For several years, it felt like if you’ve played one of Omega Force’s famed Musou action games, you’ve played them all. It seems the team took note of this souring sentiment, however, resulting in more nuanced takes on the formula in more recent titles such as Fire Emblem: Three Hopes and Persona 5 Strikers (the latter co-developed with P-Studio). It’s continued this push with Fate/Samurai Remnant, a new standalone entry in the sprawling Fate franchise that provides an engaging action RPG experience that can appeal to fans both new and old.
The Fate series has expanded to become a vast and confusing multimedia soup of various canon and non-canon works, which can make following the narrative a rather tricky proposition, but Fate/Samurai’s story can readily be enjoyed both by franchise fans and newcomers. The story takes place in Edo period Japan and primarily follows a young man named Miyamoto Iori, a skilled swordsman who finds himself haplessly dragged into a supernatural conflict called the Waxing Moon Ritual.
The idea here is that Iori is a ‘Master’ who stands to have his wishes granted if he can best the other six Masters who are all in the game for their own reasons. Masters are supported in their pursuits by partners called Servants, who are each the spirits of legendary warriors pulled from the past to aid their Masters, and Iori is soon joined by a plucky warrior named Saber. Hoping to protect the world from the nefarious wishes of some of his competitors, Iori sets out with his partner on a dangerous journey to defeat the other Masters while fending off attempts on his own life.
It's certainly a cool premise, and the storytelling takes some genuinely shocking turns over the 30-40 hours it should take you to clear once. One time around won’t give you the whole story, though, as there are three routes you can take that lead to different outcomes. Still, we couldn’t help but feel just a little bit exhausted by the pacing of the narrative in some places. Up front, there is a lot of lore dumped on you in lengthy exposition cutscenes, and even once this levels off, there are still some dialogue sections here and there that can get a bit long in the tooth. You can always just fast forward or completely skip cutscenes if you choose, but we still wish the script here cut out some of the filler.
Gameplay clearly draws inspiration from Koei’s classic Musou framework, but here it’s been reworked into something much more dynamic than the grindy and repetitive battles common to games like Dynasty Warriors. Fate/Samurai is broken up into chapters, and each chapter consists of exploratory sections where you wander towns, fulfill quests, and talk to NPCs, punctuated by brawler-esque arena sections where you fight a few dozen enemies at once. This fine balance between combat and exploration goes a long way towards making Fate/Samurai feel much more like an expansive action RPG and not ‘just’ another Warriors game.
The world map is divided into various uniquely themed towns that slowly unlock as you make progress, and each one features a somewhat mazelike, bustling layout to explore that’s packed with pickups and little sidequests. These are mostly basic tasks like killing a certain amount of a given enemy or petting every cat in town, but many of them are quick to finish or fill out just by progressing the story. Plus, completionists will appreciate that every town offers additional rewards as you turn in more sidequests, giving you plenty to do in each location and incentivizing you to regularly return.
When you’re caught up in brawls, combat unfolds in typical Warriors fashion wherein you utilize a string of combos using light and heavy attacks to fend off waves of foes. Iori also has a variety of stances he can toggle between that are each effective in certain combat situations. The Earth stance, for example, provides you a small overshield for your health bar that lets you soak up more damage as you dish out heavy single-target damage, while the Water stance grants you a flurry of fast, wide-reaching attacks that are well suited to keeping large hordes of enemies in check. You unlock a few more of these as the story progresses, and we appreciated how each one adds a new layer to how you approach combat.
To spice things up further beyond swinging your sword, you can also cast a variety of equippable offensive and defensive spells to assist with things like crowd control, stat boosting, and health regeneration, while you can also call in Saber (or whichever other Servant you happen to have equipped) for link strikes and special attacks after you land enough basic blows on foes. Get enough hits in, and you can even play as a Servant for a brief period—each one does way more damage than Iori can muster himself. Combine these support features with the combo and stance system, and you’re left with combat that feels quite fast-paced and, most importantly, varied. There’s more to it than simply mashing basic combos and letting the fireworks play out.
Things get even more interesting with the one or two ‘big’ enemies that pop up in each fight. Not only do these guys have much larger health bars, but they often have super armor that lets them tank your attacks and harshly reply with their own if you aren’t careful. You thus need to watch their movements for openings, strike when you can, and if you’re especially daring, you can dodge at the last second to trigger a Witch Time-esque effect for landing a powerful riposte attack that can stun them. Aside from bosses, these larger enemies don’t put up too much of a fight, but they add just enough resistance to keep fights from feeling like you’re just knocking around a bunch of rowdy schoolchildren.
