Before the reveal of the two to three last characters playable inMelty Blood Type Lumina, icons for the characters appeared on digital stores, which leaked that Saber fromFate/stay nightwould be in the roster - now, Type-Moon officially confirmed Saber with a new gameplay trailer on the live stream Type-Moon Times vol 6.
Melty Blood Type Luminadirector Kamone Serizawa, who appeared on stream, also explained why Type-Moon and French Bread decided to add Saber to the game, I translated his comments below.
Kamone-san explained at the34:17 timestampwhy Saber is in the game. BeforeType Lumina’s development began, at first Type-Moon asked French Bread to make “a new fighting game”, with no precise IP in mind. But since French Bread sawTsukihime Remakewas getting re-announced and released soon, they asked Type-Moon to let them make a newMelty Blood.
Early in development, French Bread created some sample characters, and one of them was Saber fromFate/stay night. So after discussing with Type-Moon and getting their approval, they thought it’d be a waste to not use her, so they finished the character and included her in the final game.
They also decided on Saber because she already appeared in several games including fighting games (Nitroplus Blasterz). Next, there’s how Kamone-san really wanted to make Saber himself for once and include her in aMelty Bloodgame. The final reason is that despite being a fighting game,Melty Blood Type Luminahas few characters who are into “fair & square” fights, traditional knight characters with a weapon, so adding Saber would fill in that spot. Adding a new type of character like that makes the game even more interesting.
Melty Blood Type Luminalaunches September 30 on PC via Steam, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. You can always reach me on Twitter@A_iyane07to discuss Japanese games, the Nasuverse, etc.
