Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star
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Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star is a sequel to the 2011 Spin-Off of the Visual Novel Fate/stay night, Fate/EXTRA. Unlike its predecessor, Extella is a mussou game, based around taking out large numbers of enemies to take control of sectors and win battles, similar to Dynasty Warriors.
The story features three routes and one true route. The first two focus on Nero Cladius and Tamano-no-Mae, two of the three potential servant choices from Fate/EXTRA. The third focuses on Altera, a character original to Extella.
This game contains these tropes:
- Alternate Timeline: Continues off the one from Fate/EXTRA to the original Fate/stay night timeline, although few, if any, references are made to the world outside the Moon Cell.
- Another Side Another Story: The servants without their own route in the main quest each have a side-story that can be unlocked.
- Battle Couple: The protagonist with each of the heroines in their respective routes, and with Nero in the true route.
- Defeat Means Playable: Every servant in the game must be defeated before becoming playable, often multiple times.
- Defeat Means Friendship: In Altera's route, this is how she recruits Iskandar.
- Demoted to Extra: Nameless, who was the third servant in the original Extra, and Gilgamesh, who was an alternative option in CCC. Nameless can be played as in Nero's route while Gilgamesh can in Altera's, but both are playing subordinate.
- In the true route, Tamano is also relegated to a side role.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Nero's route ends with Hakuno being essentially left a vegetable, and Altera's route has her killing both Nero and Tamano and then dying herself. Luckily, the true ending is relatively happy.
- Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Nero's Venus transformation.
- Game Favored Gender: The story is written with the assumption that the protagonist is male. Although this doesn't effect much, there is the dub translating Tamano's term for the protagonist as "husband", regardless of whether they are male or female.
- Hello, Insert Name Here: Like in the previous games, the protagonist's name can be chosen. Nero still refers to you as "奏者", which directly translates to "instrumentalist", as she compares herself to a fine instrument. The dub translates this as "Praetor". Tamano calls you "Goshujin-sama"; which can both mean "Master" and a respectful way of saying "Husband."
- Holding Hands: In battle, the protagonist remains within the regalia on Nero, Tamano, or Altera's hand. Nero describes the sensation this way.
- Panty Shot: Elizabeth Bathory gets quite a few.
- Relationship Values: Servant bonds can be increased by completing side-quests, or by correctly answering dialogue choices if it's one of the main three heroines. Bond levels determine the amount of skills that can be equipped to a servant. The max bond level is 30.