Fate/Extra Last Encore - Anime Discussion

[Twi]

It was a twist on the original games that's just as bitter as the ending:

Spoiler for Original Game Information:

In the game, a match between Rin and Rani would inevitably break out where one has to kill the other. You, the Player, observe it in the same projector room where Hakuno got his infodump on Hakunon's past with Nero in the previous episode.

The Player then uses a Command Seal to access the battle and then can choose whether to save Rin or Rani, with the latter losing their Servant and remaining as a companion to the end of the game. Now, in my case, I saved Rani in the Saber and Caster routes, but since I wasn't a dick and didn't want Archer to have to kill a version of Rin, I saved her on his route.

At the end, the Player would discover they have an original copy of themselves on Earth in cryogenic stasis due to suffering an illness. The player releases the girl they saved back to their body on the Earth, where they vow to search for the original despite it not having the Player's memory. The Player, meanwhile, is deleted along with their Servant by Moon Cell, knowing they accomplished something. Same thing played out here, only its Hakuno who's doing the saving and the originals remember what their dead copies did.

I do like that Hakuno tried to save them both, but hate that the element responsible for him being unable because of her "peculiar body" isn't mentioned clearly (nor the connection to the best girl of Tsukihime) and we have a two-three month wait for the next episode.

[Kanon]

The sixth floor really was hell, for Rin and Rani. It certainly wasn't what I expected in any case. Why Rin wanted a master to reach the sixth floor in particular makes perfect sense now. Shame they couldn't both survive, but their fate was decided a long time ago.

Now, onto Leo... in three months.

[FlareKnight]

They really weren't kidding about this floor being hell...It truly was Rin and Rani's personal nightmare. Just trapped in a mess that they couldn't get themselves out of. Also partly just terrible timing on their part. They hit a very complicated draw situation right as the Moon Cell is being shut down by Twice. Thus they get pulled in as batteries for the 6th floor.

Just a lot makes sense now about those two after this episode. Their goals, motivations, and willingness to apparently die just came together here. Even though they couldn't both survive, I salute Hakuno attempting to make it happen. Those two had gone through so much and helped him out so many times that he couldn't just kill one of them in their sleep. The anguish of the dead may not have cared, but the person he is right now did care.

Sadly we'll have to wait for the rest of the story. But honestly this was a good stopping point. A lot of answers being revealed here and a bittersweet end to the episode. Rani passing is sad, but Rin is all the more motivated to support Hakuno and Nero to the end of the road.

[Dengar]

Originally Posted by Blueknight78

promote is not the same as "force you to buy" and again how many animes, mangas or novels or games which you know where "made in a way" which you need to buy the "source to understand what is happening" because they just made a nonsense plot out of nowhere just to make peoples had go to buy the source???, i really know few to none, most of animes which are made to "promote" a source at last have a average plot" with the minimum to understand what is happening and if you want to "improve what you get in the anime you need to go to the source, this is how normally they do, no make a "total random mess" for the sake of buy the source it sound very crap even for a "japanese view", them unless nasu is "learning with EA how to make business them it really don't make sense do that.

I still reject the notion that you need to have played the game to understand what's going on. I think what's happening here is you're just not really invested, which causes you to miss a lot of things. There is no shame in that. If you're not invested it just means the story failed to catch your attention. People who say that are just wrong. I mean it most certainly won't hurt to have played it, but it's not necessary.

I did offer to explain things to you if I could though. That offer still stands, and I won't tell you to buy an old PSP game from 8 years ago.

Originally Posted by Blueknight78

Ok some questions which i still have and totally crueless?? this is a sort of "matrix"??? or isekai game where everyone get teleported to a game world??? what is this serie "setup" if they even bothered to try to think about that.

What is happening here? i really can't understand what happened here, the only thing i can understand is which the mc is a sort of "frankestain, which he was created from the "souls/emotions" of many master and speciall nero previous girl master which is almost basically his base personality and he just want to finish all this mess without any real wish or reason.

