Video Game / Fate/Samurai Remnant

Your wish shall perish...

"I suppose... you're the one who summoned me?"

Fate/Samurai Remnant is an installment in the Fate Series, as an Action RPG developed by Koei Tecmo's Omega Force in collaboration with Aniplex and Type-Moon, released on September 29, 2023. It takes place in historical Japan and focuses on Miyamoto Iori and his Saber-class Servant as they compete in the Waxing Moon Ritual, a variant of the Holy Grail War.

Its first trailer can be watched here, its teaser site can be seen here, and its official twitter account is found here.

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Fate/Samurai Remnant contains examples of the following tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Despite telling Saber to not laugh when Gramps is given pig-like features by Rogue Caster, Iori is visibly struggling not to laugh himself while Gramps complains about his predicament.
• A Simple Plan: The first act of the game has Iori and Saber attempt to sneak around Yui Shousetsu's defenses by infiltrating their stronghold from the south. This not only causes them to accidentally stumble upon Chiemon and Lancer's hideout but gets them into a massive melee with dozens of enemies and several other Servants as well.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Owing to Dayu's practice as a performer, she calls Iori and Saber, "A pair of rustic ruffians ruffling feathers in Yoshiwara."
• Alternate Timeline: It's stated in the material book that Samurai Remnant takes place in a pruned timeline, neatly explaining away the various historical liberties taken for the game's narratives.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Certain points in the main story and especially different Digressions will give the player full control of another Servant over Iori or Saber rather than needing to be switched in. These Servants are generally much stronger than Iori himself, but unless they were explicitly partying with him before then or fighting in a Spirit Front they generally won't have access to his potentially huge supply of recovery items.
• Anti-Frustration Features: One of the Rogue Rider's digressions has Iori tracking down a fancy plate for her, and Kaya suggests going to see Boss' shop. When Iori naturally balks at the asking price of 1 million, he instead offers to trade it for a carved statue of himself. However if the player runs out of pieces of pine^note which is completely possible as Gilgamesh's statue through the carving minigame requires getting three perfects that each require correctly inputting eight randomized button prompts on a short timer that leaves little-to-no time to pause, he'll give Iori two pieces, but only twice. The third time he'll actually take pity on Iori (and the player) and just sell the plate in the shop for 1000.
• Arc Words: "You were born in the wrong age" is frequently used to describe Iori and his talent as a swordsman, which in the peaceful Edo period is almost unneeded beyond beating down troublesome rogues and bandits. These words serve to highlight Iori's desire to one day match if not surpass his teacher and adopted father Musashi and hint his true desire for the Ritual; engulf Japan in a bloody war so he won't be in the "wrong age".
• Artistic License – History: The game incorrectly identifies "Damu" as Zheng Chenggong's art name, when it's actually just another courtesy name.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Dual Strikes are powerful synchronized attacks that Iori and Saber can perform that usually have greater ranges and damage potential than the Servant's typical Affinity Techniques that cost the same amount of gauge, but it's not a good idea to have Saber's ability wheel primarily made up of (or even worse, completely filled with) Dual Strikes as there are times when the story will force the two to fight at separate locations. Luckily, you can go into the menu and change out Saber's ability wheel whenever you want.
• Beyond the Impossible: It's flat out stated in Fate/Grand Order that Jeanne d'Arc cannot have a proper Alter due to her Incorruptible Pure Pureness making that corruption of character impossible by the laws of the world. So, the fact that the proper Jeanne d'Arc is actually rendered an Alter in the first place is a considerable development to say the least. Partially justified, as it is explained that she wasn't corrupted by force. She was trying to save Chiemon but in the attempt of doing so let part of him inside his soul thus corrupting her in the process. A process that she let happen.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • If Iori is at critical health, there is a chance Saber will jump in to protect him from an attack and engage the enemy in a QTE to knock them back and do damage or fail and get knocked away themselves. During Dual Boss fights with an enemy Master-Servant team, there is a chance focusing your attacks on the former will cause the latter to do this on you, and only Saber or an allied Rogue Servant have the raw strength to properly turn such a clash around on the higher difficulties while Iori will just be delaying the inevitable in the QTE before getting smacked away.