To add a little more strategy to the gameplay loop, the story will occasionally propel you into extended turn-based strategy battles on the world map where Iori vies for control of ley lines. Here, the world map basically turns into an interconnected game board where you want to ‘capture’ as many nodes as possible, with each one boosting your stats further. You can only take one step each turn, and every time you move, a few enemies placed elsewhere on the map will also move and claim more territories for themselves. You can either bump into these enemies head-on and trigger a battle, or you can try to outmaneuver them by going around them and cutting off their connection to their base, which instantly kills them.
These ley line sections are usually only a few minutes long, but they provide just enough of a break from the combat and exploration to meaningfully add something to the gameplay experience. It can be great fun to plan out a few turns in advance which nodes you want to take next, only for an enemy movement somewhere along the way to scupper your plans and force you to change course.
Character progression is handled via a skill upgrade system similar to the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X. Iori has a base skill tree with a smattering of stat upgrades and new spells or skills, and he can later unlock additional skill trees that correspond to each of his elemental stances. Each of your servants also has skill trees of their own to fill out, with progress speeding up the more you use them in combat. This skill system may not be anything that you haven’t seen before, but it adds to combat incentives by giving you more to shoot for than simply pushing numbers higher, and we appreciated how this gives you some limited leeway to craft builds for your characters according to how you most often use them.
Graphically, Fate/Samurai manages to seriously impress with its art style, executing a rich and detailed anime aesthetic that looks fantastic, especially considering the hardware. Whether you’re elbowing your way through a crowded marketplace or fighting foes beneath the pink petals of a cherry blossom tree, Fate/Samurai does a great job of presenting Edo period Japan in an appealing light. The problem, however, is that these pretty visuals come with a pretty hefty performance cost.
We noted many instances where loading times went beyond 30 seconds when loading new areas, but the pain is really felt here in the frame drops. Most villages will slump to a choppy sub-20 FPS mess that, though not massively affecting the gameplay here, drastically reduces the charm of these areas. Oddly enough, performance improves a bit more when you’re in battle with dozens of foes, but even combat portions are not immune to frequent frame drops that can impede the gameplay. Fate/Samurai is far from unplayable on Switch, but overall performance feels subpar — bad enough that we’d suggest you investigate other platforms if that’s an option for you.
Conclusion
Performance issues aside, Fate/Samurai Remnant is a hugely enjoyable action RPG that showcases a strong evolution of the very familiar Musou formula. Dynamic combat, rewarding exploration, loads of content, and an appealing art style all work in this one’s favor, though be warned that the story can get a bit too verbose at times. All the same, we’d give this one a recommendation both to anyone looking for a decent action RPG to add to their collection and to any fans of Warriors games. Fate/Samurai Remnant is well worth your time — if you can handle the performance dips on Switch.
Comments 49
It’s glorious on PS5.
question for the real musou heads:
im a person who knows about the genre, likes the idea of it, and wants to enjoy the games, but when ive tried, i found the gamplay weightless and monotonous.
the question is, is this game going to be more of the same or might it have more crossover appeal from some of the new functions breaking up the monotony in some way, for example?
this game looks cool 👍
What performance issues?? I have been playing on Switch Lite for over 15 hrs, no performance issues and steady framerates.
And, this game is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING even on the Switch, nice and smooth graphics, excellent battlesystem and OVER THE TOP cutscenes. If this game is a 7 out of 10, th an no game deserves an 8 or more.
With all respect to Sea of Stars devs but giving SoS a 9 out of 10 and this game a 7 out of 10 is like saying, I rather drive a Toyota Yaris instead of a Ferrari.
@Lebest
Comparing to Sea of Stars? Really?!
Three comments in succession and making nonsense comparisons make you sound just a tad unhinged and not worth paying attention to.
@SBandy1 Ok genius, a score is a score a 9 is better score than a 7, do you need an abacus or a calculator to sum? I played both games enough and I am not saying that SoS is not a good game but giving SoS a 9 and this game a 7 that is not making sense. Did you play Fate Samurai or you are just imaging how it is and giving an empty opinion?
Being a huge Fate fan I double dipped and have both the switch and PS5 version. Performance issues are definitely there on the switch version, ESPECIALLY docked. The PS5 version runs pretty much flawlessly and looks beautiful as one would expect. This port is about on par with the warriors games on switch, which is to say not amazing but not bad if you prefer portability over performance. Either version though the game is awesome.
