The Fool

Having spent some quality time with Fate/Extra last night I thought it to be a good time to give some first impressions.

A digital War

For all Fate fans you are given a nice treat. THe Holy War is now managed by a big satellite on the Moon. The Holy War is now a state of a game with a lethal twist. Lose in this game and you will die in the real world. Potential masters are selected and brought to the virtual school ground of Tsukumihara Academy as students. Here they have 4 days to acknowledge that something is wrong, that everyday is the same and that they repeat the same stuff day after day.

If they succeed in wanting to know who they really are they are given a examination. Succeed at this test and glory to you, you are now a chosen Master with your own Servant, if you did not succeed well you´re dead.

A long long intro

Thought Wild Arms with it´s three different character intro was long? Well this is a bit longer and only because of the sheer amount of things you do. Having read that you could choose your gender I was dumbstruck when I started a new game. I did not get a choice in the matter and my gender was chosen for me. As a guy I got accustomed to Tsukumihara Academy with some cameos from the series Fate/Stay Night like Sakura and Shinji Matou, Rin Tohsaka and Toiga.

It was a nice welcome for me. Even though I wondered why I hadn´t been allowed to choose my gender or servant. I spent time doing research on “mysterious happenings” on school grounds for the school newspaper. Sometimes I would get a big headache and wonder why the screen suddenly got all weird. Like watching a old TV with bad reception the screen got somewhat blurry.

Four days I spent running around school grounds getting to know the place. Then I “awakened” to my situation and wanted to get free from the chains of destiny. So I followed a mysterious transfer student into a different realm. Here I found a weird body that was assigned to protect me. We ventured forth and found a dead body. The same kind of weird body lay still on the floor only to suddenly spring to life and attack me.

A battle!! Finally some action I thought. But I couldn´t do shit and my temporary servant was defeated as easy as pie. I collapse at the floor wondering if this is the end? Where did I make a wrong choice since I didn´t want to restart and try again.

Oh boy this must be the first game that trolls me this hard. This time spent running around school ground and talking with everyone and getting accustomed to this place was about 2 hours. And it was just the introduction to the game. NOW the real game starts.

A grindfest

This game demands you to grind. Or at least it does for me since I choose Caster as my servant. With a good status overall of E in all aspects she is the weakest servant. But I have my love for animal girls so the choice wasn´t hard to make :p

This game consists of two stages. During your school day you react and answer questions from teachers, fellow students and rival magi. You can also go to your own special room to talk with your servant. You might even want to go to the library. The reason for this is as any Fate-fan should know. To get information about your opponent and his/her servant. This gives you an edge in battles and makes them a lot easier.

The other type of stage is in the “arena”. The place where you will spend most of your time. In this arena there are enemies that you will defeat, items in chests to gain money or special gear. There are several stages and all of them are fixed in size, types of enemies and items that appears. If you want to exit you have to go to the beginning or the end of the arena you are on. You can save when you are in school but not in the arena. If your servant is defeated at anytime in any battle it is game over.

You also only have 6 days of school and grinding in the arena before the boss appears. There is also a recommended lvl for you to be at when the 7th day comes around in the week. So you better get your fighting gear on fast and good.

Rock, scissors, paper

The battles are easy. Each round consists of 6 actions. You have a choice of “attack”, “guard” and “break”. And they work like the classic game rock, scissors and paper. Where each choice wins over one, get´s defeated by one and is a draw if the same symbol is used.

Here attack wins over break, break wins over guard and guard wins over attack. if both should choose attack or break there will either be a simultaneous attack where both servants are hurt or you get 0 damage. If both choose guard nothing happens.

Should you succeed to choose the right action 3 times in a row you will get a “Extra” attack that is a one hit where your opponent can´t do a thing.

The more you fight the same enemy type the more knowledge you get of the enemy. This gives you an edge in battles as you see what they will do and can counter it pretty easy.

Interesting and irritating

This game is a mouthful. It has excellent typings, some comedy and a easy battle system to learn. But the amount of time I will have to spend on grinding is not fun at all. Especially since I haven´t found a way to save while in the arena. So one false move and I will have to replay who knows how much time thanks to one false move since Caster is so weak. I´m currently trying to get her physical attack and def up to speed to stand a chance. It has gone so-so.

And since you can´t run from a battle when you have started it you can guess how many times I´m going to rage…

With good dialogue, nice characters and a fresh take on the Holy Grail War from the Fate universe this game is golden. Now as long as I just gain more knowledge about when I can save and not… it would make things so much easier.