  • Berserker Musashi met Dayu while Dayu was protecting a helper girl from an irate samurai. Said samurai was ready to cut down both Dayu and the girl for a perceived slight, but Musashi appeared out of the blue and killed the man before he could harm them.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Both Musashis believe Iori was born in the wrong time, as the comparative peace and stability of the current Edo era wouldn't give him as many chances to test and hone his talent for swordsmanship in real combat as he would have were he born during a more bloody and chaotic period like the recently finished Warring States era. This is the major reason why Iori's wish in the Entreat the Darkness route is to spark another war, so he can truly become a warrior like Musashi.
• Boss Subtitles: Nearly every major character in the game is introduced with stylized calligraphy at some point, giving an introduction. The most common format is [name], [introduction]. Here is a list:
  • Lancer, the Tenebrous Spear Wielder. After her True Name reveal, it changes to Jeanne d'Arc, the Corrupted Maiden.
  • Saber, Hero of the Boundless Azure. During their boss fight in the Entreat the Darkness route, it changes to Saber, the Righteous Prince.
  • Guardian of Yoshiwara. After his formal introduction as Rogue Berserker, it changes to Rogue Berserker, the Unshakable Bulwark. After his True Name reveal, it changes to Samson, the Mighty Judge.
  • Chiemon, the Avenger of Flames. Upon his fusion with Jeanne and the Waxing Moon in the Flames of Resentment route, the monster they become is introduced as Waxing Moon Monster, the Despairing God of Corruption.
  • Assassin, the Gray-Clad Phantom. After his True Name reveal, it changes to Kouga Saburou, the Ibuki Incarnate.
  • Miyamoto Musashi, the Flower at the Apex of Heaven. During her boss fight, it changes to her full name, Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara-no-Harunobu.
  • Rogue Saber, the Bearer of Infinite Faith. After his True Name reveal, it changes to Kiso Jirou Minamoto-no-Yoshinaka, the Asahi Shogun.
  • Snarling Hound. After his formal introduction as Rogue Lancer, it changes to Rogue Lancer, the Vigorous Warrior.
  • Silent Sniper. After his formal introduction as Rogue Archer, it changes to Rogue Archer, the Man of Rectitude.
  • Before and after he's introduced as Rogue Assassin, he's introduced as [Rogue Assassin,] the Veteran Fist Fighter. After his True Name reveal, he's introduced as Li Shuwen of No Second Strike.
  • Great Orochi, the Raging Tempest
  • Rider, the Dark Warrior. After their True Name reveal, they're introduced as Ushi Gozen, the Unholy Transgressor.
  • Zhou Gongjin, the Red Commander.
  • Yui Shousetsu, the Selfless Liberator.
  • Boss, the Supreme King.
  • Zheng Mingyan, the Unyielding General.
  • Caster, the Recorder. After his True Name reveal, he's introduced as Hieda-no-Are, the Daybreak's Recorder.
  • False God Yasomagatsuhi, the Avatar of Calamity.
  • Dorothea Coyett, the Seafaring Lady.
• The Cameo:
  • Matsudaira Nobutsuna from Fate/Grand Order's event "Tokugawa Restoration Labyrinth: Ooku" appears in the opening animation. He isn't in the game itself, though.
  • Tomoe Gozen appears in Rogue Saber's digressions.
• Combination Attack:
  • Some of Saber's special attacks involve them and Iori attacking together, such as Saber launching Iori skyward on a plum of water to deliver a plunging slash. As Iori's bond with Saber improves, they will sometimes initiate these attacks unprompted by the player.
  • As Iori and Saber's bond improves, Saber starts secretly practising Niten Ichiryu while Iori sleeps and will sometimes join in on his heavy attacks.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Musashi advises Saber to form a close relationship with Iori, as even the greatest hero with the strongest Noble Phantasms will never reach the Waxing Moon if they can't work with their Master. Saber asks if it really makes that much of a difference, to which Musashi says it does. This is a clear nod to her personal experiences with the protagonist of Fate/Grand Order, as she would have never survived the events of Shimousa without the protagonist's help.
  • In one sidequest Gilgamesh mentions Siduri, his secretary from when he was alive who was introduced in Fate/Grand Order.
  • Tamamo Aria mentions in her final side quest that her cooking skill is not as good as Tamamo Cat's.
  • Gilgamesh says that his will was too strong for him to be mind controlled by Tsuchimikado. This is the same reason given for why the Grail Mud doesn't affect him in the ending of Fate/Zero.
  • Rider's line when using their Noble Phantasm ("Insignificant insects, be incinerated to ash!") is lifted directly from her split personality Raikou's Noble Phantasm in FGO.
