Fate/Extra RPG Discussion

[Cherry_Lover]

Originally Posted by Arbitres

Hahaha. PLUS. REP. You deserve it. Though I said he is pulling a karma houdini rather then it being 'anti-karma'.

On the other hand, he dies in every ending of FSN except for the one where he goes through the trauma of being turned into an expanding blob of flesh

Spoiler for Extra:

and he dies in Extra too, like every other defeated enemy,

so he's not really a Karma Houdini. The biggest one of those is Zouken, really, at least outside of HF.

[Arbitres]

@Cherry lover: To me, he is a karma houdini. I think you would understand why.

That would be freakin' epic.

Spoiler for Response:

I think somewhere I would've liked to see that, too. Though it was Flinch's Gawain and not Nasu's.

Edit: LOL. Got ya name wrong, lover. sorry about that.

[Cherry_Lover]

Originally Posted by Arbitres

@Cherry lover: To me, he is a karma houdini. I think you would understand why.

Well, whilst I can see your point

Spoiler for HF:

(his death in HF in particular was far too damn quick),

it's hard to objectively call him a Karma Houdini when

Spoiler for Shinji's fate:

he ends up dead in two out of three routes and horribly mentally scarred (and hopefully reformed) in the other one.

[Flinch]

Death is death, it isn't really right to torture someone as they die, no matter how bad they are, for at that moment, you are no better than them.

[Cherry_Lover]

Well, yes, hence why I said you couldn't objectively call him a Karma Houdini. But, still, I can see the point of people who think he got off far too lightly given what he did to Sakura (and I can see that point even more when it comes to Zouken).

I'm not saying it'd be right to go in there and start torturing him for revenge, but if I saw someone else doing it (say, for example, Rider...), I don't think I'd feel particularly inclined to stop them....

[Moczo]

Spoiler for I'm kind of a mean person.:

I was always a little annoyed that there we never got to do it ourselves. I mean, three routes and you don't get to personally murder Shinji in any of them? What a waste.

So getting to do the deed myself in Extra is kind of like the first really good point the game's shown in awhile.

[Cherry_Lover]

Well, yeah, but Shirou's not that sort of person. I mean, Sakura killed him specifically because she knew Shirou at that point had fallen deeply enough in love with her that he would kill Shinji if he came braggging to Shirou about how he'd raped her, and she would rather have the guilt of doing so on her conscience than on his.

I was pretty damn pissed off that we didn't get to follow through with the "punch Shinji" option, though. I mean, when we got a choice to do it or to hold back, my immediate thoughts were "well, punching him is obviously the 'wrong' decision from a gameplay POV, but I don't care, the fucker deserves it", so I went for it anyway, fully expecting to lose a few Sakura points or even to get a bad end, and then Sakura protects the bastard. I mean, I know Sakura's just that sort of person, and I love that kind, caring side of her, but just that once couldn't she have just 'happened' to be looking the other way whilst we gave Shinji a well-deserved beating?

[Nerroth]

Having a listen to the OST right now. Not too bad so far, though it's a bit... Sega-ey, I guess you could call it?

[Nerroth]

I just finished the first run-through!

(I picked the male protagonist and summoned Archer.)


Tons of plot-related stuff I'd really need an English-text version to follow, but still pretty neat.


Oh, and it's probably not much of a spoiler to say this (I hope); but if/when you finish it, stay for the end of the credits!

[Moczo]

What's the gameplay like?

[Nerroth]

Not bad, I guess.


The school part of things is fairly self-explanatory; you can go to the Church and top up your Servant, get goodies in the Shop, pop in to say hi to Sakura in the nurse's office, get chatting (or not) with your Servant in their room (once it appears) and so on and so forth.

In the dungeons, you go into a one-on-one battle sequence once you approach an enemy (or if you trigger certain story events); the battles at their most basic level follow a kind of rock-paper-scissors routine, but get more complicated as the game goes on.

Each week, you try and work on building up both your Master level, then using the SPs you earn at each Master level-up (3 at a time) to boost your Servant's stats in turn. At the end of the week, you fight against your rival master-Servant duo.


