Top Ten Things that Made 2017 a Great Year for the Fate Series

It goes without saying that this was arguably the most anticipated installment in the Fate series last year. With Fate/stay night having a history of anime adaptations were the ones by Studio Deen were initially widely acclaimed but gradually aged badly especially when compared to ufotable's anime adaptations of the prequel Fate/Zero and the Unlimited Blade Works route, fans were very pleased to see the Heaven's Feel route finally get an anime movie by, you guessed it, ufotable. However, the only concern said fans had was how much content would have to be adapted out since the Heaven's Feel route is chock-full of several major plot points and twists that are far too vital to be cut out. Thankfully, this issue has been quite averted once they confirmed that Heaven's Feel was not just getting one movie, but THREE movies in total. And to start things off, the first installment goes by the title of Presage Flower. Now to be completely honest, I have NOT been able to see Presage Flower yet, but to give you a bit of a gist based on what I already know will happen from the synopsis, basically, Presage Flower follows our main hero Shirou Emiya, seeking to be a hero of justice as usual and somehow manages to get caught up in the Fifth Holy Grail War. However, things take a turn for the worse quite significantly differently than Fate or Unlimited Blade Works, as Sakura Matou is the main heroine of Heaven's Feel and her love for Shirou combined with her deep evil buried into her from her tragic past (if you've read the entirety of Heaven's Feel from the visual novel or saw Fate/Zero, you know what I'm talking about) takes the Holy Grail War into a darker path than any other route, taking us into deep territory at the hands of the Sakura's vile grandfather Zouken Matou and even more with her abusive brother Shinji Matou. Based on all of this, Fate/stay night is already set on a dark path even earlier than any route ever. With fans waiting for more questions to be answered,... more

Heaven's Feel wasn't the only thing in the Fate series to get an anime movie. Quite remarkably, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya got its own movie as well. If you don't know already, Fate/kaleid is basically a magical girl series set in a parallel universe revolving around Illyasviel von Einzbern as the main protagonist. Now I don't know much about Oath Under Snow since, one, it didn't get an English theatrical release, let alone any English subtitles for streaming; and two, I have yet to start watching Fate/kaleid. That said, Oath Under Snow seems to take place after the anime adaptation's fourth season, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya: 3rei. It appears to be more focused on Shirou Emiya more than any other Fate/kaleid season based on what I've seen from trailers. There does seem to be Illya, Miyu, Rin, and Luvia, along with a load of other characters as well, including Kiritsugu Emiya, Kirei Kotomine, Sakura Matou, etc. Now I don't want to go into too much detail since I don't want to spoil the movie for myself and I plan to watch it when I have the time. Regardless, the movie is nonetheless a worthwhile action-packed adventure. It's probably a good watch, but I HIGHLY recommend watching all 4 seasons of Fate/kaleid before diving into this one.

Starting at the beginning of the year in 2017 on the JP server, after the first main story was finished and all seven singularities were restored along with the eight and final one being completed, a second main story was announced. However, before that second main story, a side arc acting as the bridge between Arc 1 and Arc 2 was announced as well, with 4 new challenging sub-singularities (5 if you count the one from the Fate/Extra CCC collaboration event) to take on, them being Shinjuku, Agartha, Shimosa, and Salem. Now while I don't play the JP server, I have seen gameplay of the Epic of Remnant arc and read into all of the important plot points and twists of each singularity. I won't spoil it for anyone who's stuck to playing on the NA server like me, but Epic of Remnant truly made FGO better than what it already was. New singularities, the new multi-HP bar system, new battle soundtracks exclusive to each singularity, new Servant classes, and of course, the new Servants themselves. The list could just go on and on for how many new awesome Servants were released in Epic of Remnant, but from what I've seen, it was undoubtedly a great experience for JP players as always. Man, I can't wait until Epic of Remnant will come to the NA server in the future!

With Epic of Remnant now finished on the JP server, it was only going to be sooner or later that they officially released something related to the next story arc in Fate/Grand Order. And for this second story arc, it's called Cosmos in the Lost Belt. Taking place after the events of the first story arc, with the protagonist and Chaldea having restored all seven singularities and practically saving humanity, humanity is threatened once again when Chaldea is attacked and taken over by a new staff, complete with a new secretary with a fake Russian name who suspiciously looks like Vicchi of the Tamamo Nine and Kirei Kotomine assisting her on behalf of the Holy Church. It's arguably Chaldea's Darkest Hour in the prologue what with all the registered Servants vanishing after the summoning system being disabled and the protagonist and the remaining Chaldea staff having to escape now that Chaldea has been taken over, all the more dire by the fact that Leonardo da Vinci's adult body was stabbed through the heart by Kirei Kotomine. Thankfully, thanks to Leonardo da Vinci thinking ahead of time and sending her memories and mind to a a new younger body and Sherlock Holmes smuggling the vanished Servants' Saint Graphs since he was never a registered Servant in Chaldea records, now it's up to the protagonist, along with Mash, to once again save humanity. Only this time, humanity is now it's own enemy now that the main antagonists are Team A, an elite team of Masters originally selected to be the 48 Masters sent to save humanity but were critically injured and frozen as a result of the explosion in the prologue of the first arc, now completely Face-Heeled into sending humanity back into the Age of the Gods. What challenges await our protagonist and Mash in this new story arc coming this spring on the JP server?