Definitely no need to play the game here. The story explained this in episode 2 or 3. The Moon Cell Automaton is a giant supercomputer that started this Holy Grail War in its own virtual space called a and drew in the souls of Wizards as part of some vague experiment. Something something understand humans something something.

Originally Posted by Blueknight78

What happened with the "real world"??? again what is happening here, what started all that mess what sort of "grail war is this one??.

Really my problem is "what the hell is happening here"????

This one is a bit tougher to answer. Even for me who has played the game. Because unlike the game, 1000 years have passed since the beginning of the HGW. The story is being entirely told from the perspective of the inside of the SE.RA.PH, so we don't actually know what the real world is like right now. Some of the episodes have hinted, however, that the real world is more or less unlivable, and that the SE.RA.PH. might actually be more real than the real world. But there's no way to know this for sure.

The fact that the story itself does a very poor job explaining things even to people who have actually played the game and most of my own understanding of the story is based on being invested in the franchise and thereby knowing a little bit of how the writer thinks, does not help the show's case. It is a pretty show, it's a fun show to watch, but it is most certainly not a clear and understandable show.


Other than that, I still enjoyed the episode. I wonder what's going to happen now though. How will the rest of the story be released?

Looks like I was right about the floor master not being Amari though.

[Guido]

So, it is true that Fate/Extra Last Encore is taking a temporary hiatus, then?

[shadow1296]

Originally Posted by Guido

So, it is true that Fate/Extra Last Encore is taking a temporary hiatus, then?

yes it is taking one

[Dengar]

I was hoping there would be just a little more interest in the final episode.


All in all, the writing wasn't the greatest thing ever. But I really enjoyed the characters. Even "blank slate" Hakuno grew on me after a while.

7/10 show. Will rewatch some day.

[Kanon]

Now that it's over I still have no idea what Nasu was trying to do with this. They should have just made a straight up adaptation of the game.

Honestly, I mostly enjoyed it because of the main trio. Most of the fights were boring, and while some of the twists were fun, the story felt worthless in the end.

[FlareKnight]

Yeah, turned out to be a pretty good show at the end of the day. An interesting alternate scenario to the original Fate/Extra story. Kind of reminded me of that XCOM 2 game that came out some years ago. A "what if the MC failed" kind of story. Basically everything unfolded from that basic change. In a sense Fate/Extra was adapted. Hakunon's story unfolded in much the same way as the original with probably a few minor changes along the way. Heck from the last 'episode' it appears even Twice had much of the same path as the game. Even having what appeared to be Tamamo as his servant for some of his failed runs.

As a whole I liked it. The game is always there for the game's story. This allowed them to tell the same story in a way but also tell a new one at the same time. Characters like Shinji got a more interesting character arc than the game allowed and certainly shows the importance of not messing up when facing Twice in game .

Honestly like it more than the ending we got for the original game. It's a bit more tragic and final for the MC, but it has satisfying aspects to it. Certainly gives Rin some direction going forward as someone who will probably have to take a leadership role as people start migrating up to the Moon Cell and people start over on that digital plane of existence.

I do get what some didn't like about it, but in the end it really did work for me. An interesting kind of sequel kind of alternate telling of the original story. Adding in some new elements to the story like the Dead Faces and even showing the eventual path things were set on if Twice wasn't stopped in the first place. It gave Rani and Rin some nice moments sprinkled throughout and even let Leo go out in a blaze of glory. He not only faced his failings, but managed to do something useful by the end.

Honestly the only thing I wish they could have changed up was getting at least Tamamo into the picture as more than a shadowy figure. Good times with the speculation about Rin actually being Tamamo as we tried to find her in the story . The action wasn't the best, but some showdowns did work for me. I liked little things such as Nero using imperial privilege to control a ship, making use of her thrice-setting sun skill and really her fight with Robin Hood in general. And hey got a good impression of what Gawain (even in his damaged state) could do with the few shots of Excalibur Galatine he fired off.

