If you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of Type Moon, and their most prominent series, the Fate Series. That being said, if you asked me what my favorite Type-Moon game was, you wouldn't get the typical F/SN or Tsukihime; Instead, my response to you would be what we have for review today: Fate/hollow ataraxia.
Fate/hollow ataraxia is a sequel set a half of year later, after all endings in Fate/stay night. How does that work, you may ask? A magical accident goes horribly wrong, messing with time and space, causing everybody who died in the 5th holy grail war to come back to life, with the 5th holy grail war starting up again. To me, that sounded like a huge excuse to continue the plot, and if there is an excuse to continue a story that's more BS than that, I'd like to hear it. Just to prove how absurd it is, in an interview with the writer, Nasu said
"It's best if you don't think too much about it (laugh)."
Because I'm too lazy to write up my own plot summary, and Wikipedia does a good job in summarizing it, I'm just going to use theirs.
Bazett Fraga McRemitz, a member of the Mages' Association and a master in the 5th Holy Grail War, wakes on the fourth day of the 5th Holy Grail war with a new servant, Avenger, and no memory of what happened to her beforehand. She and Avenger set off to fight and win the Holy Grail.
Meanwhile, Shirou Emiya lives a peaceful life with all his friends from the 5th Holy Grail War. The Servants sense a new danger while dark creatures appear soon afterward. Shirou sets off to ensure nobody is in danger and finds himself frequently meeting a mysterious girl, Caren Ortensia.
Both Bazett and Shirou find themselves in time loop that lasts four days, beginning of the fourth day of the 5th Holy Grail War. Each time they die or survive four days, they always awake on the first day of the loop aware of what has happened to them since the first time loop began. Determined to end the loop, Bazett, Avenger, and Shirou fight to discover the truth behind what's causing the endless four days.
While the premise of this story might seem quite generic given the whole groundhog day plot, (and the fact that it's eerily similar to Kagetsu Tohya, another Type-Moon game), that's not really the point. It might not have the large scope like the other stories in the Fate series, but it's not necessarily a bad thing, because it leads to a more focused narrative. What makes Fate/hollow ataraxia special is not the premise, but the execution: almost everything about this story is executed very well, with the only exception being the ending. While enjoyable, it's anti-climactic and uses a Deus Ex Machina to wrap up the story, which is extremely frustrating, given how great the rest of the story is.
The more serious elements of the story are done extremely well with no major writing
issues: it has stellar pacing, intense writing that keeps you interested, and a fantastic atmosphere. The atmosphere
is what pushes this from great to amazing in my eyes: It's an atmosphere that absorbs you in, engages you with the
story and makes you crave more. It's one that makes you feel like you are part of this world and the conflict that is
going on, and it attaches you to the story. This atmosphere is very apparent in Bazett's segments, where the utilized
it to balance the mystery, and tension beautifully. Also, like every Type-Moon work, F/HA has interesting themes and
ideals floating around, and the way it executes it's theme of falseness is intriguing, interesting, and well
integrated into the story. It's little things like integrating your title into the story without making it obvious
that helps games like Fate/hollow ataraxia, and these little things are what make games interesting and
memorable.
That being said, Fate/hollow atraraxia is a much more light hearted story than any of
Type-Moon's other games: the tone is like a mixture between Fate/stay night and Carnival Phantasm.
It has the seriousness of Fate/stay night at times, but it also has the exaggerated silliness of Carnival
Phantasm. The best part? It manages to excel at both. It doesn't just shaft either tone.... instead it
prioritizes them as equally as they possibly can, and seeing this balance is something I love. If you are coming from
Fate/Zero's
cold seriousness, this might be a turn off, but if you are like me and enjoyed the humor of Carnival Phantasm,
you will love this. Fate/hollow ataraxia is so enjoyable to me because it's like a compilation of everything
that I enjoy about Type-Moon works: Great writing, hilarious comedy, and intriguing themes that make the works
entertaining throughout.
