Fate/stay night

(Played with Japanese text on Vita. So no, I have not experienced the “pornography” bit.)

There are several barriers between visual novel Fate/Stay Night and the people who might want to get into it. One such barrier that can serve as two is called “no official English release”. Emphasize on “official” here because there is a beloved fan translation if language barrier is one’s only concern. But with the variables of “Piracy is wrong, you thieves!” yours truly had seen on IGN’s comment section, no official release is still quite the hurdle for many to overcome. Then there is the game itself.

Mechanic wise Fate/Stay Night is quite simple even for a text-based adventure game, with the usual long sections of read-along and the occasional choose-your-adventure branches peppered in. Some branches matter more than others as they lead to 40 different bad or dead ends in which the game’s main point of view character would not be healthy enough to see the end of the story. This simple mechanic hardly poses as a barrier, while the long and show burn story does. The 3 routes here are like storms, when each hits, it can be a riot, but one need to ask themselves whether they want to get through the build-up or not.

The third last storm: Fate

Despite being a Battle Royal fought among seven sides story, the 3 routes are divided by different love interest the point of view character Shiro Emiya can pursue. Calling Stay Night a dating sim would not be inaccurate, though the screen time when actual dating takes place takes up less than five percent of this long game. Before one can get into any of those routes, the game actually starts with a 2-hour long prologue written in the point of view of one of the love interest, Rin Tohsaka.

In the 2004 Windows original, even if you fancy the raven hair and mini skirt of Tohsaka more, you have to entertain the idea of dating the blonde in knee length skirt called Saber during your first time. The 2012 Vita port, on the other hand, let you choose between those 2 as soon as humanely possible.

Saber, aka [REDACATED] but a girl, by now is one of Type-Moon’s mascot. If you like the idea of romancing a beautiful and sad ghost, Fate route would be up your alley. It was loosely adapted into the 2006 animated series, Fate/Stay Night, and even if you had seen that show, you still got to see this route through in this visual novel, since the character interaction is more through here. Not mention, if you would entertain the idea of playing the “sequel” Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, the Fate Route is the necessary step to become a fan that sold as fan disc thing tries to appeal to.

The storm before the storm: Unlimited Blade Works

Unlimited Blade Works route is so action-packed that not one but two animated adaptions were made in the 2010s. First as one single feature length movie in 2010, then more or less as the continuation to Ufotable’s own 2011 to 2012 Fate/Zero series in between 2014 and 2015. The plot is quite the boiler plate swash buckling action narrative, featuring at least 2 scenarios in which a heroic man has to save a bound damsel in distress.

So, how does it read? Well, not good. Unless you want to see the only 2 endings where [REDACATED] and [REDACATED] live happily ever after, or maybe you are just into pretty girls in mini skirts, this is the one to skip. There is a Fight Club twist here as well, so I guess “Edge Lords” would eat this shit up too.

UBW route expose the shortcoming of this being a visual novel. The text regarding knock-down, drag-out fights might inspire some amazing animation, but reading makes it feel like dry transcript of Actual Play podcast. I personally do not consider the writer-director Kinoko Nasu as a writer of page-turners, and how they write action is the major reason.

The slowly built up storm: Heaven’s Feel

“Slow Burn” and “breakneck pace” are both something that has to be rated on curves. While Peter Jackson’s Lord of Rings trilogy has pacing similar to classic Hollywood historic epic style slow burn, they move in breakneck pace compared to Ufotable’s Heaven’s Feel trilogy of movies. Similarly, when compared to the third and final route of the visual novel they were based on, those 3 animated features also move lightning fast.

Heaven’s Feel route does justify this story being presented as a visual novel. The existential horror it offers simply cannot be replaced by any other media form. Whether it’s a bit player victim gets got by a monster, a human turning into something else or just unexpected time skips experienced by the main pov character, the combination of vocal performance and weird yet playful text display can give one a sense of immersion that even polygonal extravaganzas these days cannot.

But, those are just occasional highlights. UBW’s Actual Play transcript feeling still presents here. And maybe because the routes are separate purchases when this game was released on mobile platform, the story here just repeats bits one already in the previous 2 routes a little too often. This is not the kind of extended cut that appeals to all.

If you get into Fate series via Fate/Zero, whether 2006 to 2007 four volume novel or its 2011 to 2012 animated adaption, then Heaven’s Feel is a must-play. Zero is more of a prequel to this route than it is to the other 2 routes, since Heaven’s Feel star characters who are less than bit players in both Fate and UWB. Those characters also have their own subplots in Zero. It puts Dark into Dark Fantasy, and as yours truly stated in the paragraph above, the immersive experience is unique here.

Fate/Stay Night feels like a so-called triple-A title for better and worse. Like most polygonal extravaganza made today, it was pulled in different directions and it can take one literally days of playtime to get through. It tries to taggle multiple genres such as action, fantasy, romance and horror, has highs on all fronts while drags down led to lows as well. So low in fact yours truly dare that there are text books more fun to read than this. But also like those polygonal extravaganza, immersion is the goal. Sometimes one can embrace that immersion while other times it’s bit much. One needs to ask themselves how much build-up they can take before step in.