Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star
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Top Critic
For better or worse, Fate/EXTELLA embodies everything that makes an anime game "anime." Characters that speak only in exposition. Fan service that creeps you out - unless it doesn't. Gameplay that is more about watching cool stuff happen than actually being fun. Owners of the PlayStation versions need not double dip. If, however, you feel your Nintendo needs a little more anime, this can be the microwave mozzarella sticks before dinner.
Top Critic
For as much as I enjoyed Fate/Extella, I must admit that there simply isn't enough to keep most people interested in it. This is definitely one for the fans.
Top Critic
Fate/Extella will be a hard sell for most fans of the franchise. If you come into this expecting a setting, cast or narrative similar to any of the anime, you might be left disappointed and confused. It’s still a fun, addictive game with the flashy combat you’d expect from a Warriors-style game, but you might have to tune out the story in order to enjoy it. In a franchise where story is so key, that’s a huge bummer.
Top Critic
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star provides the player of a very intense, colorful and a-little-repetitive musou experience, very advisable to fans of the series.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Top Critic
Fate/EXTELLA is a fun musou game for fans of the Fate universe that is let down by a lacklustre story and visual inconsistencies.
Top Critic
Though it definitely has a few kinks and its story will confuse anyone not familiar with the Fate universe, Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star is a competent Dynasty Warriors-style slash-em-up featuring cool characters and abilities, and it's as entertaining as always.
Top Critic
The overly complex plot is paired with some juvenile and cringe-worthy dialogue that mars the experience
Top Critic
It's the epitome of being a game for fans and only for the fans "if" they like the gameplay loop, otherwise all that's left is a story to follow and if that's all the fun, the game might as well have been another visual novel.
Top Critic
Fate/Extella is a title that has a lot to live up to due to the immense popularity of the Fate series as a whole. However, it doesn’t do much to stray from the typical formula set forth by the countless other musou titles on the market. It sports a serviceable but unremarkable combat engine, along with a story that felt just as disposable as one of the tens of thousands of enemies I left in my wake.
Top Critic
If you’re willing to forego the story and just enjoy the action, Fate Extella is undoubtedly one of the smoothest playing Warriors-style games to date with kill counts ranging in the thousands for each battle. Repetition may set in early on, but by then you should be all ready to unleash your Noble Phantasm.
Top Critic
The AI don’t really pose much of a threat until much later into the game.
Top Critic
Fate/EXTELLA is a great hack and slash game that will most likely please fans of the series and please non fans who are looking for a great action game to play on their PS4.
Top Critic
It may have the Fate name in its title, but it doesn't present itself like a Fate title. The Umbral Star tells a bonkers story that only a Fate franchise can produce. The game itself is fun and features some awesome animations, but it’s instantly dragged down by terrible team AI and almost no sense of accomplishment.
Top Critic
A rock solid hack and slasher, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star offers non-stop, totally over-the-top action from a fantastically fun cast of playable characters. Our only real complaint is that repetition can bleed into the experience over time, but give yourself a few days to recover from the fatigue, and you'll come back to a welcoming brawler that's stuffed with content. It's not quite up there with the best musou games on the market, but The Umbral Star scratches that button bashing itch and then some.
Top Critic
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star for Switch could be considered as the best version of the title. Thanks to the technical aspects of the console that let it run with a better resolution in its portable format, it performs better that the one of the Vita. Also and eventhough it has less framerate in its TV mode, all of its gameplay runs smoothly, the ammount enough that make it not be outclassed by the PS4 edition. Also and as an aesthetic bonus, it has all of its DLC from the beggining.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Top Critic
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is enormous and frantic. It also goes overboard at one moment too many, as it becomes a struggle to keep up with the plot, the characters and the combats. Bringing it down a notch or two would make it more balanced. As it is, perhaps only the most hardcore of purists will truly enjoy it.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Top Critic
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star manages to bring a fully-featured Musou game to the Nintendo Switch, and the intense combat and eye-popping visuals make it one of the better games in the growing Switch library.
Top Critic
I had been quite seduced by the title
Review in French | Read full review
Top Critic
Fans of action games and Nintendo Switch owners should go out and buy Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star. It's one of the best third party games currently on the console. I'll definitely be playing this for the foreseeable future.
Top Critic
A real treat for anime-action fans, Fate/EXTELLA is a lovably frantic hack-and-slash with a feeling all its own. Appealing characters and an irresistible sense of style draw you into its world, and addictive, satisfying gameplay and excellent writing keep things exciting throughout. It suffers from some common ails of the musou genre, like minimal enemy variety and subpar AI, and it's far from a technical showcase for the system, but if you're looking for a fun, fast-paced slash-‘em-up on Switch — or to seriously complicate your relationship with one of Rome's most infamous sons — Fate is a perfect choice.
