Fate/ Series Q&A
 

This thread is for those with questions about the Fate/stay night anime or game. Please keep discussion about episodes in the relevant threads, the purpose of this thread is to ask questions that can actually be answered as facts from the anime or game.

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Since the series is licensed the following posts are not allowed!

• Asking where you can find F/sn downloads or torrents.
• Discussing F/sn fansub groups (past or present).
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These rules applies to fansubs (in English or any other language) and raws alike.

What is "Fate/stay night"?

"Fate/stay night" (or simply: Fate, f/sn, 笛, etc.) is an anime based on an ero-game (gasp!) released by the softhouse TYPE-MOON back in early 2004. The covers for the original (limited first-press edition version) game are shown below:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10.../FSN_FRONT.jpg

You may recall TYPE-MOON as the original creators of "Tsukihime," who at the time were merely amateur doujin game creators. I recall I posted something a quite a time ago about how TYPE-MOON started out, but all I could find was this: http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...9&postcount=30

Following their crowning achievement in the doujin market, TYPE-MOON decided to go pro. Their first game release as pros was "Fate/stay night." The game sold an unprecedented +100,000 copies (which is a very high number for an ero-game) and was a massive hit. Dozens of official merchandise and multi-media enterprises spawned. It was a matter of time that rumors about this going to be animated started being heard.

In October 2005, TYPE-MOON released a fun/fan-disc called "Fate/hollow ataraxia" show below (limited edition first release packaging):

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10.../FHA_front.jpg

Once again, they made headlines as they were able to reach an estimated sales of over 150,000 copies on the first week alone.

Although regarded to be a "fan" disc, several new characters are shown for the first time that relate to the story in "Fate/stay night." It is speculated that some characters here will make cameos in the anime (this speculation was later backed up when Hotaruzuka Neko made a small appearance in the anime).

And now, starting January 2006, the much anticipated anime version of "Fate/stay night" started airing across various UHF stations.

Have you heard any news or rumors if TYPE-MOON has plans to release Fate/stay night also in RPG format or as a RPG game?

No.

There is however, confirmations that Fate/stay night will be ported over to the Playstation 2.

Why 笛？Just because of its pronunciation?

So, what's it about?

In a seemingly ordinary Japanese town, Fuyuki City, there had been a war going on. A war hidden from society. A war beyond all imaginations. A war between 7 magician/Magus/Magi called "Master" who summons a powerful familiar called "Servants". A fight to the death for the one and only Holy Grail. 10 years after the previous war, once again, the Holy Grail War begins once more as Emiya Shirou, an untalented and weak magician is thrown into the loophole of the war as a Master...

I tried my best without spoiling anything. My intro did Fate zero justice.

Thanks a lot, it did enough to get me interested. hhmmm war and magic, heh.

Think of it as "Kawaii X/1999"

Look, I've never played the game, nor had anything to do with FSN before the anime release, and I can tell that I liked both the first two episodes. The first one, like all the introductions, was kinda slow, while the second one showed the real potential of FSN. Just give it a try. I bet you won't regret it.

Hmm. Fate/stay newbie here.

Since I know nothing about the game, I was wondering if Fate/stay night and the fandisk Fate/hollow ataraxia shared the same main character, or if Fate/hollow ataraxia continued a scenario from the Fate/stay night game?

Well Yes and No... For the main character you play two people which the game switches between, And its different from the original game its kind of i think some time after the game itself or totally off in a side story so its not really connected but the original game story did apparently happen sometime before it.

Sushi-dono and kj-dono should be able to elaborate better than I ever could.

Fate/hollow ataraxia takes place half a year after the end of the 5th Holy Grail war (in other words, half a year after the end of Fate/stay night). The premise is that someone has restarted the Holy Grail war, and you have to find out the truth within the "promised 4 days". The entire game of hollow ataraxia takes place within these 4 days, at the end of the last day, you will be sent back to the main menu, but all the events you have already seen remains "checked". Slowly, through the repeating 4 days, you will uncover the truth behind the reopened war and the looping days.

