CCC was at best a far-off idea that didn’t surpass “Well it would be nice if we could do a follow-up to EXTRA sometime,” and the first draft of CCC was only started towards the end of Fate/EXTRA’s development.
During development CCC saw many big changes regarding what shape it would take before being finalized, but in the end we stuck with the very first concept we had for it.
Fate/EXTRA’s theme is “The Holy Grail War,”
and CCC’s theme is “An individual’s ego, the female ego.”
Alongside the RPG element,
we wanted to include another central gameplay element where the player would discover and confront what’s on the inside of the heroines; their thoughts and secrets, true nature and ego (desire).
Included below is the initial plan we set out in 2009.
“An RPG where five Black Sakuras chase you around.
Rather than being chased around by evil monsters, the player will be chased around in an immoral world by half naked beauties wearing bondage-themed attire. A strange dungeon filled with yandere stalkers.
Each of the five Sakura take on one of the following traits: erotic-cute, erotic-scary, erotic-annoying, erotic-pain, and Rider-san-however-you-look-at-it, really… (the rest is omitted).
Please don’t forget that this game is meant to be a silly, ridiculous game. Why did things turn out this way?”
Indeed. There was little deviation from the initial concept. Probably.
Likewise with respect to the scenario the game does approach the ups-and-downs of human desire.
The last boss of Fate/EXTRA, Twice, was a great person within that world.
He is depicted as evil, but his goal was a choice between “salvation of mankind” or “development of mankind,” so his origin is not an evil one.
Even if he ended up being the ultimate victor of the Holy Grail War, the world population might plummet, but mankind wouldn’t likely be completely wiped out.
In contrast, the candidate for the last boss of CCC (or at least the main candidate) Kiara was created as the complete opposite of Twice.
Kiara’s goal is to attain eternal pleasure for herself, and in order to achieve that she plans on sacrificing all of mankind. She is an incarnation of selfishness.
Her goal itself is rather average, the result of the ego of a person who is very small-minded, so it’s hard to classify her as evil based on this alone, however the actions and results born from her desire are purely evil.
The small wish of the boss of CCC would bring about a far greater disaster than the big wish of the boss of EXTRA.
Central themes in Fate/EXTRA are mutual understanding born from the fight for survival (mutual affirmation), growth, sacrifice, and the future.
In contrast the central themes of CCC are mutual lack of understanding born from attachment to one’s existence (mutual rejection), regression, elimination, and the end of things.
When put like this we can see that CCC and EXTRA were developed to be two sides of the same coin.
The general atmosphere that surrounds CCC is the complete opposite of Fate/EXTRA, making for a rather degenerate and shallow mood. However, in the end CCC offers a conclusion that is the same as EXTRA with its “continuing future.”