In the end, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star serves as a good appetizer for those who want some Musou action now. The action goes at an almost non-stop clip, and there's rarely any time to breathe before you have to unleash triple-number combos again and again. There's a ton of content to go over, and while the story can be nonsensical at times, it remains entertaining for those who aren't averse to anime or a visual novel style of game. Overall, Fate/Extella is a solid game to bide your time with while you await some of the bigger titles this year.

Overall, I’ve had a great time with Fate/EXTELLA thus far. The presentation is a bit rough around the edges, the story is incredibly confusing (I’m only really understanding bits since I’m familiar with the universe — I can’t imagine what it must be like playing this game with no context at all), and of course, Warriors-type gameplay can get repetitive and rarely is anything new done to shake up the general formula. However, the game provides plenty of ways to break up the monotony of the basic combat, and even if I need to take a break between sessions, I still have a blast just feeling like an overpowered one-man-army and defeating scores of enemies at a time. At the very least, it will tide me over until the more polished Fire Emblem Warriors arrives later this year.

All in all, I really enjoyed Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star. The plot made less than no sense, which, I understand, is probably more my fault than the game's, but everything else was pretty solid. The warps and keys added a fresh twist to the seemingly deathless musou genre, and the sense of speed kept my interest long enough to finish the entire game pretty quickly. There are a TON of unlockables for those who don't think one playthrough is enough, including outfits, characters, modes and more, but with Fire Emblem Warriors on the horizon, I decided one solid musou playthrough was plenty for now. If musou games are your thing or you are just passing the time until Mario Odyssey and Fire Emblem Warriors, you could do a whole lot worse than Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star.

Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star makes for an entertaining hack and slash experience which feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch. It’s admittedly a little pricey at £49.99, but for those looking for some Dynasty Warriors style action, it fits the bill quite nicely.

Quotation forthcoming.

The bloated and often confusing narrative might be a bit too much for those that aren’t already fans of the Fate series, but for those willing to brave the ridiculous amount of dialogue a satisfactory Musou game awaits them underneath.

Fans of the series might find a lot more to like about Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star than yours truly, because without an understanding of the plot or characters the game barely makes sense and has little interest in giving newcomers a reason to care. This would be much more forgivable if the story got out of its own way and placed more focus on the action, but the developers were obviously far too in love with the story they came up with. Of course, one could skip through the story bits, but then you’re just left with a rather mediocre Dynasty Warriors clone. Taking all that into consideration, outside of its existing fanbase, Fate/EXTELLA can only be recommended to those who simply must have a stop-gap as they wait for Fire Emblem Warriors, or those in desperate need of validation from cute anime girls.