As a longtime fan of the Fate franchise, my interest is always piqued when video game tie-ins are announced. Granted, none of the previous ones have done much for me. After putting some hours into Fate/Samurai Remnant, I’m confident that this one appears to tick all the boxes. I got to play the prologue and part of chapter one of the game, which took a heck of a lot longer than I assumed it would. But considering the game’s story is said to take at least 50 hours, I shouldn’t have been surprised. While the gameplay itself didn’t surprise me all that much, everything else is a different story.
Fate/Samurai Remnant focuses on the story of Miyamoto Iori, a young man in Edo (the old name for Tokyo). Yes, the game actually puts the characters’ family names first in the English text, which is obviously insanely uncommon. Iori is a ronin in a time of peace who makes a living by assisting an Edo constable, but his life takes an unexpected turn when an inhuman being in samurai armour attempts to kill him. In his desperate struggle to survive, a mark appears on his hand and a young woman with otherworldly swordsmanship abilities appears from the ether to protect him.
Fate fans will know exactly what this means. Iori is a Master and the young woman, known as Saber, is the Heroic Spirit of a deceased hero that now fights alongside him. Together, the two must take part in the Waxing Moon ritual, AKA the Holy Grail War. Six other Master/Servant pairs need to be defeated for one of their wishes to come true, but there are eight other rogue Heroic Spirits wandering about, complicating matters. The story was outlined by the staff behind other Fate spinoffs, with an actual script apparently scribed by some of the writers behind Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
“After putting some hours into Fate/Samurai Remnant, I’m confident that this one appears to tick all the boxes.”
Fate/Samurai Remnant is absolutely inundated with fully voiced dialogue. The voice acting (which is in Japanese) is of typically high anime quality, but the writing is far better than I’d hoped. Saber is petulant, stubborn and a constant source of humour as she and Iori banter with one another. Story sequences can go on for some time as well. The start of chapter one begins with over half an hour of pure dialogue. As one might hope from a Fate game, the story is likely going to be enough to maintain player interest.
As for gameplay, Fate/Samurai Remnant is quite a hefty pivot for Warriors series developers, Omega Force. The game is broken up into different sections of Edo that Iori can freely move about. There’s seemingly not much to these, but you’ll be completing objectives by travelling to markers on the game’s maps. Different town sections have a checklist of grindy tasks that will grant Iori rewards, such as an item that grants him extra skill points. There are even areas of town that will trigger battles. It kind of reminds me of a Yakuza/Like a Dragon game.
As this is an Omega Force game, combat will be instantly familiar to anyone that’s played a Warriors title. Characters have standard attack strings that can end with special charge attacks that are activated by pressing Y/Triangle after a certain number of standard strikes. There’s a jump and a dodge button too, as well as multiple equippable magic spells that can be used if the player has picked up sufficient magic gems from fallen enemies. Fate/Samurai Remnant thankfully has some more differences that do a good job of separating it from similar Omega Force games, so there’s something to sink your teeth into even if you’ve played the Warriors games to death.
“As one might hope from a Fate game, the story is likely going to be enough to maintain player interest.”
After enemies attack, they briefly glow white and can be hit for extra damage during this window. Doing that also builds up affinity with your current Heroic Spirit too. Iori can have a Heroic Spirit use one of their four equipped special attacks or the player can temporarily take control of them. They’re naturally much stronger than him and their move sets are flashier and more damaging. Saber’s moves remind me of characters from the One Piece: Pirate Warriors games, as they’re quite over the top and superhuman.
Enemies in Fate/Samurai Remnant will also occasionally glow red prior to a powerful strike. If the player hits them with a charge attack while in this state, they’ll be stunned. Plus, dodging an attack at the right time will let you riposte and stun them that way too. In the early part of the game, Iori has two different fighting styles: a single sword earth style for focusing on individual enemies and a two sword water style for groups. As this is an Omega Force game, you will be finding larger enemy groups from time to time, but they’re not as mindless or passive as the peons in Warriors games.
Much like those games, though, characters have skill trees, so more moves and higher levels of power await as the game goes on. Overall, Fate/Samurai Remnant reminds me a lot of Persona 5 Strikers, both in how it’s a surprisingly good action game held further aloft by a heaping helping of well-written narrative sequences. The game comes out next month but fans of Fate and Warriors can rest assured that the game will have something for them when it’s finally time to bear the mark and enter into the Waxing Moon ritual.
