Recent reviews by ☀Nova☀

Really fun game... though it's still EA so it's better to expect some issues.
For example, locking onto targets needs to be fixed since it's really difficult to lock onto enemies.
But graphics reminds me of the old PS1 and N64 era and gives me a nostalgia ride to the 2000s.
Still, not too much content yet and waiting for more updates to come along.

Definitely would recommend this game even in it's EA state. 10/10.

Just to support the game and its a very nice design outfit for Pieberry!
But the price is a bit steep for just one outfit though, but I don't mind that.

I'm a cute cat femboy.
No one saw this message hopefully......😅

But seriously, this is a good remake by SE. I'll give them the thumbs up for this one for sure.

I do have a few qualms...

1. Dungeons should have an "Exit Dungeon" button or at least a teleport portal to the beginning at the end when you accomplish your goal. (Seems like you could teleport out with Up Key)

2. When you use your IC/Specialties, there should be a button to lock your specified character, otherwise you might accidentally make items on your first character when you open that menu option with a lower specialty level. i.e. Rena Lv.4 vs Claude Lv.8.

3. Minor bug with a few cutscenes that cut off VAs completely.

Fate/Samurai Remnant is a VN/Musou/ARPG game.
I would say it's 60%-70% VN, while 30%-40% Musou/ARPG. I've been enjoying the game so far and would definitely recommend it. I think the price of $60 is fine for some more hardcore fans, but if you are a casual player, I would wait for a sale since that might happen sometime in the future. Here's a TLDR for those that want a summary of this review.

TLDR: Amazing cutscenes, amazing sounds (VA and music), amazing dialogues and interactions, amazing graphics, great characters, good story, combat is okay, enemies are okay, equips are okay, skill tree is okay, leylines are okay, commissions are okay, digressions are okay, exploration is not so great, and errands not so great. Flaws include lacking playable servants (possible DLCs), errands too simple, digression types should vary, easy town loot, and no secret areas. Another flaw is Iori's less expressive personality. Also, currently has a bug with cutscenes for some, most likely will be patched (temp fix on the bottom). Otherwise, great game and 8/10. Possibly wait for a future sale if casual player.

Note: Quicktime events (Riposte,Saber's Techs,Clashes,Phantasms) - J = left click & I = right click & L = middle scroll click

Graphics

I think the game has great graphics. a minority might dislike the graphics, but it's an anime artstyle as expected. Character art is also great. Like this one time where the town atmosphere was nailed down. Slightly foggy, night/sunset time, low lighting, cherry petals falling, trees, flowers, banners swaying, shadows are aligned, and even little details like petals on roofs, fishes splashing, and butterflies hovering. Though, flooring textiles could be better. Cutscenes are incredibly amazing, especially Saber's first time using their noble phantasm. The cutscenes' fight scenes are incredible and did a great job.

Sound

They nailed the sound and music. With same town atmosphere, I could hear the incredible background music, hearing the wind, fish splashing, own walking sounds, Saber walking, Saber's misc idle sounds (procedural gen of NPCs, so no walking sound). Main and side character VAs also did a great job. Perfectly nailed each scenario, including the cutscenes. Even the VAs for the random NPCs are incredibly good too.

Characters

Iori, the MC. Some people might not like him since he's the less-expressive type of personality. In other words, resting b**ch face. Also, his tone of voice doesn't change much. However, almost all the other main and side characters are expressive, like Kaya (little sister personality) and Musashi (outgoing personality) are very expressive when you first meet them. Aria is my favorite lately, giving me yandere loli vibes from her. Can't say much about character development yet. Wish you could play other servants more (2%), while 90% Iori and 8% Saber. (-2nd half of game, you play other servants more often-)

Dialogue and Interactions

It's amazing... It's more focused on the VN part, so this is incredibly important too. Like Kaya, the expressions and action animations of characters during the VN mode are very great. For example, when you first meet Kaya, the sister of Iori, she goes from a greeting > pouting > geez moment > worried > "I told you so" > embarrassed. Just saying, this is only ONE scene and that tells you a lot already. Dialogue itself is solid, a minority may not like it since it sounds like they're talking in phrases. Also, doggo and neko interactions are cute, though a bit redundant after a while.

Story

I think it's good so far. Can't explain much since spoilers, but there's some kind of progression so far. Pacing feels good. However, slightly lacking in context, though maybe will be revealed later. But just story context. There's info boxes in the menu in case you missed anything or need an explanation on the info needed.

Combat

Combat in this game isn't too difficult. Know that the game is VN heavy rather than combat. Technically, you could spam both click buttons while evading, but I don't think you could do that for elites or servant battles. Both battle types have a shell (shield) you have to break to deal some massive damage. So, you end up using several skills. Just note, pay attention to health management. Could go from 1000 hp to 100 hp real quick, especially in servant battles. At least food is instant with one click. Small note, Rogue Archer is somewhat difficult.

