1 Name: Pintapau !bAr4R5f0RY : 2012-02-12 02:57 ID:j313+eEO (Image: 1400x865 jpg, 317 kb) [Del]
Fate/EXTRA is a RPG for the PSP developed by Image Epoch. The concept of the story is based on the popular visual novel Fate/stay night, developed by Type-Moon and written by Kinoko Nasu. Although the concept is similar, the story is set on an alternate universe of the original story making this game a spinoff to the series.
Now, before I get into detail about the game, it should be said that just like the Visual Novel Fate/stay night when the narrative gets around to explaining something it does so in big blocks of text that you may get lost in. Don't worry about that, it's mostly background stuff. Still, here's a brief summary of the backstory so you at least understand part of what is going on:
Anyone familiar with the Fate series should know that almost every single iteration revolves around a battle to control the Holy Grail - a magical artifact that is said to be able to grant any wish made by its holder. However, unlike the other wars illustrated by the Fate series this Holy Grail War is not held in Fuyuki City but rather a location known as the Moon Cell. Another notable difference is that unlike the other wars where there were seven Masters and seven Servants (and hence seven different participating teams for the Grail), this war has a grand total of 128 Master/Servant pairings. Naturally, if the war was held in any normal location it would quickly turn into a bloodbath, what with 128 heroes from various legends running about trying to kill each other with any means possible. Hence the importance of the Moon Cell - a virtual world where the spirits of the Masters do battle with their summoned Servants. The supercomputer that runs this virtual world (also called the Moon Cell) has implemented various rules to keep the Holy Grail War in a state of order, where the consequences of breaking these rules ranging from having your Servant weakened to having your soul erased (aka permadeath in both the virtual world and the real world).
The rules instituted in the Holy Grail War can be best summarized as such:
1) Each Master will receive three Command Seals when they summon their Servant. These Command Seals can be used to cause minor miracles or to force your Servant to do something at the cost of one Command Seal each time. Losing all your Command Seals will result in you forfeiting the war and having your soul deleted.
2) Each Master/Servant pairing will be matched up with another pairing at the beginning of each week. These pairs shall fight each other to the death in the Arena at the end of the week.
3) To gain access to the Arena at the end of the week, pairings must find two cypher keys (also known as Triggers). These cypher keys are able to be found inside the accessible areas of the Arena during the week. Failure to obtain both Triggers by the end of the week will result in you forfeiting the war and having your soul deleted.
4) No fighting other Masters outside of the Arena at the end of the week. Any fighting will be detected by SE.RA.PH and appropriate punishments will be made to those it catches.
There are other rules, but these above four are those that you have to worry about in gameplay.
Now, the gameplay can be divided into two sections: what I like to call the Investigations phase and the Exploration phase. The Investigation phase is held inside the school, which is the neutral zone of this Holy Grail War. This is where you can purchase items, distribute your skill points obtained from leveling up, and gain information regarding the pairing you'll be fighting at the end of the week. Also, the only time you can save is inside the Investigation phase. The Exploration phase is spent inside the Arena, where combat happens with programs created by the Moon Cell and occasionally the other Master/Servant pair. Somewhere inside the Arena you will find the Triggers needed to fight your opponents at the end of the week, alongside other items. Note that ending the Exploration phase ends a complete day, so be sure that you do everything you want to in the Investigation phase before you proceed to the Exploration phase.
The battle system can be described as rock-paper-scissors, where Attack beats Break, Break beats Guard, and Guard beats Attack. Each round you must prepare 6 actions in advance, in which you can see either none, some, or all of the opponent's moves based on how much information you have on them. However, both you and your opponents will eventually obtain Skills and Noble Phantasms, where both break the triangle dependent on the effects of the above.
Finally, for those of you who bothered to read through all of this, I shall give some advice. For those of you who get frustrated easily, pick Easy mode - the only difference this has (that I've noticed) is the presence of free healing fountains inside the Arena. As in normal gameplay there is no means of healing aside from any items you have and spells you can cast, this can take down the difficulty of the game by a fair whack. Secondly, at the start of the game you get to pick between three Servants - Saber, Archer, and Caster. For those of you who get frustrated easily, I recommend that you pick Saber as she's the least likely to be knocked out by a strong gust of wind, as well as being able to quickly beat opponents down through brute force. However, for those of you who plan and have patience Caster may be a better choice due to the fact that her skills (assuming that she has the MP to use them) allow you to control the flow of battle, negating your low HP and squishyness as long as you plan correctly.
All in all it is quite the enjoyable game, so I would recommend this to RPG gamers who have patience because this game doesn't exactly baby you (it still babies you more then Dark Souls though, so don't complain about difficulty). However, as of writing this, Fate/Extra is only available in North America in English and Japan in Japanese (derp), although plans have been announced for it to be released in the PAL regions. It should be noted however that an additional game called Fate/EXTRA CCC is in production that adds an additional "What if?" storyline to this Holy Grail War, so be prepared for that to appear on the PSP Vita.
2 Name: Sleepology !4a6Vun8zuw : 2012-02-12 03:07 ID:KF/YYcp5 [Del]
Only psp? Sad day.
Three editions of the game were released in North America: a Limited Edition for $39.99, a retail standard edition for $29.99, and a PlayStation®Network downloadable version for $24.99. On January 19, 2012, Ghostlight announced their plans to release the game in PAL territories.
Fate/Extra will be followed up by a companion game, Fate/Extra CCC
Just because I found this an interesting side fact/didnt feel like reading all of it.
