Source: @NetEase Game Channel column

Fate/staynight, Destiny Guardian Night, Holy Grail War, no matter what the name, today's ACG fans should be familiar with it.

Ten years ago, when it came to Fate, it was only a minority boutique in a small circle, and ten years later, this name is already a representative of popular anime, and it will further expand its influence in the future.

From games to animations

As a game, Fate/staynight debuted ten years ago on January 30, 2004, and it was also the first game released after the official commercialization of TYPE-MOON. The corresponding platform is PC.,The type is text adventure.,No voice.,Another special thing is that you and I both know.,The game was originally an eighteen banned version.,There's a magic content that everyone likes to see.。 A year later, on October 28, 2005, FanDisc "Fate/hollowatara" was released, and the PC version also had no voice ban.

And the name Fate is more familiar to more people, thanks to the animation, starting in January 2006, the first adaptation of the TV animation of the same name was broadcast, with a total of 24 episodes. Although in the eyes of many die-hard gamers, this version of the animation produced by STUDIODEEN should be completely hacked into black history - in response to the opinions that the main thing is that the picture is out of shape, the fights are shrunk, the plot is compressed, and only one of the three lines of the original (fate line) is performed and unnecessary original plot is added - in short, it is a common problem encountered in adaptations. However, this version of the anime has definitely played an important role in the promotion of the Fate series as a whole, so that a large number of anime otaku who have no concept of the original game have become interested in getting into contact with this name, especially for domestic players.

In a sense,It can be said that the Fate series in 2006,Began to have a leap forward development,The previous popularity was still limited to the field of small circles of enthusiasts,But after that, it became a popular work for the public,The type of moon society also cooperated with Kadokawa Bookstore Publishing Group,With the support of big money owners, the brand of Fate is promoted in an all-round way,Games、Anime、Peripherals, etc. The effects, story, and additional endings were dubbed RéaltaNua, which was later re-ported to PC and PSV.

In 2010, the theatrical version of the anime "Fate/staynight-UnlimitedBladeWorks", which was also produced by STUDIODEEN and adapted from another piece of content in the game's third line, was released.

At this time, the rise of another animation club, ufotable, gave everyone a surprise. Since the end of 2007, they have released another work of the Moon Society, all seven chapters of the novel "The Realm of Emptiness", into the theatrical version, and the comprehensive table xiàn can be called a perfect high standard. Later, starting in 2011, the TV animation adaptation of the prequel novel "Fate/Zero" of the Fate series is also amazing, especially the smooth process of the action scenes and the details of the static pictures are often far beyond the level of ordinary TV animation, which has attracted a large number of newcomers to the pit for this series, and also made many people shout that this is the Fate animation they want, and they are eager to remake the original animation by ufotable.

In the fall of 2014, to commemorate the game's 10th anniversary, TYPE-MOON, Aniplex, and ufotable collaborated to launch a new project, one of which was the remake of the anime. ufotable's new version of the anime is also based on the original UBW line, and it is divided into two seasons like "Fate/Zero", and the first half of the first half has been broadcast, and the second half of the season will be broadcast in April this year. At the same time, it was also announced that the new theatrical version, which was also taken over by UFOTABLE, will adapt the last line of content of the original work, making fans' dreams come true for years.

From the outside to the inside

The sales volume of the Fate game in 2004 was about 140,000 units, which is certainly nothing in the eyes of players who have seen more console games starting from millions, but in the Japanese PC market at that time, and under the premise that it was limited to 18 banned games, it was quite impressive, basically pre-booking the level of the annual champion in advance. Including the FanDisc launched a year after the game, the expansion "Fate/hollowatara" also sold to this way, and for several years in a row, with the popularity of the Fate series has continued to increase, not to mention the golden age of Galgame in the 90s of the last century, in the same field after 2000, the Fate series round sales are indeed well-deserved first place, as for the promotion after many animations to the present, the popularity is definitely more standard first-line ACG works.

What is the charm of the Fate series? Most of the answers given by different people are also varied.,Some people appreciate the plot.,Some people like to fight.,Some people are willing to delve into the world view and extend the setting.,Some people are interested in the idea of the legendary character in history incarnated as Heroic Smash.,Of course, some people are pure cute characters.,Some people were just deceived by the eighteen bans of the game in the first place-In fact, Fate originally wanted to add this part of the content that was also considered in this regard.,It's just that after it developed to the point where it can succeed without relying on this gimmick, I took the initiative to draw the line, and the all-age version on PS2 is an example.

If I had to say anything, it was that Fate/staynight was a very sincere work from the very beginning of its field, knowing how to maintain quality and also know how to attract players. Taking the form of table xiàn as an example, even if it is a seemingly basic electronic novel visual interface, it has also made good effects in many scenes, and the scaling and switching of static pictures and music have made a lot of dynamic effects that allow players to immerse themselves in it, as if they are in the scene, and the advantages of electronic novels are brought into full play as a whole, even if there is no key voice at the beginning, it does not affect its expression.

