Fate/Stay Night

Game Info

Japanese title: フェイト／ステイナイト
English title: Fate/Stay Night
Alias title: FSN
Release date: Jan/30/2004
Censorship: Uncensored
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v11
Developer: Type-Moon

Intro

Setting

The game takes place in 2004 in a parallel world from Tsukihime.
Fuyuki City is the setting for a secret and violent war among competing magi.
For the past two centuries, seven magi were gathered and engage in a Battle Royale, each gambling his or her own life to obtain the Holy Grail, a legendary chalice capable of granting wishes.
The past four Holy Grail Wars have typically occurred every sixty years, but the fifth war has eerily started prematurely, only ten years after the fourth war.

Each magus, better known as a Master, is aided by one of the seven summoned spiritual familiars known as Servants, who are the reincarnations of legendary souls from all across time.
These resurrected Heroic Spirits possess superhuman characteristics and wield powerful artifacts or abilities called Noble Phantasms.
A Noble Phantasm's hidden abilities may be released by invoking its true name...
But casual brandishing of a Noble Phantasm is best avoided, for symbolic Noble Phantasms usually belie a Servant's identity, diminishing their competitive advantage.
Specific legends may be summoned with the aid of catalysts, which are artifacts, ideas, or experiences similar to or of value to the desired Servant.
Only one Servant can be summoned in each war from one of seven classes: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserker, Rider, Assassin, and Caster.

The Holy Grail is a spiritual artifact, so only astral entities, such as Servants, are capable of touching it.
This forces Masters and Servants to cooperate with each other against rival pairs, even if a situation entails fighting to the death.
A Master can control a Servant with three Command Spells, which are crystallized miracles issued by the Holy Grail that manifest on a Master's hand.
When activated, a Command Spell permits the Servant to accomplish an incredible feat, or permits the Masters to issue an irrevocable and absolute order to the Servant.
In the event of a Master's demise, a Servant may choose to bind him or herself to another Master.
If a Servant is slain, a Master may ally with a wayward Servant, or pursue sanctuary with the Holy Grail War's impartial supervisor, who is traditionally a delegate of the Church.

Plot

Fate/stay night chronicles a two-week period in the life of Shirou Emiya, an amateur mechanic who attends a school called Homurahara Gakuen in Fuyuki City.

Ten years ago, Shirou was caught in a massive fire that incinerated his parents and consumed a large portion of the city.
As he was dying, an enigmatic man named Kiritsugu Emiya discovered, saved, and adopted him.
The two maintain a distant relationship because of Kiritsugu's frequent departures from Fuyuki City.

One moonlit night, Kiritsugu and Shirou have a discussion outside their home.
Through this conversation, Shirou learns of Kiritsugu's failed ambition to become a "Hero of Justice", a guardian of mankind who could protect the weak and innocent.
Touched by Kiritsugu's conviction, Shirou decides to achieve that distant ideal, much to Kiritsugu's chagrin.
To do this, Shirou pleads with a begrudging Kiritsugu to teach him magecraft, but Shirou makes no progress in almost any the fundamental magecraft disciplines.

Kiritsugu warns his son that the life of a magus leads to destruction, but if he is truly set on benefiting people, he should apply his knowledge and hone his craft in secret.
After Kiritsugu dies, Shirou becomes frustrated with his progress, feeling inadequate about his good deeds through magecraft.
Shirou becomes unsure how to orient his future.

After cleaning his school's kyudo (archery) dojo late one night, Shirou stumbles upon two Servants, Archer and Lancer, battling in the school courtyard.
To preserve the secrecy of the war, Lancer chases Shirou and pierces him in the heart with a spear.
Shirou's classmate Rin Tohsaka finds him bleeding and near death, and she uses an heirloom filled with concentrated magical energy to resuscitate him.
Shaken and dazed, Shirou goes back to his home, but Lancer attacks him again.
Shirou weakly defends himself but is overwhelmed by the powerful Servant's attack.
Shirou falls into a storage room, and being cornered, he prepares for the worst.
But before Lancer can inflict a fatal blow, a young woman in armor blocks Lancer's spear.
She drives Lancer away, introduces herself as Saber, and greets Shirou with the words: I ask of you, are you my Master?

Characters

As with Tsukihime, the character base in Fate/stay night is extremely comprehensive and expansive, with characters possessing varied and extraordinary abilities.

Shirou Emiya

Shirou is the main character of the story.
He is a serious yet helpful, hardworking, and honest teenager.
His hobbies include fixing a variety of broken things, from VCRs to stoves, as well as cooking and cleaning.
He has some slight talent with magecraft, though he was discouraged by his foster father Emiya Kiritsugu from improving his gifts.
He is initially confused about the Holy Grail War and attempts to irrationally shield others from danger, including his own Servant, Saber.

