Fate/Extra

Fate/EXTRA (フェイト/エクストラ) is a Japanese Dungeon Role Playing Game for PlayStation Portable created by Type-Moon and and published by. The game is a part of Marvelous Entertainment's TYPE-MOON×RPG PROJECT.

Setting
The universe of Extra shares the events of the Fate/stay night universe until a "certain major incident" in the 1970s that caused the world's mana to start drying up causes it to split off into its own separate universe. As of the 2030s, the world's mana was completely gone.

The world is set in a school called Tsukumihara Academy, a fictional place existing with an artificial environment called the Moon Cell. There, the Moon Cell orchestrates a replication of the Holy Grail War using a system called Serial Phantasm or SE.RA.PH, which handles the summoning of Servants.

Servant data is taken from the Automaton (ムーンセル・オートマトン Moon Cell Automaton), a spiritual computer system built on the lunar surface by a pre-human civilization and discovered by humans in the year 2032. The Automaton has monitored and recorded all occurrences on the Earth (including the activities of human heroes) since time immemorial. In this sense, it is similar to the Throne of Heroes. Unlike the Fate/Stay Night counterpart, all involved are either human personalities that function as NPCs, or hackers, resulting in what Rin herself called a "fair system," as it does not involve innocents. In addition, Servants are to convey the will of the Moon Cell above their own needs.

Each of the 128 participants in the war must duel the other Masters in a place called the Arena, where failure results in deletion from the digital world and death in the other. When only one remains, the "Holy Grail" shall grant the victor's wish.

Plot
Waking up in a strange virtual world with no recollection of the past, the main character finds themselves forced to fight for survival in a war they do not understand for a prize beyond value; the opportunity to have one’s wish granted. With only an enigmatic “Servant” by their side, Hakuno Kishinami will have to face both friends and foes in battles to the death in order to not only gain possession of a mysterious object known as the “Holy Grail,” but also to find the answer to the most important question of all: “Who am I?”

Characters
Apart from the main Fate characters, several newer ones were introduced in the game and also plays a role in the story. Depending on some choices, the masters that the player fights and their respective servant classes change. The Rin route has the player ally with Rin Tohsaka and fight Lancer Vlad III and Berserker Lu Bu, and the Rani route has the player ally with Rani VIII and fight Lancer Cu Chulainn and Berserker Arcueid Brunestud.

Masters

 * Hakuno Kishinami (岸波 白野)
 * Hakuno is a student at Tsukumihara Academy who has no memory of his or her life prior. After barely succeeding in passing the preliminary testing round, Hakuno becomes one of 128 participants in the Moon Cell's replication of the Holy Grail Wars through its Serial Phantasm (SE.RA.PH.) system. As a Master in the Holy Grail War, they are able to choose Saber, Archer, or Caster as a Servant, which will affect which opponents the player will encounter in the game.


 * Rin Tohsaka (遠坂 凛)
 * Voiced by: Kana Ueda
 * The Master of Lancer and a descendant of the Tōsaka lineage of magi, though not a legitimate member of the family. An individual with superior hacking skills and an affinity for all five elements, she takes on the role of a popular and exemplary student at Tsukumihara Academy, though she actually finds amusement in cruelly toying with her opponents. In the real world, she is a freelance engineer and resistance fighter operating out of the Middle East. Her primary motive for participating in the Holy Grail War is to stop the Harway plutocracy from halting human progress. Her personality heavily reflects her Fate/Stay counterpart, most notably from her cynical behavior and reluctant, yet earnest desire to help the essentially clueless Hakuno throughout the game.


 * Rani VIII (ラニVIII（-エイト))
 * Voiced by: Asami Sanada
 * The Master of Berserker and an alchemist from the Mage's Association's Atlas division. Because she is a homunculus created specifically to participate in the Holy Grail War, she does not appear to follow her own will and considers herself a tool of her teacher. She uses her ability to read the stars in addition to her powerful Magecrafts to help both Hakuno and herself. Unlike most Masters, she does not desire to acquire the Grail, but to follow her teacher's instruction to find a "special person." Her conditioning has resulted in her lack of understanding of what acceptable social conventions are. She can cook Indian food.


