Fate - 8.5
Unlimited bladeworks - 9
Heavens feel - 10
I absolutely adore fate and it's powerful themes and messages. The story of a young boy finding a way to come into terms with his severe trauma in order to make meaning out of his life and find happiness resonates with me very deeply. However, it has many many issues and flaws that are hard to overlook. Pacing issues being the most prominent. In other words, it's a 10/10 story no doubt, but it's a 9/10 vn at the very best.
If you love stay night do play hollow ataraxia.
Unlimited bladeworks - 9
Heavens feel - 10
I absolutely adore fate and it's powerful themes and messages. The story of a young boy finding a way to come into terms with his severe trauma in order to make meaning out of his life and find happiness resonates with me very deeply. However, it has many many issues and flaws that are hard to overlook. Pacing issues being the most prominent. In other words, it's a 10/10 story no doubt, but it's a 9/10 vn at the very best.
If you love stay night do play hollow ataraxia.
Actually played this on my PC thanks to the Translation team (plus the H-scene), such a great experience thou some part of the VN can be a little drag on but I have a fun time with it
can't say the same thing about the H-scene, great ero art but god those dialogues are just hell to read (I'm looking at you Sakura H-scene)
can't say the same thing about the H-scene, great ero art but god those dialogues are just hell to read (I'm looking at you Sakura H-scene)
This review contains spoilers
I've been thinking about Fate/Stay Night for the last few days, even before I wrapped up Heaven's Feel yesterday. It's at its best when it is a game about a stupid boy who is trying to take care of the army of girls who are staying in the home left to him by his foster father, in those quiet moments where he's sparring with Saber and getting clowned on, or the wonderful scenes of arguing over who is cooking dinner tonight. It's at its absolute worst when it's trying to describe what sex is like because I don't know that Nasu knows what it is.
All this said, it's a really nice set of stories that range from Really Good to Fairly Mediocre. I understand why the Fate route is first, because it's the best way to really lay out the groundwork of the Holy Grail War, but the rest of the stories truly suffer from not utilizing Saber as a character. If you asked me which route was the best one, I would probably tell you it's Fate two out of three days, and on the others it would be Heaven's Feel. They resonate for me a lot and Sakura is probably going to live in my heart forever.
I think I'm writing this mostly to think about Ultimate Blade Works, which is honestly sick but flawed by giving Shirou what he wants instead of making him confront himself. I know everyone that I talk to thinks it's pretty miserable but there's also a very large part of me that can't help but respect how stubborn Shirou is. There is an inevitability shown by Archer that is undeniable but he denies it anyway. Maybe I'm just a stubborn asshole, maybe I just like Shonen protagonists too much, but there's little I love more than spitting in the face of destiny and committing to your path anyway, even if it goes wrong. It's a failed ideal. It will never work. But in my heart I can't help but root for him anyway. To keep going even as your body fails you, to continue fighting even though the fight ended a week ago.
It's sad. It's pathetic. But I also find it a little admirable. Maybe more than a little. No one can save everyone, but God do I wish someone could.
All this said, it's a really nice set of stories that range from Really Good to Fairly Mediocre. I understand why the Fate route is first, because it's the best way to really lay out the groundwork of the Holy Grail War, but the rest of the stories truly suffer from not utilizing Saber as a character. If you asked me which route was the best one, I would probably tell you it's Fate two out of three days, and on the others it would be Heaven's Feel. They resonate for me a lot and Sakura is probably going to live in my heart forever.
I think I'm writing this mostly to think about Ultimate Blade Works, which is honestly sick but flawed by giving Shirou what he wants instead of making him confront himself. I know everyone that I talk to thinks it's pretty miserable but there's also a very large part of me that can't help but respect how stubborn Shirou is. There is an inevitability shown by Archer that is undeniable but he denies it anyway. Maybe I'm just a stubborn asshole, maybe I just like Shonen protagonists too much, but there's little I love more than spitting in the face of destiny and committing to your path anyway, even if it goes wrong. It's a failed ideal. It will never work. But in my heart I can't help but root for him anyway. To keep going even as your body fails you, to continue fighting even though the fight ended a week ago.