As for the game itself, not to mention the plot to the character design, it is naturally the soul of the whole work, and it is also the key core of the vitality that has continued for many years after the Fate series. When the true identity of the first heroine Saber was first revealed in the game, the players who cleared the game for the first time basically thought "how can this be guessed". In the earliest conception, the setting was that the heroine summoned a male version of King Arthur, and finally for adult reasons, they swapped their genders. And it turns out that the idea of this sexual transformation may have been originally just to facilitate the addition of eighteen forbidden content, but the result is that Saber has become the recognized first popular heroine under the Moon Society, and then has become a famous cute character in the ACG field, and the image character design is so successful that it has been repeatedly applied so that various versions can form a "Saber team", and it has also successfully made everyone mention the legend of King Arthur now, and they must first think of the blonde girl in big sword armor, Most of the historical celebrities who appeared after the Fate series inevitably had to be cute or sexually switched first......

And the heroine's character design, or cute corner, is only one aspect of the content of the Fate game, and there are many works that are better than Fate in this aspect in history, but none of them have achieved the same achievement, which shows that Fate relies on more than just the picture. Holy Grail Wars, Heroic Spirits, Noble Phantasms, Ranks, and other terms that everyone is familiar with today were an important part of the Fate game's plot that attracted countless people. To put it bluntly, most players still like the idea of "Smash Bros.", and compared to the Smash Bros. between ordinary game characters, Fate has successfully brought together many legendary historical figures to perform new scenes in a new setting, which has a different feeling, and even laid a good foundation for the infinite possibilities after this series.

From creation to merchandise

TYPE-MOON, the company behind Fate, is the brand name used by Japanese game publisher Notes Co., Ltd. to distribute its products. And its predecessor was the same club.,The first two core members were the Nasu mushroom (Nasu きのこ) who served as the script of the original work, and the character artist Takeuchi Takashi.,It's safe to say that the two of them single-handedly created the Fate series.,And the brand TYPE-MOON.。

For players who are familiar with the works of the Moon World, it is natural to know that most of their works have the same worldview, including Fate itself, which was originally one of the scripts that Nasu began to conceive when he was in middle school. In 1998, the two of them began serializing novels on their personal websites, which later became "The Realm of the Void", and in 2000, they released the same game "Tsukihime" on ComicMarket, a winter doujin exhibition in Japan, which became a real fame, allowing a large number of players to begin to recognize the name of TYPE-MOON, and were attracted by the charm of the characters and the world view brought out by the work itself. During that time, "Tsukihime" and two other works, Dragon Knight 07's "When the Cicada Cried" and Zun's Oriental Shooter series were both hailed as the most outstanding representatives of doujin games, with a large number of supporters and secondary creations, and were once collectively called the "Three Great Doujin Wonders".

In 2003, Takeuchi and Nasu established Notes Co., Ltd. In April of the same year, after releasing "Moon Box", which included works published from the past to the present, under the name of doujin, TYPE-MOON was disbanded as a doujin society and positioned itself as a commercial brand under Notes Co., Ltd. Officially began the road from doujin to business.,And the first game they planned was "Fate/staynight", which modified the original idea of Nasu, and presented it in a new form, and finally came out in early 2004, so that the miracle of the doujin community became a commercial publishing brand.

The ultimate success of the Fate series has also affected the market choice of the Moon Society as a commercial company, and the good thing is to tap the brand value, and the bad thing is to eat the old fried cold rice. In the past ten years, TYPE-MOON has to talk about new works, and there are still some things such as "Magic Night" games, "DDD" novels, etc., but the most seen in the eyes of ordinary players is the Fate series, the game base is ported to PS2 and then transplanted back to PC, and the animated outward version is intensified twice, and various Gaiden games and Saber figures with different mods...... In addition, the various projects promoted by the magazine seem to revolve around the Fate series, and the rumored "Tsukihime 2" and even the remake of "Tsukihime" that were said to be good have not moved for several years, and other new works have no names, so it's no wonder that everyone thinks that the Moon Society can only rely on Fate.

In fact, the Moon Society is really trying to expand the extension of the Fate series, not even limited to its own works, the success of "Fate/Zero" is an example, the original novel was completed by the "foreign aid" Xuan Xuyuan, which has also become a part of the Fate series very well, and since then, the Moon Society has also cooperated with other authors many times, and has launched different media, different styles of Fate stories, and it is also because the setting of the Fate stage is very convenient to expand and recreate. Another project to mark its 10th anniversary last year, the mobile game Fate/GrandOrder, which will be launched on mobile platforms, is also an attempt in a new direction.

Regardless of whether or not the Fate series can really "fight for another ten years", it has indeed left its name in the history of ACG in Japan, and it may not be as enduring as Gundam or EVA in the future, but it is already qualified to become a type of culture in the two-dimensional realm. The success of the company has also inspired countless individual creators in Japan to aspire to one day write their works into history.