“I am the bone of my sword…”

With the success and popularity of the Tsukihime spin-off of fighting games Melty Blood, I’m sure there were many like myself who have wondered when Type-Moon would give Fate/Stay Night a similar treatment. There was the fan 2D fighting game Fatal/Fake, but it wasn’t until September of 2007 when Type-Moon in conjunction with CAPCOM and Cavia, Inc. released an official game based on the Fate universe and the result was…Fate/Tiger Colosseum, a chibi fighting game for the PSP that plays similar to Higurashi Daybreak (whose PSP port was also developed by Cavia). While the game itself is pretty fun in a mindless, beat-em-up kind of way, it’s hardly the kind of fighter most Type-Moon fans were wanting and expecting. It wasn’t until earlier last year at the AOU Amusement Expo where the same developers behind Tiger Colosseum, in addition to video game company 8ing (Bloody Roar, Bleach: Heat the Soul, Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen) when CAPCOM debuted a serious 3D fighting game based on the Fate universe: Fate/Unlimited Codes. Now, nearing the end of 2008 comes the PS2 port of the game, along with a few extras not included in the Arcade release. It’s been about 3-4 weeks since the game came out, way past Christmas, but I finally received my copy of the game meant to be my Christmas present to myself. Does it match up to being an excellent and intricate animu game like Melty Blood or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure? Or does it instead become another cookie cutter quick cash-in game in the spirit of most Naruto and DBZ (or even worse, One Piece) games?

Note: I’ll be using the numerical pad of movement when discussing some of the aspects of the game. The screen caps are taken from the trailers of the game because I sure as hell don’t have the equipment to record my own matches, and for some reason BSplayer has problems playing .m2v files, thus all game caps are low res and shit. ;_;

Also, there’s spoilers on who people’s final matches are in Arcade Mode, as well as Fate overall. World-shattering stuff. O_O

DEEBEEZEE!

Well, those migrating straight from the Melty Blood series will at least find a few things to be happy about, because the game itself is VERY similar to Melty Blood: the four buttons on the controller are assigned to (A) Weak, (B) Medium, and (C) Heavy attacks, with the fourth button being your “Reflect Guard” button (the Parry button from MB, only it knocks the opponent back as well). Movements retained include the ability to double jump as well as high jumping (crouching before jumping) apply, though air dashing is removed. You are given a Magic Circuit bar that builds up as you give and take damage, which is divided into three sections of 100%, 200%, and 300% that indicates how much mana you have stored up to unleash your special attacks. Most of your special attacks take 100% to unleash your attacks. Like Melty Blood, however, there is another use for the Magic Circuit bar that’s used by pressing A+B+C at the same time when your Magic Circuit is over 100%: by activating “EX mode” you regenerate lost health at the expense of your Magic Circuit being drained, but more importantly, you’re also given access to a certain character’s special attacks: take, for example, Saber: normally, her sword is invisible and she uses Strike Air as her special; when EX Mode is activated, her sword becomes visible, and the input for Strike Air instead becomes Excalibur, as well as enabling the input for the Avalon Counter Special.

“i has a nine lives”

Another factor is added to the fighting, however in order to execute the most powerful special attacks in the game: in the middle of the player’s health bars is the Holy Grail that’s filled when either player hits one another, and whereas in most fighting games, where one simply has to build the Special Bar to it’s fullest in order to execute the lethal moves (i.e. Akuma’s Shun Goku Satsu, Geese/Rock Howard’s Deadly Rave), or maybe be below a certain health percentage, the Holy Grail in a sense “grants” the player’s wish to use their EX Specials, but only when the Grail is filled up and if you are the first one to “claim” it by delivering the last hit that fills up the Grail completely. By activating “EX Mode” again, you will be able to execute your EX Special with most characters, with a few exceptions: Archer’s EX Special, Unlimited Blade Works, does not require the Holy Grail to activate; instead, it relies on inputting the command for Archer to recite a line from the chant and gaining three Kanshou and Bakuya icons (they’re given one at a time, meaning you have to recite 6 lines in all); “EX Mode” than becomes Unlimited Blade Works Mode as well as letting Archer activate his EX Special.

The fighting system itself…takes some getting used to. The main idea of the game is utilizing combos…yes, I know all fighting games emphasize using combos, shut up! o.o Here, in particular, stringing combos are heavily stressed: none of the individual attacks by themselves do a very significant amount of damage, even more so since each player has two life bars. Button mashing doesn’t help too much here, because there’s a certain line that tells whether or not a certain move can combo into another, which can vary for each character: Archer’s 2C and 5C are able to interchange with one another, but since 5C launches the opponent into the air, it negates a chance to follow up with an air combo if it is used before his 5C. In another case, Saber can’t combo her 2C and 5C together, instead relying on input moves after her 5C, most notably using her three 236A attacks that combo into one another as you continue to input them (Think, Iori’s 214+Punch inputs). Timing, however, is everything: messing up for even half a second gives the opponent time to recover from the combo, or put them on the ground and end your combo, and some characters even require the timing to be so exact that mashing the button hoping to get a hit won’t help you. As of yet, I can hardly pull of an 8 Hit combo with Archer, and even though I suck at fighting games in general, this brings it to a new level because this particular combo will only take out about 1/6 of an opponents life bar.

