Part VN, part RPG with Rock-Paper-Scissors: Let's Play Fate/Extra!

Our response is obvious.

"You were just shouting "Why?" a moment ago. There are very few people who know the answer to that question... Well, it's not a bad wish, per se. I now pledge that I will fight by your side until your wish ceases to be."

In that case, I hope you're prepared to wait for a while. That's a pretty vague-sounding wish we've got there. :D

He takes a hold of my hand and helps me to my feet.
From the hand he had grabbed comes a sudden warmth... and then a sharp pain, like I've been cut by a knife.
On the back of my hand, as though tattooed, is a strange symbol that looks like some kind of crest.


"This seems to be as good an opportunity as any for you to show me your skills as a Master."

... Oh yeah, completely forgot about the murderous puppet from earlier. Whoops.



"Time to clean things up... Stand back."

In complete contrast with the previous fight, this one...

is...

a...

complete...

pushover, since we know what the opponent's going to throw out.
The battle BGM is nice, though.


Archer gives his approval to our leadership skills in his own tsundere-like manner.

This is of course, the cue for Disembodied Morbid Voice From the Heavens to speak up.

???: "You can use it to give three orders that must be obeyed. Think of them as disposable strengthening spells. It is also proof of your participation in the Holy Grail War. If you lose it for some reason, you will die."


???: "Congratulations. You have endured much to make it here. Now rest for a while; you've achieved your first goal."

Well... That's surprisingly nice, coming from you. I expected more of a backhanded compli--

???: "It was an incredibly clumsy effort to say the least, but that's what made it all the more entertaining. I've had this duty for a long time, but this is the first time I've seen a Master as helpless as you."

Aaaand there we go.


For some reason, I can see the owner of the voice as a priest, dressed in a somber cassock.

???: "Oh, you are curious about my identity? I am honored, but I am insignificant. I am merely a part of the system."

Just look at how much Protag-chan does not give a shit. That face, man. That face.

???: "... Well, this is unexpected. You have received a commendation. Something about you "having a light." "

I have no clue who would say such a thing about me.
... But that short phrase struck my heart because, for some unknown reason, I knew the words were sincere.


???: "Your decision to look beyond the accepted and progress means you have earned the right to exist. However, you have but taken the first step. Be jubilant, young knight, for the Holy Grail Way begins now!"
???: "Now, fight to the death. The fiery throne of heaven will only receive those with the strongest of desires-"

I now have the sudden mental image of people fighting for a golden throne on fire and cannot stop giggling. gdi brain

???: "In war, a weapon is needed. That is your Servant. They're the spear that pierces, the shield that protects. A Legendary Soul whose purpose is to clear your way to the Grail. That is the one who stands beside you."


???: " It seems you have decided, and with that decision as payment, I now open the gates to the Holy Grail War. Magi who have been invited here by the Moon; show me your true strength-"


Sorry, protag-chan can't hear you over her passing out from boredom exhaustion and the searing pain due to the tattoo from earlier.

Is it wrong that I suddenly started shipping Ruby/Archer's voice over the course of one update?

Yes, I am weird.

For a second, I thought protag-chan had chobits ears. and that blob on top was just some weird hair accessory. Now that I look at it, it looks like a bun. mhmmm.

I'm kind of diappointed that is not the case. sadface.

GO protag-chan, show those question marks what you've got! Zzzz and a-wait.

I promise to be more relevant next time.

If it's wrong, I don't wanna be right.

It's never wrong to ship things so early. EVER!

That said I do have a question.

Sounds good with me!

Continuing from where we last left off...

THE WHEEL OF FATE IS TURNING
REBEL O-- ohwait
On another note, I had no idea 'slough' could be used as a verb before seeing it in this game.



The sky burns.
Houses collapse into ruin.
People fall to the ground.
Roads come to an end.

The conflict started here. With this, the world that was will be restored.
It is here that "I" alone had survived.

Don't remember/Never forget.
Oblivion is salvation and sin. Never forget.

"I" was born from perdition.

A torrent of blood flows, and a voice resonating with bitter resentment can be heard.
Lives fade away without a thought.
Friends, family, strangers: All gone.
A grotesque struggle to the last, until a gentle peace descends as death comes to claim them.

-I could not accept all I have seen. The question of "why?" never left me.
Even with the divide between conflict and catastrophe, why did such a tragedy occur?
No, more importantly-
Why has this world been turned into a hell on Earth?


... A gentle rain begins to fall. All things once living fade away, leaving only one behind.
Amidst the helplessness and despair, their soul's last feelings are of rage and regret.
The rain wets their cheeks as their eyes close one last time, dying forgotten and alone.
Seeing this, I struggle to rise from the depths of death. I will not accept what I have been shown.

If I can live again, I will definitely-
But there are no second chances.
And before long, the rain has cleansed the scorched earth.

Never forget.
"I" was born from perdition.
What that means-
Somehow, please don't forget it.

And then protag-chan wakes up.

Just as she begins to wonder whether everything she saw before was a dream--
: "Jeez, it took you long enough to wake up. You've been taking it pretty easy, I see."

