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Fate/EXTELLA
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Graphics & Sound:
Fate/EXTELLA is a fun RPG that came out about six months ago on the PS4 and PSVita. Now, you can get it for your PC as well.
Fate/EXTELLA has some very interesting enemies and characters, like Elizabeth Bathory, the demon wannabe pop star, and Tamamo, the fox-like Servant. They were definitely creative on the characters. Sadly, I don’t find the graphics on the PC quite as good as the ones on the PS4. Granted, my graphics card is not the greatest, but it does play the game, albeit stalling every now and then. I don’t think that’s the problem with some of the characters. They are quite pretty on the still images, but they’re just not as detailed as I would like. I’m not sure how to describe the difference, but you can probably compare still shots. It’s like they’re not as sharp or detailed. Of course, I also felt the PS4 graphics looked more like a PS3 game.
I do love the music. It’s upbeat and pop-ish at times, which is not exactly what I would expect, but it works in all the scenes. The actual battle times music is well done also. The game is entirely in Japanese with English subtitles and I must say the dialogue keeps me laughing. Saber is obviously head over heels in love with your character and she’s definitely a flirt! She comes on extremely strong at times, no matter if you chose to play as a male or female. You will be amused at her antics with both!
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Gameplay:
Fate/EXTELLA starts you off choosing male or female, then you can choose from Main Story or Gallery. You can change out your character for the other gender at any time and Side Story and Free Battle will be locked until you have progressed past the first boss. The Main Story is divided into several Arcs. The only one unlocked at the beginning is Saber (Flame Poem Arc) and starting it, you will get into the game. You will unlock the rest of the Arcs after you pass each in turn.
Way back in 12000 BC, a shooting star passes through the sky bright enough that all creatures on Earth see it. This comet and the threat that it brings, cause the end of everything on Earth. Now, you are the Champion of the Moon Cell Automaton and you even get your own throne room. Of course, you’d rather have your memory. You can’t even remember Saber’s name (Nero), only that she is your Servant, but you prefer to call her Saber. You find out that you lost your memory when you went to the Moon Cell Core. That’s the simple explanation. You’ll find out that that truth is a bit more complicated, when you run into yourself.
Anyway, Saber explains that in 2032 AD, something interesting is found on the Moon, something humankind decides to call the Moon Cell Automaton. We can interact with it using technology and A.I. You are a wizard, so you can control the A.I. The A.I. aren’t just computer-generated. They are actual beings created with the SE.RA.PH. Your mind is solely in the machine and your body is on Earth. However, if your mind dies, your body will die, so try and stay alive. When you won the Holy Grail War, you were given the Sovereign’s Regalia ring and sole control of the Moon Cell. That does not mean life is easy, though. You will have to fight to take control of the new lands that SE.RA.PH. is continually building from others. You will have the help of Saber and other Servants: a lancer class named Cu Chulainn, an assassin class named Li Shuwen, a saber class named Gawain, and an archer (who for some reason uses twin blades, hmmm, maybe he's not really an archer?) with no name. You will not do any of the fighting. Any time there is battle, you will reside in Saber’s ring. The Servants are used to do the fighting. Keep fighting for the truth and eventually you’ll figure out how to just maybe pull yourself together and save the world.
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Difficulty:
Fate/EXTELLA provides you with three difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, and Hard and you can change between these at any time. You can also go in and configure a few individual settings under each, which is really nice. Normal is not a cakewalk, like it is on some games, and Hard will definitely give you a challenge if you choose to start there from the beginning.
While you are fighting, make sure to pick up the Instant Skills that the Aggressors drop. You can assign these skills to your Servants when you get back to your room. You also want to look for Phantasm Circuits on the boards. They are in orange diamond-shaped things. You will see them on the mini-map, so you’ll know where to look. You want to collect three of them so that you can use Noble Phantasm. Noble Phantasm is really handy for wiping out a whole bunch of enemies at once! Even better than Noble Phantasm is going into Moon Crux mode (or Moon Drive mode for non-Regalia Servants). You’ll really want to explore your power during that time.
The orange arrow will point to the nearest Aggressor or boss target, making it much easier to figure out where they went and which way you need to turn. You can use Code Casts to make your life much easier! You’ll be able to choose which code casts you want to take into battle with you, so choose wisely. You will be able to craft more code casts as you unlock them. Keep an eye out for Plants. They look like flying jellyfish and you will want to destroy them ASAP because they spew out enemies, which can take over a sector quickly! You also want to achieve any battle objectives that you are given, as your life will be much easier. Also, don't forget the side missions. You can have up to five per battle. These will raise the bonds with your Servants, if you can complete them.
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Game Mechanics:
Since Fate/EXTELLA is now on the PC, you can use either the keyboard or a controller. This will be quite nice for those of you who like to use the keyboard. You can configure whatever keys you want to do whatever movements you want, giving you full control of the game. You can configure controllers as well, but my specific controller didn’t like the (LS) to move. The D-pad worked fine though, so I could still use it.
In every stage, you will have to beat a Boss Servant to complete it and pass to the next stage. To make the boss appear, you have to collect Regime Keys so that you can get control of the Regime Matrix. To get a key, you will need to take over a sector and some sectors will have more than one key. To take a sector, kill all of the Aggressors. You’ll see a bar at the bottom telling you how many you need to beat and how many you have beaten. It sounds a bit complicated, but it’s not that hard to get the hang of.
After you beat the first boss, you’ll unlock a side story, Free Play, and several Mystic Codes recipes that will let you craft things. To craft, from your room go into Craft Item and you’ll see everything that is available to make. You won’t necessarily be able to make them until you find all the parts and have enough QP to spend.
Overall, I like Fate/EXTELLA for the PC. It is a complicated game, but it doesn’t take long to get used to the various parts. It is a hack n' slash in a way, but it’s more complicated and takes more skill than some of the other kill 'em all games. You’ll need to explore the skills and items if you really want to survive. If you like RPGs with a solid story and a lot of fighting, check out Fate/EXTELLA on Steam today. |
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-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl |
Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows 7+, Processor: Intel Core i5-3570; Memory: 4 GB RAM;
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti, DirectX: Version 11; Storage: 5 GB available space; Sound Card: Compatible with DirectX 11.0 |
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Test System:
OS: Windows 8.1, Processor: Intel Core i7-3630QM 2.4 GHz, RAM: 16 GB, Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M, Hard Drive: 400 GB free |
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