 * Shinji Matou (間桐 慎二)
 * Voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya
 * The Master of Rider and good friend of Hakuno from the preliminary testing round. While he is popular because of his good looks, he is known for having a twisted personality and has few friends. He considers Leonard Harway to be a rival because of his sudden popularity. Though his avatar suggests he is the same age as Hakuno, Shinji is actually an eight-year-old gaming prodigy and hacker.


 * Leonard B. Harway (レオナルド・ビスタリオ・ハーウェイ)
 * Voiced by: Romi Park
 * The Master of Saber, the heir to the Harway family that owns 60% of the real world. Out of his desire to make the world a better place, he participates in Holy Grail War to secure the Holy Grail, which he believes is dangerous to humanity. Because he is confident in his abilities, he does not even conceal the identity of his Servant. However, his upbringing has prevented him from experiencing human emotions such as despair until he is defeated for the first time.


 * Dan Blackmore (ダン・ブラックモア)
 * Voiced by: Mugihito
 * The Master of Archer, an elderly soldier who was knighted by the Queen of England and well-trusted as her confidante even after he retired from the military. In the past, he was known as a master sniper and was extremely pious. His absolute adherence to chivalry puts him at extreme odds with Archer, whose own method of fighting is incompatible with Blackmore's ideals.


 * Alice (ありす)
 * Voiced by: Ai Nonaka
 * The Master of Caster. Alice, herself, is actually dead in the real world and exists in the Moon Cell as a digital spirit whose loneliness resulted in the manifestation of her Servant as a mirror image of herself.


 * Julius B. Harway (ユリウス・ベルキスク・ハーウェイ)
 * Voiced by: Wataru Hatano
 * The Master of Assassin, who initially appears as a teacher, Soichiro Kuzuki. He is actually Leonard's brother, who hacked into the profile of the original Kuzuki, and secretly protects his brother by killing his opponents both in real and virtual world. Throughout the game he hacks into SE.RA.PH's system to suit his needs, even going so far as to assassinate other Masters.


 * Run Ru (ランルー)
 * Voiced by: Yū Kobayashi
 * The Master of Lancer, a mentally unstable woman who constantly wears the clown mascot costume of a popular hamburger shop. She will only eat that which she loves, resulting in a bizarre eating disorder that resulted in her consuming her own parents and child. Her Servant claims that she is his "wife" and her insanity makes her beautiful. She wishes to obtain the Holy Grail to make all of humanity like her.


 * Monji Gatou (臥藤 門司)
 * Voiced by: Kentarō Itō
 * The Master of Berserker, a fanatic who worships his Servant as his god, as all religions he had studied were flawed. Thinking that her incomprehensible behavior as Berserker class is a test of will, he believes that he can save humanity through his self-made religion and strives to make his Servant into a true deity.


 * Twice H. Pieceman (トワイス・H・ピースマン)
 * Voiced by: Hiroki Tōchi
 * The Master of Saver and the primary antagonist of Fate/Extra. A prominent scientist in the late 20th century who pioneered the science of digital hacking, he was killed in a terrorist attack and his data was recorded into the Moon Cell and later became self-aware. Though he despises war, he believes that it is necessary in order for humanity to progress.

Various unnamed "student" participants also act as masters. There are total of 128 masters.

Servants

 * Saber (Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus)
 * Voiced by Sakura Tange
 * One of three Servants available to Hakuno. Similar to Altria Pendragon, Nero is female. While she was notorious as a tyrannical emperor and for her arrogance as an artist with supremacy comparable to the gods, Nero is a kindhearted individual who wanted what was best for her subjects. Her Noble Phantasm is Aestus Domus Aurea (招き蕩う黄金劇場).


