Going to preface that they should have rename this game Fate/Padding Remnant. Whatever enjoyment I had with the game was dampened by how atrocious the game was on respecting the players' time. Combat is a slog with how numerous and spongy the mobs are and how every bosses have shield mechanic that took ages to shred, worse yet in combat with Servant since they will regenerate their shield after certain HP thresholds and some make you restart the fight before the pre-fight cutscene starts so if you die you have to spend time pressing the skip button.

Moving on but still somewhat related, the game love to throws multitudinous amount of combat encounters to your face at every point of the story, making the pacing slows to a crawl like a snail's. Nary a moment in the story progression where there isn't obligatory 'we're under fucking attack' battle or 'fight me if you want to pass through' boss combat with the stray Servants. At several points I lose track of what was even going on in the main story from all the button mashing I need to do before reaching my destination. The Servant combat is sort of fun but if you have to fight ten waves of damage-sponge mooks beforehand you'll want to get it over by then like how I just gobbled all the skill charge items and then spam it on boss... all so I could restart the loop and fight another ten waves in next chapter again and again. Do I mention you need to repeat this with three playthroughs to see all the content? Well, now you know.

The story itself is... fine, I guess? It might be because they need to cater to newcomer of the series but I feel they played way too safe with the scenario to the end (the unlockable ending is admittedly very cool, but it's too little too late by then). If you have read feudal Japan setting chapters written by Higashide or Sakurai in FGO then you'll see nothing new in here, if you haven't then... uh, I don't know, you get a standard JRPG plot with Fate setting? You expect being written by Koei team means they will try something fresh, but I guess the story supervision was pretty strict this time. Honestly speaking, it doesn't matter which player you are: by the end of the game I'm convinced the story is just a dressing for Type-Moon to put all the new characters in eventual future FGO collab event.

While it's nice to have a new console Fate game since Extra series (fuck Extella) after so long and the production itself is pretty solid, boy, does playing this was a drag. Can we have the Extra remake now and while at it, remaking CCC too?

"mom can we have star wars"

"we have star wars at home"

the star wars at home:

Really excellent ADV. the RTS gameplay never really overstays its welcome which is a plus to me.

The branching storyline and the general free structure of the game just ended up becoming detrimental to my enjoyment in the end. Through my playthrough I never stopped wondering if I messed up and rushing a character POV story or if I progressed too far in the RTS part since some of the storylines emotional payout feel really flat and abrupt. I eventually learn this is partly because several of content has to be cut by the developer but the nature of the storytelling with multiple jumping timelines and perspectives certainly don't help.

Remember that knight guy at the tutorial saying 'even your newest recruit can step into battle and hold his own'?

Well, that's a fucking lie.

Hope you like grinding an unit with new class by babysitting them in backline or grinding their level in the free battles for hours. The unit grinding is so atrocious I didn't even want to touch the postgame content. I did finished all three main routes though, so should that be considered Complete or Shelved? I'm not sure myself...