is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by author Kinoko Nasu and artist Takashi Takeuchi for Type-Moon. The franchise primarily focuses on the Holy Grail War; a conflict between mages called Masters and their "heroic spirits" called Servants who are incarnations of figures from mythology and history. The visual novel Fate/Stay Night was released for Windows in January 2004. A spin-off visual novel titled Fate/Hollow Ataraxia was released in October 2005. Subsequent entries have continued to release under the form of light novels, manga, video games, and more, while being adapted to other formats.
Fate/Stay Night followed the success of Type-Moon's previous visual novel, Tsukihime, which released in 2000. Prior to creating Fate/Stay Night, Nasu wrote the light novel series The Garden of Sinners between 1998-1999, and an unreleased novel in 1996 called Witch on the Holy Night which would later be reworked as a visual novel and released in 2012. The Fate franchise is connected to Nasu's other works through a multiverse.
Premise The Fate franchise revolves around a fictional conflict known as the Holy Grail War, originally styled as a battle royale style conflict taking place in the fictional Fuyuki City. Seven mages known as "Masters" each summon a heroic spirit, incarnations of figures from mythology and history, known as "Servants." The pairs battle until only one remains. The victors get to make a wish from the Holy Grail.
Servants belong to different classes. The basic seven classes are Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Assassin, Caster, and Berserker. Newer entries continue to introduce new classes such as Avenger (Fate/Hollow Ataraxia), Ruler (Fate/Apocrypha), and Shielder (Fate/Grand Order). Classes are selected based off attributes gained by the Servants in their lives, and attribute certain skills and stats based off their categorization.
Subsequent entries have modified the Holy Grail War format. For example, in the 2010 RPG Fate/Extra, the war takes the form of a single-elimination tournament. In the 2012 light novel series Fate/Apocrypha, the war is fought between two teams of seven pairs.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6424454/
Not all Fate franchise works take place in the same timeline, and it's common for new pieces of media to create their own world lines. Fate/Apocrypha'''s events are caused by the Holy Grail being stolen during the events of Fuyuki's Third Holy Grail War, while the manga series Fate/type Redline features a Holy Grail War held in Tokyo during World War II.
History 2004–2006: Conception and first games
Japanese author Kinoko Nasu co-founded the doujin circle Type-Moon with artist Takashi Takeuchi. After the success of their first visual novel Tsukihime in 2000, Type-Moon transitioned from a dōjin soft organization to a commercial organization and released its sequel Kagetsu Tohya, the next year. Nasu initially started writing Fate/Stay Night as a novel in high school and college, without the intention of making it a game, and only wrote what became the game's Fate route. However, it went on to have three routes, with the other two—Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel, reimagining situations that had occurred in the original storyline. In his earlier drafts, Nasu conceived the series' primary mascot and heroine, Saber as a man, and its main protagonist Shirou, as a girl with glasses. This early draft was later embodied in the short original video animation (OVA) Fate/Prototype, which was released with the final volume of the Carnival Phantasm OVA series. Each route is set on different perspectives of Shirou's ideals, and develops his relationship with one of main heroines. Nasu had that all the routes had different themes, with the first being an "ideal form", the second as a "battle with oneself", and the third, as "the friction between ideal and reality". Starting to fully operate as a company, Type-Moon released a demo of its first commercial product, Fate/Stay Night, on a CD included with the December issue of the magazine from Enterbrain on October 21, 2003. That same demo would also be released as a download on November 1 through Type-Moon's website. In January 2004, Fate/Stay Night was released, and quickly became a commercial success, spawning the Fate franchise.
A sequel to Stay/Night, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, was released on October 28, 2005. The game was developed and designed as a fan-disc. Fate/Stay Night would later be turned into a 24-episode TV anime by Studio Deen, airing from January 7 to June 17, 2006; a second anime series premiered on October 4, 2014. A manga series to promote the anime started publication on December 26, 2005, in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine Monthly Shōnen Ace, which had its conclusion on November 17, 2012, with its 20th volume. Fate/Stay Night was also released for the PS2 platform on April 19, 2007.
In a collaboration between Type-Moon and Nitro+, writer Gen Urobuchi penned a light novel prequel to Fate/Stay Night titled Fate/Zero, which Nasu supervised and Takeuchi illustrated. Its first volume released on December 29, 2006, the second on March 31, 2007, the third on July 27, 2007, and the fourth and final one on December 29, 2007, along with the image album Return to Zero produced by . Fate/Zero was then adapted into a four-volume drama CD, with the first release coming out on August 22, 2008, and the last on January 22, 2010. An anime adaptation produced by Ufotable for Fate/Zero, was approved production in December 2010, and aired from October 2011 to June 2012. The series was a success, with its first blu-ray box set selling 43,000 copies within its first week.
