Must have for Fate fans but probably not a must for all Fighting game fans.
Game Modes :
Arcade - Basically the story mode.Each and every character have a different storyline of their own.
Survival - Unlocked after you finished the entire Arcade Mode.
Options - All the admin stuff....The more prominent feature is probably the changing of the Announcer's voice.
Missions - Here is a series of challenges awaiting you to brush up your skill.But every character have an EX mission which is a Mini Game :D
Tutorial - Learn the basics!
Practice - Basically,you can practice here.
Characters Overview :
Saber / Saber Lily - Swift stepping attacks.Able to chain up combos pretty well.Decent damage.Decent EX Attack.The downside is that she needs to be in Magic Gauge Mode to perform most of her Special Attacks.
Rider - Chains attacks extremely well.Several evasive attacks.Downside is that she needs to use a certain Special Attack first before she can use her EX Attack.Her EX Attack is also of a fairly short range.
Archer - Chains attacks extremely well.Adept at ranged and melee attacks.Weak damage but attack lag time is somewhat short.Have two unique Special Attack that when the enemy block it,it would only make things worse.Have a troublesome EX attack that requires the operation of Unlimited Blade Works which is almost impossible to operate in short matches.
Assassin - Fast attacks.Somewhat difficult to form long combos.Can be quite powerful if used well.He also lacks Special Attack variety.
Berserker - Surprisingly fast and agile and powerful.Can knock large chunks of the opponent's HP.However,he use mainly vertical attacks which means side stepping usually helps alot.Somewhat difficult to form long combos with him.
Lancer - Extremely fast attacks.Have a set of decent Special Attacks and have a decent range due to his spear.Somewhat difficult to form long combos with him.
Caster - Able to use long ranged spells to perform drastic damage.Able to teleport enemies away or blow them away to maintain a distance as Caster lacks a decent set of melee attacks.
Gilgamesh - Powerful and adept.Able to use long ranged techniques and can form lengthy combos well.Have two modes for short range and long range combat.EX Attack requires sometime to adapt to.
Emiya Shirou - Somewhat limited amount of move sets but is able to form a decent amount of combos rather well.His EX attack is incredibly short ranged.
Tohsaka Rin - Able to use a mixture of ranged and melee attacks.However,her ranged attacks are limited by the Jewels she have left but this problem is removed in MG Mode.Somewhat difficult to form lengthy combos with her.
Luviagelina - More commonly known as Luvia just for you info.Luvia have several weird moves but some of it can dish out decent damage but it is difficult to pull out lengthy combos with her well.
Zero Lancer - An unlockable unit.Zero Lancer is extremely fast and it is quite easy to form combos with him.His Special Attack is also unique as he stops the enemy from recovering properly.
Leysritt - AKA Liz or Lis or Leys for some subs.Either way,she is pretty powerful but unable to form lengthy combos due to her attack's tendency of knockback.She is also hard to stun.
Saber Alter - Powerful but also somewhat slow.Lacks defensive mechanisms compared to her original self.Able to dish out decent combos.
Kotomine Kirei - Powerful and is easy to perform lengthy combos with him.Able to perform a limited amount of ranged attacks due to his Black Swords,which is limited but he is more or less a melee fighter.However,he have a somewhat short range.
Sakura - Or rather,Dark Sakura.Her moveset is,overall,large compared to the others.She is able to use both ranged and melee attacks.It would take sometime to adapt to her moveset and remember it to form combos.Her Special Attack and EX Attack are short ranged - mid ranged so she must be close.
Bazett - She is able to enchance her fist and legs to perform higher damage.She have several step and hit moves and is able to pull off a decent combo pretty well.
Terms / Gameplay Elements :
Magic Gauge - This shows how much Special Attack you can use or whether you can use certain special and stuff like that.Using a Special Attack will deplete one bar from it.There is a total of 3 bars you see.Using Magic Burst or Holy Grail Burst will deplete it until it reaches 0.Using it to blow away enemies when your trapped in combos will eat up 2 bars.Using certain attacks will usually eat half of it up.
Holy Grail - Once your Magic Gauge and Holy Grail is full,you can turn your Magic Burst into Holy Grail Burst.But you require the Holy Grail to be on your side first.
Holy Grail Burst - Magic Gauge dropped slower compared to it's counter part,the Magic Burst.In this Mode you can perform EX Attacks but some characters like Archer require special requirements for their EX Attacks.
Magic Burst - Your able to regenerate in this form.Some Special Attacks require this Mode to operate.
Special Attacks - They usually dish out damage that takes out about 1/4 or 1/3 of the enemy HP Bar. (Just the 1st Bar,mind you.) Some Special Attacks are required to operate the EX Attacks.Special Attacks can also be a power up to boost Magic Gauge charging and stuff like that.They can also be defensive such as blocking attacks.
EX Attack - Have a high tendency to knock out a large portion of your enemy's HP bar.Requires Holy Grail Mode and sometimes,certain conditions.
HP Bar - Each character have two HP Bars.Blue is for full,Green is for the 1st Bar,the second would be yellow.The only one to heal yourself is to go into Magic Burst or Holy Grail Burst Mode.
Victories - You can adjust whether you want a 3 Win or 2 Win or 1 Win needed to win the entire match.
Difficulty - You can adjust the difficult to be Easy,Normal,Arcade,Hard or Extreme.Extreme can only be unlocked after you done certain requirements in the game.
Bonus Content / Unlockables :
Illustration - Simply some artwork.
Gameplay Content - Such as new characters and stuff like that.
Movies - Their nothing but trailers...
Character Models - 3D Models of the Characters.
Alternate Costumes - Title says it all.Note that not all characters have a third Alternate costume.Saber on the other hand have 4.1 tend to be what they usually wear in the Anime or Visual Novel.2 is usually the different color scheme and 3 is an entirely new set of clothes.Saber's 4th Costume is the Saber Lily Costume.
Overall :
The control schemes are relatively simple compared to most Fighting games and the upside is,you can change the controls but it comes as a price since some attacks wouldn't have a button to operate it.Either way,the Combos are ridiculously long and hard to escape from once caught in it.The story of some characters are obviously from the original plot but they hardly shown any of the plot and storyline.Either way,this game doesn't last very long but it's still a must have to all Type Moon and Fate fans out there.After all,this is the only International release we have for Fate so far.