E3 2017: ‘Fate Extella: The Umbral Star’ Goes Portable On The Nintendo Switch
Last year’s Fate Extella: The Umbral Star brought the Fate universe to current gen gaming with a Musou style hack and slash. With the release of the Nintendo Switch, Sabre and her allies will get a second chance in the spotlight with a portable version of the crowd pleasing brawler. As usual when it comes to third party Nintendo games, we come in with skepticism, wondering if any concessions were made in the transition. After playing a build of the game, it’s clear that those concerns can be put to rest.
Outside of the cast of characters, Fate Extella is similar to most Dynasty Warriors inspired games on the market. By choosing from one of many characters from the Fate series, you travel from map to map effortlessly slaying hundreds of enemies at a time while you vie for control of the map. As you progress, more powerful foes will confront you, leading to some more challenging battles. Using unique combos, special attacks, and transformations that unleash your character’s full potential, seeing these moves in action are just as exciting to watch as they were last year. This is coupled with the fact that this game moves much faster than your typical Musou game, with the map being divided into smaller regions that you can transport to in what seems like an instant. I can see this cutting down on the monotony that games of this genre can face since removing the padding of travel can only work in its favor.
When it comes to the Switch version specifically, Fate Extella didn’t make any noticeable concessions when making the transition. The hundred plus characters on screen at once didn’t affect the game’s performance during my play session, and combat felt as fluid as it did when I originally tried the game on PS4. While the initial release was far from technically taxing, Nintendo third party titles have still earned a reputation of being inferior in some way, shape or form, so it was easy to see why some would be concerned. Thankfully, everything seems to be in order, offering fans of the original something that feels like a faithful port of the original so far. Only this time, the game doesn’t have to end when you’re away from the TV.
I’m optimistic about how Fate Extella: The Umbral Star will turn out on the Switch. With no noticeable shortcomings compared to its first go around, complete with the large amount of enemies on screen at once, let’s hope that this will be a sign of things to come when dealing with third parties in Nintendo’s new system. Any reason to get reacquainted with the cast is good enough for me, so I can’t wait to see if the full version holds up.
Fate Extella: The Umbral Star is scheduled for a July 25 release.
