Extra musings on Fate

Hi everyone.  Well last week was a big week for us here on the Ghostlight Blog what with our fabulous new game announcement.  Oops, did I say new game?  I of course meant new ‘games’ as we picked up both Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked for 3DS and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 for DS :)

But of course that’s not all that happened as Fate/EXTRA was made available for pre-order last week too.  With our fantastic Collector’s Edition and exclusive items available for just £39.99 there’s no reason you shouldn’t have already ordered it :).

However for those of you who are still on the fence I thought I’d talk to you a little about my experiences playing Fate/EXTRA.  Don’t worry though I’ll be keeping things fairly loose in terms of storyline to avoid spoiling it for you.

First things first, in order to clear up some of the biases here, I should be clear in saying that I’m a huge fan of the two Fate anime series, Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero however, Fate/EXTRA definitely holds up for those of you unfamiliar with previous Fate games/anime/manga.  The tale itself is incredibly well told and involves the player finding out that what they think of as their school is in fact a computer simulation that serves as a battle ground for mages in a war for the Holy Grail.  With numerous twists including a rather clever one in the tutorial itself, the storyline is amazingly compelling leading some to say that Fate/EXTRA should be considered a visual novel coupled with a superb level of gameplay.

Speaking of the gameplay, to my mind it has a structure reminiscent of Persona 3 Portable with the game divided into two phases, one of which takes place in the “school” and the other in a dungeon.  Fate/EXTRA also features mighty boss battles which happen on a schedule based on how much time has past in game.  However, as opposed to P3P’s emphasis on building up relationships during school hours, Fate/EXTRA demands that you research and spy on your next opponent.  Each NPC also has their own story and you get to talk to them about their hopes and fears for the next round before seeing them gradually disappear as more of them are defeated in the tournament.

The combat is unique and fascinating with a novel rock-paper-scissors-style system which is elaborated on with some very clever touches.  Having to think six moves in advance makes the game quite challenging but the more you fight an enemy type the more of their moves you’re shown in advance.  The key things to remember are that skills break up enemy combo counters (make sure you never let them get three hits in a row) and that you can heal on any of your 6 turns.  The other thing to remember is that each enemy type has its own preferences for certain moves so even when you’re not certain which move they are going to make you can make an educated guess.

Anyway I hope this has whetted your appetite for what is a fantastic game both for Fate veterans and those new to this series.  Pre-orders have been going well so far but you can still get our fabulous exclusive items when you order it from here.

That’s all for now. I know some of you are getting anxious for news on Digital Devil Saga but I promise I’ll let you know as soon as we have a release date for those games.  I’ll be back next week, but until then why not follow us on our Twitter and Facebook pages, our Youtube Channel and our  Google + account, where we’ll be posting all the latest news from Ghostlight? You can also follow me on Twitter for a more personal take on all things Ghostlight.