Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star Review – Bonding over Battle

<p>My servant kept pushing herself against me&comma; longing for my embrace&comma; but no&&num;8230&semi;we must restrain ourselves&period; We must finish the task at hand before we perform the sensual act of coitus&period; Oh&comma; but she looks at me so sweetly&period; And she keeps talking about how much she wants to be alone with me&period; With <em>Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star<&sol;em>&comma; the majority of any conversation your character has is a series of sexual advances that always result in little more than a tease&period; Interrupted by repetitive&comma; Musou-style action gameplay&comma; <em>Fate&sol;Extella <&sol;em>is all about fostering relationships with your servants and uncovering the secrets of The Umbral Star&period; Unfortunately&comma; everything feels so minuscule in impact that it feels like you&&num;8217&semi;re playing the status quo at all times&period; Which is a shame when the story is so grandiose&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Split into three different story arcs&comma; you create your own character who plays a Master to several servants&period; You can name him or her whatever you want&comma; but besides that and picking the gender&comma; there isn&&num;8217&semi;t really any customization for your avatar&period; You are also the only character that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t talk in the whole game &lpar;the localized version still features Japanese voice overs&comma; but fully English-translated subtitles&rpar;&comma; despite there not really being any justification other than &&num;8220&semi;Hey&comma; you might not identify with that voice&&num;8221&semi;&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a bit much when your character&&num;8217&semi;s speech bubble takes up the whole screen&comma; plus you never know if it&&num;8217&semi;s an internal monologue or he&&num;8217&semi;s talking to another character&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120553" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120553" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-120553" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;05214910&sol;FateExtellaBago2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120553" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But that being said&comma; <em>Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star <&sol;em>begins with a sense of mystery and fills in the blanks through a somewhat effective split-narrative&period; After the events of the Holy Grail War&comma; the Regalia ring has been split into two&comma; creating a divide that the players must try to mend&period; Things are more than meets the eye though&comma; as the story unfolds and becomes more and more complicated&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s kind of endearing to see this level of ambition in its cyber-fantasy world&comma; especially when you&&num;8217&semi;re rewarded for viewing the story through different perspectives because of the different arcs&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s even some additional story when you complete the game&&num;8217&semi;s three arcs that is interesting because your character is aware of everything at that point&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite its intriguing narrative&comma; <em>Fate&sol;Extella <&sol;em>is kind of a bummer in the minutiae of its storytelling&period; Information is told redundantly&comma; decisions that players occasionally can make feel inconsequential&comma; and it just feels like the only movement the story ever has is through the action of completing Regime Matrices&period; This is the main gameplay that players will be forced to engage with&comma; involving collecting Regime Keys until you have enough to unlock the final boss of the arena and then defeat them&period; This is where the obvious <em>Dynasty Warriors <&sol;em>comparisons come from as the actual action is a series of combos and special attacks that are familiar from the Musou franchises&comma; and the act of collecting Regime Keys is through taking over territories&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120554" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120554" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-120554" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;05214917&sol;FateExtellaBago3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120554" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>To create the smallest amount of variety&comma; there is occasionally an objective that needs to be completed during battles&period; Those range from defeating Plants that are around the area so they don&&num;8217&semi;t keep releasing enemies to defeat&comma; or luring a Servant to a specific area so that they can be ambushed&period; Battles are fought by whoever the main Servant is in the Main Story or Side Story&comma; as well as one additional Servant&period; Though&comma; you are only able to change characters if you have that ability equipped&comma; so you might play through an entire arc with just one Servant&period; It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t really matter though as the differences between classes is pretty minimal&period; An archer class will obviously shoot a bow and arrow&comma; but you&&num;8217&semi;re still doing similar button combos to any other class with the only difference being that you may do less moves but with more impact&period; Or perhaps you have more range&period; Regardless&comma; I almost always played a Saber class if given the opportunity because you can cover lots of ground and kill lots of enemies quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The combat is pretty cathartic despite its mundane nature&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s flashy and has just enough nuance that you feel like you&&num;8217&semi;re actively doing something to achieve those 4000-KO counts&period; It also helps to have moves like Extella Maneuvers which can be used multiple times and create an insane amount of kills quickly while dealing significant damage&period; The Moon Drive can be used to activate enhanced attacks that allow for more critical damage too&period; On top of this&comma; before every battle you can install new skills that allow for elemental damage&comma; quicker KOs&comma; more Extella Maneuvers&comma; and various other enhancements&period; The Code Cast are the extra abilities you will have when in combat&comma; including the ability to heal&comma; change characters&comma; cure ailments&comma; resist elements&comma; etc&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s all just enough to make the combat less boring and combined with the different goals&comma; there is enough to do in an arena&period; But then you&&num;8217&semi;ll get to the next arena and realize how little everything changes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120555" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120555" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-120555" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;05214924&sol;FateExtellaBago4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120555" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Even with the occasional dialogue choices in the story&comma; most of the story moves without you anyways&period; Despite having a bond level with characters&comma; none of it really matters in the grand scheme of things&period; I unlocked two separate events with two different servants that just further emphasized <em>Fate&sol;Extella<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s desire for titillation and not much else&period; I mean that in both the sexual sense as well as its desires to give players the bare minimum to play through the game&comma; but not ever enough to feel like you&&num;8217&semi;re doing anything substantial&period; Even boss battles are uninteresting because the only one that plays differently than the rest is done in every single character arc&period; Sometimes it makes no sense for that to be the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For those who want to just play through a game with a reasonably compelling story and consistently decent gameplay&comma; <em>Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star <&sol;em>offers players the chance for a decent way to spend their time&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll find more to get out of the characters than you will out of the story as that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t really go anywhere particularly satisfying&period; Though I think the story manages to justify its split-narrative&comma; it also hardly justifies its repetition&period; I just wish the game was willing to take things a little further instead of resting in a safe spot&period; Just like the relationships formed in the game&comma; everything feels like it isn&&num;8217&semi;t moving forward at all despite doing everything right&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A Playstation 4 Review Code for Fate&sol;Extella&colon; The Umbral Star was provided by XSEED Games for the Purpose of this Review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;