Thread:Houki Minami/@comment-26709288-20181016010303/@comment-28884330-20181016042506

Fate/stay night is originally a visual novel of three routes, around 60 hours of total play time to complete all.

The first route is the "Fate" scenario, which focuses on Saber and Shirou's ideal when confronted by its highest representations. It serves as an introduction to the general Fate systems, so it's quite symplistic all around in terms of plot, and Shirou's character is not explored to his fullest. Saber's is, though, and I think it's all around a fun read, even if not a very deep one compared to other works of Kinoko Nasu (the writer). This scenario is loosely adapted in the 2006 Fate/stay night anime, but the adaptation is somewhat subpar (it's kinda overhated, but certainly not the best either), and misses much of the nuance and focus of the original work by trying to include many things from the other routes.

The second route is the "Unlimited Blade Works" scenario, which of course has Rin as its main heroine, but the primary focus is on Shirou's character, its depth and how he copes with his ideal when confronted directly with its flaws and his other narrow perspectives. This is in my opinion the best scenario, with a good mix of focus between Masters and Servants and also dealing with some really deep themes, including an all around message of the balance between idealism and cynicism.

The third route is the "Heaven's Feel" scenario, it has Sakura as the main heroine and focuses on the backstory of the Holy Grail War ritual itself, as well as that of the families deeply involved in it, the Tohsaka, Matou and Einzbern. This scenario all around could be said to be the "darkest" out of the three, including many sensitive topics and plots, forcing Shirou to definitely reject his ideals in the face of an immense emotional conflict and it also uses a lot of the more ovrarching elements of the overall universe, rather than just limiting to Fate. This scenario had some production problems, and the whole thing is afflicted with some serious character writing issues, so I consider it overall the weakest (edgelords love it, tho, and it's not like it's bad. Not by any means). It has some really cool moments, though, and it's currently being adapted into a trilogy of animated movies by the same studio that made the Unlimited Blade Works anime, so you might like to get in touch with this.

All three scenarios share a common beginning, but they are substantially different plot-wise. There's also some vital things that are lost in the adaptation to anime, so if you have a reasonable amount of free time and want to get the "full" experience, I would say you can have a lot of fun if you play the visual novel.