visual novel that would spark a large and popular franchise.

Written and Directed by Kinoko Nasu, the game would be one of the longest scripts ever written

in the history of games, in terms of word count, putting it on par with the Bible.

It's popularity have also spun off serveral other games of various styles, animes, manga,

and merchandising.

For characters, the game is mainly told through the perspective of Shirou Emiya, and centralizes

around his involvement in a magical battle royale to the death.

The story is actually split up into 3 very distinct paths depending on which of the 3

female protagonists the player chooses to involve themselves with.

For gameplay, as a visual novel the engagement is mostly at the reading level, and occaisionally

a decision point will be reached where one option is the correct route and the rest are

routes that typically lead to death.

Keep in mind, while there are multiple endings and nuances to each path, I will be covering

the True ending to each route.

This video will cover the Fate route, but please watch the other two paths linked at

the end of this video.

The story only gets larger from here, so let's cut it down to size with a RECAPitation.

As the game begins in the city of Fuyuki, we see a young Rin Tohsaka say goodbye to

her father as he goes off to war.

However, this is no conventional war, but rather, a secret battle between 7 mages for

the coveted wish-granting Holy Grail relic, aptly called the Holy Grail War.

So serious is the battle between them that battles are usually to the death until there

is one mage left, and unfortunately, Rin's father dies in this 4th Holy Grail war, which

is normally every 60 years, but somehow, the 5th war is beginning early after only 10 years.

Older, Rin is now living on her own, the last of her long magical bloodline, though like

other magic-users, she must keep her abilities secret in this modern world that doesn't recognizes

magi.

Her family specializes in Jewel Magecreaft, which is transferring and storing magical

energy into jewels, for utilization later.

For instance, her heirloom necklace that she wears is one such jewel that has an immense

amount of magical energy stored in it.

Outside her private life of magic study, she lives a normal high school life though her

proud and competitive nature leaves her with a shallow social life, despite her charming

looks and excellent performances academically and athletically.

This is partly because its an accepted practice to kill anyone who discovers the identity

of a mage, so she chooses not to let anyone get too close to her.

As she goes to class, she bumps into several of her classmates, like the mild-mannered

Sakura, the cocky vice-president of the archery club Shinji, her stern homeroom teacher, and

the handyman around the school Shirou.

When she gets home, her guardian and part magic teacher Kirei leaves a message for her

to hurry up and prepare for her role as a Master in the coming Holy Grail war, or waive

her participation and seek the protection of the church before it begins.

The Holy Grail war is a fight to the death between the participating Magi, but they are

not alone.

Each one is a master to a familiar called a Servant, whom they must summon and form

a contract with.

However, only one servant can be summoned, and if the summoner has a focus connected

to a particular heroic spirit, they can summon an even stronger servant.

There are 7 classes of Servants, Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker.

Rin herself is determined to summon a servant from the Saber class, which she considers

the strongest.

That night, Rin makes every preparation possible to complete her summoning, though botches

her timing, but still suceeds in producing a summon.

The spirit in question crashes into her living room, and is a red knight rather unimpressed

with Rin as a Master.

Like all Masters, Rin does indeed have a set of Command Spells on her hand, that allow

her to control her Servant, and are miracles granted from the Holy Grail itself unto its

participants.

He continues his condescending attitude and begruding servitude towards Rin, until she's

mad to the point of spending one of her command spells to demand obediance.

While more compliant, the servant reminds Rin not to be wasteful of her two remaining

spells, which can also be used to allow him to accomplish great or otherwise impossible

feats of strength.

Still, he has now observed her resolve as well as magical ability, and genuinely regards

her with more respect now.

When he reveals he's of the Archer class, Rin is openly disappointed, but Archer protests

how he'll show her he's no mistake.

When asked which heroic spirit he is, Archer pauses, explaining he doesn't know himself,

which puzzles both of them.

Regardless, with Rin now a part of the death battle, the war waits for its final Master

to appear before it begins.

In reflection, anyone who is Master but loses all three of their command spells, loses control

of their Servant and their status as Master, and certainly faces death.

With Archer's memory fuzzy, he also can't rightly recall his ultimate move, called a

Noble Phantasm, that every Servant has as a trump card.

She shows him around town, as servants can turn invisible to normal people, including

the site of the final battle of the last Holy Grail War, 10 years ago, now a park in the

middle of the city.

Archer can feel the overwhelming amount of regret there, and likens it to a Reality Marble.

Unlike a magic barrier, which is a field that protects its maker from outside danger but

still based on what's around them, a Reality Marble is a limited field in which reality

is removed and instead whatever the maker desires takes form.

Rin is interrupted as her Command Spell throbs, a sign that another Master is nearby.

Even though the war has not officially begun, Masters can technically begin fighting at

any time.

The next day, Rin decides to still go to school, as the battles between mages are supposed

to take place in secret, so she doubts a surprise attack will come hiding in plain sight.

Archer isn't so confident, and to her surprise, Rin notes the next day at school, a magical

field is being set up on the school itself.

After school, they investigate, and she learns this large boundary field, when complete,

will drain the life force out from everyone within, and claim their souls.

Archer confirms that as a spirit they can feed on souls and mental energy though they

don't need to, as usually the magical energy of their Master is enough.

But if they do, they can become tougher as their magical energy capacity will increase,

so stealing energy is an understandable tactic for this war.

Rin announces she has no intention of eating the souls of others to win, and Archer seems

glad to hear it.

As she begins to erase part of the boundary field, she is interrupted by a man in blue

armor, who recognizes her as a Master, and she recognizes him as a Servant.

