Anime News Network·Japan·Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Fate/Extra Record Feels Like Persona Meets Slay the Spire
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At Tokyo Game Show 2026, we got some hands-on time with Fate/Extra Record—a ground-up remake of 2010's PSP game Fate/Extra. While the plot is largely the same (though with massively expanded voice acting, the gameplay has been updated. To explain this game to anyone who has little knowledge of the original, I'd say it plays like Persona mixed with Slay the Spire.
Like with other Fate stories, you play as a mage paired with a hero from myth and legend. Should you defeat the other Master/Servant pairs, you will gain a wish from the holy grail. For the aforementioned Persona feel, there are several days between each Servant versus Servant battle. You spend that time exploring your school, meeting characters, furthering the story, and powering up your Servant for battle. You are also able to enter a dungeon related to the Servant you will next be fighting—and must clear it before the next main fight. Of course, resources are limited, so it will take several days to fully complete.
For the TGS demo, we were thrown into the game's opening dungeon, either its first half or second, and were able to pick a partner servant—i.e., Archer, Saber, or Caster. The dungeon itself is filled with normal monsters that you can fight or avoid at will, along with “Gatekeepers” that you have to defeat to move on to the next area of the dungeon. You also have occasional battles with enemy servants that have a turn limit and special goals beyond simply defeating your enemy. In battle, the game takes on a card-based battle system reminiscent of Slay the Spire. You have a set amount of AP (action points) to spend per turn. Each card uses some amount of AP. Some cards make defense barriers, some attack, some draw or create more cards—some even raise your max AP temporarily. Your deck largely depends on which one of the three servants you selected to pair with. That said, Aniplex Inc. Staff informed ANN that you will be able to adjust your deck and power up your cards back at the school.
Outside of the card system, strategy comes from being able to see what kind of attack your enemy will use on their next turn, as well as the use of Master skills that use MP instead of AP and give effects that can easily swing the outcome of a battle.
However, the best part of the hands-on experience was all the dialogue. Unlike the original, ANN was informed that the game would be fully voiced outside of the protagonist's inner monologue. In the demo, this meant not only conversations between the protagonist and their Servant, but also the enemy Master (Shinji Matou) and Servant (Rider). Shinji also had an effect on the dungeon itself, throwing bombs you have to avoid in addition to the challenge of normal enemies.
Based on my time with Fate/Extra Record, this seems to be the superior way to play the Fate/Extra story. The battle system feels simple to learn but with a ton of complexity to discover. Each of the three characters feels unique in how they play (at least in the first dungeon), and the mini-bosses and limited-turn Servant battles do a good job of mixing things up. I'm excited to see if this continues to be true in the full game when it releases next year.
Fate/Extra Record is scheduled for release on January 28, 2027, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows.
