8 Hours Hands-On with Fate/Samurai Remnant

Fate/Samurai Remnant is the newest upcoming game in the ever-growing Fate franchise. Recently, I had the opportunity to spend over eight hours with the game—progressing through the lengthy prologue and most of the game's first chapter. In the process, I got a sizable taste of both the game's gameplay and story. So here's the rundown.

Fate/Samurai Remnant takes place in Japan in 1651 during the events of the Keian Uprising. At this point in time, Japan is fully closed to the outside world and the past 50 years have seen the end of the country's long list of civil wars—leading to many young samurai warriors being left without any place in society.

One such ronin (i.e., master-less samurai) is the player character, Miyamoto Iori—the adopted son and apprentice of Japan's greatest swordsman, the late Miyamoto Musashi. Doing odd jobs for the police just trying to scrape by, Iori finds himself attacked by a squad of ninjas in the middle of the night led by a super-humanly strong warrior. Yet, just as his death seems a certainty, he is saved by a young swordswoman known only as “Saber.” Together, the pair find themselves part of a strange magical ritual where they must battle against heroes of myth and legend or die. And should they survive to the end, their greatest wish will become reality.

To anyone who has any knowledge of the Fate franchise, this no doubt sounds familiar. And while many of the standard Fate clichés are present—a clueless young man paired with a Saber-class servant (who won't reveal her name), mages paired with legendary heroes fight a secret war in the streets of Japan, and a story filled with unlikely alliances and double-crosses—there is enough here to make it more than just a retread of Fate/stay night.

The Holy Grail War, or, in this case, a prototype called the “The Waxing Moon Ritual,” involves seven master-servant pairs along with 8 “rogue servants” tied to specific locations around feudal Tokyo. This allows for a gathering of both new and old servants and the ability to befriend many besides Iori's own Saber.

But the real way that Fate/Samurai Remnant blazes a new path is thanks to the inclusion of Miyamoto Musashi herself as the war's Berserker-class servant. On one hand, her existence ties the game directly to the immensely popular mobile game Fate/Grand Order where she is a major reoccurring character. On the other, it makes the events of the game far more personal for Iori with his father suddenly returning to life—even if it's in a female form. There are many long-unanswered questions Iori has for Musashi—and that's even before the fact that they are enemies in the mix. It's great drama and Musashi handily steals every scene she is in. The rest of the main cast is likewise solid—which is great as all the game's main story and side quests I was able to try out were fully voiced.

As for the gameplay, Fate/Samurai Remnant utilizes the standard Dynasty Warriors control setup. You have a light attack and a heavy attack and switching between them in specific patterns makes Iori do different special moves. Doing this also builds up a special move that you can use whenever the associated gauge is filled.

Luckily, that's not all there is to combat. Iori has several different stances he can choose from—namely one for fighting single targets and another for fighting groups. In addition, he is also able to cast spells (though these are limited as they require consumable gems to cast). To round things out, he can also call on Saber to use special attacks (that recharge naturally in battle) and can even control Saber directly for a limited amount of time whenever that gauge is charged to full.

As for the normal enemies themselves, you usually encounter two types of groups. The first contains one elite enemy (i.e., one who can block, counterattack, and use unblockable attacks) and a large group of weak enemies who are just there to be cut down in one or two hits. The second are groups full of elite enemies—often accompanied by a miniboss who can not be harmed by Iori's normal attacks (except for brief windows) until his block armor is destroyed. (Playing as the much more powerful Saber is the best way to defeat these foes).

While the single elite groups are easy enough to deal with, the all elite/mini-boss battles are cheap rather than difficult—and show the biggest problem with combat in the game. Elite enemies, especially monsters, do a poor job of telegraphing their attacks. In a large group of them, you can never be sure where an attack is coming from until it's too late. Worse yet, elite enemies are not staggered by Iori's normal attacks—meaning they can simply ignore damage and attack you mid-combo. I personally gave up on combos in these fights, opting to mash nothing but Iori's strong attack to fly past enemies in a whirlwind of blades.

Where things get really difficult, however, is the boss battles. This is a good thing. These battles are well-designed: You have to learn each master/servant's attack pattern and carefully dodge to survive—button mashing will lead you to a quick death.

Yet, boss battles are tied to one of the other combat issues: resource management. At times, the game will force you into a chain of battles without warning. You are given no clue as to how many battles in a row you will have before you can resupply. Moreover, you have no clue if you should hold your special attacks/magic attacks for the next fight or if it's safe to use them. This is especially prominent in the game's turn-based strategy mini-game where—much like in Fate/Grand Order's “Grail Front” battles—you move from node to node around a web on the map, trying to capture locations and defeat enemies.

These uninterrupted series of battles sometimes even have a surprise boss battle in the middle of them. I can easily imagine the need to load a save 30 or 40 minutes back if you find yourself under-equipped after being trapped in one of these—especially in the healing item department.

On the more positive side of things, as tough as things can get, there are many opportunities to make Iori and Saber stronger. Both Iori and Saber level up through a system similar to Final Fantasy X's Spirit Board where you move through a maze-like pattern, with each node on your chosen path unlocking different skills, spells, and stat bonuses. The best part of this system is that you don't only gain experience through battle.

Fate/Samurai Remnant takes place across a series of rather large maps. While each has more than its share of fights for Iori and Saber, there are also items to gather and half a dozen mini-quests to complete. These range from finding specific items or talking to certain people to petting every dog in the area or shopping at every food stall. Each of these quests comes with a reward—usually either a rare item or jewels that can be used to gain extra levels. These mini-quests give you a reason to explore every nook and cranny each time you come to a new map—which is more than welcome.

All these side quests also help with the fact that money is rather tight in the opening hours of Fate/Samurai Remnant. Just purchasing a few healing items or magic gems can wipe you out monetarily. Exploring the various maps allows you to find not only the occasional healing item but other items and materials that can be sold in a pinch.

In the end, if nothing else, my eight hours with Fate/Samurai Remnant have left me wanting more. As a fan of the Fate franchise overall, the lore, story, and character interactions all have me hooked. The story is well-acted and well-paced so far—doing an excellent job of taking the usual Fate tropes and twisting them in new directions. The actual gameplay, however, is rather mediocre. Aside from the main boss fights, battles either feel overly simple or downright cheap. Sure, fights look flashy and there are all kinds of combo and special attacks but that doesn't do anything to address the core problems with combat.

All this is to say, I would easily recommend this to anyone who is even a passing fan of the greater Fate franchise. The story I got to experience in the first eight hours was more than worth it. However, I wouldn't recommend this to the unindoctrinated—unless they are just head over heels for Dynasty Warrior-style action games. Then, who knows? This game might just make a Fate fan out of them.

Fate/Samurai Remnant will be released on September 29, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC via Steam.