 * Archer (Nameless Hero)
 * Voiced by Junichi Suwabe
 * One of three Servants available to Hakuno. Like his counterpart in Fate/stay night, Archer is not a heroic spirit from legend, but a human who strived to be an "Ally of Justice". He has made peace with his past self and is less cynical in Fate/Extra. Though classified as an Archer, he mainly wields a pair of short swords and excels in the magecraft of projection. His Noble Phantasm is Unlimited Blade Works (無限の剣製).


 * Caster (Tamamo-no-Mae)
 * Voiced by Chiwa Saitō
 * One of three Servants available to Hakuno. Supposedly a nine-tailed fox who won the favour of Emperor Toba as a beautiful and knowledgeable courtesan, Tamamo-no-Mae is believed to be a facet of the sun goddess Amaterasu. By becoming a Heroic Spirit to fulfill her wish of "becoming a good wife," her true power has been limited. Her Noble Phantasm is The Eightfold Blessing of Amaterasu (水天日光天照八野鎮石).


 * Lancer (Cú Chulainn)
 * Voiced by Nobutoshi Canna
 * The Servant of Rin Tōsaka. An Irish demigod hero who possesses a powerful Noble Phantasm, Gáe Bolg (刺し穿つ死棘の槍), that inverts causality by hitting the target before the weapon is thrown. Despite his undisciplined, abrasive, and vulgar attitude, he is a fierce and balanced warrior who enjoys fighting worthy opponents and is quick to work himself into a frenzy in a heated battle.


 * Berserker (Lü Bu)
 * Voiced by Kunihiko Yasui
 * The Servant of Rani VIII, an infamously treacherous military commander most notably from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In his arrogance, Lü Bu believed himself to be incomparable as a warlord; his downfall came when his strategist Chen Gong turned against him. His military acumen qualifies him to be summoned as Lancer, Rider, Assassin, Berserker and Archer. His Noble Phantasm is God Force (軍神五兵).


 * Rider (Francis Drake)
 * Voiced by Urara Takano
 * The Servant of Shinji Matō, in contrast to history, is a hedonistic woman who lives entirely for the moment and finds value only in ephemeral aspects of life, making her incompatible with Heroic Spirits like Gilgamesh and Tamamo-no-Mae. In addition to her accomplishments in circumnavigation, she is known for her role in defeating the Spanish Armada, which gave rise to the Age of Exploration for England. As a pirate, she favours using pistols in combat and is notably cunning. Her Noble Phantasm is Golden Wild Hunt (黄金鹿と嵐の夜).


 * Saber (Gawain)
 * Voiced by Takahiro Mizushima
 * The Servant of Leonard Harway, the accomplished "Knight of the Sun" who was dedicated to serving King Arthur. Regretting how he had been unable to see his king's agony in life and his hostility towards Lancelot after Lancelot killed Gawain's two brothers, Saber hopes to restore his honour and become a true perfect knight as a Servant in the Holy Grail War. His Noble Phantasm is Excalibur Galatine (転輪する勝利の剣).


 * Archer (Robin Hood)
 * Voiced by: Kōsuke Toriumi
 * The rebellious Servant of Dan Blackmore, Archer's origins as the anonymous outcast son of a druid were gradually conflated into the many legends of a chivalrous outlaw thief from Sherwood Forest. Archer excels in guerrilla tactics, including the use of poison, traps, and other underhanded tactics to achieve victory. Despite bitter complaints that he is unable to win in a fair fight in response to his Master's severe opposition to his methods, it is implied that Archer's reason for participating in the Holy Grail War is to act and be recognized as a true hero. His Noble Phantasm is the Yew Bow (祈りの弓).


