Review: Fate/stay night Provides a Sturdy Foundation

After literal decades, the original Fate/stay night is available on modern consoles in English, and it serves as a fantastic introduction to the grand (but not that complicated) world of Fate. Outside of very minor technical issues that were more than likely my own fault rather than the game’s, it’s a smooth and gripping experience for both veterans and novices of the series.

The overall premise of Fate/stay night is one that even non-fans should be familiar with at this point, considering how many adaptations and spin-offs there are. It follows Shirou Emiya, a deceptively ordinary high school student who finds himself wrapped up in the Holy Grail War. The Holy Grail War is a war between mages, fought by summoning historical or mythological heroes as Servants in order to obtain the titular Holy Grail. As Saber’s Master, Shirou somewhat reluctantly joins the war in order to prevent tragedies that may occur as a result of it.

There are three routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel. Each route feels wildly different in terms of themes, main characters, and storyline, yet the game still meshes together in a cohesive manner. As for the actual gameplay, it’s similar to previous Type-Moon titles like Witch on the Holy Night and Tsukihime where you mostly make decisions at key junctures in the plot. Outside of those occasional key inputs, you can sit back and enjoy the show. I personally enjoyed the Unlimited Blade Works route a bit more than the other two, but they’re all very interesting stories with their own unique motifs and themes.

It’s actually very interesting reading Fate/stay night so soon after the Tsukihime remake because I can see how Nasu improved as a writer. However, I will also note that it can be hard to compare since as the introduction to the Fate franchise, Fate/stay night naturally had to be a bit heavy on the exposition. Things that we Fate fans think are common knowledge—True Name, Holy Grail War, Bounded Field, et cetera—were probably really confusing back when the game first came out.

Nonetheless, the narrative can feel a bit slow at times due to Nasu’s focus on either explaining the magic system or delving really deep into internal monologue. The second thing isn’t bad, since it provides insight on characters in a way that animated adaptations could never. Speaking of the narrative, I realized how much of my disinterest in the Fate route was from the Studio DEEN anime. Sure, ufotable has its problems when it comes to adapting Fate works but I still hope it decides to make a new anime for the Fate route one day.

I played the game after the issues with the English version were patched out. So I didn’t get the authentic experience of playing a Japanese visual novel. Though I did run into some performance issues, I’m pretty sure they’re avoidable if you don’t do what I did (thus it won’t affect the score). For one thing, playing the game on a second monitor doesn’t work in fullscreen. It keeps minimizing. I played Ace Attorney Investigations on a second monitor in fullscreen and it ran fine, so this is unique to Fate/stay night. Even windowed, issues cropped up. Letters would be missing or entire lines would run into each other. I know this is a problem with the monitor rather than the game because if I took a screenshot or dragged the window to my main screen, it looked fine. Moral of the story? Fate doesn’t like playing second fiddle.

Fate/stay night is a great read and introduction to the Fate franchise, and all three routes maintain the same quality in terms of the plot and themes. Personally, I don’t think any route was bad. It just falls to personal preference. Compared to Type-Moon’s newer games or stories, yes, it can be overly wordy. And yes, it looks dated in both Takeuchi’s art style and in the Powerpoint-like transitions. I honestly found it charming though, and it works in the context of such a classic game. So rejoice, Fate fans. Our wish has finally come true.

Fate/stay night Remastered is readily available on the Nintendo Switch and Windows PC.