It's sad. It's pathetic. But I also find it a little admirable. Maybe more than a little. No one can save everyone, but God do I wish someone could.
my favorite character is fate from stay night
Dies From Peak Fiction
Fate: 7
Unlimited Blade Works: 7.5
Heaven's Feel: 2.8
Unlimited Blade Works: 7.5
Heaven's Feel: 2.8
"I'll try my best from now on, too."
as i’ve begun my clearly overdue dive into the world of type-moon, i’ve stated a few times that i enjoyed games like tsukihime and kagetsu toya often in spite of themselves. i’m happy to be able to say that fate/stay night not only exceeded my expectations, but managed to be - thanks in no small part to the changes implemented in the réalta nua release of the game - the first type-moon project i wholehearted loved thoroughly to the point where i can seriously overlook what issues i do have with it more often than i can’t. despite the fact that i do find myself still a /little/ more attached to the characters of tsukihime, at least conceptually, i wholeheartedly believe fate/stay night is easily the more interesting, better written, and more fulfilling release - and it now sits comfortably among my favorite visual novels. hell, i think if i’d gotten into this in my early teenage years, around the time i was still really into shounen manga, this could’ve been a seriously formative experience for me. really bummed i missed the boat on that one. regardless, fate/stay night was an addictive experience that took me a total of eight days to read (a huge shout out to the fanmade browser port; made it way easier to read when i totally wasn’t on the clock or anything like that, because in that hypothetical situation, i couldn’t access the game itself.)
the structure of f/sn’s three major routes - fate, unlimited blade works, and heaven’s feel - is pretty interesting, because despite being just that, routes, there is a deliberate and forced order in which they are presented. there is a clear purpose for why f/sn is a decidedly more linear project than its predecessors; because despite the three routes not actually happening back-to-back, the circumstances of its protagonist shirou change and a natural evolution of his character arc and our perception of him as a person and idealist matures alongside him.
the fate route offers the game’s most traditional story - that of shirou, saber, their romance and the drama of the holy grail war. elements of this arc are decidedly by-the-numbers while maintaining integrity through really well executed action and climactic moments of emotional catharsis. it presents shirou as a naive idealist faced with a predictable hero’s story that, while not necessarily “going his way”, doesn’t do much to challenge these ideals of heroism and martyrdom he holds dear. one could even make the argument that this route deliberately justifies and enables these cornerstones of shirou’s projected disposition. to a fault, shirou maintains his white-knight virtues even when they obstruct his vision of a greater and more complex world during the fate route.
it’s with unlimited blade works where type-moon lands their first masterpiece release, in my opinion. now, in an alternative set of events, shirou aligns himself more with those who question and outright reject his line of thinking - including the critical rin tohsaka and the callous lone wolf, archer. as the gold-studded hero’s path begins to rust and shirou learns greater truths about the world, the reality of his disposition and his reliance on ideals over being actively present in the honest world, his moral whites become cloudy greys. he is forced to face himself in a battlefield of morals and question the integrity of the path he walks. the climax is nothing short of moving.
heaven’s feel deviates from the tone and presentation of the previous two routes and, to an extent, almost feels like a reworking of many of the cornerstones of tsukihime’s world, themes, and character types. an interesting concoction of near side’s horror mythos and despicable antagonists and the far side’s more intimate conversations about abuse and trauma, as well as the conflict between intent vs. actions - despite being the slowest route from a pacing perspective and (likely thanks to being such a retread of tsukihime) still managing to bump a few times on the road in the same way nasu’s earlier work did, heaven’s feel sticks the landing and manages to round out its tertiary cast in a meaningful and memorable way.