“Why yes, I DO have enough swords!”

And apparently, the CPU of the game knows how to play all too well, because they fully exploit the combo system to massacre you even on NORMAL difficulty. You know how when you get to the end of the Arcade/Story mode of most fighting games, there’s always that final boss that doesn’t really hit you a lot so much as hit you hard? Not so much here: unless you’re playing on Beginner mode, the final boss of your character’s Arcade mode will utterly massacre you if you don’t know how to play, and I unfortunately happened to fall into that category when going into my first playthrough in Arcade mode as Saber one the disc loaded: next thing I know, I’m fighting Gilgamesh, and gettting 20-30 Hits on my body because the asshole decided to switch weapons into using Gates of Babylon and taking more than HALF of my life in one combo; this doesn’t even account for his specials he would decide to throw around either. It took me over an HOUR to finally beat him as Saber; similarily, my playthrough as Archer ended up with fighting Gilgamesh once again, taking me 45 Minutes, but ended in the most dramatic fashion ever (“Gate of Baby-” *Unlimited Blade Works’d*). Hereafter, for the sake of unlocking characters, I’ve switched the difficulty to Beginner and 1 Match Rounds. ^^;

Speaking of unlocking characters, the port comes with 5 extra characters not seen in the Arcade release, though I’m most people won’t really notice if they haven’t played the Arcade release (i.e. everyone who imported). That aside, they certainly are an interesting bunch and are as follows: Bazett Fraga McRemitz, one of the characters from Fate/Hollow Ataraxia and Lancer’s actual master before being stripped of her Reiju from Kotomine, she fights hand-to-hand whose playing style somewhat reminds me of King from the King of Fighters series; Leysritt, one of Ilya’s maids that utilizes a halberd; Luviagelita Edefelt, also from Hollow Atraxia, a magic user like Rin, along with having the moves of a wrestler; Saber Alter from the Heaven’s Feel route of the VN, whose style focuses on power strikes rather than speed like Saber does, and does not need to be in EX Mode in order to use Excalibur; And Zero Lancer from the novel Fate/Zero, whose quick fighting style while not as agile as Lancer’s, is compensated for the use of dual spears. Most characters have their own Story routes in the Arcade Mode as well, some of them being very amusing.

As for the other features of this port, there is a Mission Mode that sets you out to fight a certain way, or finish a certain fight one way; the most important one being the ones that actually teach you some of the combinations one can use in the game, which should be helpful to those who decide to put serious time and effort into the game…or at least don’t want their asses handed to them by the CPU. ^^; Obviously, a Practice Mode is a must in any fighting game, as well as a Survival Mode whose rewards don’t really compensate the amount of time spent fighting every character in the game. When completing a character’s Arcade Mode, one also unlocks the two CGs associated with their Story, as well as a little character model to play with in the Material/UC menu (Ilya’s model is also unlockable by going through Arcade twice as Berserker).

Music wise, the soundtrack isn’t very memorable, but players of the VN should recognize a few remixed tracks in certain stages. Certain characters, however, have their own track to play when put under the condition to execute their EX Specials: claiming the Holy Grail while playing as Saber switches the BGM to play “Tenchi Hou Take,” the track that plays during Saber’s fight with Rider in the anime, while gaining the 6 Kanshou and Bakuya icons as Archer cues a remixed version of the track “-Emiya-” to play, which is the one track that really stands out in the game as it did to me in the anime (The VN version sucks, BTW). Tainaka Sachi is once again recruited to sing the theme song, “code.” While I do like it’s melodic and quiet start up into the rock instruments, and while I do think it’s better than “Kirameku Namida wo Hoshi Ni,” (2nd OP Theme) I still favor her rendition of “disillusion,” (1st OP) and the song gets tiring to listen to after a while because it plays on a loop when navigating the main menu AND plays during the credits; if I heard it only during the credits, I could see it getting stuck in my head enough to want to download it, but the desire to hear it lowers as the loops goes on and on.

Overall, I think the game is pretty solid for an anime game. I’ll admit that the extra content is a bit lacking, but this isn’t a Soul Calibur or Smash Bros. type game, it’s strictly a game for fans of the series, and a very good one at that. You can argue if this is a quick cash-in or not, but Fate/Unlimited Codes isn’t by any means sub-par like other anime games are: it’s doubtful that it will reach the popularity Melty Blood has (They’re up to Actress Again, now), but a Fate/Stay Night traditional fighting game has been long overdue, and it should certainly satisfy fans of the series. Just don’t complain when Gilgamesh spams Gate of Babylon for the 40th time and realize you’re one stray hit short of a KO while the asshole’s still at full health from EX Mode; if you can’t beat him in reality, try to IMAGINE something you can…screw it, just set it to Beginner and play through it again.

