Petrikow

Thoughts on Fate/Samurai Remnant (WARNING SPOILERS)

There's no use beating around the brush when it comes to this one: I really didn't like this game. I'd wager so much as to say it's probably the worst Fate media I've consumed in ages. That said, I feel like after spending almost 50 whole hours with the game I have to get some things off my chest. Not really a review, just an assorted collection of thoughts.

Story & Plotting

From the perspective of someone who has already experienced enough Fate stories to be sick of the concept, there isn't much here that stimulates the imagination. That's not to say that there is no appeal to the usual Grail War setup. If you're someone who has yet to experience any of the other stories utilising the same concept, then yeah, maybe you will find this an interesting premise. From my perspective, however, the plot offered by the game is so much better done by other entries in this franchise that I find it difficult to recommend even to the most green-nosed of newcomers. Maybe if you like Musou games?

On the surface, F/SR's premise is actually most similar to the original Fate/stay night, rather than any other spinoff. Unlike, say, Fate/zero, F/SR focuses on the perspective of a singular character 95% of the time, with other the other approximate 5% being spent in so-called "Digressions" taking place from the perspective of the other characters; a scheme that resembles that of the Interludes found in F/SN. As such, the development of the cast is necessitated to mostly take place in their interactions with Iori, of which there are relatively few, all things considered. The majority of the runtime in this game is spent in the company of Saber, doing either chores in Edo or... chores (the musou gameplay).

That said, I don't think this has to be a fatal flaw. F/SN shows that with enough care and attention, there is no reason why this shouldn't work. But in F/SR, it doesn't work. Most of the characters are woefully underwritten. Team Assassin and Team Caster are especially bad in this sense. But even the characters that the game do spend some time on feel like they lack much of any hooks. Some of them can be charismatic and "fun", but certainly not "interesting". For example, I found myself liking Chiemon and Lancer to some extent. Not because they were interesting, but because Chiemon was comically edgy, but in like, a good way? His dialogue was fun and well-delivered, and his dynamics with Lancer were appropriate and balanced. But he wasn't interesting. His motivations were poorly explored and lacked emotional resonance. He was more of a clown than anything else.

If I had to identify a central problem with the plotting, I'd say it lacks the most basic of storytelling elements: tension and intrigue. Intrigue is the quality that lends to a story the feeling of "wanting to know what happens next". Tension is the quality that lends to a story the feeling of "not knowing what will happen next". As the description should imply, these naturally work well together. If you don't know what will happen next and you want to know, then you have no choice but to keep watching/reading/playing/etc. Obviously there are other models you could use to appraise storytelling, and there are other factors which would make you want to commit to a piece of fiction, but these tend to be rather elementary.

Why does it lack it, however? I think the first problem is that the game has no clear hook. This tends to result in a lack of intrigue. The game starts off with two things: a flashback to Iori's past, and then the ambush by Rider and summoning of Saber. Neither of these give a good hook because the game doesn't make it clear what we are supposed to care about. Is it about who Iori is? Is it about Yui's motivations? Rider's identity? Saber's identity? The workings of the "Waxing Moon Ritual"? Ostensibly, the game starts out with Iori trying to pursue Yui from lack of other things to do, but genuinely speaking, out of all the things that happen at the start of the game, this is the one that is the least compelling. Why should I care about Yui? Nothing she did "hooked" me. Iori is like "Hmm, why was she so HONOURABLE, STRANGE?" and my reaction was more or less "That's what we're going with?"

The other hooks gradually reveal themselves as well, but they're generally very back-loaded to the point that they get lost in the storytelling. Iori's story arc especially is just baffling in how it is delivered. In a way, that's a shame because I think he's probably on paper got the most interesting character-arc (and read: "interesting", not "charming"). The problem is that for the first playthrough, he's just not doing anything. The "twist" added to him in NG+ feels almost tacked on if it wasn't for the fact that Musashi says HE WAS BORN IN THE ERRRRAA. And even then, this content is spread ridiculously thinly across the game, something which makes the fact that Iori's ending also is the shortest one feel almost insulting.

Then we have the problem of tension and this one is really the more chronic issue that the game has. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever as to when characters are in danger. You fight, people get defeated, they flee, rinse and repeat until the almost 25 hour point of the game when the very first Servant is defeated. Who can be trusted? Everyone, because nobody you talk to ever lies and everyone who looks vaguely attractive is actually honourable at heart (Tei Seikou & Takao-tayuu, etc). Who cannot be trusted? The people you don't talk to who are obviously evil-looking bad dudes (Tsuchimikado & Chiemon, etc). In cutscenes people just sort of stand around talking without a shred of tension existing, because you know that for anything to happen you'll need to pass through a several minute tedious boss fight first. Oh, but kidnapping Kaya is free action. It's hilarious to me that this is the only way the game finds a chance to build tension. Based Chiemon delivers once again.

