A New Fate

I was first exposed to the Fate series in its original form as a visual novel, which feels like a lifetime ago and since then, have been surprised with its explosive popularity throughout numerous forms of media. From anime, games, manga, movies and more, it has become a multimedia smash success. So, it is no surprise that there have been attempts to make Fate musou games in the past, which were helmed by Marvelous. While mostly unremarkable, they were solid entries in the genre. However, I felt they were lacking in the storytelling department, mostly focusing on the gameplay side of things. With the release of Fate/Samurai Remnant, Koei Tecmo, the originators of the musou genre takes a crack at the formula once more, successfully tapping into what makes the Fate series such a staple in the anime community.

Sabers with big appetites seems to be a trope that’s still going strong.

MSRP: $59.99
Price I’d pay: $49.99
Platforms: PC, PS4/5, NSW
Steam Deck: Verified but basically unplayable due to constant slow downs.
Length: 20~ hours

Iori is a diligent and serious samurai who lives a simple life, training to become stronger, doing odd jobs for a living until one fateful night he is attacked by an overwhelming foe. When it seemed like it was the end, a mysterious figure appeared to save his life asking a simple question, “Are you my master?” So, the curtains rise on the Waxing Moon ritual, a battle royale of masters and servants where the winner is able to have any wish granted.

For those unfamiliar with the Fate series, the premise is usually based around an object of great power and those who fight to try and obtain it until only one is left standing. There is significant depth to explore as you would imagine from a series that’s been going strong for nearly two decades now, but I will simply leave it at that and those who are interested can feel free to delve into the Fate rabbit hole on their own. Just be warned that the hole is deep and potentially perilous to your free time.

One of the aspects of Fate that I enjoy the most are the various heroic servants, brought to life from famous legends both factual and fictional. The work done by artist Rei Wataru is especially notable with her vibrant and expressive characters stealing the show with their larger-than-life personalities.

Musashi was my favorite of the heroic servants this time around.

The 3D visuals compared unfavorably to the 2D character artwork and design, looking overly simple and decidedly dated but it did a good enough job that I wouldn’t consider it a detriment to the overall package.

What did impress was the various cutscenes during key moments which I thought were animated well with some good, choreographed fights. There were also various story moments which were told through lightly animated illustrations and even though they weren’t as fancy as the epic fight scenes, it was nice to see the mashup of classical Japanese illustrations alongside the new.

The overall presentation and visual cohesion presented here is well crafted.

In terms of combat, I would say it’s relatively simple with various stances which are unlocked throughout the course of the game offering different move sets which are effective under specific conditions. The ones that I favored the most came in the latter parts of the story, one which fully unlocked its potential when I was at full health and another where it was best used when I was low on health. There were incentives to switch up the stances mid-combat for various bonuses as well and I was afforded plenty of movement/defensive options to boot to keep the combat interesting.

Unfortunately, while the core combat itself was solid, I found fighting the same enemy types over and over, most of which died in a few hits quite repetitive after a little while. It’s fortunate that the enemy engagements are much smaller in scale than most musou games which go by quickly. There was also a good sense of progression when it came to unlocking new skills and finding/upgrading weapons which helped ease the tedium a bit.

I was also able to switch to manually controlling my heroic servant after filling out a special gauge and coming across rogue servants to add to the roster was a nice touch. While Iori is no slouch himself, when cutting the way through as a powerful servant, the game feels most like a musou as they can make short work of even the strongest foes with their powerful moves and their ultimate, “Noble Phantasm”.

Noble Phantasms needed to be a spectacle to witness and they did a good job showcasing that.

Another key element of the gameplay revolved around the world map and ley lines that are spread across Edo. Moving around the map during key story moments was a battle for control as the enemy forces tried to take my home base and I had to prevent them from entering my base while gunning to conquer theirs. It was a nice change of pace to add another element of strategy to the affair but once I was able to send out more rogue servants, it became easy enough for me to discard any deep stratagems and just make a dash to their home base where I would fight the boss.

Unfortunately, most of the boss encounters which should be a highlight often felt long and drawn out due to their excessive use of super armor which they would just reapply when I finally managed to break it after landing dozens of strikes. I get that it’s hard to balance difficulty in these types of games, but I would’ve much appreciated it if it was more skill based rather than being a war of attrition.

In terms of the story, I would not say that it’s among my favorites in the Fate related media, but it certainly isn’t bad either and I especially enjoyed the interactions/growth between Iori and Saber. Koei Tecmo definitely put much more of an emphasis on the story more so than just the hack and slash action of Marvelous’s previous efforts. While that works out for the most part, I feel the last two chapters felt rushed to close out the story and even though I think Fate fans will enjoy the tale on offer, it certainly could’ve been improved by adding more substantial interactions between the characters instead a lot of mini-quests which felt like glorified fetch quests most of the time.

You said it, not me.

Despite its few shortcomings, Fate/Samurai Remnant is a great addition to the Fate media empire that can be enjoyed by hardcore Fate fans and newcomers alike.

Fun Tidbit– Special mention to the OST which really captures the era the game takes place in and goes much harder than it needs to, in a good way.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.