  • Assassin's Noble Phantasm has almost the exact same name as his descendant Chiyome's Noble Phantasm in FGO. The only difference is the first word: Saburo's is "Incarnation - Omen of the Great God Ibuki", while Chiyome's is "Channeling - Omen of the Great God Ibuki".
  • When fighting Assassin's Great Orochi Musashi says that it looks familiar. Giant orochis were enemies in Fate/Grand Order's Shimousa chapter, which Word of God says is before this from Musashi's perspective.
  • In the first DLC Musashi says that Assassin's fighting style reminds her of "a shrine maiden" who she met before, referring to his descendant, FGO's Mochizuki Chiyome.
  • In the second DLC Musashi is already familiar with Yagyu Munenori and alludes to having fought him before. They clashed in Fate/Grand Order, both in Musashi's introductory trial quest and in Shimousa.
• Crapsaccharine World: Reconstructed. Previous Fate works have had a number of choice words for the era of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and Samurai Remnant doles out even more criticisms by showcasing the desperate unemployed ronin turning to thuggery to survive, the systematic and appalling treatment of prostitutes in Yoshiwara, the enforced isolationism making Iori so sheltered from foreign culture that he can't recognize that Rogue Berserker is obviously Samson, and a feckless dismissal of its own brutal acts that Shimabara Rebellion survivor Chiemon can walk about in broad daylight since the government would rather not remind anyone of how they persecuted and murdered so many Christians. This entire state of affairs is brought up in Shousetsu's Motive Rant on why she wants the Waxing Moon for Utopia Justifies the Means, meanwhile Rider in her madness sees it as exactly why the world is better off dead. However, there is a substantial peace and beauty in the Japan it presides over, and progress on many fronts is being made (sometimes in spite of the shogunate). The country is getting better, and Chiemon's and an Entreat the Darkness Iori's aims to upend it for their bloody desires are depicted negatively, if with some sympathy.
• Darker and Edgier: In comparison to Fate/Extella, Samurai Remnant ratchets back the scale of the last Fate series console games and ramps up the violence and gore as the combat is happening outside of the Moon Cell, thus there are no pixels and bits of data flying but body parts and blood sure as hell are. The Waxing Moon Ritual is also a more bloody affair than the Moon Cell Holy Grail War and the battles that followed them.
• David Versus Goliath: A game mechanic. Iori, while an expert swordsman taught by Musashi, is still an ordinary human and so outclassed by Servant opponents. When fighting a Servant, Iori in the early game will do almost no damage to them and so you need to switch to Saber or one of your allied Rogue Servants to fight them. As Iori levels up, gains improved equipment, and unlocks new Stances and Skills, his ability to fight and harm Servants will rapidly improve, though Saber and allied Rogue Servants will still be able to deal superior damage as long as they're being improved as well.
• Design-It-Yourself Equipment: In the game, Iori can customize his katanas to give them different properties. The four parts that can be changed are the scabbards, guard, handle wrapping and handle decoration.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Riposting demands familiarity with the timing and range of an opponent's attacks. Evade too early or late, and you'll get hit. Evade too far away, and the riposte won't trigger. As a trade-off, virtually all enemy attacks (even those of endgame bosses) can be riposted, which can instantly remove a decent chunk from a shell gauge while staggering the enemy and even hitting nearby ones.
• Downloadable Content: The game includes Additional DLC Episodes, which focus on new stories and events not found in the main game and introduce new servants.
• Effective Knockoff: Zigzagged with the Waxing Moon Ritual, which was pieced together from incomplete records about the Holy Grail War system left by Abe-no-Seimei who used his Clarivoyance to see the future and wrote down the records seemingly for his own amusement. On one hand, the fact that it's functional at all in those circumstances is impressive and commendable. On the other hand, it's very patched up and quite glitchy, resulting in awkward side-effects like the Servants not getting knowledge of the present or lacking overall knowledge of how the Servant/Master bond works (for instance, Saber had no idea they will disappear if Iori dies)... or the fact that there are fifteen of them, some of which even lacking Masters. Circe even openly complains about how shoddy the ritual is, specifically calling out how "wasteful" it is. This becomes a bit of a problem late game when it turns out that after it's charged up with a few dead Servants, the Waxing Moon is unstable enough that it could explode if destroyed, threatening to take all of Edo with it unless siphoned into something safer first. And this is all just with the "final" version of the Ritual. Tsuchimikado's initial attempt to create the Waxing Moon with Seimei's notes ended up with something so weak it could only summon one Servant, veering it further into Shoddy Knockoff Product territory. Only by using it to summon Caster and with his help was Tsuchimikado able to refine the Ritual into its current form.