The fact that the story thinks that the best way to solve both of these problems is just to do a blanket "turn everyone evil" spell just kills me. Sure, it does inject some level of tension into the story, but the workings behind who gets corrupted or not is arbitrary, which is never a good way to build legitimate tension. Assassin's decision to turn himself evil ON PURPOSE is especially funny because even after doing Dorothea's NG+ Digressions I did not get any indication as to why this guy just randomly decides to do this. At that point, you can't help but feel the suspension of disbelief fade as you realise that it happened because it made for the easiest way to turn him into a boss. Not the only way mind you, but the easiest. Writing is hard after all, and this game is nothing but easy decisions.

By the time I got to the confrontation with Team Rider, the story had completely lost my interest. Technically, the stakes were higher than ever before, but at that point I just didn't care about what was going on. Tension, intrigue, themes, characters, etc. All the elements that make a story compelling were utterly lacking.

Which makes it very sad that even after this climactic showdown, the game refuses to end. I'm not sure which of the two ordinary endings were worse, but I'd probably hedge my bets on Chiemon's, but it's close. Both of the main villains of these chapters have uninteresting motivations and their respective boss fights are complete slogs. It feels like the primary issue is the pacing though. The Musashi fight serves to unveil Iori's Tsubame Gaeshi, but Musashi herself is a non-character here. Chiemon ultimately feels like a parody villain of sorts. He just keeps babbling about his gate to hell and you never really gain any modicum of understanding for him. Obviously he was a child at the Shimabara rebellion and whatever, but there's no emotional response because it's all so impersonally delivered. Caster's motivations, while more expounded upon in a way that makes sense for his character, are... almost childish. That wouldn't be a problem if we had more time with him and perhaps could understand him better, but he is unfortunately another underwritten character, and a lot of the ending is spent on Tei Seikou instead, who is the world's blandest man.

Characters

Team Saber
Iori and Saber are supposed to form the emotional core of the story, and while I can sort of see why some people enjoy their interactions, I really didn't care much for it personally. Iori mostly acts as a straight man to Saber; a tried and true character dynamic. But while I think there is fun and charm to the way Saber acts, their innocence contrasting well with what is a seemingly callous and ruthless outlook on life, it's the dynamic with Iori that I never really thought was especially compelling. Iori is boring. His entire role in this dynamic is to tell Saber to calm down, essentially. You could replace him with just about any other anime straight man and you'd never notice.

As mentioned above, despite my misgivings with Iori's personality, I did find his motivations interesting in the final ending. It's also supposed to mirror Saber's development, going from a callous and bloodthirsty killer to someone who wants good for the world, but this is where I really found myself lost. It's very easy to understand that Saber having fun in Edo and going around and seeing the good in people would make them into the form they are at the end of the game, but why exactly was Saber like they were in the first place? What created the bloodied Saber we see in flashbacks? It's hard to feel the conflict within Saber because it feels like the conflict between the start and end of the character is so nebulous.

Team Rider
Despite never being the final boss in any of the endings, this team is supposed to serve as the primary antagonistic force throughout the game, sort of? But despite the start of the story setting that up, it never really materialises in any interesting way. The first chapter is spent investigating Yui, which ultimately leads nowhere. You never really learn anything about them or what they're up to. When you finally get to the fifth chapter, it turns out to be perhaps the least time the game spends of any singular plot line and Yui basically spews out her motivations in a single speech at the start of her boss fight. In a shorter game, this would be understandable, but this is F/SR and it has forced you to run around for 30 hours doing fuck-all only to air out the actually important character stuff in a few solitary lines near the end of the game.

And even then, Yui has the usual TM villain "world bad because suffering" mindset but without any of the frills or interesting arguments that make those other villains work. In fact, once Rider goes crazy and decides that improving the world means breaking it asunder, Yui just goes "Oh no, I was so stupid and naïve" and all I could think was, "You're so right". Outside of their motivations, Yui is a complete blackhole of personality without so much as a single charming quality. Rider is "better", and her insanity is sort of foreshadowed throughout the game, but it's not exactly heavily expounded upon and doesn't come across as very interesting.

Team Archer
I found these two so uninteresting that I'm finding it hard to write anything about them.

As I said briefly about the ending in which Tei Seikou is the final boss, he really is the most bland person in the world. He's nice and he wants to restore the Ming Dynasty. This is all you need to know about him. Archer is also nice and Chinese. That said I think I didn't unlock all their digressions so maybe I missed something very important. The problem being that I don't feel like going out of my way to unlock them because I didn't care for them in the first place.

