Review: Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star – PS Vita (8.9/10)

I’m a huge fan of the Dynasty Warriors gameplay style, although Dynasty Warriors 8 left a sour taste in my mouth. With Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star, Marvelous has redeemed it quite a bit and although it has some issues, the gameplay and frame rate make this a top notch must buy for any fan of the Dynasty Warriors games. I won’t touch on story because it’s confusing and being new to the series, I was completely lost. But I’m touching up on the other aspects.

Starting with gameplay, the point of Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is taking over areas and reclaiming the world of SE.RA.PH or serial phantasm and it’s a huge war with servants who are past legendary warriors serving along side warriors like Jenne De Arc and other actual legends in a holy grail war. You have to have a set number of keys to complete a grid and make the level boss appear and while it seems basic, sometimes you have side missions to complete as well adding flavor.

Facing off against aggressors clears the block making it yours, but creatures known as plants will add more enemies and make them invade your areas and cause you trouble unless you stop them first. You have a good bit of classes as well like saber, lancers, archers and fighters to mix it up.

The presentation is the bread and butter with silky frame rate and fluid motion and the details to the clothing really shine. Visual effects when fighting add a blur to the action, making it quite nice to see in motion. Music fits the mood and never slows a beat and voice acting is Japanese with English subtitles but it does a solid job. There is also a help guide with terms and a little backstory but unless you are a fan of the series, you will be lost.

There is free battle and side stories with the other characters so you aren’t just set in story mode. You can also bond with all characters which makes it able to add more helpful customization to your characters in battle like adding fire attack and increasing damage. Grinding is somewhat a factor but not so much as it hinders you in progressing.

Conclusion

Overall, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star offers great hack and slash gameplay with good replayability. Although the story is confusing for newcomers to the series, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star can be recommended to all who love Dynasty Warriors style games. The PS Vita version runs absolutely smooth and although there are less enemies compared to the PS4 version, the fun is the same.

The review was written and provided by Chris. All screenshots are taken from the PS Vita version.

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