• Enemy Mine: Temporary alliances are drawn between the Master-Servant teams for the sake of taking out the other competitors in the war. Iori, Zheng, Dayu, and Shousetsu all team up to take out Assassin, whose snake familiars are overrunning Edo. Later still Iori, Shousetsu (mostly through information), and Dorothea team up to take out Tsuchimikado, who has usurped command of many of the Servants in the war for himself, including Shousetsu's Rider and Dorothea's Assassin (though both are doing so for their own reasons), so that he can strong-arm his way to victory, with Dayu joining in on the side specifically to stop Rogue Berserker. Toward the end of the game, all of the surviving Masters and Servants team up with the exception of Caster and Zheng for the sake of taking down Rider, who revealed her true colors as Ushi-Gozen, an Ax-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac intent on burning the world to the ground.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Invoked. The "Ray of Light" route has the least amount of deaths and cataclysmic destruction compared to the other options. It is the overall happiest ending for the protagonists apart from Iori.
• Evil Is Easy: As a flawed copy of an already limited wish granter, the Waxing Moon is incapable of large-scale, sustainable wishes like those of Yui, Tsuchimikado, and even Dayu. It is, however, perfectly capable of the immediate, entirely selfish ones that some of the participants have like allowing Caster to incarnate to continue pursuing his records, or destabilizing Japan enough to plunge it back into violence and warfare as desired by Chiemon and Iori in one route.
• Exposition Beam: The Waxing Moon doesn't provide this to Servants, unlike every other Holy Grail War, leaving some woefully unprepared. Most notably, Saber doesn't even know they have to keep Iori alive to win the war until Musashi (who luckily has experience with working Holy Grails) tells them.
• Eye Colour Change: The corrupted Servants controlled by Tsuchimikado Yasuhiro during his attempted takeover of the Waxing Moon Ritual gain yellow irises, red sclerae, and Hellish Pupils as a sign that they are not themselves.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: Iori and Saber fit the dynamic with Iori's magecraft being fire-based and Saber's power being highly water-related. This also fits into their dynamics, where Iori is an often serious no-nonsense person who possesses a buried consuming drive to master the way of the sword, while Saber comparatively wears their emotions on their sleeve and can shift quickly between serious and kill-ready to excitable and almost childish as the situation (or Iori's refusal to play along with certain desires) changes.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Played straight this time around; unlike prior Holy Grail Wars, the Waxing Moon Ritual was created using incomplete records of the Grail system, thus the ritual used to "patch" Servants to have knowledge of their current time period if they did not hail from an approximation of that era is nonexistent. This leads to confusion among some of them, such as Saber not knowing what paper is as it hadn't been invented while they were alive, leaving a metaphor that Iori tries to use as a case of Metaphorgotten to them. This also gets Played for Drama for the exact same reason, as it is this same spell that also informs Servants of the rules of the Holy Grail War they are participating in, and thus without it, Servants who aren't familiar with how they function due to the rarity of them being called upon are oblivious to such things as protecting their Master to maintain their existence as Saber quickly learns.
• Food Porn: The limited edition version of the game comes with a booklet titled "Gastronomical Observations of the Keian Waxing Moon", which is a collection of short stories entirely dedicated to detailing a particular meal for each Master of the Waxing Moon Ritual.
• Fuzz Therapy: You can stop to pet cats and dogs you come across, and doing so restores your health.
• Glass Cannon: Playable Servants are stronger and tougher than Iori by default, but those that aren't directly partnered with him won't have access to his potentially huge reserve of recovery items.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Several Digressions and story missions will have other Servants accompany Iori and Saber into battle with the ability to be controlled. The Rogue Servants in particular can become Optional Party Members after certain points in the story and certain requirements for each are met. Rogue Berserker/Samson and Rogue Saber/Yoshinaka permanently leave the party after their in-story deaths.
• Harder Than Hard: The Sword Demon and Fatal Sword difficulty greatly ramps up enemy attack and health, and Fatal Sword in particular bans the usage of items in battle and retrying the battle.
• The Hero Dies: In one ending, Iori forces Saber to fight him over the Waxing Moon, as he threatens to use it to plunge Japan into chaos so he can truly become a master swordsman. Iori very nearly wins but is ultimately run through by Saber, who notes that he didn't win because he couldn't understand the heart of his opponent.
