Fate/Extra, part of Type Moon’s Fate/ franchise, a series that follows the story of various heroes from the past, present, and future, summoned into a battle known as the Holy Grail War, is coming to the United States this year.
Created by Imageepoch (creators of Luminous Arc), and written by the Fate/Stay Night author Nasu Kinoko, Fate/Extra has a rather different setting from the previous Fate/ entries. Fate/Extra takes place in a virtual world, with an amnesiac protagonist. The protagonist is bound to a Servant, a great hero given material form in the present time, and is pitted against his friends and enemies in order to attain the Holy Grail.
The battle system of Fate/Extra is rather unusual. Instead of simply choosing one command, you pick up to six in order to counter your enemies attacks, making for a simple yet tactical series of battles. It’s a balanced system that relies heavily on prediction and memorization, but ultimately works. The gameplay can be compared to Persona 4 with the daily life of interaction and dungeon exploration.
As this is written by Nasu Kinoko, who also wrote Kara no Kyoukai and Tsukihime, both incredibly famous written works in Japan and abroad, you can expect an incredibly deep and well-written storyline. Characters who are relevant to the current route of the branching plot will be a huge focus, with other routes having a very strong difference in the events that play out. However, like Kara no Kyoukai, Fate/Extra takes place in an alternate timeline and is thus not the same universe as the original Fate/Stay Night.
If you’re a fan of Type Moon’s works, this will be a game worth picking up. I’ve played it in Japanese and it’s honestly a solid enough game with an interesting and unique battle system that isn’t overly complex. Keep an eye out for it later this year. Here’s a gameplay vid I dug up so you can get an idea of it.
Julie Mok
There is no way I’m not getting this.