Christmasu Saber has arrived! Christmasu Saber? Guys/gals remember the Fate/Stay Night visual novel or Anime series? Fate/Extra adds another story line to that, probably similar to Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. Fate/Extra is supposed to be a J-RPG for the PSP that allows you to be a Master which would allow you to control a Servant.
Also would like to apologize for the image quality as I had to fight with overcast lighting.
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(All images taken with a Lumix GF1 – Pancake lens – 44 images in total.)
Before I start reviewing the contents itself here are some links of interests that will assist with familiarizing with the product. I pre-ordered Fate/Extra – Limited edition at Play-Asia and had it shipped with Fed-ex. I’m unsure what Fed-Ex did, but it ended up going from Hong Kong to Memphis then Ottawa instead of Anchorage (Alaska) to Indianapolis to Ottawa. It ended up getting held up in Memphis for whatever reason. Paranoia didn’t set in, though it was quite strange. Guys be careful with Memphis *jokes*.
Fate/Extra Homepage:
-> http://fate-extra.jp/
Play-Asia – Fate/Extra:
-> http://www.play-asia.com/
Fate/Stay Night:
-> http://www.staynight.com/
Fate/Extra Trailer:
Konata and Tsukasa nosily brought in the package. Lily Saber came to inspect the contents with her pet Mew.
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New boxed product is off limits to the general public. Well, according to Kanu it is.
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Open the box and we’re immediately greeted by a highly artistic box – a highly artistic box with bubble wrapping.
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The box itself is also protected by a simplistic plastic wrapping. Unlike North American plastic wrapping, this one was much easier to pull open. Since I pre-ordered I also received a pre-order gift – Fate/The Fact.The gift was placed underneath the limited edition box.
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And a quick view of the box art around the box:
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Then the view of the main contents within the Fate/Extra box. I don’t know what was loose but when I tilted the box it made sounds as if there was a large screw loose. *shrugs*
– Saber Extra, Fate/Extra – PSP, Fate Extra – Visual Works (Soundtrack).
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Fate/Extra – PSP:
The game is basically an RPG with a portion of visual novel elements to it. You move around in mixed 2D-3D world with conversations happening in a visual novel manner – Text takes over the screen. The battle system is similar to that of Rock-Paper-Scissors  (Jan Ken Pon style) – Attack beats break; break beats guard; guard beats attack. Sometimes you can easily counter the enemy’s movies while other times its more of a guessing game.
The game starts you off as a male in a familiar school system in a “prologue” chapter. You run around from floor to floor of the school building in a non-combat style. You get to choose your first servant at servant at Chapter 1 (or session 1) to then combat various enemies.
So far the PSP game is pretty good, the only issue is I can’t read Japanese! I need a damn walk-through. Going to use someone else’s and modify it to be more coherent.
Someone elses Walkthrough:
-> http://www.pspgweber.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=144838
Mine:
-> http://forums.swgbex.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=480
My servant? Kitsune Caster! She sounds hilarious and I can understand bits and pieces of the things she says. Her attacks involve a levitating mirror (I think) which flies into opponents then back above Caster. I also chose her because I’m a Kitsune-mimi type person. I don’t hate Saber or Archer, I know them and I want to know who Kitsune Caster really is and how she attacks.
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Fate Extra – Visual Works:
The soundtrack from the game. The disc contains 10 music tracks in midi like format for your music listening pleasures. Not into music? Then you can treat the case as a book as it somewhat behaves like one, and looks as such as well. I also like the third image of Saber in a more….exotic look with more of a public visual appeal to it.
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Fate/The Fact – Pre-order gift:
Basically a disc containing Rin’s diary. The disc contains a webpage which you gain access to which you then listen to Rin’s speech. The things listed in the index is basically glued into the hard cover like a game manual.
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Saber Extra – Figma:
I actually like calling her “Christmasu Saber” (Christmas/X-mas) because of the white and red color scheme going on. Shes officially known as Saber Extra though. I actually wanted Saber/Extra because of her White and Red – Canadian flag and Japanese flag color scheme. Its easy to associate her with such and even with Christmas!