• Heroic Suicide: After realizing that he won't be able to control himself much longer, Archer stabs himself with his own arrow to prevent himself from being used as a weapon against his friend and Master, Zheng Chenggong.
• Historical Domain Character: Besides the usual Servants featured in a Fate work, the twist for the Waxing Moon Ritual is that almost every Master either straight-up is a historical figure, like Miyamoto Iori and Zheng Chenggong, or has a link to historical figures; with Dorothea Coyett as the fictional daughter of real-life Frederik Coyett.
• Historical In-Joke: Late into the game, Dorothea Coyett jokes to Zheng Chenggong that for some reason, she believes this War won't be the last time they fight. Frederick Coyett would eventually face off (and lose) against Zheng's forces in the Siege of Fort Zeelandia years later.
• Hostile Show Takeover: In the Additional Episode: Keian Command Championship DLC, Gilgamesh abruptly "kidnaps" the seven Masters and Servants and forces them to compete in his own tournament, with the promise of having their wish fulfilled as they would in the Waxing Moon Ritual. Few are happy about this, Tsuchimikado and Caster being the most annoyed by this interruption. In reality, Gilgamesh's tournament is actually a means to deal with Ibuki-Douji, a Divine Spirit and fellow Ruler-class Servant who Tsuchimikado tried to summon. In fact, his second attempt is why Gilgamesh decided to create the Keian Command Championship in the first place.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The game has six difficulties: Apprentice, Sword Novice, Sword Fighter, Sword Expert, Sword Demon, and Fatal Sword. The latter two are unlocked by clearing the game once.
• Inconsistent Translation:
  • The game can't decide whether to translate shinpi as "Mystery" or "Mystics", nor majutsu as "magic" or "magecraft", flip-flopping between the options in any given scene. Mystics and magecraft are the official standardized translations in other English Type-Moon media.
  • Li Shuwen's Noble Phantasm is named here "No Second Strike", while Fate/Grand Order transliterates its Chinese name, spelling it "Wu Er Da". Ditto with Assassin's Noble Phantasm, "Omen of the Great God Ibuki", while FGO's translation calls it "Ibuki Daimyojin Engi".
  • Oni is almost consistently translated as "ogre", with the exception of oni enemies which are still called oni. Other Fate media just keeps them as oni.
• Interquel: With regards to Musashi's story in Fate/Grand Order. In an interview with Kinoko Nasu, he said that Samurai Remnant is after FGO's Shimousa chapter but before the Olympus chapter.
• Lady and Knight: There's a lot of this going on in this particular Holy Grail War amongst Servants and Masters. Musashi and Dayu are the most obvious duo with the former being summoned just in time to save her and a young girl from a brigand. It transpires that Saber deeply loved their wife, a princess, and is quick to court her again when she is summoned as the Fifteenth Servant. Rogue Saber is fighting for the honor of his beloved Tomoe-Gozen who doesn't even show up in the story. There's also how a number of Heroic Spirits and humans who feel like Iori could be a good "knight" for them if he pursues their quest lines. Assassin refers to Dorothea as "princess" while serving her, and Rider has the aesthetic when set alongside the aristocratic elegance of Yui Shousetsu, although the two wind up being subversions.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Like in Fate/Grand Order, the identities of Servants returning from previous works aren't kept a secret at all. This is most egregious with Cu Chulainn, Gilgamesh, and Tamamo, as their debut games (Fate/stay night and Fate/EXTRA, respectively) are probably the Fate works that play I Know Your True Name the most straight.
• Limit Break: As one may expect from a Fate game. Servants, as per usual, use their Noble Phantasms, while Iori has his own Limit Breaks called Valor Strikes that depend on his current stance.
• Magic Knight: In addition to his sword skills, Iori uses magecraft taught to him by the Crimson Codex, an heirloom from his late father. Yui Shousetsu also combines elemental magecraft with swordsmanship.
• Magic Must Defeat Magic: Servants as existences are so powerful that Iori, an expert swordsman but an inexperienced magus, is as "feeble as a piece of paper blowing in the wind" next to them. Trying to take one on head-on in the early game will leave Iori doing tiny amounts of chip damage at best, forcing the player to switch to Saber or an allied Rogue Servant to make any headway until he grows stronger.
