Fate/Stay Night Review

Yet another visual novel masterpiece of Typemoon that has invaded not just the PC-game market, but the anime, manga, PS2 and PSP markets as well. Just like Shingetsutan Tsukihime and Kara No Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners, the Fate/Stay Night world falls under the same universe called Nasuverse.

Plot: Emiya Shirou dumbfoundedly finds himself to be a participant amidst a mystical endeavor called the Holy Grail War where seven Masters, along with their epic hero Servants, battle it out to be the rightful owner of the all-powerful Holy Grail. Though suprisingly, he is just your amateur mechanic who attends Homurabara Gakuen high school in Fuyuki City.

He has this unique talent of analyzing structures and finding out their flaws – an ability he learned from his late adoptive magus father. Though he only uses it to help people their repair electronics and appliances. Just when normal days seem to continue, he spots two warrior-like dudes battling it out on school grounds after a late errand.

Then the blue guy with a lance withdraws from the current battle and chases Emiya after seeing him.

The lancer guy states that their battle is not to be seen by anyone, so all witnesses must be silenced. Having his life threatened, a magical seal appears behind him – which led to the summoning of a woman who calls herself Servant Saber.

Shocked by the absurd things happening around and the beauty that appeared in front of him, he just watched in awe as Saber fends off the enemy. Emiya gets a grip of the Holy Grail War situation with the help of classmate and fellow master Tohsaka Rin. Given a choice to back out, Emiya still decides to join the Holy Grail War with the intent of realizing his father’s unfulfilled wish of becoming a hero. Why and how Emiya became a master without having magus blood running in his veins? I wouldn’t want to spoil you but I guess you can already put the pieces together.

Even though they will inevitably be enemies in the future, Tohsaka and Emiya decides a truce until they, with their servants Archer and Saber, gain leverage over the other unknown masters. You will discover who these masters are, their motives, the story behind the Holy Grail War as well as Emiya’s strange and erratic relationship with Saber as you go through all 24 episodes. Fate/Stay Night is a definite must-watch!

Spoiler Trivia!
Each servant class is actually based from historical epic heroes. For example, our Saber is actually King Arthur Pendragon in female form, named Arturia Pendragon. Why make the King of Camelot all girly-girly? I read in Typemoon’s article that the protagonist, Emiya, was originally female, and that Saber was actually male. Though the makers thought it didn’t feel right to have a girl play the leading role for an adult gal-game.

Arthur becomes Arturia with the following story alterations (From Wikipedia):
“…Arturia is the daughter of British King Uther Pendragon and Igraine, a former Duchess of Cornwall. At her nativity, Uther realizes his subjects will never accept a female as a legitimate ruler, and decides to not publicly announce Arturia’s birth or gender. She is entrusted by Merlin to a loyal knight, Sir Ector, who raises her as a surrogate son…”

*After the original Fate/Stay Night’s release, other titles pertaining to different media would follow:

Himuro no Tenchi Fate/School Life – Comedy manga revolving around the normal school life of the characters
Fate/Hollow Ataraxia – Visual novel sequel to the original
Fate/Unlimited Codes – 3D Fighting game for the PS2 and PSP
Fate/Zero – Light novel prequel to the original
Fate/Tiger Colosseum – 3D fighting game for the PS2 with characters in super deformed style
Fate/Extra – Dungeon RPG for the PSP
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Bladeworks – Full feature film of an alternate route to the original
Crucis/Fatal Fake – Unofficial fan-made 3d fighting game for the PC

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