Very early game minor spoilers ahead!
Full gameplay experience can be found on Twitch & YouTube.
| Playtime as of completion (Playthru#1: 36 Hours [Expert/Hard Mode]
| Platform: PS5
As of the time of this playthrough, I'm still ongoing - but I'm very confident in how I feel about this title as of now, and will absolutely be finishing/completing and possibly even NG+ -ing in the very short future. I've played a fair amount of the gameplay/combat dynamics, and have seen quite a few characters and enough of the writing.
Anyway, that aside - Wow. Omega Force and Koei really nailed it with this one. It's like every warriors-esque game has been building up to something like this, but it's at the point now where even though Musou is at the core, I feel more ARPG / Nioh elements to Fate, and I really look forward to seeing more of this style of progression in the future.
On to the game itself!
The game opens up beautifully with a fantastic description of the details and lore that accompany the Waxing Moon ritual. While clearly a reference or a prequel to the Holy Grail Wars' that most of us will know from Fate lore, the Waxing Moon Ritual method paves a way for a great entry point into the series, while also keeping a lot of the familiar rulesets and scenarios we've come to love in the Fate universe. I believe this all makes it a fantastic spot to start for both a new fan, or an OG Fate fan - you're sure to find all kinds of fun references as an OG fan as well, so both sides get some great takeaways from the story thus far.
The world map/overworld appears to have a fairly significant amount of locations and places to discover, and most of them have multiple battlefields associated with them as well. It brings me back to what I'd imagine it was like roaming the streets back in these days, and felt pretty immersive - but they were also all fairly different and open with different hidden areas and pathways all relevant to the time era too; hidden cubbies through alleyways, off the street shrines, and more await you to discover in the cities. The zones themselves were all fairly decent-sized in my opinion as well.
There is a fairly decent looking amount of progression - At the base camp, you are able to upgrade your workshop with materials that are procured from bosses or enemies, on the ground, or even purchased from merchants, with a level associated with it to also allow more and further upgrades. At this time, I'm level 2, but it looks like it may go up to 4 or 5...I'm guessing!
The characters have been a joy as well - Saber is extremely interesting, and very excited to find out more, while Iori is a very amusingly stoic character adding to an interesting dynamic. There's many other lovable characters to encounter in this title, and I can't wait to see who else shows up :)
As far as gameplay goes, characters have a pretty solid amount of actions. As Iori, you'll have access to four spells/gems, as well as four stances to change between for varied effects on your normal attack combos. Pair this with being able to swap out to your servant once the affinity gauge raises high enough (Keep hitting and comboing!) and being able to manually trigger servant skills, and you've got a pretty solid amount of skills to use, on top of the great Musou-esque combo attacks. There's plenty of ways to take down your foes, and it seems there may be other servants that all have their own styles as well.
I won't spoil the encounter, but there is an interesting fight early on thatis definitely a pretty hardcore fight right out the gate; there's a boss you can opt to fight fairly early that's clearly supposed to be very difficult. It gave me some Souls or Nioh vibes trying to push this boss, but I'm sure if you're really good you can riposte and perfect dodge all his moves and take him down! But it's clear they added some harder bosses in Digressions for some of that element of combat. I'm all for it, and hope to see more as well!
On top of the things to do above, as well as the story, and farming etc; there are also Town Trials in some major cities which are pretty much miniquests that you can do to clear out for the area in order to acquire more materials or acquire more skill gems for upgrading. On top of these trials, there are also large-scale quests from some NPCs that may require you to kill 500+ enemies for greater reward. It appears that there are lots of tasks to accomplish to progress with!
There are even some fun little minigames tucked away that may require precise control of the buttons. These can be fun to give a little extra change of pace!
By the way - * YOU CAN PET THE CATS AND DOGGOS!!!!! * This is tremendously important. Petting cats will always be 100 times better then doing cat sidequests.
Overall, I think this Fate title is very interesting and engaging. With all the content to do, the trials, the weapons and gear to farm, the animals to pet, and all the characters to master and max out.. there's so much good stuff here! The story is told in a good way thus far, and the combat hasn't gotten old or stale - I've only wanted to fight more and acquire more stuff. Even just grinding for materials can be fun and still useful as well. I think this Fate is worth a shot, new or old, I and hope others can enjoy this title as well! See ya folks in the Waxing Moon Ritual!