• Meat Moss: In the "Flames of Resentment" ending, Chiemon activating the Waxing Moon Grail causes it to spew red and black Grail Mud, which forms into fleshy tumorous growths all over the interior of Edo Castle.
• Multiple Endings: Depending on your choices as you near the end of the game, you can get multiple endings, each one having a different Final Boss.
  • A Ray of Light: Achieved by choosing to pursue Assassin to help Dorothea and saving her life in the process in Chapter IV. Tsuchikamado is Killed Offscreen while Iori and Saber are dealing with Assassin. Zheng and Caster wind up teaming up to prevent Iori, Saber, Yui, and Dorothea from destroying the Waxing Moon. The Final Boss is Caster and his summon, Yasomagatsuhi, who are both destroyed when Iori uses his final Command Seal to have Saber destroy the Waxing Moon with their Noble Phantasm. The final scene is Dorothea and Zheng discussing the future, with Zheng reaffirming his determination to achieve his dreams.
  • Flames of Resentment: Achieved by choosing to pursue Tsuchikamado and leaving Assassin to Dorothea, who will sacrifice herself to stop him, in Chapter IV. Chiemon and Lancer ambush Iori and Saber right before they destroy the Waxing Moon. Chiemon absorbs Lancer and uses the power of the Waxing Moon to become the Final Boss in order to gain his revenge. Iori ultimately uses his last Command Seal to have Saber destroy the Waxing Moon with their Noble Phantasm, with them disappearing immediately afterward. With the Waxing Moon Ritual gone and Chiemon dead, Iori carries Kaya home.
  • Entreat the Darkness: Achieved by choosing to not destroy the Waxing Moon at the end of the game (an option only available in New Game Plus regardless of route, though some cutscenes change slightly). Caster and Chiemon confront and kill each other, with Iori deciding to use the Waxing Moon to undo his being Born in the Wrong Century... by plunging Japan back into an era of war and death. The Final Boss of this route is Saber, who fights against Iori in order to prevent him from destroying the peace of Edo. Saber ultimately kills Iori and disappears after they have one last conversation. The final scene is of Kaya finding Iori's dead body.
  • A Journey to Conquer the World: Unlocked after completing all of Gilgamesh's Digression missions. Impressed by Iori's ability to fulfill his tasks, Gilgamesh offers Iori and Saber a place at his side as his loyal retainers. Accepting the offer leads to Iori abandoning the Waxing Moon Ritual in favor of serving Gilgamesh, with Saber begrudgingly going along. Refusing his offer leads to an Optional Boss fight.
    • The DLC, Records Fragment Keiran Command Championship has a Mortal Kombat style Tournament with individual endings for each of the main Servant if you play them and beat the rest, and Super Boss Ruler Ibuki Douji
• Mythology Gag: Several to various other parts of the Fate series.
  • Iori is attacked by a Servant on the first night of the Grail War and summons Saber to protect him moments before he is killed, just like Shirou and Altria's iconic meeting in Fate/stay night.
  • Saber explains the Grail War to Iori while slowly walking around him in a circle, like Tokiomi and Risei do to Kirei in the anime adaptation of Fate/Zero.
  • The shop Babiloni-ya has various items on display from Fate/Grand Order: Saint Quartz fragments, Caster Gilgamesh's stone tablet, a scale model of Zhuge Liang's Unreturning Formation, and Hassan of the Cursed Arm's mask.
  • Cu Chulainn has a running animation based on his memetic run from the Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel movies.
  • Where most of the Servants try to withhold their True Name as best as possible, the Rogue Caster introduces herself as Circe completely unprompted during her first meeting with Iori and Saber, so bluntly it breaks gameplay progression (as True Name and Noble Phantasm usually only unlock after multiple Digressions... including hers). It seems to be a nod to her time as "Caster of Okeanos" in Fate/Grand Order, which also lasted all of one cutscene despite the game trying to keep her identity secret before release.
  • The Japanese name of Rider's Noble Phantasm uses the same kanji as the Inversion phenomenon from Tsukihime, fitting Ushi Gozen's status as a half-oni. This is sadly Lost in Translation in English.
  • In the "Flames of Resentment", the Waxing Moon Grail spews corruptive red-and-black ooze and transforms the person who merges with it into a monster, just like the corrupted Holy Grail did in Fate/stay night.
