Fate/stay night

Fate/stay night, an 18+ visual novel released in January of 2004, is TYPE-MOON's first game since transforming from a doujinshi circle into a commercial company. The game was extremely popular, and became one of the best-selling galgame in 2004. In October of 2005, a fan disc titled Fate/hollow ataraxia was released, and as with its predecessor, the fan disc broke sales records.

Fate/stay night's success also made it one of TYPE-MOON's most heavily commercialized properties. An all-age PS2 port titled Fate/stay night [Réalta Nua] was released in 2007. During the 2006 winter Comiket, the first volume of Fate/Zero, a 4-volume prequel novel to Fate/stay night, was released. Other spin-off games include the 3D fighting game Fate/unlimited codes and the dungeon RPG Fate/Extra. There is also a huge line of merchandise, books, accessories, dolls, cards, as well as manga and anime adaptations.

Story

Fate/stay night revolves around the Holy Grail War, a competition between various magicians and people-with-a-lot-of-power to gain the Holy Grail. Each Grail War has seven participants, and each participant, also called "Master," can summon a "Servant," which usually comes in the form of a heroic spirit from the past. After days of fighting, the last man (or woman) standing gets the Holy Grail, and gets his or her wish granted.

Fate tells the story of Emiya Shirou, who accidentally summons Saber (King Arthur, who happens to be a girl in this game) and gets himself involved in the 5th Holy Grail War. As the story progresses, Shirou meets various friends and foes, including his classmate Rin and her Servant Archer, his other classmate and Rin's tragic sister Sakura, the phony priest/Grail War supervisor Kirei Kotomine and his King of Heroes Gilgamesh (they are the main bad guy). There are three routes in Fate/stay night, each one comes with a completely alternate telling of the story, revealing various aspects of the Grail War and the characters involved.

Fate/hollow ataraxia, like Kagetsu Tohya is to Tsukihime, happens half a year after Fate's story. In Ataraxia Shirou finds himself stuck in a 4-day time loop that reenacts the events of the 5th Holy Grail War. Shirou must deal with a new Master, Bazett Fraga McRemitz and her servant Avenger, as well as a mysterious woman named Karen Ortensia, all the while figuring out how to get himself out of the time loop.

Fate/Zero, on the other hand, tell the story of the 4th Holy Grail War, and sets up the stage for events in Fate/stay night.

Related

Fate/stay night for PS2 - Dengeki Online interviews TYPE-MOON about the PS2 game Fate/stay night - Realta Nua.