Oh, and other stuff happens now and then, too.

[Moczo]

Huh. So, it's like a Persona 3 & 4 sort of thing, where you spend the days wandering around school doing student stuff, then go into dungeons to train in preparation for major events.

Other than the other Servants, what sort of enemies would there be, though? It's all in some kind of VR simulation, so are you fighting training programs or something?

[Nerroth]

Persona 3 Portable seems to be a common point of comparison, yeah. (Haven't played P3P myself yet, though.)


The regular opponents are monsters created by SE.RA.PH. for you to fight; some of the monsters look the same from one week to the next, but have different names (and abilities) from one week to the next. Not sure if the names for each week's monsters are supposed to reflect the Master-Servant combo you fight, though.

[Moczo]

I've played 3FES and 4, adore the series (especially 4). I don't have a PSP, so P3P is not really an option for me sadly... still, considering that it is Persona 3's excellent story with Persona 4's vastly, enormously better controls and gameplay (really, I cannot overstate this. Even people who prefer the third game tend to admit the fourth blows it out of the water in that department), I can heartily recommend it even without playing it.

And just to keep the post on-topic; how does the combat work? I've heard rock-paper-scissors a few times, so does that mean you're told what the opponent is going to do next and have to work out the counter? Or like, rock-paper-scissors in a sense where you have a long list of techniques to choose from, different enemies are weak to different ones, and you have to figure out and exploit their weaknesses (aka the Pokemon or, again, Persona method)?

[Nerroth]

Each round of combat has a set of 6 orders; initially, they can be either Attack, Break or Guard. (Attack beats Break, Break beats Guard, and Guard beats Attack.) Once you start unlocking Servant skills, they can be used in place of a regular action; they usually cost a certain amount of MP from your Servant's total. Also, once per round, the Master can either use an item, or 'code cast' a spell for this or that purpose.

When giving your orders, you often see one or more of the enemy's orders shown for you; this can be a standard order, a skill (not defined, but you might be able to guess depending on who you fight, and which part of the order sequence it's in) or an Extra order (i.e. a Noble Phantasm; only Servants have those).

Some monsters follow a common order sequence, though if you encounter a similar-looking monster with a new name in a subsequent week, it might throw in a few surprises (like a random order or two, or perhaps a skill or something).

Also, when it comes to your Servants, each one has a different NP. Archer has Unlimited Blade Works; Saber has... something else I won't spoil for you; and I dunno yet about Caster.



By the way, I finished the Saber run-through; but I'm having trouble getting past the first week with Caster I just got on to week 2 with Caster. She's not easy to handle, game-wise; but then, she's supposed to be the toughest of the three Servants in that regard.

[Flinch]

When you are miserable, you need something that is even more miserable than you to feel good about yourself.

Why does that quote from Elfen Lied come to mind when I think of this game?

[LostHanyou]

Is there a plot synopsis out, by any chance? I don't see this being translated so I might as well read all the spoiled stories.

[Nerroth]

Not one I've seen, but there have been bits and piece of info posted in the spoiler thread over on Beast's Lair.

Is there anyone else here at AS giving the game a try, or are those of you interested in this game waiting to see if it will be licensed first? (For my part, I didn't want to pass up on the LE; but I'd still get an English-text version to immerse myself in story-wise.)

[Arbitres]

Too many variables. I want to know the entirety of it before I go buying it.

Really, I wouldn't want to waste my money on even a mediocre game.

EXTRA sounds like a Persona game - true that has me interested, but beyond the prestigious gameplay like Persona, I can't say much besides it being nice to play.

Of course I'm saving money for my convention, everything is secondary when it is the convention. So I'm afraid I'll have to check it out another time.

How do you summon the servants anyways?

[Nerroth]

For the first run-through, you go through the prologue, then are offered the choice between which class of Servant you want (Saber, Archer, or Caster). After that, you are given the choice of Male or Female Protagonist, as well as the first, last and nicknames you want to give your MC.

After you clear the game, you can start a New Game Plus from the final save file; that skips you straight to the Servant selection part.