Fate / Unlimited Codes is a 3D Fighting game that takes place in the fifth holy grail war in where famous historical figures are summoned to duke it out for a chance to have a single wish granted. It is based on the Fate Stay Night visual novel and shows various different scenarios that could have occurred should your chosen character have won by being the last man standing. In the Arcade mode, there are lengthy dialogue sequences when first selecting a fighter, when facing his/her rival, and winning the battle royal which gives you an idea as to who that person is and what their ambitions are. There is no way they could have condensed the information from a 50+ hour visual novel into such a short amount of time, so people with preexisting knowledge of the universe will be the one to get the most out of all those story segments and events that occur.
You have a selection of 16 fighters to choose from with some being locked until you beat the Arcade mode a couple of times. Both the PSP and PS2 versions feature two additional characters over the 14 found in the Arcade original, as well as multiple costumes and extras to unlock. Unfortunately for those of us in the West, only the PSP version was localized, and while both do feature most of the same content minus the awesome opening song of its console counterpart, it is capped at 30fps. The fighting genre is perhaps one where the framerate matters most so it is a bummer not to have an option between which version to get unless we can read Japanese or are okay with missing out on all of the story.
Now what matters most is the gameplay, and luckily for us, it is a ton of fun. It is a four-button fighter with them being dedicated to light, medium, and heavy attacks, as well as one to parry or quick dash. The left shoulder button is a macro that easily allows you to grab an opponent without needing to hold down a few buttons while the right shoulder is set to sidestep your way out of an attack. It is a fully 3D modeled environment which explains the need to cap the framerate at a lower number and opens up a ton of offensive or defensive possibles by not being limited to a 2D plane. It is quite a good looking game all things considered and is developed by the team behind the Bloody Roar series.
They captured the fast-paced and over the top, flashy combat pretty well. It is quite a spectacle seeing both sides firing off attacks with the first one to slip up likely finding himself being combo’d into oblivion. There are two overlapping health bars so when one drains you still have another to fall back on before losing that match. Health can also be replenished by activating an aura at will, considering you have enough energy in your bottom meter. Your life bar will slowly fill back up after that but with the added caveat that you must be on your feet, so if you are getting juggled in the air or are on the wrong side of a beating it is a useless waste of your meter. Energy is also used in certain special attacks, and one can also activate an emergency blast of aura to break free of a combo at the cost of two bars from your meter. There is quite a bit to consider with using it and can only be refilled by causing or receiving enough damage.
Interestingly enough, activating your aura will allow you to cause chip damage to an opponent that is blocking your attacks, while before a blocked attack was completely negated. To further add to the complexity of a battle, there is also the holy grail itself to consider. It will fill with each drop of blood spilled between the two combatants, with the one that manages to be the one to completely fill it being granted the ability to perform their most powerful attack, granted they have a full energy meter. You can’t count on its blessing forever though; if you do not manage to pull it off or gather enough energy to be able to do so, it will go back to its nearly filled state which can be very dangerous if your foe is given the opportunity once more.
I haven’t even mentioned the aerial combat that can readily occur given that you can double jump or wind up to perform one big leap. Things can get pretty heated with so many options at our disposal as we try to keep up with or surprise our enemies. Even someone that has never heard of the Fate franchise will find plenty to enjoy here. And those are just the basic controls, once you take into account how different each of the 16 characters control or fight, things get even more interesting. There are ranged characters, slow but deadly fighters, and some with limited “ammo”. It can be pretty weird seeing ordinary human characters holding their own against the magical specters known as Servants, though that is part of the chaotic fun of altering the visual novel’s plot into all kinds of unlikely scenarios. Makes it even more entertaining since from what I can tell, all of the original character’s voice actors return.
When you first start up the game, you may find the AI to be shockingly easy and unresponsive, to the point that it feels like you are playing against a nonexistent second player. Every difficulty beneath the original Arcade setting is easy to the point of feeling broken, as your opponent just stands there, unmoving for a majority of the time. It does make for an easy way to unlock stuff such as stages, trailers, or extra costumes, but to get some fun out of the game, you should turn the difficulty up as soon as you can. Other modes aside from Arcade are Practice, whom as the name implies lets you sharpen your skills in a stress-free environment. Another is called Missions that task you with things such as defeating an opponent in a certain way or other specific instructions to receive victory. Then you have the standard versus modes to battle it out with a CPU or a friend.
After conquering the Arcade with enough characters, you will unlock a Survival mode that tasks you with defeating all of the game’s fighters one after another using the same life-bar. It will slightly refill after each victory and conquering that will unlock Endless which lets you fight until your eventual demise. There is even a mode called Spectate where you can see the CPU battle it out with characters of your choosing to once and for all settle the “who would win” scenarios you may have had. Or to simply learn how to properly play as a particular character by watching them fight for those not as unapologetically geeky as I am. This game is packed to the brim with content as you may have figured by now. Perhaps my favorite feature has to be the ability to change the announcer’s voice into any character you want. If you want your favorite character or waifu narrating over your battles and the main menu, it’s your lucky day.
Fate/ Unlimited Codes is a game made with care and small details that the fans will appreciate. From things like all of Assassin’s battles taking place in the temple to costumes not being simple color swaps at times, like Saber and her third outfit that changes her into her casual clothes. They didn’t stop at mere fanservice either; this is a legitimately good fighting game that anyone can get into. It is a tad unbalanced, and I would have vastly preferred they localized the better looking 60fps PS2 version, though the fact that you can play essentially the same game on the go isn’t too shabby. This is one title you should definitely give a shot, but there is a pretty big problem with that. It was only released digitally and has been taken down from the PSN store since 2012 & hasn’t seen the light of day again. Your options are to get a Japanese PS2 version of the game that won’t even work with an American NTSC console or hunting down a PSP with this title preloaded. That makes recommending it a tad complicated for those seeking a legal way to get their hands on it.
- Speer DX Review - April 4, 2024
- The Legend of Santa Review - December 7, 2023
- GROOD Review - December 6, 2023