Got
Fate/Extella Link for Switch (digital)- it's not out in 'Murica yet and got delayed until sometime in March for some reason. Doesn't make sense to me when the game was fully localized months ago and released in English on PS4 and Vita in Asia regions. Would have just imported for PS4 but decided to wait for the Switch port, which offers full English. The first game turned out really well on the Switch and the sequel is just as good -if not better- of a port, so glad I waited. It runs at a very smooth framerate (appears to be 30 FPS, but may be higher) and seems to be running 1080P docked. It really doesn't look like that much of a visual downgrade from the PS4 version overall and looks nice. Lots of enemies on-screen at the same time, too.
Like the original game, Fate/Extella Link is a musou-style action game that takes place in a digital word. It's Musou Matrix! Everyone is back from the original, with Nero Claudius and Tamamo No Mae as the main characters again, but Altera has been replaced with newcomer Charlemagne, who seems to be a total bro, lol. There's a lot of assets being re-used here including some of the same stages as the original game, but everything feels much more refined now. Fate/Extella had an exhausting amount of visual novel-style storyline between stages and the story bits alone were hours and hours of the game, which you had to play through four times to finish. It also didn't allow for all of the characters to be played in the story modes and instead characters got unlocked for use in side stories that generally were a few levels each.
While there's still visual novel-type cut scenes, they are generally short and the game instead focuses on getting you right back into the action. Whereas the first game felt like 50% VN and 50% action game, this feels like it's 100% action now. Instead of going through long conversations to choose a path, clearing a stage opens up several levels that you can choose to play, broken down by day (I.E. day one is one stage, day two has two, etc.). You can go back and play (or replay) all of the stages available as well- so far, each has generally had the same storyline, but with a few differences and boss/general types. It's not necessary to play all of the stages to progress, but is useful for level grinding if needed.
The original game's four stories had you playing as one character throughout. You can now choose from multiple characters to play as and can use in-game currency earned from playing levels to raise all characters' levels to match up with your highest-leveled character. You still can 'craft' accessories that give you attack/defense/health regen/etc. options in battle, but now you also have four special move slots per character and can earn and switch up attacks inbetween battles. The added special moves really help the game play to feel more varied and a bit less button-mashy like musou games can be.
Unless something unlocks, character side stories and free modes are gone- instead you get the story mode, extra battles that unlock as you play, and there's now a multiplayer mode which I haven't tried yet. On Switch, this appears to be local multiplayer only. Pretty sure it's online on PS4 and can't remember how it works on Vita.
DLC stuff currently being offered includes a bunch of outfits/swimsuits, disturbing 'chibi' character models for some of the main characters (got some of this stuff for free from having an Extella 1 save), and one playable character- Young Altera, who has not shown up in the story mode yet as a playable or enemy character, but from using her in the Extra Battle mode, seems to be the best character in the game by far. Bit too loli for me with her half-nekkid design, though. Might have to see if she has an alt costume to cover up with available.
Overall, the improvements made to the game fix just about all my complaints on the original. If you like musou games, this is worth checking out!