From the plastic, she appears to be a giant Figma. How come? Because of her skirt. Her skirt bulges out as if shes planning to hide Emiya under there or something. The skirt can’t articulate giving the figure limited articulation. If anything, you could consider her to be a general of your Figma army due to her exotic looking sword and the “badges” on her shoulders.
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Take Saber Extra out of the plastic coffin only to see that shes encased in multiple layers of plastic. The plastic wraps around her whole body, her bronze legs, her knees, shoulders, arms, pantsu, and etc. It’s a great thing we got recycling programs around heh.
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Saber Extra comes with:
– Figma stand base, stand arm, and waist clip, sword, 8 hand pegs, front head/hair piece, and a face plate.
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A quick box comparison with Fate/Extra and Fate/Unlimited Codes box art.
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Christmasu Saber Figure photo-shoot:
Just some random fun with Saber Extra heh.
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Bronze leg armor and two skirt assists hidden behind the bronze boots.
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Something unrelated. I posed her like so for Saber Extra and just had to take a picture of her.
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Two indoor shots of “Team Saber“.
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For a limited edition I find this to be a nice get. The box art was nicely done and has improved a lot. The box is visually appealing which might cause you to shed tears when you part with it. The Visual works and The Fact “books” that came with the product are nice visual and digital bonus to your anime collection. The two contain miniature illustrations that may please the owner’s eyes.
Saber herself, shes quite interesting, but her skirt gets in the way. Her skirt is one piece with no signs of showing flexibility for posing. The upper torso does allow for a full range of posing. The front skirt is also slightly transparent allowing anybody to take a “peak” at her “pantsu”. The reason why might be stated in the game. My Figma ended up having slightly loose arm joints for some weird reason. The hands are also pegs so do check the hand plastic storage and Saber’s wrist.
The game is quite entertaining and unique with it’s combat system. The battle system is quite easy and turn based in a “Rock-paper-scissors” fashion of “Attack-break-guard”. You can sometimes see the moves the opponents make while other times you can’t. When not combating the game lets you move around in a typical RPG 2D manner with 3D characters. Sadly, I can’t understand Japanese
If you can still obtain the Limited Edition product then I can recommend doing so. I’d recommend that you’d be extra careful with
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Pros:
– Limited Edition + comes with Figma and soundtrack.
– Box art improved a lot and is visually appealing. You might shed tears if you had to part with the box.
– Saber Extra has some great detailing on her. Her shoulder badges, sword, bronze boots, and rear thigh are highly detailed.
– My Saber had a properly loose amount of elbow joints without getting stuck.
– Saber Extra can pose decently well for her skirt disadvantages.
– Visual Works and The Fact contain great miniature illustrations.
– Fate/Extra is a nice game with a likable combat system -> Rock-paper-scissors.
Cons:
– Saber Extra’s skirt limits pose-ability. She may act more of a pose-able statue then a Figma.
– Peg hands may end up getting lost if you’re not careful, or have improper storage transport devices.
– Visual Work’s soundtrack seemed more like a “gimmick” type of thing as it only had 10 musical tracks. Should of contained about 5 more music tracks. Maybe a handful of digital illustrations or a full fan-site kit might of helped been handy. Not that I’m complaining, just simplistic feedback.
– Fate/Extra PSP game is 99% Japanese and 1% English. If you want to pick this up then make sure you have a  walkthrough or a great understanding of the Japanese language (Reading and understanding what is being said).
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Thanks for stopping by to check out this figure review and hope you enjoyed the article. Hope you’re having a nice summer/winter!
Edit – Monday, July 26, 2010:
Thanks Lowyat forums for linking back here. If you can, next time say that you’re doing so ^^.
Edit: Wednesday, July 28, 2010:
Added two in-game screen shots of Kitsune Caster dialogue and edited a paragraph in the PSP game section.