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French-Bread, the creators of the popular Tsukihime-based fighting game Melty Blood, answer the prayers of TM fanboys everywhere with the announcement of their newest game, Notorious Brand. Notorious Brand is a 2d fighting game using all the characters, and I mean all, from Fate/stay Night. The story: It has been one year since the end of the Heaven’s Feel and once again strange events are occuring. A mysterious shadow is again stalking the night and killing innocents. Shirou will not stand for this and goes to fight the shadow, but even though he has managed to master Unlimited Blade Works with his puppet body, he can hardly scratch the shadow. In truth, the shadow is the ghost of the Dead Apostle Stanrobe Calhin who has fused with the leftover remains of the Holy Grail. He is now an entity with god-like powers who will destroy everything in his path. In order to fight the new threat, everybodies favorite lecherous Grandpa Zeltrech summons servants from alternate dimensions to fight the shadow. Too bad they’re too busy fighting each other to do anything.

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By far the greatest thing about Notorious Brand, aside from being able to play as your favorite servants, is its innovative ten-button combat system that will allow you to control both servant and master at once. Give commands to your servant or keep them in the background to enhance the master’s fighting. Also unique to the game is your mana bar, which dictates how long a servant can fight and when it can use its noble phantasm. Knowing when to switch between using masters and servants is crucial in the game’s strategy. Right now all the favorites are confirmed as playable: Saber, Shirou, Archer, Rin, Rider, Shinji, Sakura (in both dark and HA forms), Shinji, Ilya, Berserker, Lancer, Kotomine, Gilgamesh, Caster, Kuzuki, Zouken, and Assassin (both Kojirou and True). Also included is the frightening maid pair of Lysritt and Sella, Issei and his brother Reikan, Neko-chan and the legendary bartender Ryuu Sasakura, The Mitsuzuri siblings Ayako and Minori, the demon girls of the track team, Kaede, Kane, and Yukika; and the gorgon pair of Stheno and Euryale. Fuji-nee and the servant of the Tiger may also make an appearance. Release date: April 1st, 2014! Here’s the link to the game’s site. How am I supposed to contain my excitement till then?

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