 * Caster (Nursery Rhyme)
 * Voiced by Ai Nonaka
 * The Servant of Alice, an irregular Servant who is actually a projected Reality Marble, shaped from dreams of her Master as a mirror image of Alice. Because of the genre of nursery rhymes were so beloved, Nursery Rhyme gained her own existence as a "hero of children" from the foundation of the nursery rhyme, Alice in Wonderland, that the author Lewis Carroll improvised to sing to the daughters of a family friend. Her Noble Phantasm is The Queen's Glass Game (永久機関・少女帝国).


 * Assassin (Li Shuwen)
 * Voiced by Kunihiko Yasui
 * The Servant of Julius B. Harway, a martial artist whose skill in Bājíquán is reflected in his Noble Phantasm, No Second Strike (无二打), which will allow him to kill his opponents in a single strike. Though he is famed as a Lancer, his Master elected to summon a younger Li Shuwen for compatibility and for the martial artist's ferocity and unquestioning impulse to fight during his youth.


 * Lancer (Vlad III Tepes)
 * Voiced by Hisao Egawa
 * The Servant of Lil' Ronnie, known also as "Vlad the Impaler," a deranged individual who shares his Master's twisted notions of love. Though he had been a noble hero in life, his sense of reason became twisted by brutality. Dying in despair due to betrayal, he began to question why his talents remained unrewarded and lost his sanity. His Noble Phantasm is Kazikli Bey (串刺城塞).


 * Berserker (Arcueid Brunestud)
 * Voiced by Ryōka Yuzuki
 * The Servant of Monji Gatō, Arcueid is a True Ancestor - a being inherently connected to the Earth, though her existence as a blood-sucking demon is a mistaken interpretation that has been forced upon her by her Master. Because her existence is similar to Tamamo-no-Mao, they get along well. Her Noble Phantasm is Blut die Schwester (プルート・ディ・シェヴェスタァ).


 * Saver (Buddha)
 * The Servant of Twice Pieceman, a Vajra user who collects the records of the Holy Grail War and is described by his Master as an entity that will free humanity from suffering. Saver exists as the final boss of the game and is distinct from the other seven classes of Servants. His Noble Phantasm is Transmigration Into One (一に還る転生).


 * Monster (Shiki Ryougi) (両儀 式)
 * Voiced by Maaya Sakamoto
 * If all of Taiga's requests are completed, Shiki Ryōgi appears as a non-Servant character who has killed 99 Servants in the Holy Grail War and seeks to kill one more to return to her world. Her Noble Phantasm is Boundary of the Void (無垢識・空の境界).

NPC

 * Father Kotomine (言峰神父)
 * The overseer of the progress of the Holy Grail War in the Moon Cell, he administers the local Fuyuki Church, which is outside of SE.RA.PH.'s jurisdiction. His appearance and presence are actually data transcriptions of a man who once participated in the Holy Grail War; thus, he is knowledgeable about the Holy Grail, the Moon Cell, and SE.RA.PH. in general. Kotomine apparently has the same power as his Fate/Stay Night counterpart, to be inferred from comment in the game that if he were the player's opponent, Hakuno would already be dead.


 * Sakura Matou (間桐 桜)
 * Voiced by Noriko Shitaya
 * Though they share the same family name, it is revealed after the preliminary round that she is not actually related to Shinji. As an NPC, she works in the infirmary, where she supplies participants with food and healing items, and medical attention where the system is at fault. She is quite reserved and well-liked by Masters and NPCs alike.


 * Taiga Fujimura (藤村 大河)
 * Hakuno's homeroom teacher, and very similar to her counterpart in Fate/stay night as an energetic, yet dense individual. She sends the player on multiple quests into the Arena in exchange for aesthetic items for their private rooms. An NPC, she has no direct role in the progression of the war, but is noted to serve a role by one of the other NPCs. Completing every request will unlock Ryougi Shiki as a boss. Apparently she lives with one of the students.


