Fate/Extra for PSP Reviews by Gamers

It's a tough time to be a PSP owner. After a few small furors over the 2 or 3 triple-A PSP titles this year, everyone is buzzing (and speculating) on its christened successor, the Sony Vita. It's almost a bad habit at this point to where, about every 6 weeks, I look at my Q and think,"Uh-Oh I only have X PSP games left here." A few clicks later in the New Release/Coming Soon section, and this gem ended up in the mailbox almost 3 weeks later.
Why? 3 reasons:
1: I was vaguely aware of the IP's mythos, including its oft-overlooked or forgotten Hen+ai origins.
2: The info section listed this title as an RPG, my usual wheelhouse of gameplay. This is also in contrast to the IP's previous Fighting genre entries.
3: Read the opening Paragraph.
After a good 5 hours of play, I can say two things, without reservation. One, Fans of the IP will appreciate what is going on, as long as they can get through the suspended disbelief if the game's first 90 minutes. Two, sadly, there is little actual game to this. It mostly boils down to a series of 'capture the flag' events that should be familiar to fans of the Visual Novel genre. The sad truth is that the lynchpin of all RPG creations, the combat engine, is merely a RPS(yes, good ol' rock) interface, where you(sometimes) get to peek at what your opponent is throwing. If this type of combat system were implemented in a Final Fantasy series entry, the critical outcry would shatter the RPG industry.
As it stands, it is a game in the most minor sense of the word. It will find its way into the niche of FATE fan who also happens two own a PSP, and will lambaste on retail shelves until the inevitable march to the store clearance bin tells the end of Fate/EXTRA's story.