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Fate/unlimited codes almost went unnoticed at Captivate 09 last month. Capcom’s Monaco showcase event featured some big names – Lost Planet 2, Dead Rising 2 to name only a couple. It was perhaps inevitable that an anime-inspired Japanese-developed PSP-exclusive fighting game from Eighting, the developer behind Tastunoko vs Capcom, would get lost in the din.
The fact that the game will be Capcom’s first to be distributed exclusively as a PSP download via the PlayStation Store is perhaps more interesting than the game itself. That’s probably a bit unfair. But the problem remains – it’s hard to get excited about an obscure Japanese fighting game, especially when it’s on a platform that us Westerners usually play on our lonesome.
So what is Fate/unlimited codes? (a question long pondered by philosophers, we imagine). It’s a fighting game based on the wonderfully-named PC and PS2 visual novel Fate/stay night, which sounds like an invitation to us, but is actually a manga you read on your computer with sound effects. The story revolves around a Japanese high school student named Shiro, who one day discovers that he’s got magic powers. He ends up embroiled in an invisible war for the Holy Grail, which, as everyone knows, grants its owner any wish.
The computer graphic novel became so successful in Japan that it spawned a manga series and two anime series. Capcom stepped in, picked up the license, asked Eighting to make a fighting game based on it and published the result in Japanese arcades. Cue screaming otaku and much drama. Fate/unlimited codes is set in a local Japanese town where seven pairs of masters and servants (so much sexual innuendo…) compete for the coveted prize. The game eventually ended up on the PS2, and now on the PSP, albeit with a few bells and whistles.
This being a fighting game, we can forgive the silly story because it’s not the point. What is the point is the fighting system. Fate plays like a cross between Soul Calibur and Tekken. It’s weapon-based, so there are big swords and long sticks to slice and poke with, and the input commands generally involve double taps on the d-pad and pressing some face buttons. Sorry Street Fighter fans, quarter circles aren’t the name of the game with Fate/unlimited codes.
To describe the game as Tekken with swords seems about right. The pace of the game is on the slow side, with blocking-heavy combat and health bars that take an age to deplete. The face buttons are used for light, medium and heavy attacks, and for the Reflect Guard, which allows you to block as you’re moving forward. This being a 3D fighting game, you can side step by pressing medium and heavy together, and dodge with the R button.
Basic combos involve pressing the face buttons in sequence. A Slash Rave, for example, is a basic three hit combo that’s triggered by pressing light then medium then heavy. But fighting game fanatics will be most interested in the Holy Grail Ultimate Combos. These high damage attacks are built around a three stage magic gauge. Once it’s full, pressing light, medium and heavy together triggers a Magic Burst – this lets you recover some of your health and gives you what’s called the Holy Grail Advantage. From there you can do the Holy Grail Special Moves, the game’s version of Street Fighter IV’s Ultra Combos.
Graphically, the game impresses on the PSP’s lovely screen, but there is a whiff of simplicity to the backgrounds. The character design seems uninspired, too, in a stereotypical anime way. There are 17 characters in total – there’s a magician, a knight, a bowman and a samurai (of course, there’s a samurai), and spiky-haired high school lads and high-pitched school girls. I played through the arcade mode with Lancer, a staff-wielding bloke reminiscent of Kilik from Soul Calibur. His moves are fairly standard – forward, forward A; back forward A, that kind of thing. So are his super moves – down forward, down forward light; down forward down forward medium. Even his Holy Grail attack is easy – down forward, down forward heavy. Accessibility, clearly, is one of Fate/unlimited codes’ goals.
The most popular character in Fate/unlimited codes, however, is Archer, who can switch back and forth between swords and a bow by double-tapping down and hitting heavy. So you can get in close with your swords, back off and do some ranged damage, then move back in. Only a few characters can change their weapons in this way.
The game plays well enough, has a nice flow to it and feels like it’s got a solid fighting system that Soul Calibur and Tekken fans should enjoy, but there are some concerns. Pressing three buttons at the same time, something the game often requires, is difficult to do on the PSP (your thumb might be dexterous enough to do it, but mine isn’t). Of course, the big disappointment is that online play won’t be supported. There’s support for two-player to fight wirelessly, as you’d expect, but as is the Western way, it’ll be a rare occasion indeed when you find yourself within touching distance of a PSP owner who also, fancy that, has a love for anime-inspired fighting games on the go. Fighting games have always and will always be about competitive multiplayer, so this considerably dampens any excitement we might have had for the game. In Capcom’s defence, the game’s got a ton of unlockables that should keep lonely obsessives occupied. There are alternative costumes, movie clips, images and over 250 missions and mini-games to take on.
Fate is a license that isn’t recognised outside of Japan at this point, although it’s starting to gain traction with the anime community. Capcom’s only beginning its efforts to change that, and promises to put its full weight behind it nearer release. What will help the game most of all though, is the fact that it’s a download-only title – it’ll be cheaper than your standard new UMD PSP game release, making it an easier purchase for many. Because of that, Fate/unlimited codes is making more of a noise on our fighting game radar than it would be otherwise.
Fate/unlimited codes, is scheduled for release across PAL territories in Summer 2009.
