Fate/Samurai Remnant from Koei Tecmo is now available on PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam worldwide. Having already played the PC version through a preview build on Steam Deck, I was mostly curious about how the game would be on consoles. The 120hz support on PC got me thinking about potential support for that on PS5, but I didn’t really have any expectations. Having spent the last two weeks with the PS5 version and recently the Nintendo Switch version, it has been interesting seeing how Omega Force scaled the game across different hardware. I also wanted to approach this review as someone who got into Fate through Fate/Zero. In my Fate/Samurai Remnant review, I’m going to cover what I loved about the game, what I hope to see fixed in updates, and compare different versions.
Before getting into the comparisons, what surprised me the most about Fate/Samurai Remnant, is how much it brings in RPG elements to Omega Force’s Musou base. Upgrading elements, skills, your combat styles, and more elevate the experience. This isn’t one of those 1vs1000 Musou games. Yes, the combat is built on what I love about Omega Force games, but this is very much its own thing in its structure.
When it comes to the story, like I said, I don’t have the most experience with Fate’s various media, but based on what I have experienced, I liked Fate/Samurai Remnant’s narrative quite a bit. The characters have excellent voice acting and amazing portraits. A lot of care has gone into the story and localization. This is a high quality Koei Tecmo release for sure, and it was quite a bit longer than I expected. I never know what to expect with Omega Force games with some being about a dozen hours long while others go in multiples of that. Fate/Samurai Remnant is very meaty, and you even unlock more once you finish your first playthrough.
Fate/Samurai Remnant PS5 features – 120hz support and more
When I first booted up Fate/Samurai Remnant on PS5, my PS5 went into 120hz mode. This immediately explained to me why the game has 120hz support on PC. This game has been built to support 120hz, which is a first for Omega Force on console, and a welcome addition. Visually, Fate/Samurai Remnant looks excellent given the developer’s past releases and great in its own right. I have no complaints with the visuals of the PS5 version on my 1440p display.
Fate/Samurai Remnant also supports PS5 activity cards to track progress and jump into your last save and has some form of DualSense haptic feedback. I also didn’t see any option to choose a visual or performance priority mode here. On PC, you can toggle a 60fps target or 120hz target. On PS5, it just defaults to 120hz on my display. If you do own a PS5 and were considering Fate/Samurai Remnant, it is a great experience on the system.
Fate/Samurai Remnant on Nintendo Switch – how does it look and run?
Fate/Samurai Remnant on Nintendo Switch has a lot of variable performance from its 30fps target. While other versions can target 60 or 120fps, the Switch version targets 30fps and can drop well below in cut-scenes and during some encounters. It doesn’t even feel stable in the hub in parts. This is after the visual downgrade compared to the PS5 and PC versions. I haven’t played the PS4 version to compare, but I’d only recommend the Switch version if you want to exclusively play it in handheld mode and don’t own a Steam Deck. I’ve played many Omega Force games that run worse than Fate/Samurai Remnant on Switch, but it is worth keeping the cutbacks and performance issues in mind. I will likely replay the whole game on Switch as I like chipping away at these kinds of games on Switch for my second or third playthroughs.
Fate/Samurai Remnant on PS5 Vs Nintendo Switch
If the details above didn’t highlight the differences enough, the PS5 version looks and runs considerably better than the Switch version with faster loading, but you can’t play that on the go. The draw distance is also worse on Switch with NPCs appearing very close to the player. For a lot of people, games like this benefit from the pick up and play nature of the Switch, so the PS5 version isn’t an ideal option. If you do play on getting this on Switch, just make sure you go in with your expectations in check for visuals and performance. If you played and enjoyed Samurai Warriors 5 on Switch, know that this doesn’t run as well on the system.