No matter what tone Fate/hollow ataraxia utilizes, it excels in creating excellent scenes that are interesting and enjoyable. It has a high quality of writing that is consistent throughout, with almost every scene helping to develop characters, have interesting character interactions or just be flat out enjoyable to the reader. These scenes, which range from a simple things like eating food, to epic fights, is something that really make the story great and help the enjoyment of the game. Even though a good majority of characters already have a great deal of development due to Fate/stay night being way longer than it needed, the extra development is appreciated and the development with the new characters like Caren and Avenger was absolutely great.
I can go on and on about how great the writing is in Fate/hollow ataraxia, and how well it does every little thing, but i'll spare you the gushing. It's like a compilation of everything great about Type-Moon stories to me, and it's a story I can't help but enjoy. It's well written, very enjoyable, and does very little wrong.
Writing - 10/10
Due to Fate/hollow ataraxia's interesting way of plot progression, this creates an interesting means of gameplay. It creates a semi-linear plot, with the main plot being broke into chapters and told in a straight line, but for all the side stories, it's very open: you can do most of the events in any order you feel like. You switch between the perspectives of Bazett and Shirou; at the beginning of each chapter you have the kinetic novel-like Bazett segments, then you play with Shirou for the rest of it. When you are playing Shirou, it's 4 days, each day broken up into 4 segments (morning, noon, afternoon, night) in which you see one event. Each character represents an event and when there's an event you haven't seen, there's either a NEW or ! that pops up. All ! events are for the story, while the NEW ones are just things on the side. The big kicker to the gameplay? Saves act as quick-saves and you can't make a ton of them, and you have to continue where you were at.
This system of gameplay gives you a lot of control on the pace you want to go at: you can fool around with all the Slice of Life side scenes, and have slower SoL pacing, or you can go straight to the important stuff and have a very tight, almost thriller-esque story. I did a mix of the two depending on my mood, and I absolutely loved the amount of control they give you when it comes to pace; it's like a book in that aspect. This makes you feel more like you are actually progressing through the plot with Shirou, and accompanied by the ability to change the pace makes for a game that is a change of pace for visual novels (pun intended). I loved this aspect of it, and it made for an engaging experience that you typically don't see in a visual novel.
Gameplay - 9/10
If you haven't noticed, this game is pretty. While a good majority of art is just carryovers from Fate/stay night, but all the new stuff is amazing and there's quite a bit. This is really the first truly modern Type-Moon work in my eyes, and it has some absolutely beautiful CG. Even though it's only a year after F/SN, it's aged so much better. It's so polished, beautiful and detailed; It's a game with style, one that uses style to get over technological feats. I also really appreciate all the visual effects this game has, like the simple omake-esque art, to more advanced things like bokeh, and it really spices it up makes the visuals into something special. Even b etter than that though... is those amazing fight scenes. While being a Visual Novel, they have so much art, and the motion is so fluid that it's like watching an anime. The archer fight with saber was just brilliant... It's fantastic and I love it.
My issue with so much of Type-Moon stuff is that a good majority have a huge flaw. Tsukihime has it's low production values, Kara no Kyoukai has an insanely high barrier of entry, Fate/stay night is way too long for it's own good, and Fate/Zero was really boring due to the characters. Fate/hollow ataraxia has none of this. Unlike the others, this game is constantly trying to entertain you, and I've been entertained. Fate/hollow ataraxia is probably the most fun I've ever had playing a VN.... totally serious here.
I first played this on the 3.1 official translation, and only got about 40 percent through the game because the translation wasn't anywhere close to done. Even though I never even got close to finishing it, I loved the hell out of it, and I called it my favorite type moon work.... with 40% DONE! When I went to play through it this time... I loved it just as much! Replaying it didn't hinder my experience at all; that's how enjoyable this game is.
The list of great things about Fate/hollow ataraxia can go on and on... The references from Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night were entertaining, the world building was outstanding, the balance of slice of life and plot was great, the game has a great sense of humor, and overall... I love Fate/hollow ataraxia.
Enjoyment - 10/10
If you haven't gotten the message yet, I love Fate/hollow ataraxia. How can a small fan disk sequel be better than the original game that spawned a huge series that's adored by tons of fans? Simple. By being much more entertaining, improving upon it's predecessor every way, and having a charm that few games can match. It's a great game, and hope you'll love it just as much as I did.
OVERALL - 9.5/10, Polarization -1
