Yesterday I finished my first playthrough of
Fate/Extra.
It took me more than expected because of two main reasons:
- The Japanese level is way too difficult, and most of it isn't voiced. I understand Japanese if is at a "daily life" level, not when talking about cyber-wizards hacking the Moon. Also,
Nasu's style of writing is confusing, inventing words and playing with okurigana...
-I tried my best, but I'm unable to enjoy the game. Most of the time I'm
forcing myself to play it. Gameplay wise is like an ultra-simplified version of
.hack games, heavily focused in a visual novel styled story instead of the gameplay.
And now, a brief summary of the story.
There are several outcomes for the game depending of the Servant you chose and an event in the middle of the game that allows you to choose between
Rani and
Rin.I played as a male main character with
Saber as a Servant and choosing
Rin.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Year 2032. An ancient artifact is discovered on the moon, the Moon Cell, capable of fulfilling any wish.
The participants enter in the virtually created Tsukumihara Academy, and a system called Se.Ra.Ph allows them to summon a Servant based on the data recorded in the Moon Cell.
After a preliminary testing of candidates that goes for 4 days, there are at the end 128 participants that must fight the other Masters in a one-versus-one inside a maze-like area called Arena. The winner proceeds to the next phase and the loser is deleted both in the virtual world and in the real world, until only one of them remains.
Master:
You (can be male or female)
Saber:
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus GermanicusThe main character is the only one of the 128 participants that doesn't have any memory of his real world self. At the end is revealed that the real body is kept frozen due an intractable disease for the last 30 years (like certain character in
Cowboy Bebop) and you are the virtual version of that person.
His servant
Saber real self is the Roman Emperor
Nero. Due to several factors was blamed for the great fire of Rome, but she was a good ruler and all she wanted is her people to have fun. She truly loved her people but she was not loved back, and at the end committed suicide.
She's confident and full of herself and loves both men and women. No explanation of why is so similar to
Saber-Arturia.
Saber telling you her real identity.
1st battle
Master:
Matou ShinjiRider:
Francis DrakeShinji is a 8 years old genius hacker that enters the Holy Grail War to show how cool he is, without taking as true the statement that the one who loses dies. His older appearance is because he's using an avatar. Like in the original
Fate, he acts like an asshole towards everybody and dies miserably.
His servant is a gender-bent pirate
Francis Drake. The official explanation of why the pointless gender change is "
Drake was a woman in this world".
2nd battle
Master:
Dan BlackmoreArcher:
Robin HoodDan Blackmore is an elderly English gentleman. His absolute
chivalrousness is shown when uses a command seal to forbid Archer to use his guerrilla tactics against the main character.
Archer identity is Robin Hood, but not as a single person but as the several nameless young men that used that name. He uses poisoned arrows and hit and run tactics, acting as a completely fag.
3rd battle
Master:
AliceCaster:
Nursery RhymeAlice at first is thought to be twins, but in fact the Master is the one using the white doll-jointed goth loli avatar and
Caster is
Nursery Rhyme, the embodiment of the world of picture books for children.
Nursery Rhyme doesn't have a body, so manifest itself as the will of his Master, in this case a mirror version of
Alice herself.
Alice is terminally ill or even dead in the real world, and she only wants to avoid the pain and have fun.
At this point,
Tohsaka Rin with
Lancer and
Rani VIII with
Berserker will confront each other.
Rin &
Lancer VS
Rani &
BerserkerDue to a certain hacking, you can see the battle and before the outcome you use a command spell to save one of the girls. The girl you save will lose her Servant and becomes your "irregular partner", and the other will eventually fight against you and die. I chose Rin.
4th battle
Master:
Ranruu-kun
Lancer:
Vlad the 3rdRanruu-kun is a woman dressed as the mascot character of a hamburger restaurant chain. She's twisted, and she only know to express love by eating (she already ate her own parents and her child). She wants the Holy Grail to make all the humanity like her.
Her Servant is
Vlad the 3rd, the original model for
Dracula, that is more screwed than his Master.
5th battle
Master:
Julius B. HarveyAssassin:
Li ShuwenFirst presented as the teacher
Kuzuki Souichirou, he is in fact
Julius, the brother of
Leonard B. Harvey, hacking the profile of the original Kuzuki but using his own avatar.In real world, he protects his brother in the shadows killing his opponents, and does the same here.
His servant real name is
Li Shuwen, a Chinese martial artist. He conceals his presence and did a fatal attack that stopped the flow of magic between the main character and
Saber, eventually restored with the help of
Tohsaka Rin in a suggestive mana transfer scene.
"Heh heh, like this, you're surprisingly cute..."
Too bad there is a magic trap in the door that explodes before you can see the full scene...
6th battle
Master:
Rani VIIIBerserker:
Ryofu HousenRani VIII is, like Sion, an Atlas alchemist, but also an homunculus created specifically to take part in the Holy Grail War. She doesn't seem to follow her own will, and refer herself as a tool of her teacher.
Her servant is
Ryofu Housen (
Lu Bu in Chinese). As a
Berserker he doesn't have any personality left, but he had the requirements to be any class besides
Caster.
Final battle
Master:
Leonard B. HarveySaber:
Gawain
Leonard is the heir of the Harvey family that pretty much owns the 60% of the real world. He's a nice and polite fellow that tries to make the wold a better place with the aid of the Holy Grail.
He introduces his servant as
Gawain since the first day.
Gawain is one of the Knights of the Round Table and the nephew of King
Arthur. Serious and chivalry-minded, he doesn't speak much. He holds the sword Excalibur-Gallatin (a sister sword of Excalibur), uses sun powered attacks and was invulnerable during the day until was hacked by
Tohsaka.
After the battle, the main character,
Rin and
Saber go to the core of the Moon Cell, and are greeted by a man called
Twice H. Pieceman.
Twice was a pacifist scientist killed in a terrorist attack 30 years ago, and the data of him contained in the Moon Cell became self aware.
He thinks that war is necessary for the humanity and confronts you with his Servant,
Saver.
Saver true name is not revealed, but
since is "the person that reached nirvana", most likely is
Gautama Buddha.
After his defeat and a long monologue about the meaning of life and the like, the main character opts to seal the Moon Cell.
Then, the real world
Tohsaka Rin receives an e-mail containing the data of the main character.
After that she smiles and promises to find the real body.
Medousa instead of Medusa, Altria instead of Arturia... I wonder why they don't hire someone who actually knows English to do the romanizations.
Each character also includes comments by both Takeuchi and Nasu, adding some insight to the character and for some of them there is actually new information. For example, Rider mark in the forehead is a snake.
Kanshou and Bakuya and the "over edge" mode.
Saber initial settings.
Rin initial settings. With the hair in front of the ears and that uniform, she's like Azaka.
More Rin.
Rider original setting was a short haired girl. The design was later re-used for Ayako.
Unused setting for Kotomine's wife, that looks like Caren Ortensia (is her mother, after all).
Unused event graphics.
Some of the unused event graphics were later included in Réalta Nua, like the duel between Saber and Assassin, while others are forever lost, like an H scene with the maids in the scrapped Illya route.
