At Tokyo Game Show, we enjoyed a fairly extensive two-part demo of Fate/Extra Record, a remake of the beloved JRPG for PSP, Fate/Extra.
It has certainly been long in the making: announced by Type-Moon in 2020, it was delayed and even dropped by its original publisher, and then picked up recently by Aniplex.
If you’re not familiar with the Fate franchise, it originally debuted in 2004 with Fate/stay night, and it has been Type-Moon’s household name for two decades.
Recently, Type-Moon released the remaster of the original game, Fate/stay night Remastered, followed by one of its sequel, Fate/hollow ataraxia Remastered.
While the original was an adult game, the franchise has since shifted to an all-ages target. This is quite common among Japanese franchises that started as eroge, especially when releasing on consoles or getting anime adaptations. Muv-Luv is another relevant and venerable example, but there are more than we can count.
Fate’spopularity has grown exponentially over the years, culminating in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, which still enjoys a massive audience in Japan and worldwide.
That being said, Fate/Extra is different both from its visual novel forefather and its free-to-play offspring. Specifically, it’s a spin-off of the original story in turn-based RPG form.
In this incarnation of the Fate universe, the Holy Grail War happens within a virtual environment in which Masters and their Servants, who incarnate famous heroes from history and fantasy, fight each other both to survive (defeat means death in the real world, pretty much like in Sword Art Online) and to earn a wish from the Holy Grail, the ultimate prize.
The visuals of the game have been greatly enhanced from the original, with much improved models and textures, but remain faithful to the color palette and the original art style (much unlike other remakes), which is certainly my favored way of doing a remaster.
Having played the original on PS back in the day, I certainly feel the innovation but also the familiarity, which is an ideal balance.
While Fate/Extra is not a visual novel like Fate/Stay Night, it’s very narrative-focused, featuring a great story and characters worthy of its legacy and the JRPG genre. That being said, there isn’t much I can say about that aspect of the game besides mentioning my experience with the original, as the demos I tried were mostly focused on combat, and only one of them touched on storytelling very lightly.
Yet, that’s all right. I can definitely vouch for Fate’s storytelling, assuming there aren’t “incidents” in localization, but the combat is where the biggest changes from the original have been made.
The original had an interesting but slightly clunky system in which you picked a series of actions for that turn, and these actions were compared to those picked by your opponent. The comparison between the two lists determined the result of the clash, and how much damage each combatant took.
This system has basically been scrapped and turned into a deckbuilder, where you pick cards representing each action, and you play them in sequence, with each action happening after every card is played.
You have a certain number of activation points every turn, and your turn doesn’t end until they’re all spent or you pass.
The demo wasn’t long enough to see the “building” part of the deck-building system, and I certainly understand that the radical change may not sit well with some veteran fans. Big changes to beloved games are always met with a certain degree of resistance, and that’s understandable.
That being said, I found the combat fluid, intuitive, and highly tactical. The way you play your cards and the way they interact with each other, especially those that cost 0 points, can change the outcome of a turn massively.
Your Master has also support magic of their own that interacts with the Servant’s action cards, adding another layer of depth without becoming overcomplicated.
While some “luck of the draw” is certainly involved, I have not found myself unfairly robbed of the ability to act effectively by bad turns, and the deep interaction between cards pretty much ensures that you have many options at your disposal.
If you use your cards correctly, your servant will unleash long and satisfying combos that can often one-shot minor enemies and take large chunks of HP off bosses as well.
I’ll go ahead and say that I like this system more than the original, and for me, who more often than not find myself on the side of tradition, this is no small compliment.
Ultimately, Fate/Extra Record is a promising remake, and one that was much needed considering the relevance of the original game to the genre and the franchise.
It pleases me to see that soon it won’t be limited to the PSP anymore, but many of today’s gamers will be able to experience this gem. Hopefully, it’ll be as shiny and polished as the original Fate/Extra.
Fate/Extra Record releases on January 28, 2027, for PC, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