Enemies

Enemies are fine. There are some variations in enemies, but majority are probably reused assets. I think the Servant (boss) battles are definitely different, and elite enemies also vary a little too, but still uses reused assets.

Leylines

Some players dislike this, but it's not bad. It's like a mini-game of chess, but to a lesser degree. I think what they don't like are the enemy battles in between. Enemy battles are similar to random town battles. Developers could of made a new battle format while playing the leyline mini-game, but that's just my opinion.

Skill Tree

I think the skill tree is okay, but they could of made adjustments. You usually find frags and jewels from errands, town loot, and commissions. You gain some skill points while leveling up. Saber gets some points from random map events too. Some skills are locked behind requirements or even progression, and majority of them aren't too difficult. Skills aren't much of a game changer. There are some skills that would probably matter, like the revive skill and skill upgrades for your stance, ex. additional attacks or ability to block.

Equipment

For equipment, just loot whatever you get and equip the best one. Once you find a decent equip that has higher stats and 2-3 good effects, you usually upgrade that with the hammers. Just note that upgrades are from a future workshop upgrade unlock. You most likely will unlock it before Chapter 2 starts.

Commissions

Commissions are like achievement quests, very similar to errands except they vary more. Majority are kill X amount with this type of attack. Some are different where you do X amount of counter attacks or win X amount of battles with no damage or win X amount of battles within 20 seconds or kill X amount of this type of elite enemies or regular enemies.

Digressions

One of the flaws. Digressions are side quests. Like, where I played as Archer. Only went through the mini story dialogue and fought. They should have more quest types like stealth or tracking. Might be difficult to implement anyways, especially tracking quests since enemy mobs are limited and town maps are small. Stealth might work since enemies could get a visible radar and require you to sneak past. Despite this, you use Archer's attacks and skills instead, so different combat style is more fun.

Exploration

Exploration might be a miss for me. I keep finding items way easily on town map and could be more hidden. Two loots are required for an errand and could find skill frags in town loot, so you're required to look for loot in town. There are "hidden" paths in the town sometimes, but not hidden at all. Kinda like alternative paths. So there's no secret areas, especially since the map reveals everything. Couple areas that you can't reach that time, but it seems like you could revisit them in the future. Some errands are a type of exploration in this game.

Errands

Another flaw for my opinion. Errands are too simple. Basically, errands are like town quests that give small bonuses if completed. The errands pretty much sum up as kill X amount of this type of enemies, click X amount of times for this pet or object, or collect 2 special town loot. The last 2 objective types ties in to the exploration too. The developers could made more variations for the errands.

Bugs

Seems like there's a cutscene bug so far, probably will be patched in a future update. The temporary solution for now is either turn off your Anti-Aliasing settings for NVIDIA users or download VP9 video extensions.

I like this game so far.... but it has it's flaws like what others say

9/25/23
1. Time dilation - Please make a slider in the settings menu or at least make it somewhat slower, a minority of people may like the challenge of making it faster, but I really don't have much time to do many things in one day, it goes by way too fast. Seriously, watering crops takes like 2 hours if you have a good amount, walking around the island and talking to others may take like 5 hours, resource gathering may take like 2-3 hours, then shops closes at 5 PM (I think they need to change it to like 7 or 8 at least to be honest) and you might miss buying stuff..... I didn't even explore other islands yet and it's already almost 6 PM LOL

2. Clicking and hovering detection - Ugh, this is really a pain too.... You have to spam right click to talk to NPCs and even picking up items, watering crops is annoying as hell as you might misclick and rewater the same patch while wasting stamina at the same time and hovering over the patch is very sensitive too.

3. More dialogue in relationships - The dialogue in here has very little depth, there's a little dialogue when you start talking to them, but you only have 3 RNG options that say nothing else (also, I never chose the 3rd option yet with 10% chance).... Dates (in the beginning at least, haven't played more in depth for dates yet) also have very little dialogue and they're very short dates too. I got used to the RNG options, but there's a couple times where you lose all 3 times which is annoying, but you do get skills later to increase your chances and increased rates with more hearts.

4. Sauna - This is probably just a minority maybe, not sure, but I would change the amount of stamina you gain per second in real time, otherwise it's not worth it, especially considering the bad time dilation you get wasted. I might as well continue using Stonefruits in the beginning instead of rather using the Sauna.

5. Money and Upgrades - Yes, both of them....it's very difficult to gain any money in the beginning at least so far, I'm considering just doing quests and catching spirits to turn them in the research center as both things gain quite a good amount. Selling items is very low gain so far, as I only gained like small amounts everyday. Upgrades are VERY expensive and there are many of them, so that ties in with the low gain you get.

6. Furnace - Probably another minority, but please make it so I can leave the ores and coals in the furnace and let it run the whole day (you can limit it to 15 ores and 5 coals or something), because I can only put in 3 ores and 1 coal, making only ONE ingot within 2 hours, and I am not even waiting in the same location, I have to go back to the furnace to make more while wasting time walking back and forth there.
Edit: It's not too bad if you make more furnaces, but it is still a little annoying to only put in 3 ores and 1 coal.