Mechanics wise, hollow ataraxia is comprised of hundreds of "scenes", which you can pick freely from an overworld map of Fuyuki city throughout the 4 days. Each day is split into Morning, Afternoon, and Night, which all contains different events. The events are represented with clickable character icons that float over the location (for example, a Saber icon floating over the dock represents an event dealing with Saber at the dock. Most events are lighthearted and fun to watch, where we get to see all the servants living out a normal life after the last war. At the same time, some events are important "key" events that pushes the main story on. So depending on your preference, you can leave the "everyday" events and pick only the "key" events to push the main story on, or you can loop the days as many time as you want and watch all the events available before moving on with the story (which opens up more events).

As for the question "does hollow ataraxia continue after a scenario in Fate?" I'd say yes and no. hollow ataraxia contains references to all three routes of Fate/stay night, but it doesn't follow any route in particular. For one, even though some, if not most, servants died in all the scenarios from Fate/stay night, all the servants are alive and well in hollow ataraxia.

You can probably think of it this way "the story of hollow ataraxia assumes that all three routes from Fate/stay night has occured, but regardless of the actual ending, everyone is alive and well with memories from all three routes".

What's a ero game?

Are the characters as good as in Tsukihime? Sounds hard to create twice in a row a hit like Arcueid, for one...

The correct terminology of what most people outside of Japan mistakenly call "hentai game."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eroge

Damn hackers for ruining kj's indepth post on ero games.

kj > Wiki

An opinion-based question. If you ask me....I would say yes. But I've also seen some who thinks Tsukihime is better than Fate, and vice-versa.

hmm im starting to get interested in this series of games, not for the ero side of things, but the story and multiple paths, i havent played a game which has a storyline thats pulled me into the game for awhile.

Why the heck does that English wikipedia site seem like an abridged version of my posts:

http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...&postcount=169
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...&postcount=170
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...&postcount=173
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...&postcount=175
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...&postcount=176

Anyhow, "Fate/stay night" is based on a Japanese visual-novel game. Let's leave it at that.

According to the limited facts I gathered from both the game and starting to watch the anime.....

Mana is basically the source of magic power for magicians (sorry, I don't know how the English wording is used for majutsu and majutsushi).

The masters are magicians aren't they... so they must have mana for the servants to use. :eyespin:

I mentioned this before, but if I were to translate some key terms from Fate, they'd be:

魔術(majutsu) - Magic
魔術師(majutsushi) - Magician (ie. Rin)
魔術使い(majutsutsukai) - Magic User (ie. Shirou)
魔法(mahou) - Sorcery
魔法使い(mahoutsukai) - Mage
魔力(maryoku) - Magic Power or Mana (Although Mana is also used to describe magic powers that exist in nature, as opposed to Odo for the magic powers that exist within oneself)
魔術回路(majutsu kairo) - Magic Circuit
令呪(reiju) - Command Seal
宝具(hougu) - Noble Phantasm
固有結界(koyuukekkai) - Reality Marble

I think it's similiar, if not the same, with the what the guys over at insani used?

Going by insani's tl :

Rin = Magi
Shirou = Magic User
Aozaki = Magician

Yeah, that's what they have.

Sushi-Y, on your list, what would the likes of Aoko and Zelretch be classified as if they aren't magicians?

i believe that 魔術師 is actually referred to as メイガス in the game. at least according to the youogoshuu on the web.

also, the terminology is probably going to get confused later on, since moonlit world has been using 魔法 as magic and 魔術 as sorcery.

魔法使い, mages.

The "magus" reference came up when Saber was talking about... er, spoiler. But yes, it's true there's a suggestion that 魔術師 = Magus (I mean, it's in the game's subtitle catch phrase thing "I have a secret I haven't told you, I'm a Magi")

The main reason why I go by the reverse usage is because, in Nasu's world, 魔法 is obviously greater and more of a miraculous mystery compared to 魔術, which is something that anyone, with some talent, can learn to do.