 * Issei Ryuudou (柳洞 一成)
 * The Student Council President of the school, as well as the Hakuno's friend. He plays a similar role to his counterpart in Fate/stay night. He is very strict with the school regulations and will hold surprise inspections at the school gate. He is responsible for guiding Masters with his knowledge of SE.RA.PH..


 * Chishiki Mabi (間目智識)
 * The character who manages the library. She tells the player how to work dialog boxes. She seems to greatly dislike her name.


 * Ikuyo Yuutou (有稲幾夜)
 * The character who manages the Arena. She will often cheer the player on and give them advice on collecting data.

Other Characters

 * Initial Protagonist
 * The initial protagonist for the prologue is an unnamed male at Tsukimihara Academy. He is close friends with Shinji Matou, who frequently comments that he seems very boring. He has no idea how they became friends, and only recalls meeting in spring of their freshman year. He believes himself to be a nobody without goals, and thinking about the future overwhelms him. He thinks as long as he keeps prodding along, he will reach a totally average future like everybody else.


 * He is member of the Journalism Club, and called their ace. He is the only one capable of being around the Editor in Chief's hyperactive self, and she has him write a "Unsolved Mysteries of Tsukumihara" article. Searching out for the "Gateway to the Paranormal", an entrance to the spirit world in the rear of the Archery range where a bullied student told to pick up trash disappeared, he finds the cause to be Taiga. Afterword, rumors about "Little Red Rooftop" lead to an encounter with Rin Tohsaka where she attempts to inspect him as an NPC and vanishes before his eyes.


 * He eventually begins to notice the true nature of the world after Leo transfers to the school the next day. He begins to notice strange happenings like Taiga not falling upon entering the classroom and the Editor's reaction being off when she is nonchalant about a person instantly vanishing. Following the "Mystery of the Courtyard Chapel", which is said to be haunted, he meets Mr. Kuzuki, who has seemingly murdered a number of students. Kuzuki attacks him as well, but is only knocked unconscious due to not being a target on Kuzuki's list. He begins to notice even more incongruities after Leo disappears in class. He feels he is just following a script, and that the world has tilted slightly while losing its sense of presence.


 * He finally finds that he cannot remember his name, age, address, family, or his life before school. Looking for his identity, he visits the library and finds that all of the books are blank. He follows Leo as he enters the area to obtain an effigy to pass on to the next round of the War. He fails to complete the final test, and dies without recovering any of his memories, begging someone out there to "remember my name".


 * Aoko Aozaki (蒼崎 青子)
 * A woman who speaks frivolously, she was sent by the Church to examine the abnormalities in the flow of time in SE.RA.PH., though she has not been given the authority to interfere. She is a moderator for SE.RA.PH., known as a spirit hacker, and is capable of converting her soul into spirit particles that can alter the laws of cyberspace. She is responsible for increasing the strength of the Hakuno's Servant.


 * Touko Aozaki (蒼崎 橙子)
 * The older sister of Aoko Aozaki, who tends to speak carelessly. Despite the Church's warnings, she continues to tamper with SE.RA.PH. to find ways of escaping, though she concludes the surest method is for a Master to obtain the Holy Grail. Her physical appearance is a throwback to Type-Moon's original design for Toko in Kara no Kyoukai.

Gameplay
Fate/Extra's gameplay can be compared to the  series as it incorporates dungeon crawling, special attacks and a "high-school" theme, although in Fate/Extra the school theme very quickly becomes something between a distant background element and a sick joke, as it is really the battlefield of the Holy Grail War. The player, after proceeding through the prologue with a nameless character, chooses a gender and a name for Hakuno Kishinami, and chooses from one of three available Servants: Saber, Archer and Caster.

Exploring is done in the school and inside a virtual space called the Arena, overseen by the Serial Phantasm or SE.RA.PH, which is part of the Moon Cell that controls the Holy Grail. In the Arena, monsters are abundant and are used by Masters for training purposes; Masters may also engage one another for brief periods of time to test and learn about each other before the SE.RA.PH forcibly separates the combatants. The SE.RA.PH also oversees the official Elimination Round battles between Masters at the end of each week, located in the Colliseum at the heart of each Arena... and ensures that the loser of such a battle perishes on Earth as well as in the Moon Cell.

