It’s always interesting to check out a game that you’ve never heard of before, which is what I’ve recently done with a title called Fate Seeker II. After researching the game, it appeared to have quite an interesting concept. It had a lot of positive reviews from the Chinese who played the game on Steam, so getting an English release was cool to see. That was enough to pique my interest and see what this particular title was all about.
Game Name: Fate Seeker II
Platform(s): PC, PS5 (Reviewed)
Developer(s): JSL Entertainment
Publisher(s): NiuGamer Co. Ltd.
Release Date: July 4th, 2024
Price: $29.99
Fate Seeker II has you taking control of a character named Zhuge Yu. He is the son of two very talented individuals: his father, Zhuge Wei, was a martial artist and skilled at debating with politicians, and his mother was a talented swordswoman. Despite this, both his mother and father died early in Zhuge Yu’s life. He now has a strong mission to rid the country he loves of corruption. Fate Seeker II will have you engaging in combat, side missions, logic puzzles, and even Go at times.
The Good
Fate Seeker II is gorgeous. There is a lot of character art and many cinematic moments. There are also numerous effects that occur with the variety of weapon abilities in the game. You can use a sword, spear, hand-to-hand combat, and more to fight the enemies you encounter. Each weapon type has a plethora of fighting abilities and specialties you can discover, making your kit different depending on which weapon you use or what type of focus you need: damage, defense, or recovery. Most weapons offer all of these options. I loved using the rock specialization with the sword to take damage and then dish it back out in a large burst afterward.
The debates in Fate Seeker II are fun logic puzzles. You have a bit of information that gets outlined either in conversations or in the debate itself, and then you can bring it up when someone says something related to what you have learned from those facts. This reminds me of playing the Ace Attorney games, with how Zhuge Yu even has a special face animation he brings out to call out people during the debates.
Fate Seeker II just straight-up has Go as a mini-game. Honestly, I loved it! They start by teaching strategies and tutorials for small moves. There is a lot of strategy in Go, and it explains the game itself by letting you play the early tutorials rather than trying to just give you a huge overview of the rules. They showed you different forms and movements in Go, and it made me stop the actual game for a few hours just to play and figure out the strategies I didn’t know about. Most of my prior knowledge of Go was from the manga Hikaru No Go. It was cool to see things like star points and ladder movements make an appearance in the instructions.
There is a large variety of builds you can have in this game. There is a hexagon that allows you to put points into a variety of stats and passives. Some increase attack speed or damage from combos. There are also method manuals that improve passive abilities as well. Each time you put a level into a method manual, you increase your base stats as well. The variety of your build is deep. You can find method manuals in various shops in the game.
The Bad
Fate Seeker II has a big problem with its translation. While the game is still comprehensible and you can make out what you’re supposed to do, it does make you scratch your head at how they missed certain things. Pronouns are all messed up, and names shift constantly in the dialogue, so if you aren’t paying attention, you might attribute someone’s dialogue to a different person. There is a lot of text, so it can be understandable, but this game would have benefitted greatly from a few more pass-throughs in the text.
There were a few moments during logic puzzles when the text wasn’t the most coherent, so I didn’t understand what clue I was supposed to use. If you are using the English translation of the game, just note that if you don’t understand something, odds are it is due to the translation, not the writing of the game itself.
The controls of Fate Seeker II were made with the computer in mind. It can be tough to transition to a console when your game is made with a keyboard and mouse as the default control scheme. For the most part, controlling the character and combat, and moving around the areas, works fine. The spot it struggles in is the menu. This could have been remedied if they let you use the touchpad to control a mouse rather than trying to navigate and make changes that close the menu when you are trying to change a setting or level up a method.
The Verdict
Fate Seeker II is a game with lots of variety. At the center of the story is a fun game featuring a narrative on corruption in plain sight and having the will to follow your sense of justice. Zhuge Yu has a great aesthetic with his mask, and there is a lot of game to play. Even though the translation to console wasn’t the greatest, the game itself is still amazing in its core mechanics. If you want a fun CRPG mixed with action combat, it is a solid grab for the price point.
Review Disclosure Statement: Fate Seeker II was provided to us by NiuGamer Co., LTD. for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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Summary
Fate Seeker II is a solid game to add to the collection for those who are fans of the locales of China. It has an engaging story with a lot of different types of games inside its core that make it fun to play. The PS5 release may not be the greatest due to issues of moving a PC game to a console, but it is still a solid game.
Pros
- Zhuge Yu is a compelling character with a lot of baggage attached.
- It has Go as a mini-game!!
- Variety in playing the game and in your builds.
Cons
- The controller controls can feel clunky.
- Translation has some issues.
- Was made with the PC in mind.
