This was initially on my backlog as "hell yea more Fate trash" because I can't help but be soothed by it. But then I stepped it up earlier in the backlog because people were saying it has a surprisingly good story!

And I agree, I think that for the kind of game it is, the story is really competently done. It's just done in the same way Fate/Apocrypha is -- and of course, the two share a scenario writer -- where the mechanics of the narrative framework are explored in a really interesting way, but the emotional beats are hit just for the sake of hitting emotional beats. Fate has a bit of a late Star Wars problem where as we actually define the mechanics -- "Saint Graphs" and "Spirit Origins" and so forth -- our characters themselves become aware of these concepts, and define themselves more mechanically. None of these words were in the Bible (i.e. Fate/stay night). At the time, they were handwaved concepts and gradually were made law based on the needs of the narrative for the emotional impact.

And like Fate/Apocrypha it sacrifices the emotional climax in favour of a more action-oriented approach. It is indeed quite Cool to watch, and our choice of Servants in this story are also well-picked. So why did I not really get all that into them as people? It kind of had a "damn...that sucks" feel whereas every moment in Fate/stay night ripped right through me. The setup for what these people were feeling was done in excruciating detail. We don't really have room for that in action games nor in 24-episode action anime.

All that said, the game starts out so strong. I think I spent the first 14 hours of this game in two long, long sessions of play. It's just that the loop is not deep enough to carry through the back half. There's mechanics, but they function more as ways of breaking up what is effectively button mashing. As you learn the later stances, you get a lot more from just hitting the X button than you do anything else. It's just walk in a room, see some spawns, hit X, go home. The bosses have some interesting opportunities for Ripostes, and one or two boss fights had me hitting reset and going in for another round (I tried facing Rogue Berserker kinda early).

Omega Force is in a great stride at exactly this: button masher tie-ins to narratively-strong IPs that deliver a great additional narrative within a real basic game loop.

But really I don't know what I'm complaining about. I had a great time! I think I just started out like "holy shit" and I felt sad that I was getting tired of it by the end. I didn't even want to NG+ to do the other story routes.