I’ll just get this out of the way first. You do not need to watch, play, or read any Fate-related thing to play Fate/Samurai Remnant. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
The short review is that the game is good enough in most areas to overcome its shortcomings in gameplay.
I’ll talk about the combat system first. It is serviceable; it gets the job done, even though I wish there was more to it. The game does a pretty good job of hiding the combat simplicity with plenty of flare; almost everything you can do as Iori or a Servant looks cool. Iori having multiple styles is cool, but I found that the early ones tend to get outshined by the latter ones.
General gameplay involves navigating large areas linked by an overworld map. The environments themselves are very pretty, and I’m very much a fan of how this game looks graphically. The game does a mostly good job at getting you to explore the areas with bulletin board missions. I say mostly because some have missions that require you to kill X amount of enemies, which usually requires you to load out and back into an area to repopulate the zone with enemies. On the topic of enemies, there are some that are set amounts, like Blue Oni and Izuna, which means you can’t farm them for resources or hunt them for Edo Commissions, a completely baffling decision. While also on this topic, this game is not built for you to do everything in a single run; they want you to do multiple runs. I have no problem with this; the game gives you a lot of incentive to play New Game +, like new scenes, quests, and an exclusive NG+ ending. Also, I like the Spirit Font Conflict; I don’t really have much to say about it, but I definitely see people not liking it.
I won't get too much into the story; I’ll just say I liked it a lot. I think all the endings are good (especially the NG+ exclusive one). The relationship between Iori and Saber is 100% the highlight of the game; everything about it is perfect to me. I think all the Servants are great too, new and old. I like all the Masters, but I do wish a lot of them got more screen time. What was there was good, but I think it could have benefited from more. On the topic of characters, there are a bunch of NPCs that should have gotten proper portraits, like the people in charge of Edo commissions.
I love the art style of this game. Rei Wataru’s art is fantastic and a great fit for Fate, and I hope to see more from them. I don’t even mean only in a TYPE-MOON context; just in general, I really like their art.
Getting into nitpicks: The logbook is incredibly poorly designed. You have no way of knowing if you are missing something, and the game gives you no way of knowing how to get what you are missing. I know it is bad because I got the platinum for Fate/Samurai Remnant, and let me tell you, the trophy that took me an embarrassing amount of time to get was the one you get for completing the logbook. Also, I do think Koei Tecmo cheaped out by not dubbing this game; there is no good reason to not dub this. I wouldn’t usually hammer on this, but this is an action game where people talk in fights.
I hope Fate/Samurai Remnant leads to more TYPE-MOON games like this and that they improve on it. My only worry for the future is that if they make another one, they stick to the Samurai-era Japan setting. There is a lot of potential here for different countries and/or eras.
The short review is that the game is good enough in most areas to overcome its shortcomings in gameplay.
I’ll talk about the combat system first. It is serviceable; it gets the job done, even though I wish there was more to it. The game does a pretty good job of hiding the combat simplicity with plenty of flare; almost everything you can do as Iori or a Servant looks cool. Iori having multiple styles is cool, but I found that the early ones tend to get outshined by the latter ones.
General gameplay involves navigating large areas linked by an overworld map. The environments themselves are very pretty, and I’m very much a fan of how this game looks graphically. The game does a mostly good job at getting you to explore the areas with bulletin board missions. I say mostly because some have missions that require you to kill X amount of enemies, which usually requires you to load out and back into an area to repopulate the zone with enemies. On the topic of enemies, there are some that are set amounts, like Blue Oni and Izuna, which means you can’t farm them for resources or hunt them for Edo Commissions, a completely baffling decision. While also on this topic, this game is not built for you to do everything in a single run; they want you to do multiple runs. I have no problem with this; the game gives you a lot of incentive to play New Game +, like new scenes, quests, and an exclusive NG+ ending. Also, I like the Spirit Font Conflict; I don’t really have much to say about it, but I definitely see people not liking it.
I won't get too much into the story; I’ll just say I liked it a lot. I think all the endings are good (especially the NG+ exclusive one). The relationship between Iori and Saber is 100% the highlight of the game; everything about it is perfect to me. I think all the Servants are great too, new and old. I like all the Masters, but I do wish a lot of them got more screen time. What was there was good, but I think it could have benefited from more. On the topic of characters, there are a bunch of NPCs that should have gotten proper portraits, like the people in charge of Edo commissions.
I love the art style of this game. Rei Wataru’s art is fantastic and a great fit for Fate, and I hope to see more from them. I don’t even mean only in a TYPE-MOON context; just in general, I really like their art.
Getting into nitpicks: The logbook is incredibly poorly designed. You have no way of knowing if you are missing something, and the game gives you no way of knowing how to get what you are missing. I know it is bad because I got the platinum for Fate/Samurai Remnant, and let me tell you, the trophy that took me an embarrassing amount of time to get was the one you get for completing the logbook. Also, I do think Koei Tecmo cheaped out by not dubbing this game; there is no good reason to not dub this. I wouldn’t usually hammer on this, but this is an action game where people talk in fights.
I hope Fate/Samurai Remnant leads to more TYPE-MOON games like this and that they improve on it. My only worry for the future is that if they make another one, they stick to the Samurai-era Japan setting. There is a lot of potential here for different countries and/or eras.