Fate/Extra

Fate/Extra is a single-player three-dimensional Japanese role-playing game in the dungeon subgenre. The game features two main modes: "Arena", in which the player fights against AI opponents, and "Academy", which is storyline-driven.

During battles, the player's character, called the Master, directs their Servant to reduce their opponent's health points to zero. Battles take place as isolated in-game events with a single opponent (either a dweller or another Servant). A fight consists of separate sections, and before each of them begins, the Master is asked to select a sequence of six actions for the Servant to execute on the playing field while the enemy retaliates.

The Fate/Extra storyline is set in one of the multiverses (alternate histories) of the Fate universe, and as such, it is not the same world as that of Fate/Stay Night.

In the year 2032, an object surpassing all of humanity's wisdom was discovered on the moon. Known as the Moon Cell Automaton and equivalent to the Holy Grail, it is an all-powerful wish-granting device. As the world outside suffers from magical drain and faills into ruin, organizations and forces from around the world access the spiritual virtual world created by the Automaton, called SE.RA.PH, and participate in the Holy Grail War, which the Automaton conducts to select a suitable wielder for its power.

Type-Moon producer Kazuya Niinō joined Imageepoch through CEO Ryo Mikagi to collaborate on a project. Niinō later contacted Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi for a proposed collaboration on the development of a new game in the Fate series, which, according to the producer, was to implement various genres. At the time, Type-Moon was involved in the finalization of Fate/hollow ataraxia, and had short-term plans to develop other projects–for which Nasu was forced to refuse the role as producer.

Despite the failure, Niinō did not abandon the idea of creating a new game, and in 2007, prepared a more detailed proposal: a Japanese role-playing game, with a plot for a fundamentally new Holy Grail War not related to the events of Fate/stay night. The basis of the work and themes is set in the near future with the setting on the Moon, which was previously briefly mentioned by Nasu as an element of the Tsukihime series. In addition, a supercomputer controlling the work of the Holy Grail within the virtual reality world, in which protagonists would be placed. Due to the peculiarities of the setting, Kazuya decided to make a role-playing game with a lot of textual information, akin to the visual novel series.

According to review aggregator Metacritic, Fate/Extra received "mixed or average" reviews from critics. Some critics viewed it as a work that used Japanese role-playing game and visual novel elements.

Much of the focus within reviews had centered on the plot, which was considered to be what kept players engaged. They also praised the quality of the text, which, according to Dark Zero's Dominic Shird, was reminiscent of the game Lost Odyssey. While Heidi Kemps of GamePro remarked that as in the case of other Nasu's works, the exposition was prolonged and the manner of transmitting the characters' thoughts corresponded more to "traditional" visual novels. Other critics also made analogies to the genre and highlighted the decision trees, relationships points between characters, and nonstandard endings. Digital Fix reviewer Lewis Brown felt that these visual novel elements were well-implemented, but noted that the story would benefit if it had more dramatic components without an everyday school life.