Saber

She is Shirou's Servant, an agile but powerful warrior.
Loyal, independent, and reserved, Saber acts coldly but is actually suppressing her emotions to focus on her goals.
Her class is considered the "Most Outstanding", with excellent ratings in all categories.
Since her Master cannot effectively provide her with magical energy, she minimizes her activity to preserve what she has.
Saber is frustrated by Shirou's "protective" tendencies, believing his erratic and reckless behavior will jeopardize her chances of winning the Holy Grail War.

Rin Tohsaka

A model student and idol of Shirou's school who is secretly a magus and Master in the Holy Grail War.
She is a descendant from a long line of magi, and though she lacks a formal magecraft education, she is extremely powerful in her own right.
Her father was killed in the fourth Holy Grail War, and she has trained since his death to succeed him.
She is perceptive, resourceful and avidly competitive.
She tried to summon a Saber-class Servant, but she accidentally called Archer instead.

Archer

His true identity is that of Shirou Emiya of an alternate timeline from that of Fate/stay night who made a contract with the world and became the Heroic Spirit EMIYA.
He acts as a Counter Guardian for the world as payment for the contract.
He is summoned because he still has the jewel pendant that Rin used to save his life after Lancer stabbed his heart.
He considers Shirou Emiya (his past self) a target to eliminate in the hope he can erase his existence and escape his fate as a Counter Guardian.

Illyasviel von Einzbern

A young German aristocrat, she traveled to Japan to participate in the Holy Grail War as a Master.
Illyasviel has an angelic appearance and an unsurpassed degree of magical power.
She lives in a castle on the outskirts of Fuyuki City, accompanied only by her Servant and two maids.
Illyasviel asks those she feels comfortable around to simply call her "Ilya".

Berserker

The Servant of Ilya, who appears as a swarthy giant with adamantine skin and hefty brawn.
He wields a colossal stone axe-club, and is capable of causing massive destruction with the mere backlash of his swings.
As a Berserker, he is stripped of his sanity and reason, acting feral and animalistic in combat.
Berserkers are praised as members of the "strongest" class, though they are difficult to control and always turn on their Masters.
Ilya appears to have little trouble managing him.

Sakura Matou

A student in her first year of high school, sister of Shinji Matou, and Shirou's underclassman.
After Shirou's father Kiritsugu died, Sakura often visited Shirou's home to help him with his daily chores.
Though Shinji is from a family of magi, he asserts that she has no knowledge of her family's craft or history.
Sakura is outwardly shy and timid, but possesses great inner strength.
She has a long standing and obvious crush on Shirou Emiya.

Shinji Matou

Sakura's older brother, and a long-time friend of Shirou.
Shinji is very popular as vice-captain of the archery dojo despite being chauvinistic and a narcissist.
Like Rin, he is of a distinguished lineage of magi, though the Matou blood has thinned and no longer produces heirs naturally capable of magecraft.
Shinji feels uncomfortable with his sister's daily visits to Shirou's home.
He has an open crush on Rin, but she does not return his favors.

Rider

The Servant of Shinji, first seen scouting around Homurahara Gakuen.
Rider is silent, sultry, and vigilant, never hesitating to shield her Master from harm.
With Shinji incapable of lending magical energy to her, she is forced to seek alternative means to augment her abilities.
To compensate for her weakness, Rider employs covert battle tactics and takes full advantage of territory around her.
Her weapon of choice is a pair of long iron nails fastened to opposite ends of a single chain, which she effectively thrusts from distances.

Caster

The Servant of Souichirou, she is a crafty woman who's appearance is much like a sorceress; donning a hooded cloak and a dress.
She has a gift in using Divine Words that surpass regular magecraft; therefore, her prowess is beyond the capabilities of modern mages including Masters of Servants.
She's bitter from her life experiences and her treatment from her previous Master, which warranted her cynical personality and tactics.

Souichirou Kuzuki

A former assassin-turned-teacher.
He becomes a Master of Caster following the demise of Caster's original Master and chooses to assist her in all of her schemes.

Assassin

A false Servant summoned by Caster to guard Ryuudou Temple.
He goes by the name of "Sasaki Kojirou".

Lancer

The Servant of an unknown Master who lost Lancer to Kirei Kotomine.
Lancer obediently follows his Master's orders and serves the role more like a watchdog and an assassin.

Kirei Kotomine

The head of the Church and the overseer of the 5th Holy Grail War.
He is also Rin Tohsaka's legal guardian.
He is responsible for convincing Shirou to participate in the War.

Gilgamesh

The Archer-class Servant from the 4th Grail War, who survived to the present day and acts as the secret, eighth Servant.

Zouken Matou

The elderly head of the Matou house and Shinji and Sakura Matou's "grandfather."
Zouken partakes in the Holy Grail War in the Heaven's Feel route as the Master of True Assassin.

True Assassin

The "true" Assassin-class Servant of the 5th Holy Grail War, summoned using the body of the fake Assassin as a catalyst and becomes the Servant of Zouken Matou.
He only appears in the Heaven's Feel route.

Gallery

Extras

• Estimated game time: 60-100 hours. Actual game time depends on your reading speed.

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