Fate/Samurai Remnant Has That Thrill I Haven’t Felt Since Stay Night

Fate/Samurai Remnant highlights a pretty interesting discussion going on within the Fate community. While the Fate brand is at the apex of its power as an IP, you could hardly tell it was from the same brand as the visual novel that started it all: Fate/Stay Night.

What was once a secretive battle between mages and their mysterious familiars, codenamed after seven classes to hide their real identities as legendary heroes from history, has evolved into a massive gacha collector involving space, eldritch beings and a Celtic woman with a cheese allergy trying to conquer the United States.

Nailing The Fate Atmosphere

Yet, somehow, a spark of this original spirit remains in  Fate/Samurai Remnant, as our recent preview of the game has shown. On a story level, it very much seems like Fate/Stay Night with a samurai coat of paint- you’re a young mage and samurai named Miyamoto Iori unknowingly pulled into a war of mages, each equipped with their own Servants. Unlike everyone, who seems to have been invited to a pre-briefing on the bloody fight ahead of you, Iori is constantly out of the loop with even his own Servant, Saber, hiding her real identity from him.

As someone who got on to the Fate train post-Grand Order, its’ really nice to see a return to this kind of tone. Fighting off a swarm of fairly bland-looking ninjas is fine at all, but nothing gets the adrenaline running like suddenly having an 8-foot tall giant samurai with floating shoulder guards come after you. The game’s first chapter does an excellent job of painting the stakes of the “Waxing Moon ritual”, which for all intents and purposes is just Feudal Japan-speak for a Holy Grail War.

The fact that the servants themselves are new certainly helps give it that Stay Night feel as well. I couldn’t tell you who most of the currently announced servants are, and that’s great. One of my favorite moments in the original Fate was the reveal of a Servant’s True Name, and the FGO-ification of the series has unfortunately robbed us of these moments since even the term “Red Saber” can refer to multiple characters.

Of course, it’s not a totally brand-new cast. There’s some fan favorite servants in there for sure, like Jeanne Alter and Musashi (who doesn’t show up in the preview section of the game). Still, overall I’d say Fate/Samurai Remnant is a tonal win as far as Fate games go.

Questionable Combat

Of course, there’s also the actual gameplay to discuss. Omega Force has had a track record of making what I like to call the non-Musou: games they swear aren’t styled after their iconic Dynasty Warriors series, yet you can still feel the influence. Moves have big, sweeping hitboxes, and float a lot of enemies in the air at once while not having much to them complexity-wise.

On paper, I do love how they’ve incorporated the Fate background into the control scheme. You basically have two sets of actions- one as the solo Iori, and another for controlling Saber.

As Iori, you can swap between different fighting stances, with the preview giving you a fast dual-sword Water stance and a slow-but-powerful Earth Stance.

To its credit, this system feels really well thought out. The idea is that dealing enough damage in one stance causes Iori to activate “After glow”, allowing him to unlock a new passive when he switches stance. The fact that you can also attain this mode by interrupting bosses gives you a good reason to just get in there and be aggressive. On top of that, Iori is also a mage, but the game’s magic is limited in the number of gems he has. It’s not like you’re ever really in danger of running out (at least in the sections we’ve played), but it’s definitely the clunkiest part of his combat system.

On the other hand, you also have his moveset pertaining to Saber. Once Saber joins your party you have a myriad of Affinity attacks, all involving Saber’s control of water. These need to be built up while playing as Iori, and act more like super moves for your character, since you only really ever play as Saber once in the preview area, and that’s just at the climax of the Rider fight.

See, here’s my biggest gripe with what I’ve played so much. Conceptually, Samurai Remnant is a really solid and inventive way to translate Fate into an action game. Having tools that differentiate Iori as a samurai and Iori as a master is really cool idea. The problem is that tonally, thanks to Omega Force’s skill at doing 1v100 combat, it’s hard to believe you’re in a small Japanese village when you’re jumped by a “small invasion force” roughly the size of modern day China’s civilian population.

Brave Shine

Still, considering the “Original Fate” was a visual novel, I’m sure not everyone is going to be as nitpicky about their action combat tastes as I am. What we’ve played of it is still incredibly fun, all gripes aside, and the return to a focus on the Grail War is a welcome breath of familiar air, even if we already know there’s going to be things like Rogue Servants thrown into the mix.

My overall opinion on the game will, ultimately, depend on where the combat goes next. I’m hoping the mention of recruitable Rogue Servants means expanding Iori’s moveset somewhat to include Affinity attacks like Berserker slams or my good buddy Gae Bolg. But even then, the thrill of seeing the other person on the same street as you with main character energy suddenly summon a giant samurai is enough to get me incredibly hyped for whatever Fate/Samurai Remnant has to offer.

Fate/Samurai Remnant is available from September 29th for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. Preview access provided by Koei Tecmo Games.