Combat is carried out in six-move turns, with the core combat moves operating in a fashion similar to rock-paper-scissors; heavy Break attacks smash through defensive Guards, quick Attacks can strike a foe before they can land a Break, and a Guard can deflect a light Attack and allow the defender to retaliate. Successfully landing multiple damaging blows (not counting the trivial damage a successful Guard takes from an Attack) increases the damage each move delivers, and delivering three blows in a row, as noted by the "chain counter", allows a combatant to use a powerful Extra Attack outside of the regular move order with no retaliation possible. Servants, and a select few monsters, may also use Skills, which can either provide a passive combat benefit or attack a foe directly, causing damage or inflicting a status ailment - or both, depending on the Skill in question. Offensive Skills override all other moves and the use of a Skill prevents a foe's offensive move from occuring (it does, however, also reset the chain counter of both combatants, for better or worse); if both combatants use an offensive Skill at the same time, the combatant with the higher Agility goes first, but both skills are used... assuming the slower combatant survives being hit. Passive Skills, such as Caster's Spirit Theft, also occur before normal attacks, however using this kind of Skill leaves the user completely open to an Attack or a Break. Masters may also use Items or Code Cast spells (the Fate/Extra version of Magecraft, effectively), which occur before any other actions in a given move - if both Masters act in a given move, the Agility of the Servants again determine who acts first. Items almost universally provide restorative effects for a Servant, while Code Casts can vary in utility from healing to increasing or decreasing a parameter to interrupting and stunning a Servant using a Skill and more. Finally, under certain conditions Servants may utilize their Noble Phantasm fully, which have different effects depending on the Servant.

Information is a key tool in the Holy Grail War of Fate/Extra, and is the primary impetus for the "school" exploration section of the game; knowledge of your opponent results in being able to see several of their moves beforehand (and, crucially, full knowledge of an enemy Servant, including their true name, allows you to anticipate when a Noble Phantasm will be used and thus avoid getting obliterated by it). While information about the monsters simply comes from beating them repeatedly, knowledge of the enemy Masters and their Servants must come from a combination of learning about them in the "school" section and occasionally confronting them in the Arena. The exploration sections also advance the primary plot, and you have a private room within the school, allowing Hakuno to spend time with their Servant and learn more about them. You can also speak with various other unnamed Masters participating in the Grail War, many having their own stories which range from the humorous to the tragic to the somewhat disturbing.

Development
The game was first announced in the September 2009 issue of Famitsu. Marvelous Entertainment teamed up with Image Epoch and Type-Moon to develop a re-imaging of the visual novel series.

Staff

 * Kinoko Nasu as scenario writer.
 * Arco Wada as character designer and artist.
 * Huke as weapon designer.
 * Takashi Takeuchi as character design supervision.
 * Kazuya Niinō (7th Dragon) as the producer.
 * Shuetsu Kadowaki (Luminous Arc 2) as the director.

Release History
The game was released on July 22, 2010. The game was released in North America on November 1, 2011. There were some mistranslations, such as a character calling Hakuno Kishinami a "ghost in the machine" when he was speaking of his own prowess in the original.

Fate/Extra CCC was later released as a companion game that occurs simultaneously with Fate/Extra.

Music
In the first trailer, performed the official theme song of the game titled "Ranse Eroica" (亂世エロイカ).

Sound Drama
The sound drama retells the game story with the male Hakuno as the lead protagonist. He is named with the game default name Hakuno Kishinami and he is voiced by Atsushi Abe. His chosen servant is Saber.

Release Date
At Type-Moon Festival, it was announced that a Fate/Extra sound drama would be released around winter 2012.