gone are the dreamy, late-summer mindscapes of tsukihime and kagetsu toya, but that’s not to say presentation is lacking here. i do prefer the look and feel of those earlier games, but fate/stay night’s loud, bombastic approach is deserved of a story with action on the scope and of the caliber as this one. fights manage to feel like big moments, and huge set piece sequences remain pretty impressive even in the current landscape of visual novels. the soundtrack is also quite good but perhaps less memorable than tsukihime’s overall for me. still, attention to details like the moving sprites, clashing and shaking of swords and weapons, thicker outlines and goofier style for the infamous tiger dojo sequences, and of course the great voice acting work all create an immersive, engaging experience befitting of such a beastly title. fate/stay night leans hard into its inspirations at times, sometimes a little too goofy shounen or adamantly sophomoric for its own good… but isn’t that reflective of shirou, and thus the target audience themselves? as i said at the start - i think this game should’ve been something i experienced earlier on in my life, because i think it could’ve been seriously formative for me. even now though, i think it really holds up and cements type-moon overall as a studio with a series that i really do care about quite a bit.
the structure of f/sn’s three major routes - fate, unlimited blade works, and heaven’s feel - is pretty interesting, because despite being just that, routes, there is a deliberate and forced order in which they are presented. there is a clear purpose for why f/sn is a decidedly more linear project than its predecessors; because despite the three routes not actually happening back-to-back, the circumstances of its protagonist shirou change and a natural evolution of his character arc and our perception of him as a person and idealist matures alongside him.
the fate route offers the game’s most traditional story - that of shirou, saber, their romance and the drama of the holy grail war. elements of this arc are decidedly by-the-numbers while maintaining integrity through really well executed action and climactic moments of emotional catharsis. it presents shirou as a naive idealist faced with a predictable hero’s story that, while not necessarily “going his way”, doesn’t do much to challenge these ideals of heroism and martyrdom he holds dear. one could even make the argument that this route deliberately justifies and enables these cornerstones of shirou’s projected disposition. to a fault, shirou maintains his white-knight virtues even when they obstruct his vision of a greater and more complex world during the fate route.
it’s with unlimited blade works where type-moon lands their first masterpiece release, in my opinion. now, in an alternative set of events, shirou aligns himself more with those who question and outright reject his line of thinking - including the critical rin tohsaka and the callous lone wolf, archer. as the gold-studded hero’s path begins to rust and shirou learns greater truths about the world, the reality of his disposition and his reliance on ideals over being actively present in the honest world, his moral whites become cloudy greys. he is forced to face himself in a battlefield of morals and question the integrity of the path he walks. the climax is nothing short of moving.
heaven’s feel deviates from the tone and presentation of the previous two routes and, to an extent, almost feels like a reworking of many of the cornerstones of tsukihime’s world, themes, and character types. an interesting concoction of near side’s horror mythos and despicable antagonists and the far side’s more intimate conversations about abuse and trauma, as well as the conflict between intent vs. actions - despite being the slowest route from a pacing perspective and (likely thanks to being such a retread of tsukihime) still managing to bump a few times on the road in the same way nasu’s earlier work did, heaven’s feel sticks the landing and manages to round out its tertiary cast in a meaningful and memorable way.
gone are the dreamy, late-summer mindscapes of tsukihime and kagetsu toya, but that’s not to say presentation is lacking here. i do prefer the look and feel of those earlier games, but fate/stay night’s loud, bombastic approach is deserved of a story with action on the scope and of the caliber as this one. fights manage to feel like big moments, and huge set piece sequences remain pretty impressive even in the current landscape of visual novels. the soundtrack is also quite good but perhaps less memorable than tsukihime’s overall for me. still, attention to details like the moving sprites, clashing and shaking of swords and weapons, thicker outlines and goofier style for the infamous tiger dojo sequences, and of course the great voice acting work all create an immersive, engaging experience befitting of such a beastly title. fate/stay night leans hard into its inspirations at times, sometimes a little too goofy shounen or adamantly sophomoric for its own good… but isn’t that reflective of shirou, and thus the target audience themselves? as i said at the start - i think this game should’ve been something i experienced earlier on in my life, because i think it could’ve been seriously formative for me. even now though, i think it really holds up and cements type-moon overall as a studio with a series that i really do care about quite a bit.
There is no concrete way I can write this review. There is the part of me that wants to incessantly go into detail about all of the high points about the narrative, what I think about the romantic writing for each of the three routes, the improvement of the artstyle by Takeuchi since Tsukihime and the absolutely spectacular soundtrack.