Not a show that worked for everyone. Heck not even sure it worked for the majority. But I had a good time.

[Anh_Minh]

It's a silly detail to get hung up on, but I really didn't like blonde Rin.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

It's a silly detail to get hung up on, but I really didn't like blonde Rin.

I vastly prefer blacked haired Rin but a blonde Rin is fine too.

[Dengar]

Maybe that's why her avatar was black haired?

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Dengar

Maybe that's why her avatar was black haired?

What do you mean?

[Dengar]

Because everyone prefers a black haired Rin. It was a joke.

[FlareKnight]

Taking some time to rewatch this after a few months wasn't bad. Definitely a bit more interesting once you have the full picture. Easily the only version of Shinji I really enjoyed seeing. Went from a kid really to someone who endured for almost 1000 years. Working hard to create and maintain that city for such a long time. Even after likely just about every other person had just lost all motivation to do anything if they didn't just end their own lives during that span. Reached a point where he was willing to be pretty brutal, but enduring for such a long time would impact a person. Kind of wonder if anyone before Hakuno really gave him a hard time about giving up their servants. Considering the nightmares of the higher floors...I'd expect anyone running down that far had no interest in going back up. Also kind of wish we'd gotten to see that Drake vs (probably) Neil Armstrong.

A bit random, but liked the various cameo servants that showed up here and there. From the flashbacks with Fuuma fighting Robin Hood or the berserker trio we saw on Shinji's floor. The fights for the show (outside of maybe Nero vs Gawain) weren't anything amazing. Although I did enjoy most of them. The banter with Robin and Nero worked for me and something about the cast fighting a monster firing a massive amount of scissors was hilarious .

No wonder the show didn't work for so many though. A lot of things only clicked for me when I stopped to really think about them and look at what happened/what characters were saying. And if there was hope for this to really work for those who didn't play Fate/Extra I can't imagine that went well. And yet, I still think it that it was good. The evolution of Hakuno from a mass of hatred into someone who wanted to create the chance for a future was enjoyable. Even at the beginning he had way too much intense anger to be called a character without any personality.

Although Hakunon really stole the show at times. I like the flashbacks to her journey and acknowledging her spirit even if she technically lost to Twice in this show. A sweet person who suffered and struggled with her own difficult situation in being an NPC. But also someone who cared about her servant and would get emotional for her sake

It was an interesting what-if. For characters such as Leo or Twice it looked at where things would end up if no one could stop them and achieve victory. Leo got more interesting than I found him in the actual game thanks to this exploring his beliefs and where he might end up if those were sufficiently attacked by someone like Twice. Got to go out with way more class in the end.

A show where I probably found the most enjoyment in the interactions and conversations. The Nero puppet show backstory, her conversation with Hakuno in the floor 2 forest when they first arrived, dramatically double slapping some sense into him when he'd just about given up on Julius' floor, the tragic situation for Rin/Rani and how it played out. At least it ended a completed journey.

Only regret I've got is the lack of sales may prevent anything more with the Fate/Extra side of things anime-wise. Would have liked something maybe covering the Fate/Extra CCC angle. Oh well. Mostly just entertaining myself anyways by thinking through my rewatch.

[Twi]

CCC is way to ecchi to make it overseas.

[Mad Pierrot]

Just finished watching the series. Rather than the Fate series, Last Encore reminded me of one of those old Shin Megami Tensei games where the cast live in some kind of digital world and have to find the meaning of life or something. I'm super confused. Hakuno and Nero didn't strike me that as protagonists considering how short it was but they were still fun.

[Dengar]

The Extra universe in general is pretty confusing. I played the first game and I still needed some wiki reading to kind of get it.


The quality for me isn't in the understandability. It's just the crazyness as well as the characters. And I suppose the confusion may even be part of its charm.

[Twi]

It's a Nasuverse series. If you're not getting confused you've been in too long.

[Dengar]

I just feel like the Extra universe takes the confusion to a new level.