A young man dressed in crimson garb suddenly appears by the side of my bed.

The man had earlier left an indelible impression on me- So he is what is called a Servant.
: "So, is everything okay with you? Tell me if you feel pain anywhere. As the Holy Grail War has begun, monitoring my Master's condition is now a necessity."

I'm sure he's just using that as an excuse to cover his concern over Ruby. Hopefully Maybe.

: "Before I go on, you did enter the Holy Grail War knowing what were getting into, right?"

Er...

In our defense, we were just trying to follow Leo and protag-kun.

: "... Oh well. As our contract is official, verbally abusing you isn't going to help matters any."

You're probably still going to do that regardless soon enough.

For those unfamiliar with the Fate series, here is the condensed version of the exposition:
- The Holy Grail is something that can grant wishes. Despite the name, it does not necessarily mean that it's an actual grail. According to Archer, it has been a cup, a tree and a human being.
- Magi "from all over" created a framework of sorts for seven individuals to fight over this grail.

(picture added just because I found Ruby to be kinda cute in this shot.)
- Over time there were spin-offs of this framework, which added rules such as the whole Master-Servant angle and Command Seals.
- Servants are re-creations of Legendary Souls - those whose names and deeds became known throughout time (both good or bad).
- These Servants are divided up in seven classes: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Caster, Rider, Assassin and Berserker. Each class has their own specialty and abilities, which I'll go into more detail when we encounter them. And speaking of which...
- Archers are proficient in projectile weaponry (which is not strictly restricted to bows). Their main class ability is Independant Action, which allows them to move and act without support from their Master. They also have decent Magic Resistance.


: "My true name? I don't remember it."

....

: "... Sorry, I couldn't resist. Not all Legendary Souls are legendary. You probably wouldn't know it even if I told you."

Wonderful. Our Legendary Soul is a hipster.

: "For the time being, my abilities are far more important than my true name. Most Masters refer to their Servants by their class so as not to give away their identity."
: "So call me Archer. That, and I do not see the point of revealing my true name during all this."

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED


And with that exposition dump out of the way, Archer disappears.

Archer is such a hipster.

Between this and the hipster Archer picture, I have to say that I love you all. Once again, I'm whoring myself out.

The amount of joy I felt when I saw Archer's "exasperated" face cannot be put into words. Instead, have this picture of a bunny:


Also, Alko Boom, can I just comment on how much I love your avatar? ;w;

Aw, thank you. I love your avatar too.

(This avatar is actually going to be relevant in Zafehouse Diaries)

Well to be fair, in in-universe terms, no one would have heard of him. Is it Hipsterism when it's truth?

But he's still a hipster.

Oh my god that picture is the best thing ever. Hipster glasses fit him so well, the smug bastard.

Replaying the game again so I can listen to Archer's dulcet tones. By the way, did you know that there's an AU sequel coming out in Japan? And you can get Gilgamesh, the king of heroes as your servant! He doesn't even have a class because Gilgamesh needs no class mongrels. Apparently the dev team refers to him as "hax mode".



I want this game in English so much, guys.

You and me both. But considering the state of the PSP market in the West... ;___;

On the other hand, I heard F/E sold pretty well, so they might bring it over and sell it via digital distribution... Which kinda sucks for me, since I live in New Zealand and the PSN here is kinda shit in the whole 'adding relatively obscure games and DLC for sale' department mumble grumble


... Sorry, where were we?


We're told that all of Protag-chan's memories that were being suppressed for the preliminaries should have been restored by the SE.RA.PH by now. Huzzah!

... If it wasn't for the fact that she has amnesia. Of course.


Unfortunately, giving a shit sympathy is not part of Sakura's programming. She hands Ruby a portable terminal (which to me just sounds like another way of saying 'fancy-looking cellphone') and advises us to keep an eye out for any messages that appear on it.

Let's talk to some of the participants!

... I have no idea why, but I have a sudden urge to punch this Kotomine fellow in the face. It's not as strong as the urge to punch Shinji, but it's there.





Ouch. That is probably one of the harshest insults I've heard in a while.

The male student also fails to take into account that Shinji is a complete dumbass who'd most likely do something stupid like bragging about his Servant's strengths and weaknesses to anyone he meets.


To be fair, we're fighting for a magical item that's said to be able to grant any wish. Wouldn't you be pulling out all the stops for something like that?

... Wasn't the name Leonardo?


A simple, generic 'hi' would've worked if you wanted me to leave you alone. Now I'm definitely going to pester you constantly from time to time out of spite curiosity, Male Student Outside the Library.


Does she remember us from our brief stint as Protag-kun? (Speaking of which, PROTAG-KUUUUUN ;___;)






Protag-chan is apparently so infamous that no one other than this student ever refers to her by this. Maybe he's talking about Alice?





I think this game is trying to tell me something, but I'm not sure what...

I think... they want you to go home. Definitely not go up to the roof.

And then i decided to go home.