There is also another part of me that desperately wants to hold back to keep from spoiling the experience for others.
That is how important this game is to me.
Throughout my many years in playing video games, there has never been a story that made me break down into tears. I've played emotional games like Celeste, I've experienced heartbreaking moments like in Stranger of Paradise's final hours, hell I've gone through the Mojave Wasteland more times than I can count experiencing all of the emotions that journey brings... and yet I did not cry.
It's not that I think I'm a tough guy, I'm very much not, but no game had ever connected with me completely in such a way to get that emotional response out of me. To some extent it was upsetting because I felt like there was something wrong with my emotions, whether because I'm depressed or what I can't truly say.
So, in truth I had always been looking for the game that would eventually cause the tears to well up, and for the strings of my heart to be pulled. To know that the game had fully and completely resonated with me.
Then I got to the end of the Unlimited Blade Works route of Fate/Stay Night.
And I cried.
I don't know how to speak to the sheer volume of importance this game has to popular culture, Japanese Popular Culture in particular, but I can say that this is one of the most important games I've experienced in my life personally.
It has a lot to say about guilt, the self, the building of love between others, and so much more that I don't want to ruin for you all by spilling it here.
Maybe someday I'll be able to write something truly concrete about this game, but maybe I don't need to.
Maybe all you need to know is that this game got me to feel in a way no other game has before, and maybe it can do that for you too.
There is also another part of me that desperately wants to hold back to keep from spoiling the experience for others.
That is how important this game is to me.
Throughout my many years in playing video games, there has never been a story that made me break down into tears. I've played emotional games like Celeste, I've experienced heartbreaking moments like in Stranger of Paradise's final hours, hell I've gone through the Mojave Wasteland more times than I can count experiencing all of the emotions that journey brings... and yet I did not cry.
It's not that I think I'm a tough guy, I'm very much not, but no game had ever connected with me completely in such a way to get that emotional response out of me. To some extent it was upsetting because I felt like there was something wrong with my emotions, whether because I'm depressed or what I can't truly say.
So, in truth I had always been looking for the game that would eventually cause the tears to well up, and for the strings of my heart to be pulled. To know that the game had fully and completely resonated with me.
Then I got to the end of the Unlimited Blade Works route of Fate/Stay Night.
And I cried.
I don't know how to speak to the sheer volume of importance this game has to popular culture, Japanese Popular Culture in particular, but I can say that this is one of the most important games I've experienced in my life personally.
It has a lot to say about guilt, the self, the building of love between others, and so much more that I don't want to ruin for you all by spilling it here.
Maybe someday I'll be able to write something truly concrete about this game, but maybe I don't need to.
Maybe all you need to know is that this game got me to feel in a way no other game has before, and maybe it can do that for you too.
I really tried giving the visual novel a chance, but ended up getting annoyed with the choices & routes gimmick. Had a much better experience just watching the anime.
I Absolutely love this visual novel. Honestly its insane how much i love it. I don't think i can really describe my love for this very well but i will try my best. This is not really a review but just a small summary of my feelings.
Plot/Concept I absolutely adore the plot and overall concept of Fate stay night. 7 legendary heroes from different time periods/mythologies are getting summoned by 7 magi to fight in a battle royal to get their wish granted? This is so RAW. But while i do love this a lot, i would lie if i said that this VN doesn't waste a lot of potential this plot has to offer
Slice of life: This might be the worst part about this vn for a lot of people: But for me its up there with the best things about it. I enjoyed almost every second of the SoL part. My emotional connection to the characters and my overall investment wouldn't be this high without it. The SoL gives the writer a good chance for info dumping, developing relationships, build up and it helps the pacing a lot.
Pacing: I like the concept of days a lot. Each day has a reasonably length. It never feels too long and never too short. The balance between SoL and everything else is almost perfect.
Music: This is insanely underrated. All the soundtracks are amazing with some of the most memorable tracks i've ever heard. It is honestly perfect
Characters: This is one of the biggest strengths and weaknesses of this VN. It has some absolutely amazing characters like shirou, kotomine, sakura and archer but it has also quite a few bad characters like hassan, medea, medusa and kuzuki. There are also some character that aren't bad but just very badly utilised like shinji and kojiro.