Obligatory Rider cleavage

Saber Lily Figma

Oh, Japanese and their Limited Stuff: unlike the US’ policy of saying “Limited Time!” only to reproduce more of those than the standard copies (damn Haruhi Box sets!), Limited Stuff in Japan really does happen to become limited. Naturally, this extends to anime and game merchandise also, and now we’ve got an anime-game! Double profit! Anyways, CAPCOM released a limited edition copy of Unlimited Codes titled the “Fate/Unlimited Codes SP Box,” which so happens to be the edition I bought the game. The bonus? A Figma produced by Max Factory of Saber, or more correctly “Saber Lily,” which replaces her familiar battle attire with a non-engraved, bulgier breast plate, a a shorter tasset, white clothing, and Saber’s hair tied in a pony tail rather than a bun; in addition, she instead wields the original Caliburn sword from the stone during the selection of the king. Now, I put down extra money to buy this thing, so did I get my money’s worth?

Well, the box is really nice…

In short…no, probably not, as I had kinda hoped it’d be bigger, and also the fact that the thing is more of an action figure (Figma durr hurr) than an attractive paper weight – see Shirukii’s Shana Figure, which is about the same price I paid for the figure. Besides, I can’t pose figures in good positions for shit, which means more thinking for me, plus knowing the fact that I can change it’s pose will give me the urge to fiddle with it from time to time: a blessing for others, a curse for me.

Well, enough of my melodramatic shit, I took the liberty of taking pictures of my unboxing and playing of Saber to go along with this (I also had to alternate between my shitty old camera and the one I borrowed from a friend until he found out I was taking pictures of a toy, so I apologize in advance for the low-res and blurry quality that come as a result).

At least it’s well protected, the figure and it’s accessories were clamped inbetween two plastic moldings; not only that, Saber was wrapped in abundant amounts of plastic, down to having little boots to protect her legs. In particular, there was this little black spot also had some plastic inbetween it and the figure and it took me a while to realize that it was a peg that’s removable, leaving a small little hole where the peg used to be. Another quick glance at the parts and I noticed a two-part, clear stand for the figure, with a rod that had two ends of it smaller in width. A closer look at the stand had a similarly-sized hole inside of it like the suggestively placed hole in the figure. Thus…

Put rOd (A)…

To hOle (B)…

JAM IT IN!!!

????

PROFIT!!

The parts, however, DID include a little hoop that also had a hole in it, but…come on, that’s not fun (i.e. I broke it D : ).

Soooo…does it look good? Hell yes. Everything looks well polished and detailed (The Caliburn sword has the little engravings that talk about the selection of the king), and most of the joints are well hidden with the exception of Saber’s shoulders, which stand out the most, but I’m just being picky there. The line on Saber’s head might bother a few people, since it’s removable in order to change Saber’s face and hair, but it’s not at all very noticable when you put it on display. The figure is a little stiff, which is probably so the joints don’t loosen enough to prevent poses, but it also makes me feel like the figure is so fragile I might break it if I move it a wrong way. The antenna on her head in particular looks like the most likely candidate to be broken off since it’s pretty thin, as are the parts of her ponytail, but it should be fine if you don’t actually treat her like an action figure and smash her together with your Optimus Prime transformer to “fight.” I’ve yet to try any of the poses shown on the Unlimited Codes website, but I will say that getting her to look like she’s pulling the sword from the sheath seems dangerous since the sword likes to bend. Speaking of which, her grip on the sword is pretty bad, it slips in easily until you reach the hilt, while sheath can be held with it’s specific hands around easily except for the places with more engravings.

“Avalon! Wait, oh shi-”

Switching faces isn’t much of a problem, I will admit the initial face and hair she has on (Face: stern, looking slightly to her left. Hair: Straight) are easier to put on and remove than the 2nd set (Face: Dreamier, looking to her right. Hair: Blowing to her right) since it’s been broken in, but it’s not too difficult, again watch that antenna. The hands vary: the initial ones are again easier to take out, but they also have less wide pegs while the other ones have bigger ones. The jointless ones are doable, but the movable ones have a tendency to move while trying to put them in, plus her gauntlets extend past them, making less room to get close. Might warp some of the fingers later, thus don’t mess the open hand ones.

Here’s a shot with her on my bookshelf with my Kallen and Pizzabutt diorama figures…

…and the brighter one because it’s a bit clearer (Also, I suck at photography…and so does my camera). Tambien, Konata and tipped over Mia Fey.

Overall, I’m pretty happy that I have it. Wasn’t worth $60 bucks (like most next gen video games), but everyone’s stingy. I’ll probably try and pick up the regular Saber Figma if I head to Anime Expo this year to compare and maybe even swap parts (Have her hold EKUSU CALLY BAAAAA! instead). That’ll be a lot cheaper too, this thing set me back. In closing…

Crappy low-res Saber Lily pantsu shot!
Upon reflection of Linall’s words, the picture has been removed: ALL pantsu shots should ONLY be hi-res.  Instead…

Have a decent shot of it for once…

Digital cameras suck.

EDIT:  FUCK YOU GOOD SMILE. FUCK YOU.

$115 US Dollars…and no game to make it seem reasonable… T_T

At least my birthday’s in June too…

-Jay