori and a wide range of servants who have their own playable moments.
Overall, as a fan of Omega Force the combat is pretty fun. Iori has numerous different blade styles to choose from for different situations and a huge skill tree to improve them. He can also tag in his servant when the meter is full to temporarily play as them and dish out big damage. To compensate for the smaller enemy counts, some magical enemies have a 'shell gauge' that must be broken which prolongs fights to last more than ten seconds. It works well enough, and reinforces how strong certain foes are.
Instead of traipsing across large battlefields, the game consists of a huge number of districts across Edo. Visit shops/food stalls, complete little trials for the townspeople, and pet animals. Enemy encounters (outside of the plot) are clearly marked on the map, so the player really can go at their own pace and decide how much extra combat they want to engage in. There are also periodic 'Font Battles', which are tactical territory capture battles that take place across the map. Try to capture all the spirit fonts you can while routing enemies and going into mini-encounters. It's fun, if a little bit easy to outsmart the AI.
My main detractors however unfortunately come from the narrative. There are certain aspects I love (Iori's dynamic with his servant is certainly the highlight), but a lot of stuff just feels undercooked. There are a couple choices you can make during the game to change the outcome pretty significantly, but depending on which route you are on, some characters are inexplicably absent. This feels more like an excuse to add more replay value than there should be, but I guess I really just wish the character development (of characters who aren't the main pair) could be on the same level as Stay Night or even Extra.
Still, if you are into the Fate series or even just like musou games, this is a solid entry for both fans and newcomers alike. No prior knowledge of the franchise is needed to jump in, and if you DO like it, I highly recommend checking out the aforementioned Fate games. This is as good a place as any to start.