Summoning a blood-red spear, he lunges for Rin, who dodges and begins to flee, as she

runs and heads for a more open area where she and Archer can counterattack.

Archer steps forward, and despite his name, wields a shortsword in hand.

The fight ensues with both spirits, as Archer is pushed back by Lancer's skill.

However, Archer then produces two swords, and though Lancer disarms the supposed bowman

dozens of times, in an instant, Archer produces new blades.

This confuses both Lancer and Rin, as Rin also thought each Servant only carries one

weapon that is filled with magical energy, which is the basis for their Noble Phantasm,

and cannot be replaced like Archer is doing.

Archer figures out what heroic spirit Lancer is based on his fighting technique, and as

a retort, Lancer prepares to unleash his Noble Phantasm and kill Archer.

However, everything is interrupted, as a student spots them, and Lancer suddenly turns and

moves to kill the witness.

Rin feels compelled to follow, as even though she knows there cannot be any witnesses, she's

always been careful till today, since she dislikes involving others.

As she finds the student, it's too late as he's been dealt with by Lancer and is dying.

She sends Archer to tail Lancer, though notes how odd this student has been pierced in the

heart yet hasn't died yet.

She recognizes the student as her classmate Shirou, and refusing to let him die, she uses

her last resort family heirloom to empty all of its powerful magical energy into reviving

him.

Returning home, Rin reflects how Lancer revealing his Noble Phantasm would also reveal his heroic

name, which would have helped them, as knowing the true name of any hero lets you know their

weapon, abilities and weaknesses, and thus why each Servant hides their identity with

their class name until they reveal and use their Noble Phantasm.

To note, a Saber has made it to the final fight in the last 4 Holy Grail Wars, hence

why Rin wanted one, though Sabers, Archers, and Lancers are generally regarded for their

high magic resistance.

Another one to note is the Berserker who possess exceptional strength but no sanity, and quickly

drain their Master's magic, leading to their ruin.

Rin suddenly realizes she forgot to wipe the memory of Shirou, which is her way of removing

witnesses, and rushes over to his house.

She senses Lancer already there, but suddenly there's a flash of white, as now a new, more

powerful presence arrives; a new Servant that forces Lancer to flee now.

However, the new Servant now attacks Rin and Archer, nearly felling Archer in one blow

had Rin not spent another Command Spell to send him away instantly.

As Rin is easily defeated, she sees its by the hand of the card she wanted, the Saber,

as she now waits for her early death.

As perspective now shifts to that of Shirou from earlier, we learn he doesn't remember

too much of his past, only that his family and neighborhood were lost to a fierce fire

10 years ago.

Though he alone was saved, inside, his heart has never recovered from the massive loss.

He would be adopted by a man who confessed to being a magi upfront, Kiritsug Emiya and

later Shirou would ask to learn magic from him.

He looked up to the Kiritsugu who rescued him and has since made it his goal to be a

man of justice like him.

We go back in time a month, as Shirou is now living alone, though his friend from school

Sakura and teacher often help him in his home.

Shirou himself enjoys fixing things, helping others, and is better at archery than even

the school captain, though his skill with magic is worse than amateur.

He has a secret attraction to Sakura, who is also sister to his classmate Shinji.

In truth, Shirou is a good handyman as he assists his repairs with the light bit of

magic he can use.

He's able to slightly strengthen things, and has a knack for being able to visualize the

structure of things and reproduce them in his mind.

That night, he runs into a strange silver-haired girl, who warns him to summon something soon,

else he'll die.

As he practices his magic every evening as usual, he reflects how he has few natural

magic circuits but no family crest, as he is an adopted son of the Emiya family, and

thus their magic crest could not be passed to him though blood.

Thus, as a normal human, he must work to strengthen the few magic circuits he does have with the

natural affinity of magic he's compatible with.

Personally, he's ok with never becomming a magus and instead being like his adopted father,

whom he views as a hero who helps people.

For example, Shirou doesn't hesistate to beat up his classmate Shinji if he catches him

hitting his sister Sakura.

After a strange dream about swords, he hears about a local murder of a family that were

all apparantly stabbed by a spear, and that night from work, he spots Rin from a long

distance with his superior eyesight, surveying the town atop a tower.

Please note, it is at this point that the divide between the three routes begins, If

you would like to continue to the Unlimited Blade Works routw with Rin or Heaven's Feel

route with Sakura, please select the appropriate video from the description below.

Otherwise, continue watching for the Fate route with Saber.

The following day, Shirou senses something strange around the school, but stays late

to help with a task.

That night, he hears a sound and goes to investigate, only to witness Archer and Lancer dueling.

He's spotted during Lancer's Noble Phantasm, and Shirou finds himself running for his life

to no avail, as Lancer catches up to him in the halls of the school and stabs him cleanly

through the heart.

Strangley, he doesn't die instantly, and instead, a few moments later, Rin finds him, resucitates

him and leaves.

When he wakes, he stumbles home, only to learn Lancer has followed him back and now moves

to kill him again.

Determined to at least fight for his life, Shirou reaches for a nearby poster tube and

uses his single Reinforcement spell to transform it into a metallic, sword-like weapon.

Seeing this, Lancer mocks and toys with Shirou, during which Shirou makes it to his tool shed.

On the floor of his tool shed is a magic circle left by Kiritsugu he's never really considered,

and as he curses his impending death, a light flashes out and the seventh Servant, one of

the Saber class, appears and immediately reacts to save Shirou from Lancer.

As Lancer backs off, Shirou sees his savior is a beautiful girl in knights armor.