Overall: This is an amazing story about characters fighting for their ideal and what they believe in. A clash of different truths if you want to call it that. It is beautiful. It took me along time to finish it but i enjoyed every second of it. I will miss this stoy a lot but hey i still have hollow ataraxia so its not completely over :)
Plot/Concept I absolutely adore the plot and overall concept of Fate stay night. 7 legendary heroes from different time periods/mythologies are getting summoned by 7 magi to fight in a battle royal to get their wish granted? This is so RAW. But while i do love this a lot, i would lie if i said that this VN doesn't waste a lot of potential this plot has to offer
Slice of life: This might be the worst part about this vn for a lot of people: But for me its up there with the best things about it. I enjoyed almost every second of the SoL part. My emotional connection to the characters and my overall investment wouldn't be this high without it. The SoL gives the writer a good chance for info dumping, developing relationships, build up and it helps the pacing a lot.
Pacing: I like the concept of days a lot. Each day has a reasonably length. It never feels too long and never too short. The balance between SoL and everything else is almost perfect.
Music: This is insanely underrated. All the soundtracks are amazing with some of the most memorable tracks i've ever heard. It is honestly perfect
Characters: This is one of the biggest strengths and weaknesses of this VN. It has some absolutely amazing characters like shirou, kotomine, sakura and archer but it has also quite a few bad characters like hassan, medea, medusa and kuzuki. There are also some character that aren't bad but just very badly utilised like shinji and kojiro.
Overall: This is an amazing story about characters fighting for their ideal and what they believe in. A clash of different truths if you want to call it that. It is beautiful. It took me along time to finish it but i enjoyed every second of it. I will miss this stoy a lot but hey i still have hollow ataraxia so its not completely over :)
I didn't expect to love this this much (rating this to rate the whole VN)
Ótima visual novel, história competente, personagens cativantes, e um bom desenvolvimento de personagem.
A evolução do Shirou é impecável, ver a construção dele durante cada rota é gratificante.
A evolução do Shirou é impecável, ver a construção dele durante cada rota é gratificante.
Emiya Shirou one of the best protagonist in all VN and Anime
Sakura Matou The Best Girl in all Fate/Stay Night
Saber Route > Sakura > Rin
Nasu GOAT 🐐
Sakura Matou The Best Girl in all Fate/Stay Night
Saber Route > Sakura > Rin
Nasu GOAT 🐐
I am Shirou Emiya fr on god. Fucking bitches left and right. The real message of the game is fuck the church, and I couldn't agree more, it was the church that ratted me out to the cops. I'm on my way to one now, it's Dad's time for revenge... After I finish this brewsky real quick.
oh god oh please no not the saber faces
кирей котомине и я любим тофу
Fate is a work that asks yourself to think of a dream, something you want to achieve. An ideal.
Only when you understand your ideal (Fate); sees him confronted by its consequences (UBW); See him confronted by reality (HF), and still keep moving forward, you will see him fulfilled. Fate is about idealism, the ideal of happiness. And we see how it can hurt us and even destroy us, but despite that it is something truly beautiful and worth pursuing.
This is a very special work for me, as a fan of Type-moon and Nasuverse. This is the work that opened all the doors for the Type-moon and Fate series to be what it is today. Nasu's writing is so magical and unique that they don't give exactly what is needed for a good story; the discovery of a world we do not know. And in this strange world, we find ourselves. Within these characters and their conflicts we discover our own humanity. He didn't just create a world, he created an entire and unique universe, with stories so rich that they warm the heart, with concepts so human that they touch us, with ideas and questions that make us reflect for days. I love Fate and I love Nasu.
Only when you understand your ideal (Fate); sees him confronted by its consequences (UBW); See him confronted by reality (HF), and still keep moving forward, you will see him fulfilled. Fate is about idealism, the ideal of happiness. And we see how it can hurt us and even destroy us, but despite that it is something truly beautiful and worth pursuing.