• New Game Plus: After beating the game on either the "Flames of Resentment" or "Ray of Light" path, you have the option of starting a new save and carrying over all abilities, mountings, money, and items (barring Key Items of course). Additionally, you'll unlock new Digression missions as well as a new difficulty mode called "Sword Demon". Upon starting your new playthrough, you will have the option to start either during the prologue segment of the game or during Chapter II. You will also receive a one-use item that will let you re-allocate your skill points. A number of scenes are also changed or added to acknowledge Iori's strength where it was previously lacking... and making it clear that with his desire to surpass his teacher effectively already fulfilled, Iori is Slowly Slipping Into Evil due to his own Blood Knight nature, leading to a new ending choice being unlocked; "Entreat the Darkness", where he ultimately attempts to seize control of the Waxing Moon Ritual to plunge the country back into chaotic war.
• No Place for a Warrior: A major reason Musashi considers Iori to have been Born in the Wrong Century is that the peace and stability of Edo period Japan would offer him few opportunities to truly put his skills to the test in actual battle as his mentor had done during the bloodier Sengoku Period. In the "Entreat the Darkness" route, Iori decides to resolve this by using the Waxing Moon Ritual and plunge Japan back into a state of war, in turn giving him plenty of opportunities to become a warrior on par with his teacher and adopted parent.
• Obviously Evil:
  • The Waxing Moon, the Grail of this war, is a cup that resembles two bloody hands clasped together.
  • The game isn't too subtle about who the most problematic characters are. Rider is a full blown Tin Tyrant wielding darkness-themed attacks, Tsuchimikado looks like a maniac and is practically green under his mask, and Chiemon... well look at him. Even if he's more sympathetic than the others.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Takao Dayu is wily enough to keep Iori and Saber alive despite having them cornered by both Berserkers. Since she can't leave Miura-ya for prolonged periods of time, she asks them to instead offer her any bits of juicy gossip and information they have. While this is an "offer", it's clear that Iori is hard-pressed to refuse given the threat that Musashi and Rogue Berserker pose to him and Saber.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • The foreign Servants. In the context of the isolationist sakoku-era Japan, most of the human characters have absolutely no way of knowing what their true names are. Even if they were told their true name, without knowing their legend it wouldn't do them any good. Downplayed in that most are weakened due to not having a Master. Dorothea being the only fully foreigner Master from the West, for example, is able to correctly identify Rogue Berserker as Samson just with one good look at his Barbarian Long Hair and explain his powers and weakness when everyone else has been clueless since they've likely never seen, much less read, the Bible which tells his story.
  • Taken to an extreme with Li Shuwen who is a Servant from the future, so even the most informed person in the world could never know who he is in this game. He knows this himself and freely gives out his true name, since it's not like Iori knowing it will do him any good.
• Promoted to Playable: The Keian Command Championship makes some Servants and even their Masters into playable characters. The only one exempt from this is Dayu, who is explicitly stated to be a non-combatant in contrast to the other participants of the Waxing Moon Ritual.
• Random Number God: The Buddha carving associated with the Void Stance (Senju Kannon) doesn't have a dedicated carving option like the others. Instead, it will be randomly crafted after getting a "Perfect" carving of any one of the four regular statues associated with the other Stances, but on the plus side it's worth more than the others to sell to Boss as well. It also won't replace a Perfect carving of a Gilgamesh statue, which is the only statue worth more than it at Boss's shop.
• Reused Character Design: Besides Saber being the game's resident Saberface, many monster designs are reused from Fate/Grand Order. Though seeing them in 3D for the first time with updated designs instead of that game's 2D sprites lessens the effect somewhat.
• Samurai: Of course. It appears that the main focus of the installment - the Waxing Moon Ritual - will have all the featured Servants be samurai. However, the Nintendo Direct trailer shows the appearance of Jeanne d'Arc Alter (this time under the Lancer class).
• Saved by Canon: With Word of God confirming that Musashi is the same character from FGO along with her unique circumstances compared to the other Servants as a Dimensional Traveler it's assured that no matter what happens in the game she'll live it through it just fine because she needs to go on to sacrifice herself to save Chaldea from Chaos in Lostbelt 5.
• Scenery Porn: The streets of Edo are depicted with loving detail, especially in Yoshiwara, where the sakura trees are in full bloom and decorate the air and streets. Miura-ya also stands imposingly above the rest of the buildings.
• Ship Tease: Iori proves to be quite the lady's man over the course of the Waxing Moon Ritual, with Tamamo Aria and Yui Shousetsu developing crushes on him. Kaya and Sukenoshin, among others, assume that Iori is in a relationship with Saber, who Iori privately notes is beautiful both physically and in terms of their combat skills.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: Saber, who has a long history of brutal warfare and only sees a sword as something to stab stuff with, has a hard time understanding Iori's view of swordsmanship as a philosophy and way of life.
