Fate/Stay Night (stylized as Fate/stay night) is a Japanese visual novel game developed by Type-Moon. It was initially released on January 30, 2004, for Windows PCs as an adult game, with Type-Moon later releasing versions of Fate/Stay Night without the erotic content. The story takes place through three distinct routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. It focuses on a teenager named Shirou Emiya, who joins the Holy Grail War; a battle between mages called "Masters" and their "Servants". In each route, Shirou bonds with a heroine and confronts different adversaries participating in the war. An enhanced version, Fate/Stay Night Réalta Nua, was released in April 2007 for the PlayStation 2. Realta Nua was later ported to Windows in 2011, PlayStation Vita in 2012, and Android and iOS in 2015. A remastered version of Réalta Nua was released for Nintendo Switch and PC, through digital video game distribution service Steam in August 2024, marking the game's first release outside Japan.
Fate/Stay Night was a critical and commercial success and is considered a defining work in the visual novel genre. The game was regarded as the highest-selling visual novel in Japan at the time of its release. Type-Moon later went on to produce an adult spin-off called Fate/Hollow Ataraxia in October 2005, which expanded on the events of Fate/Stay Night eight months later. Fate/Stay Night has received several anime and manga adaptations, beginning with a 24-episode anime series by Studio Deen, based on the Fate route. It aired in Japan between January and June 2006. A film adaptation, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, also by Studio Deen, was released in January 2010. A second anime television series, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, was produced by Ufotable and aired between October 2014 and June 2015. A film trilogy by Ufotable adapted the Heaven's Feel route, consisting of three films: Presage Flower (2017), Lost Butterfly (2019), and Spring Song (2020).
There have been multiple manga adaptations based on Fate/Stay Night published by ASCII Media Works, Kadokawa Shoten and Ichijinsha. The first manga series adaptation by Datto Nishiwaki began serialization in the Shōnen Ace magazine between February 2006 and December 2012. A second manga adaptation, based on the Heaven's Feel route, was illustrated by Taskohna, and began serialization in 2015 in Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace. A third manga adaptation, based on Unlimited Blade Works and illustrated by Daisuke Moriyama, began in 2021 in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Daioh.
Gameplay
Fate/Stay Night is a dark fantasy visual novel game that requires minimal interaction from players, as most of the game's duration is spent reading the text that appears, which is either the inner thoughts of the protagonist, narration, or dialogue. Players come to a decision point where they are given a chance to choose from options displayed on the screen, typically two to three at a time. The time between these decision points is variable. During these times, gameplay pauses until a choice is made that furthers the plot in a specific direction. There are three main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. To view all three plot lines, the player must replay the game multiple times and choose different choices during the decision points to progress the plot in an alternate direction. Finishing one route will unlock the next one. When interacting with the heroines in each route, an "affection meter" is created, which is raised by giving them an answer that pleases them. A "True Ending" can be unlocked depending on the player's affection.
There are multiple ways in which players can lose the game, including Shirou's death or a decision that causes the heroine to be murdered. Should this happen, the player is taken to an area called the where Taiga Fujimura and Illyasviel von Einzbern give the players hints about what they should do to survive in the next attempt to complete the game.
Plot
The story follows Shirou Emiya, a hardworking and honest teenager who unknowingly enters a to-the-death tournament between mages known as the Fifth Holy Grail War. Combatants fight with magecraft and Heroes from throughout history for a chance to have their wishes granted by the eponymous Holy Grail. Orphaned and the sole survivor of a massive fire in Fuyuki City as a child, Shirou was taken in by a retired mage named Kiritsugu Emiya who had died a few years ago. His perceived responsibility to those who died and his salvation through his father formed a strong desire for justice and peace in him. Thus, he earnestly trains his body and minuscule ability with magecraft to someday greatly help others, even if people often abuse his generosity at his stage.
One evening, after seeing two devastatingly powerful beings trading blows at his school with swords and spears, he is attacked, as witnesses of the supernatural are generally supposed to be eliminated. Chased to his home by the spear-wielding warrior Lancer and barely able to avoid his attacks, Shirou is about to be killed when he is saved by Saber. Saber, the personification of a renowned figure in history, was created to aid participants in the War. In her supposedly accidental summoning and the appearance of the marks on Shirou's hand, his entry as a Master into the Holy Grail War is formalized.
Fate The first of the three heroines, Saber, is a mighty warrior who keeps her identity secret, hence her substitute name after her role as a member of the Saber class. She also serves as the route's servant protagonist. She was the victor of the Fourth Holy Grail War with another Master and claimed to be the strongest out of all Servants in the Saber Class. However, Shirou is against Saber's constant aim for conflicts with other servants and instead seeks to ally with Rin. Shirou drops his pacifism when he discovers that his former friend, Shinji Matou, is a Master with the Servant Rider, aiming to sacrifice all students from their school to increase the Rider's powers.
