The last few days I’ve been playing Fate/EXTELLA Link. I am completely new to this franchise, and before I was given the code had never even heard of the series. It’s safe to say that I am enjoying it so far! Here’s my opinions so far – No story spoilers…

Gameplay in Fate/EXTELLA Link is reasonably simple; you start with three characters to choose from, and as you progress through the game you get a whole load more! Each character has their own special abilities and they’re all different enough to make playing each character unique and worthwhile. These attacks include your basic hacks and slashes, four special moves and a big ultimate “Finishing” move that basically hits every last enemy in the vicinity. These are all really nicely animated as well – You can also change out their skills and give them buffs as you move through the game.

Battles basically take place on one big area made up of other smaller sections; the goal here is to basically take over each section. You do this by beating the strongest enemy in the area, meaning it’s not necessary to kill all the grunts, which I think is a positive – You’re pretty much free to move wherever you want within the board, which I enjoy! Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because you’ve cleared a sector it’s safe… It’s not… The enemy could take it back at any point! You also have to make sure your commander is kept safe and look after your other allies, so even though it’s simple, you still have to keep an eye out. You have objectives to move through as well; apparently there are side missions but I have not quite finished them to really comment on any notable examples!

Boss fights are also relatively simple; I’ve so far just treated them like any other fight and done reasonably well. The only difference is you get the chance to have every nearby ally beat them to the ground with you at certain points – At the end of each stage you get ranked, and good ranks of course mean good rewards. I of course love that you can choose the difficulty; always a bonus for hackers and slashers like me.

In between fights you get the chance to upgrade characters, craft, talk to all the characters, customize them with different costumes and generally do all that background stuff that you can usually do in tactical games. The game is set out in 7 days, you can chose different paths which will unlock different opportunities and different storylines, which you can of course go back and replay to get it all. Other than the main story, you can also do extra battles to unlock extra costumes and other cool stuff. There’s also lots of other extra stuff like the gallery and music tracks from a few of the games, which I think fans of the series would appreciate more than myself.

The storyline of the game is a little confusing for me, purely because I kind of feel like I’ve just started watching, lost halfway through… However it has been enjoyable, and I have been able to piece things together bit by bit. There have been moments where it has had me randomly giggling and I think fans will definitely take the narrative to heart. The artwork on this game is also pretty darn nice. Character designs are adorable, and the world looks really vibrant and pretty! Lots of nice colours and stuff to look at! No complaints there.

Overall I’m actually really enjoying this game… Although I’m usually really not that into strategy games, I have found myself enjoying this one. It’s very charming, well thought out, and not too hard! Everything is introduced at the right pace and it’s also pretty intuitive. I think this game would be perfect for new players and old alike, and it’s a pretty nice game to just wind down with at the end of a stressful day. The only gripe I have with it really is that I think I’d like just some kind of short storyline recap or some context at the beginning of the game for new players… Just because it does kind of feel like you’ve just been dropped right in.

For me it’s a solid:

8.0 / 10