Yes, I was waiting for this review! I’m bummed about the performance issues, but if it’s similar to Persona 5 Strikers then I’ll probably still get it on switch.
@TheWanderingBard I can't talk about Switch Oled docked but on Switch Lite I can guarantee you that there are zero performance issues. There is only one gripe on the Switch Lite that does not affect gameplay in any sense, NPCs do not have shadows. (Perhaps that is why performance on Lite is better?).
Musou evolved for someone who don't like Musou games.
@JagGentlemann I am not a musou fan either, but Fate Samurai feels more like an Action RPG than a musou.
Looks really cool, but I'm not sure about investing in 30-40 hour game (on either Switch or PS5) when we're only a couple weeks out from both Mario Bros Wonder & Spider Man 2.
Have the game on PS5 and it Looks and plays beautifully in 4K, one of the best games this year for me but that may be biased as Im a huge fan of the Fate series animes and manga.
Huge step up from the last Fate Extella game which this site gave an 8/10 so how this scores lower is beyond me, easily a 9/10.
I got this one day 1. It’s an impressive achievement and a must play for Fate fans, but the reviewer isn’t joking with the frame rate drops. It definitely takes away from the experience during the exploration segments in the city of Edo.
@-wc- depending on your stance, the gameplay can feel weightless in this game. Also, I am hesitant to even call it a musou game. When combat does happen, you are largely trapped in a square arena and have to fight one damage sponge version of the normal bad guys and then 6 - 12 regular henchmen that die easily.
Having put roughly 24 hours into this title, in my opinion, a 7/10 is an appropriate score.
@Notsoavid the reviewer needs to play this game on Switch Lite then.
Is it bad that the only thing I know about the fate series is the mobile game. :/
But hey I liked hyrule warriors so I would probably try this.
@Lebest
I repeat, you sound unhinged.
But as long as you think the game is 9/10 that should be all that matters!
Have a good time.
@SBandy1 you are the one who is unhinged, I only pointed out that this game deserves a better score, why would an indie game like Sea of Stars get a 9 while a much better game gets a 7. In addition to unhinged you sound like a Sabotage diehard fan. I am not a fan of any game series or devs, I judge based on QUALITY.
until the switch 2 arrives quiet a few multi platform games are going to be rough on the switch..
@-wc- As someone who dabbles in these games, I found Berserk and the Band of the Hawk on PS4, had a really good sense of weight with the combat. This by virtue of the fact that Guts, (the main character), swings around an absurdly huge sword that slams into enemies. You’ve got a decent moveset too, unfortunately it does tend to get repetitive after awhile, but it is fun while it lasts.
@Lebest
Using captial letters for whole words now? How perfectly normal.
How does the performance compare to Age of Calamity? Some people whined about that game, but I didn’t really have a problem with it.
Played over 30 hours on the Switch version it doesn't have as bad performance issues as this review is making out. The gameplay battle parts are smooth and not noticed anything. If being picky it has popin/out draw distance I think is the technical term in the city settings. You can notice slight frame rate dips but nothing in the important battle gameplay. The cut scenes look great and nice artwork and voice acting. If a fan of Fate series its a must play!
@Lebest it might help if you understand that one game's review score is not comparative with other games' review scores, but rather a reviewer's subjective opinion about how good it is compared to how good it could have been.
One game getting a 9 doesn't mean it's better than all other games that get 8 or below. It just means the game that got the 9 is considered excellent or essential for what it is.
@Dualmask I am a financial analyst, my job is all about numbers, a score is a score and as far as I know, a 9 is higher than a 7, meaning a game that scores 9 is better than one that scores a 7, otherwise what would be the purpose of giving scores? It's like saying student A gets a 7 and student B gets a 9 and student B is not better than student A. You want to break logic my friend.
@Lebest not "breaking logic" - different games, different opinions. that's all a review score is: an opinion. the reviewer seems to have different opinions than you.
numbers are objective, sure. you nailed that bit. but an opinion is quite subjective. no need to get riled up over review scores. glad you're enjoying the game more than the reviewer did!
@Lebest this isn't financial analysis. Video game scores aren't objective. They're subjective. It is completely untrue that a game that scores a nine is automatically better than a game in a completely different genre/by a different studio that gets a seven. And even if that statement were false, it's still one reviewer's opinion.
You're giving far too much weight to the score. Play the game if it has features that appeal to you, don't play it otherwise. The number is essentially meaningless.
If one reviewer gives Tears of the Kingdom a 10/10 and another reviewer gives, say, Stardew Valley a 10/10, which game is better?
