Fate/stay night review by Harlequin

[Harlequin 17]

Fate/stay night (VNDB)

 

 

 

 

Opening movie (1):

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Spoilers are all inside the spoiler box down at the bottom.)

 

 

"Rejoice, Emiya Shirou. Your wish will finally come true."

 

 

Good lord...

 

This was an epic journey. But that's obvious right? It should be. I knew it would take a long time to finish before starting. But really, it was longer than expected. It was atleast as long as the entire Muv-Luv series. Yes, it was quite exhausting to say the least. Exhausting but oh so good.

 

Let's just get this out of the way right now: This is an incredibly entertaining VN. One of the best you can find, no doubt. I was very addicted to reading it. Plain and simple, it had a thrilling and intense story that I just wanted to see more and more of.

 

So, the specifics for the brilliant Fate/stay night then.

 

 

 

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Visuals/Art - Before starting to read it, I thought that the sprite art would put me off somewhat. It doesn't really look like what I'm used to. But of course, even if it's different from what one is used to, it doesn't mean it can't be good. It definately was good in the end. The CG art on the other hand is more than just good - it's great.

 

Also, one different thing worth mentioning is the way the text presents itself. It appears in the middle in a transparent grey box which more or less covers the entirety of the screen. This is certainly different from most VNs... But it works. I liked it, but I'm not sure for what reason. Does it make it feel more like reading a normal novel? And if so, would that be a good thing? Does it make the text appear more "powerful"? I'm not sure, I just know it works really well.

 

One more thing - the menu system. It looks great, it works well, and there are some parts of it that shows you fun information about certain characters and weapons. Really nice and impressive.

 

 

Sound/VA/Music - Fantastic all-around. Voice actors did a good job here, to say the least. Very memorable. If I had to comment on some voice in particular then it would have to be the voice of Kotomine Kirei. It's seriously great. Really dark, intelligent and powerful sounding. There's a good chance you'll appreciate it a lot aswell.

 

I guess one more voice worth mentioning would be Rider's. Very appropriate for the character. It's dark, gorgeous and sultry, and you just want to hear more of it.

 

When it comes to music, there's plenty of great songs in there of course. The kind of songs you want to listen to on Youtube even after you're done reading the VN. One song in particular stuck with me for being absolutely perfect in a certain moment of the VN. I won't link it here because it's spoilerish, so it'll go to the spoiler box down at the bottom.

 

 

Characters - Easily the best part of Fate/stay night for me. I love these characters. There are many of them and they all differ from each other a lot. "Cool" is the right word. They are cool. The weapons, the skills, the personalities, the looks, the voices, I love it all. You'll remember these characters long after you're done with the VN. And yes I do have some favourites, though I'll talk about those in the spoiler box. Yes, it's very easy indeed to have several favourite characters in this VN, because there are just so many good ones in it.

 

The protagonist, Emiya Shirou, is not the best but still good enough. He's got nothing on the likes of Kenichi from Sharin no Kuni. Unfortunate but also expected. Still, that's just a personal opinion really. Some will like him, some will not. His personality and way of doings things are key however to the story itself, so even though he's not the best protagonist you can find, he works well with the story presented in Fate/stay night.

 

And again, I must mention Kotomine Kirei. He's an amazing character overall. You'll think so too after you've read Fate/stay night.

 

 

Plot/Story - Something epic. Dark, thrilling, mystical, intense, intriguing. There's a ton of entertainment to be had with this plot. I always wanted to see what happens next in it. It was an addictive story that I'm going to miss a lot. There are many twists and turns going on that will make you think and wonder about what will happen next.

 

There are three routes in total. Fate, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel. Fate serves somewhat as an introduction to what Fate/stay night is about. It does a fine job with it too, but ultimately it could still have been better in general. After Fate you then have Unlimited Blade Works aswell as Heaven's Feel where the story gets to a whole new level of awesome. There's plenty of special moments in all the routes, even Fate, that sticks with you. All three routes together will take you a long time to finish, but you should see that as a good thing really, because this VN is so damn fun to read

 

The tiger dojos deserves an honorable mention also. It was fun to get the large amount of bad endings because of them. They break up the seriousness of the bad endings with something lighthearted so it's easy to keep going afterwards. You will like them, there's no doubt about that.