Compare that with the English words "magic" and "sorcery". "Magic" is a much more commonly used word than "sorcery", and because of the reference to modern day stage shows, "magic", in my opinion, doesn't have the feel of "mysterious miracles" to it anymore. "Sorcery", on the other hand, brings up images of mages and wizards and miracles that's unable to be reproduced by a normal human being.

If you think about it, that's exactly how Nasu described 魔法 and 魔術 too.

Most 魔術 (using magic powers to perform something that could be reproduced in another way) were at one time 魔法 (miracles, impossible to reproduce through normal means), but as human technology become advanced, what used to be 魔法 was degraded down to 魔術 (500 years ago, the ability to produce fire at the flick of a finger might be 魔法, but with modern lighters, it became nothing more than 魔術).

For the same reason, what people used to believe to be "wizardry" or "sorceries" before might be nothing more than "magic tricks" to the modern people now.

In any case, that's my argument, but if there's already a wide understanding of 魔術=sorcery and 魔法=magic, then I won't fight it. I'm simply saying what I would've translated it as.

Thanks to Nightengale and Sushi-Y for the responses.

'Nother question coming up: I let indiscretion get the better part of me and I read summaries for the scenarios. I won't say anything about them, but I was wondering if it would be safe to assume that if the anime does not reveal it, we can say it never happened (in the path the anime follows)? So as to not spoil something, can we say a character's background can be changed depending on what path gets the most/least exposure?

I ask this because a particular character seems quite endearing, but the scenario seems to be quite :dots:remniscent of a different character's background in a different story.

Are there only seven specific servants: one Saber, one Archer, etc. Like, is that girl who appeared at the end of episode 2 the only Saber class servant? Or are there other Saber class servants and Emiya just happened to summon her. Because she seemed to have taken part in a previous war.

There are numerous people in each catagory of Servants.

For example...

*this is not an anime spoiler*

Alexander the Great was the Rider of the previous War.

Normally, the people representing each class of Servants are randomized for each Grail War. However, a Master can summon a specific person/Servant by possessing an object that is linked to that person.

I see, that's good to hear. Another question: can a Master be summoned in the future as someone's Servant?

Servants are "heroic spirits" that have been summoned to fight in the Grail War... So if a Master becomes a heroic spirit in the future, then the Master could be summoned as a Servant.

What's heroic spirit? And how do you become one? Sorry for asking a lot of questions, it's just so interesting and all. If you know/think these will be explained later on in the anime then they don't have to be answered. But I'd be grateful if someone does answer anyway.

A heroic spirit if i take it from what i have read and seen is like a great warrior (or some sort of person of legend) who makes a pact for the holy grail to use it to change their lives if they win it with their masters.

Great, thanks for those who've answered.

Now, this mana thing i know that the servants need this to stay strong and healthy, BUT will the master affect the strength of the servant becuase of their mana levels, say archer can easily beat saber because of the difference in skill between their masters.

Correct, although the incredible amount of magic power that's needed to summon the servants is provided by the Holy Grail, all the servants rely on their masters to provide them with magic powers to keep themselves functioning. The contract comes with a link between the servant and master, and magic power is automatically provided to the servant through that link. (Although in Shirou and Saber's case, as indicated in episode 3, Saber isn't receiving any magic power from Shirou)

The strength of the master as a magician also affects the servant:
Strong magician = more magic power = more supply for the servant = stronger servant.

In other words, since Shirou is providing Saber with close to nothing, her powers are being greatly restricted.

But class is still very important, no matter how lousy the master is, a Saber class will (most likely) not lose to an Archer class in a melee battle.

AHHH, so tactics when the servants engage are very important, eg keeping Archer at a distance as his class is long range, BUT does the master need to always manage the servant (micro-manage if you will) or are the sufficently intelligent and knowledge able about themselves ?

*cought*PACTIO*cough* <_<