Fate/Samurai Remnant PC graphics and control options
Having played the preview build already, I wanted to see if there were any changes in the final build for Fate/Samurai Remnant. I didn’t notice anything different in the final retail build. That isn’t a bad thing, because Fate/Samurai Remnant has detailed graphics and good control options. It even is the rare Koei Tecmo game to support DualSense button prompts on Steam. Most only have Xbox button prompts. Barring the display mode, v-sync, and resolution options, there is a graphics quality preset option that lets you use: high, middle, low, and advanced presets. The advanced one lets you adjust many options as shown below.
One thing I wanted to highlight specifically, is the separate “Game Mode” option in the game settings. This actually lets you choose “Performance” mode to target 120fps as opposed to “Graphics” mode that has the game frame rate capped to 60fps. Keep in mind that if you use the 120fps mode and your system can’t run it as well, the game seems to slow down right now in parts. I hope this can be fixed in a patch. You can adjust seemingly everything but the frame rate target (Game Mode) while in-game. The Game Mode can only be adjusted from the title screen before loading your save.
Fate/Samurai Remnant PC control options
Fate/Samurai Remnant has support for playing with a controller or keyboard & mouse. In my testing, the button prompts swap correctly, and it even displays the correct controller in the in-game options to remap. I tested with my PS5 DualSense and Xbox Series X controllers and it showed the correct prompts automatically. You can remap most things on the keyboard side, but some inputs like confirm/cancel cannot be bound to other buttons on the keyboard.
Fate/Samurai Remnant on Steam Deck — how does it run right now?
As I said in my preview, I wasn’t sure if Fate/Samurai Remnant would even run on Steam Deck, but it runs great. I didn’t need to change any settings or force compatibility. It just worked as it should. It also has Steam Cloud save support making it better if you want to play it on your PC and Steam Deck together. I usually enjoy playing Omega Force’s Musou games on portables if I can, and I’m glad that option is now available for Steam Deck because it looks and runs a lot better on Steam Deck than Nintendo Switch right now. Don’t expect it to run above 60fps when played on an external display though. I tried the lowest options or toggling everything off and it couldn’t maintain anything close to 120fps resulting in slow down constantly.
Fate/Samurai Remnant PC performance and features — 120fps frame rate and 4K resolution support
I obviously couldn’t get Fate/Samurai Remnant to run at 120fps on Steam Deck even at 720p and low as I said above, but I did verify that it ran above 60fps in parts when using performance mode even in the final build. Thankfully, 60fps is still doable on the Steam Deck with a combination of a few settings from the low and other presets. I would recommend starting with the low preset then going to Advanced and turning things up to see how you feel about the image quality. The Middle preset works with some tweaking, but you will see some slowdown. 1440p is also not feasible on Steam Deck as expected. Just remember to set the game to the 60fps target from the title screen.
Should you buy Fate/Samurai Remnant day one?
The more I played Fate/Samurai Remnant on Steam Deck before, the more I was surprised by how good it was. If you aren’t a fan of Musou combat though, you might not get on with this. If you’ve never played one of these before and like Fate, Fate/Samurai Remnant might be your gateway to Omega Force’s awesome hack and slash action games. The upgrades, skills, boss battles, and lovely portraits (seriously, these are amazing) come together to make this one of my favorite Omega Force releases in a long time.
I have played both Fate/Extella games, and enjoyed them, but Fate/Samurai Remnant is on a whole other level, and I hope we get a sequel that matches this quality in the future. I’m interested in seeing where the DLC from the season pass takes the story as well. Omega Force could also potentially address some of the combat issues. This might be me being too used to how Omega Force handles attacks in its pure Musou games or in other spin-offs, but something about certain encounters in Fate/Samurai Remnant felt off to me.
Just like Persona 5 Strikers, Omega Force using their expertise with combat in the Musou games to build over with Fate/Samurai Remnant has resulted in a fantastic action RPG that is perfect for newcomers to Fate. This is a great gateway game for not only Fate, but also Omega Force action games. This is easily one of Omega Force’s best games in recent years despite the few issues.
Fate/Samurai Remnant is out now worldwide for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, and Steam. If you’re curious about the editions, DLC, and more for Fate/Samurai Remnant, read this.
