Fate/Samurai Remnant Review

Fate/Samurai:

Anime fans will surely be familiar with Fate/Stay Night , a series that later spawned numerous spin-offs, including the equally famous prequel Fate/Zero . In reality, the Fate universe is much more complex than it seems and has its origins in a video game, namely the visual novel of Fate/Stay Night itself , which later became an anime, released for the first time in Japan in 2004.

In 2017 we got Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star (our review) and in 2019 Fate/EXTELLA Link -, but this time Omega Force is in charge. And curiously, although the creators of Dynasty Warriors are behind it, it feels less musou than the Marvelous Entertainment games.

The work was created by  Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi, the two founders of Type-Moon , a video game manufacturer also famous for another great visual novel, Tsukihime . The success of Fate/Stay Night is due to its particular story, which sees seven magicians summon seven Servants  to face each other and conquer the Holy Grail, a magical object capable of granting any desire.

Welcome to Fate/Samurai Remnant.

Story:

The story of Fate/Samurai Remnant is set in 1651 Japan, in the Edo period. After the end of the Sengoku era, the nation finally experienced a period of peace under the government of the Tokugawa.

The protagonist of the story is Iori Miyamoto , adopted son and disciple of the legendary swordsman Musashi Miyamoto, a real historical figure who is said to have never lost a fight. After the death of his adoptive father, Iori continued to perfect himself in the art of the sword, living a rather quiet life in Edo (the ancient name of Tokyo) and also looking after his younger sister Kaya.

One day, however, everything changes, when  he is chosen as Master in the Ritual of the Crescent Moon , a sort of emulation of the Holy Grail seen in Fate/Stay Night , in which, also in this case, seven Masters and seven Servants compete to be able to fulfill the own desires.

Gameplay:

From the first moments of the game, one might think of a system that risks quickly becoming repetitive and not very engaging: nothing could be further from the truth. The game will continue to add new features to the combat system until more than halfway through the story. Iori, in fact, will be equipped with five fighting styles based on the teachings of the Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.

It will start with two: Ground, a slow and powerful style capable of absorbing a certain amount of damage, is designed for single opponents; Water, much more dynamic and fast, is perfect against groups of opponents. The Wind style, on the other hand, will allow you to fight with a mix of sword attacks and magic, while, regarding Fire and Void, we won’t tell you anything, since they are linked to the story.

Lori has the ability to use magic: in fact, our samurai will be able to use special gems to perform spells . These are mainly divided into attacks that use flames, such as balls or jets of fire, and buffs to status and healing, to be even more effective in battle. But that’s not all: don’t forget that Iori will almost always fight with Saber at his side.

Speaking of difficulty, the enemies in the game are many and of various types : there are simple humans, such as ronin and ninja, monsters, taken mainly from Japanese folklore and which appeared as a consequence of the magical forces of the ritual, and finally the opposing Servants.

Many fights will be against hordes of musou style enemies, although even the simplest soldiers will be more aggressive on average and will have powerful attacks that can only be interrupted by our heavy attack or something stronger. In the midst of these, there will almost always be a much more resistant and aggressive elite enemy.