This is a very special work for me, as a fan of Type-moon and Nasuverse. This is the work that opened all the doors for the Type-moon and Fate series to be what it is today. Nasu's writing is so magical and unique that they don't give exactly what is needed for a good story; the discovery of a world we do not know. And in this strange world, we find ourselves. Within these characters and their conflicts we discover our own humanity. He didn't just create a world, he created an entire and unique universe, with stories so rich that they warm the heart, with concepts so human that they touch us, with ideas and questions that make us reflect for days. I love Fate and I love Nasu.
i love to shit on the fate license but holy shit i love it im so sorry
Tiger Dojo is the greatest thing to be featured in a video game.
Fate/saber butt ass naked in 17 pieces no kyoukai EXTRA
There are 37 days until #shirouday
There are 37 days until #shirouday
Peak fiction (especially since this is the Realta Nua version)
Amazing VN
King Arthur has lived rent free in my head for six years
Vou deixar esse aqui pra representar tudo.
----I have no regrets. This is the only path.
I have made a couple of reviews for this game in the past already, 1 for each route and another one for all 3. However, it has always bothered me that I never truly managed to convey my feelings towards this game, so while finding motivation to write reviews nowadays is a bit hard for me, I just want to tie this one loose end for me.
Over 72 hours played, countless hours of sleep lost, all because of one single visual novel. It's name, Fate/Stay Night a game that means a lot to me, a game that helped me understand what means a good story to me, a game that helped me understand what I wanted to be as a person.
I went into this game completely aware of what was going to unfold having already seen almost every anime adaptation beforehand and yet, it felt like I was experiencing something completely different for the first time.
The story of this game is just something special to me, while it has it's flaws I still felt immersed in it's world and it's characters. The first route was great, but honestly the weakest part of the game suffering from having to explain everything and just being walls of text early on, however I think that just serves to let the other 2 routes go all out without anything holding them back. Besides once I reached day 15 of the Fate route i felt like i was rewarded with an amazing climax that I just went back the next day to rewatch it. Saber had been the best part of this route this part did her justice making me love her as a character even more while also being the start of my falling in love with Shirou as a character.
Shirou Emiya has got to be one of my all time favourite characters. Although, I'll be honest in the first route, while I still liked him as a character, it was nothing to write home about outside of like 1 or 2 scenes.
But then, I got to UBW. His characterization in that route was phenomenal. His conflict concerning his dream and the future it holds for him hit a little too close to home for me, making me fall in love with the character of Shirou Emiya and thus making him what is probably one of my all time favourite characters. Along with the rest of the cast that got the spotlight in this route like Rin and Archer, it made for some enganging storytelling that when put together made for the best experience I had in the game keeping me glued to my screen and actually losing sleep sitting up at 4 am just reading without realizing how much time had passed.
And the game just does not let up, introducing the 3rd route which lives up to the expectations set up by UBW and carries the torch to the finish line with nonstop action while giving the spotlight to some characters that really deserved it (shirou still plays a major role).
This route might also be what could be considered the darkest of all 3 routes. They just keep you on the edge of your seat seeing how everything unfolds becoming more dire and dire and making you guess if there's even any saving in this situation it is some great stuff and while not my personal favourite its a really close 2nd.
With all 3 routes done, the game ends (Well theres is some extra content if you play the realts nua version) and man what a feeling it was finishing it for the first time. It was actually kind of hard to believe, having spent so long in this world and getting immersed it just couldn't get out of my mind, I probably went a whole week just thinking about everything that had happened the game stuck with me and never left my mind since. Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel that meant a lot of me and I honestly played it at the right moment in my life where I needed some sort of motivation, to just, keep going and not give up the most. I will honestly never forget this experience and I'm really glad I decided to read everything this game had to offer.
Final Rating
I love this game.
I have made a couple of reviews for this game in the past already, 1 for each route and another one for all 3. However, it has always bothered me that I never truly managed to convey my feelings towards this game, so while finding motivation to write reviews nowadays is a bit hard for me, I just want to tie this one loose end for me.
Over 72 hours played, countless hours of sleep lost, all because of one single visual novel. It's name, Fate/Stay Night a game that means a lot to me, a game that helped me understand what means a good story to me, a game that helped me understand what I wanted to be as a person.
