Visual Novels - because insomnia builds character.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Impressions of Fate/Stay Night

I am the bone of my review
2D are their bodies and moe is my blood
I have clicked over a thousand choice menus
Unknown to sleep
Nor known to wake
Have withstood carpal tunnel to read many H scenes.
yet those hands will never know a true end
So as I pray
Unlimited Review Works





This will be unsurprising to anyone who recognized what the sentences above are based off but I am not going to add to the pile of comprehensive Fate/Stay Night reviews since they all say about the same thing:

You should play this game now.

Seriously, its fantastic. The game may have its flaws but it paints three distinct and well woven tales of excellent fantasy. To be honest, I am not a fantasy nerd, I prefer soft sci-fi or realistic fiction but F/SN is an example of excellent fantasy writing. To be fair it is set in modern Japan but the story is entirely focused on swords and sorcery.

F/SN also takes advantage of the visual novel format by offering three stories that build on each other. Fate (Saber's route) is a simpler story that introduces you to the Holy Grail War's mechanics. Unlimited Blade Works (Rin) is more complicated and reveals much about characters that I can't put here. Lastly, Heaven's Feel (Sakura) is a complex drama thriller. Beside Ever17, I can't think of another title that demanded to be played all routes in full.

As you can probably tell I can't speak rationally about this title. I love it to pieces. Its the only game I've been playing >_<. If you are going to pick it up do get the PS2 disc to patch in the voices. Yes it adds some cost but the voices are worth it.

I'm also going to attach a list of patches I have applied as the final content is much expanded from what comes on the disc: