Fate/Grand Order Arcade’s fights actually look good for once

Too bad it’s an arcade game, though

I can forgive Fate/Grand Order for not looking completely amazing. I mean, it’s meant to be a mobile gambling hellscape, not a triple-A graphical showcase, right? And some of the flashier moments look alright, even, in that 2.5D JRPG style.

For folks a little more inclined to playing games that look nice, though, there’s some good news: Fate/Grand Order Arcade is looking A-OK. A new trailer has just dropped for this cabinet-based adaptation of the mobile title, along with more details about the gameplay, and even some demo footage courtesy of a recent livestream event held by Sega.

From the looks of things, the game is something of a team-based fighter, with groups of three Servant characters roaming an arena and beating each other senseless. It’s faster and quite a bit flashier than the JRPG-style dustups from the mobile game, and I kind of like it. The cabinet will also print and read physical cards of the player’s Servants and Craft Essences (read: characters and equipment), so players can assemble their teams and loadouts in flesh-and-blood space before having it out in-game. The demo, and key art on the website, confirmed more playable Servants, including Emiya (aka OG Archer), Sigfried, Karna, and Atalanta from Fate/Apocrypha, Leonidas of Sparta, Altria Pendragon (aka OG Saber) evil “Alter” version of Jeanne d’Arc. Folks in Tokyo can also try the game out during its location test this weekend.

Given the physical card gimmick and the seemingly networked nature of the cabinet, as well as the state of arcades outside Japan, I doubt the game will be appearing overseas. That said, the originally arcade-based Final Fantasy Dissidia NT is finally getting ported to the PS4 next year, and that game looks fairly similar to Grand Order Arcade, so there’s still hope for those who’d like to see their Servants throw down on more graphically capable hardware.