• Storming the Castle:
  • The climax of Chapter II involves Iori and Saber launching an assault on Yokosuka in order to take down Dorothea and Assassin, who have made the port town their base of operations, fighting through both monsters and Dorothea's troops. Musashi, Zheng, and Archer join in on the protagonist's side when Dorothea begins to overwhelm the pair with the sheer number of summoned monsters, and then Rider makes a surprise appearance to take control of Assassin's Great Orochi summon and have it attack the port. This forces the heroes to break off fighting Assassin in order to protect the townspeople from becoming collateral damage, and all the war participants make it out alive.
  • The climax of Chapter IV involves Iori and Saber launching an assault on Kan'ei-ji in order to take down Tsuchimikado after he has taken control of a majority of the Servants in the war. Dorothea teams up with them in order to take care of Assassin. After the death of Samson and Assassin going on a rampage with his Noble Phantasm, Iori has to make the choice to continue the assault on Tsuchimikado, where he'll get the help of Rogue Saber, or break off the assault to go to Yokosuka and save Dorothea from sacrificing herself to stop Assassin. Either way, Tsuchimikado ends up dead by the end of it.
  • On "Flames of Resentment", after fighting through the Spirit Front, Iori and Saber must fight through Edo Castle, which is now on fire and filled with corruption from the Waxing Moon Vessel and monsters summoned by the vessel, in order to reach Chiemon and Lancer for the Final Battle. Downplayed on "Ray of Light", as after fighting through the Spirit Front, Iori, Saber, and Yui must face off with Zheng and Caster in the ruins of Akasaka, which is still burnt down from Archer's earlier rampage and only has one major enemy encounter before the Final Battle.
• Story Branching: Like the visual novel Fate/stay night, there are a few different routes leading to Multiple Endings. The big branches that determine which ending you get are whether you choose to pursue Tsuchimikado or Assassin at the end of Chapter 4, and whether to use or destroy the Waxing Moon at the very end.
• There Can Only Be One: As per the series' standard, the game's version of the Holy Grail War, the Waxing Moon Ritual, features seven teams of Masters and Servants all vying for control of wish-granting McGuffin at the center of it. In the end, to make a wish, there can only be one Servant left.
• Tournament Arc: Essentially the premise of Gilgamesh's Keian command Championship for the first DLC Episode. All Masters and Servants (with the exception of Dayu, who is the sole non-combatant in the Waxing Moon Ritual, and thus has Musashi take her place as "Master" while Rogue Berserker serves as the "Servant") are summoned to compete to have a wish "grander than the moon" granted. Due to Tsuchimikado and Caster opting out at the very start, it consists of three rounds where the other six Master-Servant teams compete in elimination rounds, with the first round being a race to recover a golden statue of Gilgamesh (before Gilgamesh changes it up at the end to just have the two teams fight for who proceeds) and then the second and final rounds being proper showdowns in his arena. Things get complicated when Rogue Servant Ruler, Ibuki-Douji, who had been sealed away by Gilgamesh before the events of the tournament with the whole competition serving the extra purpose of expending all her mana to desummon her, gets loose from her seal thanks to Tsuchimikado's meddling after the first round and crashes the final round to have some fun of her own by fighting the winning team herself, with summoned monsters of her own choosing, and finally goading Gilgamesh himself into joining her for a Dual Boss battle by threatening to stop playing nice. In Caster and Tsuchimikado's own "route", Ibuki-Douji getting loose prompts her to go on a Boss Rush against the other Servants, several swarms of monsters brought forth by Gilgamesh, and finally a showdown with Gilgamesh himself for the finale as her own "tournament" arc.
• The Unreveal: The game never says what Saber's gender is. While other characters assume they're a girl, their profile lists their gender as "?" to the very end.
• Videogame Caring Potential: The juncture the story diverges involves Iori deciding whether to try and save Dorothea from Assassin or choose to immediately confront Tsuchimikado instead. Musashi cheerfully points out that the former is objectively wasteful since if she's killed by her Servant, then they'll disappear, neutralizing them as a threat to Edo. Choosing to do this anyway is a genuinely heroic act on Iori's part, and puts him on the Ray of Light route, which can net him the happiest - if most abrupt - of the game's endings.

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