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If you're on this blog, I'm willing to bet you are a Fate fan, and even more specifically a Fate/Grand Order fan. On the off-chance that you are an FGO fan who hasn't played Fate/Stay Night, then you should play it, because it's the root of the entier serie and because FGO has a lot of Epic FSN References.

If you're somehow not a Fate fan in any way shape or form... well first of all, thank you for being here, I didn't expect it! Second of all, you might have noticed my massive page for Fate meta. Maybe you've even looked it up yourself once or twice, and found the wikipedia page incomprehensible and thus gave up on it. But don't worry. I'm going to give you a comprehensive explanation as to what Fate/Stay Night is, and why you should play it.

So. What is Fate/Stay Night?

Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel that came out in 2004. It features three routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. It is also the first installment of the Fate serie (which contains a fuckton of other entries, the most well-known of which being Fate/Zero and Fate/Grand Order.)

If you've ever been curious about that serie but found yourself overwhelmed by how many entries there are, this is the best entry point, since it's the first one and thus the one that explains a lot of the concepts and references used in other works. If you have never heard about the serie in your life, then good news! I'll only be talking about Fate/Stay Night for the rest of the post, so you can forget about all these other hoes.

It's also the visual novel that features that one blonde anime chick you can see Everywhere online since like 2008, if the visuals help.

Ok got it. So like, what's the plot?

The story follows SHIROU EMIYA, a perfectly ordinary teenager with small magic abilities, as he gets dragged in a mage battle royale where the winner gets to fulfill one of their wish. During that battle royale, mages are aided by Heroic Spirits, aka historical and/or mythological figures as summons to fight. As you can imagine, the question of what makes a hero? is a major one in the story, along with What makes a villain? What makes a victim? It's also a story that explores a lot of themes regarding ideals vs reality- How does one uphold their ideals? How far would you go for said ideals? Is it right to put your ideal over your own wellbeing? Ect, ect.

Cool. Should I play it?

Well that depends on what you're looking for in a story, but if you enjoy strong thematic writing, balls to the wall concepts, and commitment to any worldbuilding implications (be they really silly or deeply horrifying) then yeah you should def go for it! Also, as a visual novel, it is extremely well-made and it fucks with the medium in ways I have rarely seen before.

That being said I should give you a heads-up though: first of all, this game isn't what I would call a "shounen." A lot of the anime adaptations market themselves as such because flashy fights are an easier sell than sitting around talking about ideals, but if you go in expecting badass fights where you save the day and are never challenged into meaningful ways, you're going to be disappointed. Related: this is a story that very much follows the rules of "wouldn't it be cool if" and "wouldn't it be thematically delicious if." If you go in expecting strict powerlevels to be enforced you're also going to have a bad time.

I am unfamiliar with the medium of visual novels and I'm worried I might not like it.

Well... honestly you should go on itchio and find a shorter visual novel to start with first, because Fate/Stay Night is like, 70 hours long. But also I just included this question to gush over the technical prowesses of Fate/Stay Night so bear with me for a bit. Fate/Stay Night FUCKS as a visual novel. It's fully voice acted for a start, with a banger ost. They do some incredible things with just still images and sound effects, so the fights feel incredibly dynamic even if it is technically just text. There are also a ton of other nifty tidbits (extra tabs to check the characters, the weapons you've seen, ect) that are really cool.

If you're really unfamiliar with visual novels, the format has what are commonly called "routes," ie directions the story can go to depending on your choices. Fate/Stay Night has three, which I really advise to play in their intended order Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. The routes often echo and reference each other, such that playing Heaven's Feel straight away or after the other two routes lead to a very different experience.

There are also bad endings. A lot of bad endings. You have no less than forty different ways to gruesomely die in this game. There are plenty of guides online if you want to avoid them (I sure didn't play all of them) but they all bring some really cool foreshadowing in and extra info it's neat. Also, after a bad ending you get a silly little skit of characters telling you how to not die next time, and it's funny as hell.

Innit a porn game?

The original game was an eroge indeed! AKA, a game with sex scenes. I will personally argue that it's not a porn game on the basis that if you're playing it with the purpose to jerk off you're gonna have quite a bad time, though.

The game got a remake on the PS Vita that is sfw, by the way. Personally I think the sfw scenes are better in Fate/Unlimited Blade Works, and the nsfw scenes are better in Heaven's Feel, but that's just me. Just go with whichever you're more comfortable with.

I tried playing it a while back and I thought the protag was a cunt.

Yeah I getcha the first route is a bit clumsy by today's standards and it's easy to read the protagonist as a bitchy chauvinist at first. Still he gets better (and in fact never acts even remotely like that in the other routes) so I would ask you to grind your teeth and keep going.

Any trigger warnings I should know about?

God yeah is there. Gore, violence and death for a start. The author's originally a horror writer and it shows. Again, don't go in expecting shounen stuff, if someone is getting their ass beaten you will get a graphic description of their innards.

Also, onscreen attempted sexual assault, and implied/referenced sexual abuse. To be clear it is very clearly treated as a bad thing, and it is relevant to the themes of the story, but it's there.

Ok cool I'm sold where can I play it.

You're in luck! As I'm writing this (2024) Fate/Stay Night is planned to have an official english release for the first time in twenty years! If you're willing, just wait a bit and hopefully it'll come out on the switch soon. EDIT 03/08/2024: IT'S ON STEAM BABEY!!.

If you're impatient and/or want to check the original fantranslation though, then the sfw version of Fate/Stay Night can be found in browser over there, or you can download the ultimate edition with sfw + nsfw scenes and all extra bits over there.

Dude. I'm not committing myself to a 70 hours-long visual novel when I'm not even sure if it's gonna be my thing.

Understandable! Perhaps you'd be interested in the anime adaptation of one of the routes then? I'm told the Unlimited Blade Works anime is a good introduction to the Fate serie, its vibes, and therefore whether it might be your thing or not. That being said disclaimer that I have not watched it (I am not an anime watcher alas) so I can't personally back it up.

Isn't there like twelve different versions of that blonde anime chick?

Explaining the Saber deeplore would require me another 2k post just for it and frankly at this point I might as well code a whole new site just for fate in-jokes.

Anyways. Play Fate/Stay Night.