Fate/stay night Visual Novel Review
PRODUCTION INFO
Fate/stay night is an adult visual novel that was developed by Type-Moon and written by Kinoko Nasu. The art was illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi. It was released on January 30th, 2004 and its genres are action, fantasy, and romance. A 15+ version with voice was later released for the PS2, PC, and finally PSV. The original Fate/stay night visual novel has never been released outside of Japan for retail, however, the manga, anime, and some video game adaptions have been officially released in English. In order to play the Fate/stay night visual novel in English, you must download Mirror Moon's translation patch.
STORY
Fate/stay night's genre is action/drama and it's loaded with twists and turns. You play from the perspective of Shirou Emiya as he is thrown into a magical and deadly battle known as the Holy Grail War. The participants in the Holy Grail War, known as Masters, are each given one Servant. Servants are powerful beings; spirits of legendary heroes through time, gathered for a chance to obtain the historic Holy Grail and have their long-awaited unfulfilled wishes granted. The catch is that only the winner may make a wish, rendering the entire event into a battle royal.
There are seven participants in the Holy Grail War; one for each class which includes the following: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Berserker, Caster, and Assassin. Shirou accidentally summoned the servant Saber, unwittingly including himself in the war. Since Saber was invoked irregularly, there arises a few usual problems that Shirou must learn to adapt to using the help of his (current) ally, Rin Tohsaka. On top of dealing with this and keeping on Rin's good side, Shirou refuses to kill any other Masters, making his chances of victory quite slim.
Shirou and Rin balance their school studies with their strategic battle planning while soon discovering that they are not the only two Masters at their school. Between Saber's flaws and Shirou's stubbornness, how will he be able to survive?
WHAT TO EXPECT
Fate/stay night is mostly story, and almost everything that happens is a spoiler. There's a lot of unexpected twists so it can be pretty entertaining. Some of the story can be quite mature and depressing, though. Keep in mind that Fate/stay night is an adult visual novel. You're going to see hentai at some point, unless you're playing it on the PS2 or something, but only the PC version has been translated.
MAIN CHARACTERS
Shirou is a typical hero type male character. He does everything he can for everyone he encounters, and there is a reason for that. It's because his family died and he was nearly killed as well. Kiritsugu Emiya found and adopted Shirou, and Shirou saw him as a hero ever since. He was so taken by Kiritsugu's good deed that he decided that he wanted to become a hero as well. None of the other Masters or Servants (nor his own Servant) agree with him, though, giving Shirou a hard time cooperating with the others sometimes.
Saber is the servant Rin initially wanted, but Shirou summoned her instead. Saber's personality is extremely serious. She never jokes, and focuses only on winning the Holy Grail War. Eventually, Shirou manages to break that attitude, but it never goes away completely... Despite her overly-serious nature, Saber has a few cute sides, such as her enjoyment when it comes to lion cubs and the great pleasure she gets from eating good food. Saber is extremely loyal to Shirou, and determined to win the Grail. The first route of Fate/stay night follows Saber's story.
Rin Tohsaka is another master like Shirou, and she intends to win the Holy Grail War just as much as Saber does. Rin is much more skilled than Shirou at magic, and tutors him at some point when they become allied temporarily. She prepared for the Holy Grail War since she was very young, and comes from an ancient line of magic users. She's very serious with her studies and is an honor student in school. She's also very popular, but shows a different side in the Holy Grail War when she is much more strict and vicious. She generally has a tsundere character and the second route of Fate/stay night, titled Unlimited Blade Works, follows Rin's story.
Sakura Matoh is a mysterious girl who lives at the Matoh household with her brother, Shinji. She's a quiet girl who doesn't stand out much, but she really likes to cook and make herself useful at Shirou's house. She's a childhood friend of Shirou, but she also holds obvious feelings for him. Sakura can be very timid and delicate, but she also has moments of showing off a strong personality to make things right. The third route of Fate/stay night, titled Heaven's Feel, follows Sakura's route.
EXTRA INFORMATION
In the VN, you play through three routes featuring a different heroine each time. The first route, following Saber, is known as Fate. The second route, Unlimited Blade Works, features Rin. Finally, the third route, Heaven's Feel, follows Sakura's story. The VN must be played in this order; finishing one route unlocks choices and flags that make it possible to play the next route.
Anytime in the game, you can right click to bring up a menu. In the menu, you have the option to look at your status, and it includes all of the information you've gathered about each Servant. Once you know their heroic spirit identity, you can even read the story about the historic character in question! I thought this was a pretty neat function. You can also unlock little animations if you've seen enough Tiger Dojos (which appear when you get a bad end), so if you fail to avoid the bad ends, you still get a little bonus!
OPINIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
I really liked this VN. It had nice art and effects, and the action scenes were intense. There was a lot of suspense and thriller moments in the story that kept me on the edge of my seat, and there were so many plot twists that I couldn't imagine were going to happen, making the story very unpredictable. The BGM was pretty good for the most part, although a tad repetitive at times. Overall, I'd say it was pretty enjoyable.
RATING
8/10
