The music in Fate/Samurai Remnant is astounding. Much of the music has a distinct Eastern influence, with the use of string and wood instruments, and I enjoyed listening to it. The battle and event tracks utilized are solid, and I have nothing bad to say about them. I also appreciated how each district in Edo had its own distinct BGM, it was a nice touch. Out of all the music I’ve heard throughout the game, my favorite piece definitely is “Successor of Niten Ichiryu,” which I like to consider to be Iori’s theme. This track is just perfect and really fits the moment it played. I just wish the track played a little more throughout the game, as from my memory, it only played once. But, I guess the rarity on which it plays makes it just that much more special. The sound effects were spot on too, as it was really satisfying hearing your swords make impact with enemies. The game only has Japanese voices, which is fine as the cast did a wonderful job bringing each character to life. There’s really nothing negative to say here.
Fate/Samurai Remnant looks great with lovely cel shaded graphics. While the normal human designs aren’t that memorable, I felt the designs for the Masters and Servants more than made up for it. For the Masters, I liked how each one had their own unique flair depending on their background. For example, Dorothea had a distinct garb of foreign origin while Iori wore plain traditional wear befitting a ronin. Servants all have these otherworldly, outlandish designs befitting their historical or mythological origin. You can tell right away that they’re different from the average human. They did a great job with all of them. And they also added Rogue Lancer’s ridiculous running animation from the Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel movies, which is a massive win. Monster designs are varied and can be downright terrifying, especially those spiders. I personally like the Ogre designs the most, they just looked really cool. They also did a great job making each district in Edo feel unique. Of the districts visited, my favorites are Yoshiwara and Shinagawa. Shinagawa is great for nature enthusiasts as it is filled with Sakura trees. Yoshiwara has that combination of beautiful buildings and also has Sakura trees lining the street, and it looks even better when at night with the lanterns illuminating the streets. You’re also treated to nice CG illustrations throughout the game during certain points in the story or during Digressions.
Fate/Samurai Remnant runs like a dream on PC. I was able to play the game at 4K resolution and greater than 100 FPS on High settings for the entire game. You have the option to play the game in Performance or Graphics mode, but I couldn’t really tell the difference between the two, other than the different FPS caps. Graphics mode has a cap of 60 FPS while Performance mode has a cap of 120 FPS. Other than those, you also have a plethora of other graphics options to toggle and mess around with to help the game run smoothly on your rig. I will say that I had an issue when uploading the game’s save file to the Steam Cloud. It would take a couple minutes for it to successfully upload. This may be because Fate/Samurai Remnant stores all the save files under one BIN file instead of separate files. I don’t know if limiting your amount of saves will help with the BIN file’s size, but it could help. I utilized all 20 save slots and the BIN file is around 148 mb for me. I’d recommend keeping your save files in the single digit limit if you want to help with the upload process. I do think an option should be added where you can manually delete saves within the game, or an update be implemented to decrease the size of the save file.
It took me almost 42 hours to complete a single playthrough of Fate/Samurai Remnant on Sword Fighter difficulty while completing the Digressions made available to me. After completing your first playthrough, you’ll want to play the story again to try the other decisions you didn’t make in your previous playthrough, and maybe finish any Digressions or Local Trials and Commissions you may have missed. Completing the game also unlocks a new difficulty level, so if the game was too easy, you can make it even harder. You can easily double your playtime if you really want to see the full story and complete everything the game has to offer. I should also mention that the localization of the game was done really well. I rarely noticed any errors.
Fate/Samurai Remnant is a welcome addition to the Fate franchise with interesting characters and a story filled with mystery and branching decisions. The combat is fast paced, fun, and balanced, with a good mix of both easy and challenging fights for players to tackle. The game has high replayability, as you’ll want to play through the game more than once to get the full scope of the story. I had a lot of fun playing through the game, and I’m certainly going to come back for more. I can easily recommend this to both fans of the Fate franchise and newcomers to the series. The story will suck you in, the graphics are beautiful to look at, the music will have you looking up the track names, and you’ll have a ton of fun slicing through foes.
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Game copy provided by the publisher. A copy of the game will cost $59.99 (standard) or $99.99 (digital deluxe).