I went into this game completely aware of what was going to unfold having already seen almost every anime adaptation beforehand and yet, it felt like I was experiencing something completely different for the first time.
The story of this game is just something special to me, while it has it's flaws I still felt immersed in it's world and it's characters. The first route was great, but honestly the weakest part of the game suffering from having to explain everything and just being walls of text early on, however I think that just serves to let the other 2 routes go all out without anything holding them back. Besides once I reached day 15 of the Fate route i felt like i was rewarded with an amazing climax that I just went back the next day to rewatch it. Saber had been the best part of this route this part did her justice making me love her as a character even more while also being the start of my falling in love with Shirou as a character.
Shirou Emiya has got to be one of my all time favourite characters. Although, I'll be honest in the first route, while I still liked him as a character, it was nothing to write home about outside of like 1 or 2 scenes.
But then, I got to UBW. His characterization in that route was phenomenal. His conflict concerning his dream and the future it holds for him hit a little too close to home for me, making me fall in love with the character of Shirou Emiya and thus making him what is probably one of my all time favourite characters. Along with the rest of the cast that got the spotlight in this route like Rin and Archer, it made for some enganging storytelling that when put together made for the best experience I had in the game keeping me glued to my screen and actually losing sleep sitting up at 4 am just reading without realizing how much time had passed.
And the game just does not let up, introducing the 3rd route which lives up to the expectations set up by UBW and carries the torch to the finish line with nonstop action while giving the spotlight to some characters that really deserved it (shirou still plays a major role).
This route might also be what could be considered the darkest of all 3 routes. They just keep you on the edge of your seat seeing how everything unfolds becoming more dire and dire and making you guess if there's even any saving in this situation it is some great stuff and while not my personal favourite its a really close 2nd.
With all 3 routes done, the game ends (Well theres is some extra content if you play the realts nua version) and man what a feeling it was finishing it for the first time. It was actually kind of hard to believe, having spent so long in this world and getting immersed it just couldn't get out of my mind, I probably went a whole week just thinking about everything that had happened the game stuck with me and never left my mind since. Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel that meant a lot of me and I honestly played it at the right moment in my life where I needed some sort of motivation, to just, keep going and not give up the most. I will honestly never forget this experience and I'm really glad I decided to read everything this game had to offer.
Final Rating
I love this game.
it was beautiful seeing shirou's growth over the routes
One of the best visual novels ever created and it still holds up beautifully to this day. Loved the Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel routes and they do a great job developing it's main character Shioru in various ways per route. I love Stay Night and it's easy to see why its praised by people.
Greatest of all time (longer review pending)
Timeless. I'm very new to Fate so this is my first experience with the franchise but I'd compare this to something like Evangelion in that it feels very deliberate and meaningful, and also impactful. Did not realize how many stories I enjoy have been influenced by it.
Regardless, it would be a bit dishonest of me to rate it 5/5 because I found HF and Fate routes had some pretty frustrating and slowly paced middle sections, that, even if they were meant to build to a later payoff, felt a bit too long. Also I wish that HF route felt more relevant to the other two. A lot of stuff from the routes gradually builds to each other for the intended order, but I feel the other routes didn't foreshadow it nearly enough.
Aside from that the only other issue to me comes down to the censored versus uncensored versions, as I feel that some things that were changed were better in the original, but some stuff in the original is pretty cringe at the same time, so there's no real ideal version.
Top 3 characters for me: 1. Kirei 2. Issei 3. Shirou
Regardless, it would be a bit dishonest of me to rate it 5/5 because I found HF and Fate routes had some pretty frustrating and slowly paced middle sections, that, even if they were meant to build to a later payoff, felt a bit too long. Also I wish that HF route felt more relevant to the other two. A lot of stuff from the routes gradually builds to each other for the intended order, but I feel the other routes didn't foreshadow it nearly enough.
Aside from that the only other issue to me comes down to the censored versus uncensored versions, as I feel that some things that were changed were better in the original, but some stuff in the original is pretty cringe at the same time, so there's no real ideal version.
Top 3 characters for me: 1. Kirei 2. Issei 3. Shirou