Team Lancer
As I briefly talked about earlier, I actually sort of liked Chiemon and his abusive relationship with Lancer. Unlike the two previous Masters I wrote about, his personality is VERY well defined. Chiemon has a lot of emotions buried within him, and this contrasts well with his obedient Servant, who is docile and stoic. That said, it really is Chiemon who carries the team, which isn't a bad thing in principle. From a meta-perspective, we already know Jeanne's deal from Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Grand Order, so there really isn't much to add here, and letting her instead be a sounding-board for Chiemon is much more productive.

That said, as also previously mentioned, for how fun Chiemon is, he really isn't all that interesting at the end of the day. There could've been so much more to him, but he just feels like an "evil Christian" as imagined by the Tokugawa Shogunate or something. See, knew we couldn't trust those guys! The Digressions with him and Jeanne don't even add all that much to his character. Exploring more of his relationship with God and why he became like he is, how he thinks, how Jeanne feels about that, etc, would've added a lot of needed characterization to him. Still, one of the characters closest to being something.

Team Assassin
Out of all the characters in the game, this team feels the most poorly handled. There is seemingly no rhyme or reason for anything that they do. I will admit to having some level of affection for Hat-Swede, partially out of a shared heritage which gave me the giggles whenever I had to read her spells (though for what it's worth, the Swedish in this game is actually all grammatically appropriate, how the hell), but also because Dorothea does have a personality, even if that personality is practically just "pompous noble with a good heart". Realistically speaking though, she's a vacuum of characterization.

The relationship she has with her Servant is just a complete joke, however. I'm not sure what Assassin was supposed to represent. He was trying to test Dorothea by going evil and shit because NO EXPLANATION. I like his design though. Assassins should always look like weirdos.

Team Berserker
One of the misnomers of this team's name is that it makes you think it's about Musashi and Takao, when the primary relationship is between Takao and Samson. Still both Berserkers though, so I suppose it makes sense in some way. Takao is actually explored fairly thoroughly, but not enough to give her any particular emotional resonance. It would've been nice to see her desire to protect the oppressed women of Yoshiwara in a more proactive fashion. This could've actually built some tension between her and Iori, which would've gone a long way in actually providing an impetus for things to happen. Instead, she is a steadfast ally throughout the entire game who wears her emotions on her sleeve.

Musashi doesn't matter. It's just Musashi, and she doesn't actually provide anything to the plot. Rather, Samson is the character who Takao concerns herself with, and honestly, it never really feels earned. You learn of their encounter in a digression, but it doesn't give you much to work with. Nevertheless, Samson's defeat is treated like it is earned, which comes off as very dissonant with the lack of build up. Not to mention that Samson himself is just a big screaming muscle dude for the entire story.

Team Caster
It really feels like this team could have been so much more. One of my favourite Digressions in the game is the one with Tsuchimikado's brother. As a Master, they could've built a lot on the things that come up in that digression, but instead he's basically just a one-note bad guy for his entire screen time. I also feel the need to mention that while I love his design when in disguise, once the hood comes off and he reveals his zoomer-fade of a haircut, I just couldn't help but laugh.

I feel like I talked enough about Caster in the ending segment above, so that's about all I feel about him. His design also felt like the most question-mark to me. I found it very hard to analyse how exactly all those elements are supposed to come together and represent this obsessed historian that he is.

Rogue Servants
Aside from Samson, these guys basically don't matter. I think Rogue Saber is supposed to have a bunch of content in NG+, but I didn't unlock it because of the baffling decision that you need to complete the Chiemon ending is a specific way to do so, so who can say. Shoutout to Tamamo Aria and Circe for being consistently funny, at least.

Gameplay

Whoever said this game was a "musou-lite" was perhaps not lying to you, but they said it with an agenda. The agenda being that it isn't like other musou games and you should give it a chance. All I can say is that if you don't like musou (like most sane people) then you should not play this game because the majority of the runtime is spent smashing the attack button without much happening. Have there been worse musou games? Yes. Does that make this one a good musou game? No.

I really do think that the primary reason I came to despise this game is the gameplay. The boss fights especially are so long and mind-numbingly boring that it consistently broke down any goodwill I had accrued between battles. For what it's worth, I actually find certain parts of this game fun, but they are all secondary to the primary gameplay loop, which consists of beating up mooks for aeons. For example, I think running around Edo and exploring is genuinely enjoyable. I'm not all too read up on the Edo-period, but it feels like it does a good job representing the setting and it certainly feels like you're transported to another Japan. I don't know how well this comes across in the translation, but the fact that most of the speech is peppered with archaisms and Edo slang certainly gives a lot of life to the game. The locales you visit are all distinct as well, which furthers the feeling of exploration.