 

 

Screenshots (click the thumbnails) -

 

 

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Final words - I had a lot of fun with this, to say the least. It's one of those titles that made me realise just how happy I am to have found and taken a liking to reading visual novels. To a certain extent, Fate/stay night aswell as Muv-Luv Alternative made me also realise how much better and more fun a VN can be than your typical game. The storytelling in this is just so great and entertaining, not to mention all the other "small details", like the brilliant soundtrack and the very memorable characters.

 

So yes, this is one of those must read VNs for someone who can enjoy them in general. However, I will say this again: This is a really long read. So that's something to keep in mind. Still, I'd say that's just a positive in the end. It's a long and entertaining story, well worth all that time. It's easy to understand and as such it shouldn't be missed by anyone at all. Of course, if you happen to like what this VN is about specifically, it might just end up being your #1 favourite VN of all time. That's how good it is.

 

An epic mystical fantasy story - Fate/stay night - Read it. No exceptions whatsoever. If you're into VNs, you WILL read this!

 

 

 

 

Pros: Very long, incredibly entertaining, memorable, a large amount of great characters, fantastic antagonists, nice voice acting, superb soundtrack, great CG art, great overall story with plenty of good twists, enjoyable and well-made action scenes, sweet menu system.

 

Cons: Fate route could've been better (still very good though), there could've been less of those uninteresting "cooking/dinner moments".

 

 

 

Harlequin gives Fate/stay night a rating of...

 

9.5/10

(Follows the rating scale on VNDB)

 

 

Remember, this is only my opinion and experience with this visual novel.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the spoiler box with some spoilerish thoughts and impressions I got from reading this VN.

 

Do not touch it if you have not fully read this VN already:

 

 

The perfect song:

 

Don't stop after 30 seconds or whatever, keep listening. It is fantastic. At the end of the long journey that is Fate/stay night, you come to the dark finale. Great evil and a great culmination of the Holy Grail War. Tell me, isn't this song PERFECT for the last part of Fate/stay night? Of course it is. The church organs. It is an enchantingly evil song. This is what gave me goosebumps. The last confrontation after such a long read and the final end of the mystical Holy Grail War. The song couldn't possibly fit better.

 

And also, here's the best moment with that piece of music: The final confrontation with Kotomine Kirei.

 

As for favourite characters... Kotomine Kirei. He's one of the best antagonists I've ever seen. Here's some cool quotes from him, taken from the last conversation that takes place between him and Emiya Shirou:

 

There is no sanity here. Our end will be the same, even if we accomplish our goals.

You will destroy it, while I will protect it.

But there is nothing to be gained, no matter whose goal is achieved. You came here knowing that.

-------This is a meaningless battle. We are two madmen engaging in useless folly.

His nature is evil. He was made that way after all. He was born to be evil from the very beginning.

He's not like people. This is a pure deity that people made.

But-------even if his actions are evil, we have yet to know what he thinks of it.

Those with defects at birth.

Those who were not wanted, even before birth.

It should show us the worth of worthless life: the meaning of birth.

Would it be able to forgive itself after destroying and losing everything?

That's what I would like to know.

I want to know if it is a crime to live as you are, when you are different from others.

 

 

Another favourite character would be Ilyasviel von Einzbern - cute, powerful, sweet voice, mayadere (!).

 

When it comes to servant characters though, then Hassan Sabbah, True Assassin. Probably the best part about him is the fact that he was part of the story at all. I kept thinking during the first and second route that there should be a *real* Assassin somewhere since the samurai is a fake one. He's not the strongest character, but he looks and sounds really cool. Lancer is good too though... And Caster... And Berserker... And Archer... And Rider... Mm, right. Pretty much all of them.

 

Now, the endings. Let's just say that F/sn did not have a perfect ending for me. None. It had happy endings, but not a perfect one. Ilya died in both UBW and HF - that's no good. Saber, even though I don't care much for her, was also gone in several endings. I'm going to consider Carnival Phantasm canon even though it's just comedy! But seriously, even though there was no perfect ending for me, it's not really a big deal.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2013 by Harlequin