Following Shinji and Rider's defeat, Shirou learns that Saber cannot fight at full strength without exchanging Mana (magical energy) with her Master. During a confrontation with Master Illya and her Servant Berserker, Shirou has part of his magical circuits ripped out from his system and sacrificed to Saber to create a connection to her, and later assists her in defeating the enemy by projecting one of Artoria's lost swords, the Sword-in-the-Stone Caliburn, in combat. As Shirou seeks to keep Saber in their world, he learns from the priest Kirei Kotomine that the Holy Grail is cursed. It is revealed that Shirou's late guardian, Kiritsugu, once used Saber to destroy the Grail. However, it instead caused the fire where Shirou lost his family.
After realizing it, Shirou rejects the idea of accepting his wish for the Holy Grail as he decides to accept his past and never forget Saber. Moved by Shirou's will, Saber also rejects the Holy Grail, believing she should not change Britain's history and that she should accept herself. As Kotomine aims to use Illya's body to recreate the Holy Grail, Shirou and Saber confront him and his Servant, Gilgamesh. Following his victory, Shirou instructs Saber to destroy the Grail, causing Saber to return to her last moments before she dies, finally accepting her life. In the Réalta Nua version of the game, an overarching ending can be unlocked after all the routes, where Shirou fulfills his roles as a heroic spirit in order to meet Saber in Avalon.
Unlimited Blade Works
The second of the three heroines is Rin Tohsaka, a model student and idol of Shirou's school who is secretly a mage and Master of Archer in the Holy Grail War. Her Servant Archer serves as the Servant protagonist of the route. She descends from a long, distinguished line of mages, with the potential to become one of the 100 strongest human magi. Classmates dub Rin "The Ice Queen" for her cold, unreachable persona at school; however, this is simply a front to hide her actual status as a mage. Her presence in the story is established after Lancer mortally wounds Shirou at school. Upon seeing him, she revives him due to his connection with Sakura Matou, with whom Rin is closely acquainted. The two become allies in the war, unaware of Archer's true identity as an adult Shirou from one of the series' numerous alternate universes.
Shirou loses control of Saber during the story, but aims to fight with his magical strength to stop the war. Archer betrays Rin and reveals his despondency and bitterness over his past choices to Shirou. He subsequently challenges Shirou to a fight, hoping to destroy his story of being a hero. However, Shirou accepts his future regardless of his regrets and misery, sticking to Kiritsugu's ideals. Gilgamesh tries to kill Archer and Shirou, with the former seemingly sacrificing himself to protect the latter. Later, Rin passes Shirou her Mana to fight Gilgamesh to replicate Archer's powers. As Gilgamesh almost drags Shirou into their deaths, Archer uses his last strength to save the latter. In the True Ending, Shirou and Rin move to London to study magecraft, as well as start a romantic relationship.
Heaven's Feel
The third and final heroine is Sakura, a first-year high school student and longtime friend of Shirou's, who often visits his home to help him with his daily chores. A quiet, soft-spoken girl, Sakura can be surprisingly stubborn and holds a deep, unparalleled affection for Shirou. She is revealed to be Rin's long-lost sister, raised by the Matou family, and has since suffered their abuse while training as a mage. Sakura is also discovered as the true Master of Rider, whom she reasserts control of from Shinji, making Rider the Servant protagonist of the route. In the route, Saber and Berserker are consumed by the shadows of Angra Mainyu. In the ensuing battle with True Assassin and the corrupted servants, a mortally wounded Archer transplants his left arm to save a dying Shirou.
Sakura's adoptive grandfather, Zouken, is revealed as the one who placed a shard of the lesser grail from the 4th Holy Grail War in her body, infecting Sakura with Angra Mainyu. She becomes Dark Sakura, killing Shinji in his attempt to rape her. Despite the threat Sakura poses to humanity, Shirou, having fallen in love with her, abandons his ideal in favor of saving Sakura, despite Rin's initial objections. Upon learning that Illya is another sacrifice to create the Grail, Shirou teams up with Kotomine and uses Archer's powers to save Illya from Berserker. Rin is injured after finding herself unable to kill Sakura, while Rider and Shirou successfully eliminate Saber Alter. Shirou talks to Sakura and helps her regain her humanity, freeing her from her contract with Angra Mainyu. He then faces Kotomine in a final battle to later destroy the Grail. In True Ending, after Kotomine dies in combat, Illya sacrifices herself to destroy the Grail and extracts Shirou's soul using a weaker version of the Third Magic. Rider later returns to the cave to grab and bring Shirou's soul home, and Rin places it within a puppet body. Shirou, Sakura, and Rider live peacefully in Japan, while Rin moves to London to study magecraft.
Development