The answer is whichever game you like better.
The score is not really a 'number' in the truest sense. It's a summary of the review represented by the number.
@Dualmask tell that to Metacritic, many people use scores as indicators whether to buy a game or not. An inadequate review may lead to less people buying a good game. Subjective do matter, a number is never only a number, a number always leads to results.
A review needs to be objective and sorry this review isn't objective. When I read the review its contents should have led to a higher score than a mere 7.
The performance issues on Switch is being exaggerated and on Switch Lite, non-existent.
@nimnio your logic sucks, a score of 9 is a 9. The name of the game has nothing to do, if you are a reviewer and you give Vampire Survivors a 9 and you give TOTK a 9, that means that you as a reviewer are saying that both games are same good. What would be the purpose of giving a score that a 9 is not always a 9, but it depends on if you are reviewing a AAA game or an indie game.
@-wc- I think the baddies actually attack you in this game, so, you know...IT BROKE NEW GROUUUUNNND!!!
My point is very simple I am not trying to take points away from Sea of Stars or Vampire Survivor, if anyone beliefs that both games deserve a 9 I am fine with that, what I am not fine with is giving a game like Fate Samurai Remnant that is by far again by faaaar superior than Sea of Stars and Vampire Survivor a 7.
@Lebest They are not comparable. What a silly thing to say. We get it, you like the game. There are better ways to evangelize the thing you enjoy.
Edit: Nvm. I read your other comments. You are too big smort for us here. Here is your trophy for Correct Internetting. It glows in the dark.
@Lebest It's more like saying Student A is good in maths but not so good in literature, and Student B is good in literature and not so good in maths. Saying one of them is a better student is dependent on the bias of the person giving their perspective. Maybe they think maths are more important.
Or, you could just use boring old common sense and realize that reviews are subjective.
Hearing this runs good on the ps5 is all I need to know. I enjoy mosus allot! Will grab it on sale!
@Lebest Sea of Stars deserves every bit of praise it’s getting 🤷♂️ It should have gotten as much as TotK in my opinion.
But it’s ok to prefer a game with a lower score. I’ve learned to take NintendoLife reviews with a big grain of salt. Like how performance always affects the score for multiplatform games, but rarely for Nintendo exclusives. TotK got a 10/10 with the most infuriating performance issues I’ve ever experienced.
Don’t let journalists decide which games you should love, is all I’m trying to say.
But no, this game is not better than Sea of Stars. That seems like a valid but very specific and rare opinion, that you cannot expect people to follow.
I don't like the combat in the game. Like the enemies that go flying from 1 hit. Like what is the point of them there if they're so weak lol. I prefer 1 or 2 normal enemies than 10 or more really weak enemies that seem pointless.
Tho I might force myself to play through it for the story.
Since based on the comments performance is more or less like other Warriors games on Switch and better in handheld than docked I think I'll finally get a discounted physical copy as everything else about this game sounds right up my alley!
@-wc-
Well, to begin with, this isn't a Musou by any stretch of the imagination. It shares some of combat mechanics, but that's about it. There's not battlefield here. This looks more like a Yakuza game.
If you want musou combat with weight, play any of the PS2 games. For variety, that's not the strong suit of these games, but Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition has a lot of mission kinds and gimmicks, it's also the biggest game.
Someone recommended you the Berserk game, but that's the most repetitive game in the genre. Barely any mission variety and you play as Guts for 90% percent of the stages, if not more.
@CutchuSlow I am playing on hard and that is not the case you cannot whine that the game is too easy and you are playing on easy. Play on hard and you'll see how many times your b*tt will be kicked. And if you want even more challenge equip the mountings with 0 stats.
@PinderSchloss SoS is a great game if you love solving mindless puzzles, Fate Samurai is a game on another level. I admire your solidarity with Sabotage being a small team and still developing a good game.
You're able to pet dogs = instantly better than TOTK
@kennycottam I did a couple of shrines and got bored.
@Lebest it's not that it's easy. I just don't like fighting so many enemies at once. It's not the type of rpg that I'm into. I'm more into games like tales, scarlet nexus and such.
@CutchuSlow ok I understand what you mean.
Not too worried about performance as I have faith it will be getting patched, especially by the time I get around to playing. Hope it does well.
Sounds like an interesting game. I'd probably try it if it were locked at 60fps or at 120fps. Maybe it will be playable on Super Switch 2. I miss the old days when all the musou games ran at 60.
I am just gonna hope it gets patched on switch. Games like this murder my hands on a dualshock.
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