Fate Unlimited Codes



Fate/unlimited codes is a Fighting Game spinoff of the Fate/stay night series, first released for Japanese arcades in June, 2008, which followed by an Updated Rerelease on the Play Station 2 in December of the same year, and then ported to the PSP in June, 2009. The PSP version made it to North America and Europe as a downloadable title later that year.

As of June 12, 2012, the game is to be removed from the PSN store due to an expiring digital license. In the two weeks leading up this, the game was available at a discount of half its usual price.


 * Awesome but Impractical: Getting Archer to trigger Unlimited Blade Works requires NINE magic gauges. Long story short, most matches don't even last half that long. The super moves that activate based on counterattacking the enemy are also this, given their window of opportunity for being struck before countering is very short. Both, though, have situational subversions. Archer's chants can be used as cancels (resetting a combo), making getting all six for UBW almost incidental. And certain super counters (Archer's Rho Aius, Bazette's Fragarach, and Saber's ) have lenient enough timing that you can watch an opponent start a super, burst, and use the counter in plenty of time.
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy: Instead of bothering with panties, Rider just has this under her skirt. Not surprising, given how little it covers.
 * Blade on a Stick: Lancer, natch. carries a halberd.
 * Bittersweet Ending: A few (surprisingly badass ones).
 * Lancer.
 * Assassin.
 * Caster.
 * Leysritt ).
 * Rider.
 * Cat Fight: Luvia's Mission Mode mini-game is a slap-fight against Rin.
 * Choice of Two Weapons: Archer can switch between sword and bow. Gilgamesh has two separate fighting styles, one that uses his sword, and another involving magical chains.
 * Combo Breaker
 * Competitive Balance: Fate/unlimited codes puts Competitive Balance on all the fighters, which consist of both Servants (who have their own power rank differences) and human characters (who have all taken on and defeated Servants, but only under good circumstances).
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment:
 * Corrupt the Cutie: Gilgamesh does this to Saber in his Ending
 * Counter Attack: A few characters, such as Caster and Saber, have super moves that only activate when your opponent tries to attack. The most devastating one?
 * Death or Glory Attack: Each character has a super-powerful "Holy Grail Special Attack" which can only be used when their magic gauge is full and they are reaping the benefits of the Holy Grail. Hit or miss, the attack can only be used once per round.
 * Downer Ending: There are also several.
 * Dub Name Change: Sella is now Sarah, and Projection is now Gravitation Air.
 * Easter Egg: Pushing any button during the credits will trigger a longer version of Berserker's EX mission to help pass the time. It can be skipped entirely though.
 * Field of Blades: Archer's Unlimited Blade Works is in full effect in this game, Engrish incantation and all.
 * Friendly Enemy - A meta-mythological example. Lancer and Zero Lancer, both figures from Celtic Mythology, have special fight dialogue when they face each other. Their win quotes also reflect this; Lancer comments that Zero Lancer's reputation as a fighter is more than deserved, but chides him on fighting too impulsively, while Zero Lancer gushes on what an honor it was to fight a match against the premier Celtic Badass.
 * Full-Contact Magic: Luvia's fighting style, with some wrestling moves mixed in.
 * Gainaxing: Sakura and Rider, big time.
 * Guide Dang It: None of the walkthroughs or websites that have information on the game seem to be able to agree exactly how the extra characters and other secrets are unlocked.
 * Ham-to-Ham Combat: Gilgamesh vs... Gilgamesh.
 * Healing Factor: The character who lands the hit that fills up the Holy Grail is able to regenerate lost health as long as it's active. Doing a normal mana burst (as in, not as an attack cancel or Combo Breaker) will also heal a character; in a Shout-Out to the original game, Shirou heals faster than anyone else.
 * Jiggle Physics: Of the distractingly unrealistic Dead or Alive variety. You have to wonder how Sakura, Rider or Luviagelita can fight without snapping their backs in half.
 * Luck-Based Mission
 * Gilgamesh's EX mission.
 * Some of the "Inflict X amount of damage in a single combo" missions can feel like this. Fortunately there are options to watch the CPU pull it off. The "Land X number of hits in a single combo," however, lack a demonstration option, so be ready to put on your thinking cap.
 * Magic Skirt: All characters in Fate/unlimited codes have some kind of black hole under their skirts. It's a bit distracting in Rider's case, as it looks like she's got tar or something on the top of her legs no matter what angle the camera's at. If it's not black, it's just the color of their skin under their skirts. No detail at all, to keep the rating as it is.
 * Mini Game: Completing most of the character-specific missions allows you to take part in a mini-game. Some, like Shiro's and Kotomine's, are quite silly.
 * Mighty Glacier: Berserker.
 * Nintendo Hard: Unlocking the Ultimate difficulty level, which requires 32 wins in Endless Survival. Not too bad for the first 16, then there's a Difficulty Spike right up to Ultimate for the rest of the mode.
 * Pinball Projectile: Bazett's Fragarach super move. It does very little damage by itself, but if she lays down metallic spheres before using it, it will bounce off the spheres before hitting its enemy, dealing more damage.
 * Plot Hole: Why did Kotomine, whose wish was to see Angra Mainyu born, choose to fight and try to kill Sakura in one of her story battles to see his wish come true when this was only possible if Sakura were alive? Why did Shiro's story follow Unlimited Blade Works, then cut to Fate for the final battle?
 * Secret Character:
 * Shout-Out: Fate/stay night puts a much different spin on Sasaki Kojiro's Tsubame Gaeshi attack than the normal "really fast downward strike, followed by really fast upward strike." However, Assassin uses that "normal" Tsubame Gaeshi for two regular attacks.
 * Theme Music Power-Up
 * Archer finishing the Unlimited Blade Works chant switches the stage's BGM to a remixed version of "Emiya".
 * When Saber unsheathes her Noble Phantasm Excalibur, a remix of "Sword of Promised Victory" starts playing.
 * The Unintelligible: Berserker. Ilya does all of the speaking for him, and his roars are written as unpronounceable gibberish.
 * Theme Music Power-Up
 * Archer finishing the Unlimited Blade Works chant switches the stage's BGM to a remixed version of "Emiya".
 * When Saber unsheathes her Noble Phantasm Excalibur, a remix of "Sword of Promised Victory" starts playing.
 * The Unintelligible: Berserker. Ilya does all of the speaking for him, and his roars are written as unpronounceable gibberish.