What ever could it be? GAME. STOP BEING SO SUBTLE-Y ON US AND TELL US WHERE WE NEED TO GO! HOW SHOULD WE KNOW THAT WE'RE SUPPOSE TO GO TO THE ROOFTOP OR SOMETHING! ;A;

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this. xD

That game has taught me a life lesson I should always remember. It's too mysterious for me to say it out loud though.

On the one side, what does the "Remaining Morning" on the top right corner mean? Is it the number of days till the War ends? Or is it something spoiler-y we get to know on the next update?

We will find out about it in the next update or so, but it's not really a spoiler, since we already know that the Grail War is set up as a tournament: elimination battles are held at the end of each week. So what that signifies is that it's currently morning, and there are six days remaining before the next elimination battle.

To the rooftop!

And surprising absolutely no one us all, we're not alone!


The girl pats the walls and floors murmuring something to herself.

She's... We've never met, but she can't be anyone but Rin Tousaka.
She has a nice face and figure, gets good grades and is popular Tsukumihara Academy. From what I hear, she even makes Shinji jealous.

She also beat the crap out of him! She's our new best friend.

: "... Huh? Hey, you over there."

Her eyes soften as she looks at me.

: "Yeah, you. Hmm, I haven't checked the NPCs out much yet... Aha, I know a simple way. Don't you move."


Hair flick!


: "Imagine that. You're warm, though you shouldn't be... Huh? That's weird, seeing a red cheek flush like that..."


JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TOUCHING, YOUNG LADY

: "Interesting. You're more well-built than I had expected. You look and feel real. Maybe more real than most people."



She's calling us an NPC again

NO

Luckily for us, Rin's imaginary friend Servant sets the record straight.


: "W-wait. That means when I felt up-"

She must be thinking about it now, because she's blushing. As am I.


I'm pretty sure she was addressing an off-color comment coming from her Servant there.

: "It could have been my imagination. Or a hacker - such a detailed NPC would rarely exist otherwise."
: "A-anyway, you're to blame for being confusing. You're too bland to be anything but an NPC."
In true tsun-tsun fashion, Rin begins to blame us for her misunderstanding. I-it's not like it's her fault for jumping to conclusions, b-baka!


OUCH. Way to hit us when we're down. Thanks for bringing that up. Really.


Rin: "Once you enter the Holy Grail War, the only way out is to win. Even without memories, or previoius battle experience, you still have to fight."

: "... Oh well, it doesn't matter. You'll be defeated in the Holy Grail War soon enough.

I ain't buying that for a second. She's definitely worried.

: "You can't win, huh? Harsh words, but ones that deserve a reply."

Archer trails off into mumbling.
The gist is about the two female Masters here, but I can't catch the details.

Unlike my Servant, I have no witty response to my future rival.


Called it!

Rin mumbles to herself a bit longer, and suggests that we should go investigate our amnesia problem later.

Protag-chan begins to introspect about why she's here in the first place in response.



Buddy, you're not even given a name. I'd give Rin less than a minute to take you down.


Um...


How should we respond to this?

...of course we remember! Everything is fine here! Totally fine. Just a small...memory...malfunction...

We need all the allies we can get if we want to win this! So, pretend you remember that nameless dude and win him over with our fabulous assets

OF COURSE is my vote for tl;dr.

Nope do not remember.

Give me my info dump.

I'm going to go with "Sorry, uh.."

Best case scenario: Info Dump

Worst Case Scenario: We remind this guy how quickly Rin will wipe the floor with him.

Hmmm...

I think we should go for, "Sorry, uh..."

Even if the guy decides that he'll kick our ass later for not remembering him (or something), Archer'll own him~ :3

Wow. The set-up for this tournament is so...polite compared to the free-for-all in F/sn

And a good thing, too, since it involves so many more people.

Imagine how ugly it'd get if 128 Masters and Servants were turned loose somewhere for the kind of no-holds-barred fracas that the Holy Grail War normally is in other installments of the franchise. The carnage would be unbelievable.

Let's just say there is a little bit of blood behind this polite set up, and how so many contestants is quickly reduced to very little.

Yeah. As in basically all other iterations of the Grail War, the "rules" are mostly there for people to screw around with.

Oh god, you guys.

I am sorry for reviving this thread just for this, but I had to flail--

That sequel game, Fate/Extra CCC? Lets you dress your Servant in various costumes.

Archer, unsurprisingly, gets a hipster outfit:

...I want this game so much.

Want! Want! Want!

...I wonder if it will be translated.

I'm just going to wait patiently until that game is within my grasp.

Then I am going to attack it like a rabid hyena screaming MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!

I found something even better.



Goddammit, Gil.

--oh my God. XD

Really, Gilgamesh? Really?

Did you really expect anything less of him? He's got the original golden glowing dick of doom, after all. *waggles eyebrows*

There's also this (slightly NSFW).

I want this game more than anything.

--sadly, no, you're right, that's pretty much completely in character for him.

(Also, Google search turned up a translation which confirms that, yes, it's exactly what it looks like. Gilgamesh, you utter tool.)

Me too. God bless equal-opportunity fanservice! <3