Fate/stay night REMASTERED Review for Steam

Fate/stay night REMASTERED, developed by TYPE-MOON and Fuzz Inc. and published by Aniplex, Inc., is the remastered version of the original Fate/stay night that was released originally on January 30, 2004. Moreover, this launched a large multi-million dollar franchise that as lasted for the past 2 decades generating various types of content, from games, memes, and merchandise to name a few. The game is a visual novel where the player is forced to make certain choices that can determine the route the narrative can go down into. This makes the gameplay focused on providing the player a high degree of agency allowing players to have a higher freedom of choice. Furthermore, in the context of the game it allows players to be more involved in the over-arching narrative the story is about. The Fate franchise is huge and with being Fate/stay night REMASTERED released for the current market can allow players to experience the work that essentially launched the franchise to the state it currently is in right now.

The game is a visual novel and relies on the strength of the writers to make the player entranced in the game and with this remaster has higher quality sound designs, music, and voice acting from the actors behind the scenes. With the nature of a visual novel the game is text heavy and reliant on immersing the player through the narrative, which has been done through the prologue. Moreover, the prologue builds up the world and introduces characters before going into that iconic scene of Saber meeting the main character. A moment that has been seen in anime, and movies that has left a lasting impression on the anime community as a whole.

The sound quality feels a lot better, but that can be in due part of the advancements in audio equipment and changes in voice acting techniques. Furthermore, the music and sound effects are impactful and provide a deeper sense of immersion to the experience the game is trying to provide to the player. As for the graphics they stay true to the original graphical designs first seen in the original game back in 2004, with some minor touches to improve them visually, yet the minor touches are barely visible to those who have not played the original game. Aside from the visuals of the game, the game allows players to have a sense of agency in the game as the narrative is influenced by the player’s choices.

The main difference of what separates a visual novel from an actual novel or even an audio book is how the narrative was structured, with player agency in mind. This focus on player agency is found primarily in RPGs (Role Playing Games) that focus on providing the player some form of freedom of expression allowing them to play how they want to play the game. In regards to player agency there are only a few standout games that really show how strong the “choice” is in games. As to what those games are, Fallout New Vegas is such an important piece of video game history for its story telling and the ability to choose how the game is supposed to end.

Fate/stay night REMASTERED is a historic game in the anime genre of video games, especially knowing how many movies, televised anime series, and merchandise that came from it. As for the game itself it is a faithful remastering of the game with a focus on recreating that authentic experience for players. However, while is a remaster, there are some minor issues with the game that being no chances to change the character sprites to look more in line with the modern look most TYPE-MOON characters take on. Moreover, there are a few minor grammatical mistakes while minor they are annoying to read from an English perspective. This can be easily remedied by updating the game to overwrite the mistakes, but that might prove to be challenging due to the amount of text present in the game itself. TYPE-MOON and Fuzzy Inc. should be happy with how the game turned out especially knowing how important the game is for fans. This leaves Fate/stay night REMASTERED an easy 8/10 visual novel that presents players and fans with a chance to replay the game that brought the franchise to life.

Fate/Stay Night REMASTERED is available for PC via Steam.

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