7. Character Creation - Not much said about here, you just start off with the default character without customizing anything.

8. Possible bug - Be careful when you use the balloon in the dungeons, because you can't change directions, when you collide with the walls, you are stuck there unless there are entrances to other rooms. And the usual "fall" button doesn't appear, so you're stuck until you run out of stamina or run out of time.

I consider the first 2 issues as the top priority to be fixed.
I'll continue editing this review in the future as updates are being made, if there are more issues, I will list the dates that I had it on.
I think these are my only gripes so far, I enjoyed the game so far and hopefully with future updates, they fix these major problems that me and others have.

I truly enjoyed this game so far as of yet, but not without any flaws though.

First, enemy summoning skill is too overpowered even if the HP is copied over, basically went from 3 to 9 enemies in 1 turn.
This will probably be patched in the future however.

Second, story could be confusing in the beginning because you're maybe overwhelmed with all the new terms shoved to your face.

Third, Valere and Zale's personalities are too similar and not unique from each other. They both have the typical hero personalities rather than one being calm and the other being bold or something.

Fourth, combat system is kinda flawed. You can't run from battles, so you're forced to either win or wipe from the battle.
Not to mention that the locks are also slightly flawed. 6 locks with 4 different types in 2 turns? Some of the locks are reasonable, but some are outrageously difficult to accomplish. (Locks cancel enemy skill attacks basically)

Fifth, the game is kinda easy so far on default settings to be honest. Party wipes when all 3 members are KOed, so you could win with 1 member with revives. Not to mention that you could swap members in battle. (10 HP to a character with 150 HP) Well, you could also make it more difficult with relics, but I haven't wiped a single time in my 300+ enemy encounters. Maybe there were like 10 times when it was really close, but not a single wipe so far.

Sixth, progression feels linear, but it does expand a bit more after getting the ship with more freedom.

Seventh, limited to 3 save slots, but I don't really see this as a flaw tbh, I'm one of those people that are used to using 1 save file only.

Lastly, too much time wasted backtracking. The world is separated into different islands. Each of the main islands usually has one town (or more), a fishing spot, and many dungeons. For example, my current situation, where I had to go from town > dungeon > sail > town (get key) > sail > short dungeon > town (open door for 1 chest) > short dungeon > sail > dungeon > town to start the story quests again. In short, lacking fast teleports.

I liked everything else though: pixel graphics, all the different characters, quality soundtrack, combat (if they included running), story (after the beginning), different island themes throughout the world, the unique bosses, quick time gimmick (got used to it), etc.

I would still recommend the game despite this price tag. Maybe I would wait for a small sale, where I feel like it's more worth at the $20-25 price range instead.

One of those games where you wait for the discount if you want to buy it.

What really made me not recommend this game was the dialogue.
Keeps talking like in broken phrases, pausing, and sounds so monotone.
If I have to sit and hear the dialogue on hours and hours, I would definitely not enjoy it.

I would probably buy this game if it was $20-$30, but definitely not $50.
Hopefully, the patches they bring out might fix some other issues, but for sure the dialogue will never change.
So, I decided to get a refund.

IDGAF about the whole controversy between the game and author of the HP series.......
I just want to play an awesome game based of off the wizarding world and have fun playing it.

Combination of Final Fantasy, Harvest Moon, and Rune Factory...
Gameplay and system is very similar to RF than the others,
But the focus is ARPG, while the support is farming like food and grilla (money).
I would say like ARPG is 70%, while farming is 30% in my opinion.

As for the haters, they probably expected more out of the game.
It's not the best entry to a franchise, but it's pretty enjoyable so far.
And in my opinion, I think it's better than RF5 at least, though I think RF4 Special is better.

If you like RF, but want more RPG and combat, then you'll like this game.


EDIT-11/22/22:

Hmm... I would wait a bit for it to go on sale, maybe like 35 or 40 or something.

Most likely, I'm 2/3 or 3/4 done by now and the story has a dark undertone.
Farming and cooking wise, it would take some time to go through the rest of the crops and recipes since you need a lot of time for seasonal crops and some recipes require seasonal crops, which make you wait until that season starts (30 days each season). Combat is kinda simple, wish they put more thought into it, you just have a variety of classes to use. Upgrading is sorta difficult, since you might need to keep some resources and money is hard to come by.
Your best choice to make some grilla is quests and finished dish deliveries. Quests are somewhat good actually, I had some good moments there.

Fun at first, yes, after end game, no.
Content is fun at first, then capped at a level at end game.
Gear is also level capped.
PVP is fun at first too, but horrible at end game, mostly territory PVP.
It's usually one guild that is dominant in one server that owns the all the land.
As a result, upkeep with house is hell due to tax.
Servers merging also ruins the market and territory of your server.

Therefore, not worth it for $40, IMO.