Other than that, for whatever reason this game has a lot of minor minigames and secondary mechanics that I don't really understand all too well. You can carve Buddhas by playing a rhythm game. You maintain your sword by playing another type of rhythm game. You can stop people from fighting by playing another... actually that might not be a rhythm game. Got me feeling like Yakuza, except these minigames really are mini. They don't add much nor do they detract much and I mostly just sort of shrugged and didn't know what to make of them.

The levelling and item system is both way too complicated and way too simple. Partially this is because of how the game is played. I just put points into whatever arbitrary thing I had decided to do at the moment, and that generally worked out for me. Iori's skill tree is very big and has a lot of things you have to unlock in certain ways but in general it just sort of happens by playing the game so it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. For the gear I just equipped something with a big number and upgraded it a few times. That's all to say, it wasn't a feature I engaged in very deeply. You can also upgrade your crib and stuff, but whatever.

I don't really feel like getting into the nitty-gritty of the gameplay because I don't really care enough, but the decision to make Iori the character you play for most of the time in battles really does feel kind of antithetical to the mission of the musou game, where you're supposed to be a god mowing down mortals, and yet you only really get that feeling when you turn on your Servant. Maybe there was something to be gained from the contrast, but really, it just makes you wish you were playing Saber all the time because they're just stronger and anything that makes the mook-mashing get by faster is good.

Presentation

The first thing that probably has to be addressed is Wataru Rei's illustrations, which are all excellent. Regardless how I feel about certain designs (mostly Caster), I think that Wataru always drew everyone really well regardless. I even prefer Musashi's looks her to her F/GO incarnation. Wataru has a knack for avoiding the same-faces that plague most anime-style art, while still giving off heavy anime-vibes, which is very impressive. Most of the designs for F/SR are by Wataru, and most of them ARE good, even if sometimes perhaps a bit too exaggerated (Dorothea's hat, for example, though I personally love it). There are a few done by guest artists such as Raita and Shirabii, and luckily these are two very experienced artists, and both of their contributions are well done.

The 3D modelling done is actually really good too. It can be difficult to convert such stylized art into 3D, and in this case I think they've done about as good a job as can be expected. There are some parts of the rendering that do bother me, but that seems more so the fault of the 3D rendering engine rather than the artists. I think Takao-tayuu was the model which always impressed me whenever I saw it. Given the nature of who she is, the many details really are necessary, and they've put in just about every stop in making her work on screen. That said, once you move away from the main characters, it becomes more spotty. A lot of the monsters look sloppily textured or just goofy. The sea monsters and lanterns certainly stand out in that department. Shoutouts to whoever did the Nue though, because that thing looks genuinely creepy.

The problems with presentation certainly come from something else, because there are problems. The animation department for this game must've been really busy with the fight animations and animated cutscenes, because they've almost put no effort into anything else. Almost all the running cycles of characters while they're roaming the town look goofy (especially Musashi) and their animations in dialogue scenes (which is where you will spend a large amount of your time in this game, because ACTUAL cutscenes are quite rare) is practically non-existent. It's almost humorous how often the game will try to conceal the fact that something happened which they had no animation for, be it with a black screen or just a character warping and talking about whatever happened. This is hardly a problem only this game has, and can be seen in a lot of Japanese games, but given that a lot of the game's most important moments take place in dialogue scenes, it really does take you out of the experience.


Overall, the environments in the game are almost shockingly boring. They look like something out of a few console generations back. The layouts and general feeling of "handcraftedness" that you get from them is good, but 3D rendering, lighting and texturing leave a lot to be desired. It's only really at night that the game's ambience makes itself apparent, but even then, I'd wager most of the game takes place at day, so it's not something you get to experience all the time. It's kind of a shame because as I said earlier, exploring Edo was one of few things about this game I actually enjoyed, so the fact that a lot of the environments looked so bad sort of put a damper on that.

Closing Thoughts

I know some people think of me as a perennially negative person, and that I must've gone into this with the wrong expectations or even in bad faith or whatever. There's not much I can do to allay such opinions, but I do feel like stressing that I genuinely had hope for this game, and some of the things said about it had me intrigued. The first 15 hours or so of my playthrough I actually even felt like there was some promise to it, but once all the storylines started to actually play out, compounded with the fact that gameplay was starting to wear incredibly thin, becoming ever grindier and grindier, I lost my patience with it. I genuinely hope TYPE-MOON never collaborates with Koei-Tecmo ever again if this is what the result is gonna look like. An utter waste of time.