Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star Reviews
With the tight action carrying the game the majority of the way, this may well be a tough sell for those who aren’t into niche Japanese titles. However, for those who enjoy fluid combat and revel in the strange and the bizarre, this may well be exactly what Galen of Pergamon ordered.
I had been quite seduced by the title
Review in French | Read full review
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
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.
All that to one side and what I’m left with is a passable, extremely repetitive game that offers up brief bursts of catharsis muddled in a misguided sea of queasy colors, and all wrapped up in a convoluted and uncompelling plot. The game isn’t terrible: there is, mechanically, nothing all that wrong with it, and if you like Musou games – and have exhausted the likes Dynasty Warriors or Hyrule Warriors – or if you’re a fan of the Fate series, then there’s some service here for you.
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
Caught between a rock and a hard place, Fate/Extella’s fundamentals are solid and fans will certainly love it, but newcomers to the Fate series should beware.
Fate/Extella is a fun little dalliance in the Musou genre by the Fate series, but ultimately proves to be little more. The characters don't feel particularly deep and the story lacks enough length to give them that extra dimension. In fact, all there really seems to be enough time for is the servants doting on the master until it seems like something lewd's about to go down until they get interrupted or pull a bait and switch; this leading into a rushed parallel narrative that makes it feel like the gameplay didn't even matter in the grand scheme of things, with major exploits being taken care of off-screen.
Well-made slasher in the world of FATE with subpar graphics. Great fun, but only for the fans of the japanese series.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star has a title that makes as little sense as its punctuation to an outsider, but it serves as the glue that holds everything together.
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is a game made of highs and lows. Its indisputable merits counteract an equally large number of defects, which make the purchase only recommended to fans of the Fate series.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Not awful but far from good, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is a title that lets down fans and keeps away newcomers with a pithy story, mediocre gameplay, and a generic art direction that betrays the franchise’s roots.
While the gameplay is fun the whole experience is overly repetitive. Add in a confusing setting and a complete tonal shift from the anime and you get a game that does not live up to expectations.
Fate/EXTELLA is out now on PC and Switch, and it’s worth your attention if you’re a hardcore Fate fan, Anima aficionado, or dying for a new Switch-based RPG. Others may just want to steer clear.
There is certainly a decent amount of content, including multiple scenarios and side stories, but if the simplistic button-mashing isn't enough of an incentive to push forward to see those story bits, consider waiting it out for the anime adaptation (which covers the first game) coming this Spring instead.
While it isn't the worst, I wouldn't suggest that anyone plays Fate/Extella unless they're starving for more time with the Fate universe.
At best, Fate/Extella is kinda competent game that fans of the franchise will enjoy. It's not broken and can be simple, mindless fun in short bursts. But those not familiar with the franchise it's based on will be left in the dust. If you're a hardcore fan of Fate/Stay Night or Dynasty Warriors, you've probably decided whether or not Fate/Extella is for you. Those on the fence shouldn't really bother with this title.
Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star is a beat em' up done right, but can be repetitive after a long while.
Fate/Extella is clearly made for hardcore fans of the series. It's a hard sell to anyone that's not well-versed in the Fate franchise, and even then, the repetitive, clunky combat system and overly wordy story sections will likely drive off those that have any interest in the game.
Fate/Extella offers tons of content, but it’s often frustrating content nonetheless.