2007–present: Other games In 2007, Fate/tiger colosseum, a 3D fighting game based on Fate/Stay Night, was released for the PlayStation Portable by Capcom and Cavia in cooperation with TYPE MOON. The characters are all rendered in chibi-style. A sequel, Fate/tiger colosseum Upper, was released on August 28, 2008.
Another fighting game based on the franchise titled Fate/unlimited codes debuted at the 2008 Amusement Machine Operators' Union (AOU) show in Japan. It was developed by Capcom in conjunction with Cavia and Eighting. The game was released in the arcades and had an exclusive PlayStation 2 release on December 18, 2008. A pre-order version was also available, which includes a limited edition Saber Lily figure. Capcom also released a PlayStation Portable version titled Fate/unlimited codes Portable on June 18, 2009. A digital download of the game was released in North America on September 3, 2009, and in Europe on September 10, 2009.
A dungeon role-playing game (RPG) titled Fate/Extra was announced on Famitsu and is produced by Image Epoch and Marvelous Entertainment. Players take on the role of an unnamed male or female character that the player chooses to be one of seven chosen masters and control servants Saber, Archer, or Caster. The game was released for the PlayStation Portable in both regular and the "Type-Moon Box" editions. The limited, Type-Moon Box edition includes a Saber Figma figure from the game itself, a visual book and a limited edition soundtrack. While the original release was set for March 2010, the release date was pushed back to July 22, 2010, for further testing. In July 2011, Aksys Games confirmed it would be publishing Fate/Extra in North America. Saber appears as playable character in the Nitroplus fighting game Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel based on her appearance in Fate/Zero. An anime television series adaptation, titled Fate/Extra Last Encore and produced by Shaft, was announced for 2017.
An online free-to-play RPG titled Fate/Grand Order was first released on July 29, 2015, with a subsequent release on August 12 on iOS. It centered on a turn-based combat system where the player takes on the role of an unnamed male or female Master, summons and commands Servants in a battle against enemies. The story narrative is presented in a visual novel format, and each Servant has a scenario that the player explores. Many Servants are featured; some are original, while others return from preceding Fate works.
An action RPG, titled Fate/Samurai Remnant, was released on September 28, 2023, for Windows, Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
Music
The original soundtracks for both the anime adaptations and games are composed by Kenji Kawai. The soundtrack for the Fate/Stay Night visual novel was released in Japan by Geneon Entertainment in February 2004, while the original soundtrack for the Fate/Stay Night anime adaptation had contained various versions of the opening theme "This Illusion", performed by Sachi Tainaka and the ending theme "days". In November 2005, the soundtrack for Fate/Hollow Ataraxia was released. The opening and ending themes for the visual novel were "Broken Night / Hollow World" and "Open The Doors", both performed by Aimer. Eight image albums arranged by Number 201 and Kawai, were released between December 2006 and July 2007.
Media
Manga
The Fate/Stay Night manga adaptation, illustrated by Datto Nishiwaki, was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's manga magazine Shōnen Ace between the February 2006 and December 2012 issues. Extras were also published in Ace Assault and Type-Moon Ace. The manga combines the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works scenarios of the visual novel and some elements from the Heaven's Feel scenario while ultimately following the Fate scenario. Twenty tankōbon volumes were released in Japan between May 26, 2006, and November 26, 2012. In 2007, the manga was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Tokyopop.
A spin-off manga series written by Hiroshi Hiroyama, titled Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, would begin serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace magazine from September 2007. Set in an alternate universe to the visual novels, the series follows the character Illyasviel von Einzbern as she becomes a magical girl.
A manga adaptation of the Fate/Zero light novel written by Gen Urobuchi was serialized in Young Ace from 2010 to 2017. American publisher Dark Horse Comics had licensed the manga and published its third compiled volume in October 2014.
In April 2011, Tokyopop announced that they were shutting down their North American manga publishing division, and volume 11 became the last volume to be released by Tokyopop. In 2013, a Fate/Hollow Ataraxia manga illustrated by Medori and published by Kadokawa began serializing in the Monthly Shounen Ace magazine. Viz Media's Viz Select imprint had re-released the first ten volumes of the Fate/Stay Night manga digitally in 2014. A second Fate/Stay Night manga based entirely on the Heaven's Feel route and illustrated by Taskohna began serialization in the June 2015 issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace on May 2, 2015. A third manga adaptation based entirely on the Unlimited Blade Works route and illustrated by Daisuke Moriyama began serialization in the February 2022 issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Daioh magazine on December 25, 2021.Himuro no Tenchi Fate/School Life is a comedy 4-koma manga revolving around the everyday life at school of the minor characters of Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, specifically the character Kane Himuro, a classmate of Fate/Stay Night protagonist Shirō Emiya. It is serialized in Manga 4-koma Kings Palette from November 25, 2006, and fifteen compiled volumes have been published by Ichijinsha.