They really should have given Fate/Grand Order an international release altogether instead of just initially region-locking it to be only playable in Japan only. That said, the Western Fate community REJOICED with excitement that after 2 years of Fate/Grand Order being originally released in 2015, it was finally getting an English release in the United States. Sure, Fate/Grand Order did eventually get releases outside of Japan in countries like China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but it never managed to get a Western release up until now. Oh, and South Korea managed to get FGO released in the country as well on November 21st, 2017. With FGO getting an English translation for the first time, it arguably marked a milestone for the game itself that a Western country would finally be able to play FGO in its prominent language. However, the only downside is that the English release only applies to the United States. So other regions like countries in Europe or other countries in North America will have to wait longer until they can get their own releases of FGO in their native language. Otherwise, this was one of the biggest events for the Fate series as a whole in 2017.

For the record, yes, I know Fate/Extra Last Encore is supposed to come out in 2018, but since it was first announced in 2017, that's why I'm putting on this list. Basically, Last Encore adapts the story of the spin-off game Fate/Extra, set in a parallel universe where the main protagonist is Hakuno Kishinami and your main Servants consist of Nero Claudius (Red Saber), Tamamo no Mae (Caster, or Casko), and No Name (Archer). In this installment, the Holy Grail War takes place in a location known as the Moon Cell, where magecraft has evolved differently and its inhabitants have to resort to acquiring mana and whatnot from their virtual reality. Now Last Encore basically revolves around Hakuno not remembering who he is (Hakuno does have two genders in Fate/Extra, but Last Encore uses the male counterpart by default) as he wakes up in a strange virtual world where he meets an unknown Servant (Umu! You should already know it's Red Saber, aka Nero Claudius) and finds himself fighting in the Moon Holy Grail War. I only know just a few tidbits of the Extra continuity based on what I've read from the TYPE-MOON wikia, but it does seem Last Encore will be a great anime. Based on the beautifully animated teaser trailer and the promotion videos for characters like Francis Drake, Robin Hood, Gawain, Nursery Rhyme, and Li Shuwen, all animated by Studio Shaft, Last Encore looks to be a visually exhilarating and unique experience to come.

Confession time: Okay, so I'm not really a big fan of Fate/Apocrypha. I did have a lot of hype for it and I didn't mind A-1 Pictures producing it, but the inconsistent production value and the inferiority of the story's coherence and presentation compared to ufotable's Fate anime adaptations just utterly disappointed me. HOWEVER, I will say that I AM glad that Fate/Apocrypha did manage to finally get an anime adaptation. While not without its flaws, I did genuinely enjoy quite a few moments and characters from the latest anime installment in the Fate series. Taking place in Romania, Fate/Apocrypha is set in a parallel universe apart from Fate/stay night where the Einzbern family summoned a Ruler instead of an Avenger during the Third Holy Grail War, thus ultimately setting in motion the events of Fate/Apocrypha. The story of Apocrypha revolves around the Great Holy Grail War, pitting the Red Faction and the Black Faction against each other as it's seven-against-seven in an all-out battle royale for the Greater Holy Grail. However, there is a disturbance in this Holy Grail War, which leads into Jeanne d'Arc being summoned as Ruler to seek out this disturbance and mediate the Great Holy Grail War. Along the way, main protagonist and formerly unnamed homunculus Sieg gets caught up in this Holy Grail War as he along with Jeanne fight for what's right in the Great Holy Grail War. Fate/Apocrypha introduces us to quite a lot of Servants, with a few favorites of mine being Karna, Achilles, Atalanta, Astolfo, and of course, Mordred! Now Apocrypha itself can be rather divisive what with its character dynamics execution and animation, and while I do agree that the anime could have been BETTER, I can at least be glad that Apocrypha even got an anime adaptation. But I'm NOT glad that it didn't turn out well as much as I wanted it to. Oh, well. Hopefully, ufotable can probably make a better adaptation of Apocrypha in the future. Regardless, its announcement and release still... more

Yes, Extella was originally released in 2016 in Japan, but since it wasn't until 2017 it got a release in North America and Europe, that's why I'm including Extella on this list. If you're familiar with Fate/Extra, you'll be quite familiar with the characters and story of Fate/Extella, as it takes place after Fate/Extra. Basically, you're Hakuno Kishinami again as you find yourself in the midst of three factions owned by Nero Claudius, Tamamo no Mae, and the newcomer Altera respectively, that are fighting each other for control of the Moon Cell, with Altera being the one who just wants to destroy it. Now Fate/Extella is basically just a Dynasty Warriors-style fighting game in the musou genre where you fight your way through waves of enemies (to some, it's a repetitive button-masher, but to others, as stated earlier, it's something along the lines of Dynasty Warriors by Koei Tecmo). The gameplay does seem to be a bit stale what with it just being Dynasty Warriors but with Fate characters, but the graphics are without a doubt stunning and exploring the lore of each Servant, whether they be veterans or newcomers, are fun to achieve and look at. While it's not something I would want to buy as a video game in the long run, it does seem like a fun game for any Fate fan such as one like myself.

HOLD ON?! OLGA MARIE CAME BACK TO LIFE?! AND IS THAT GALAHAD TOO?! AND SORRY FOR SPOILING SOME OF THE OVA'S MAJOR PLOT POINTS! Anyways, Japan released another Fate/Grand Order OVA near the end of the year in 2017 to commemorate the upcoming New Year and the prologue to Part 2 of Fate/Grand Order. Since the OVA has yet to have official English subs and isn't available on any legal streaming website yet, I haven't taken the time to watch this OVA yet. I don't really know what happens in here, but I do know it takes place after Part I of Fate/Grand Order. From what I have seen of the raw anime footage, Moonlight/Lostroom is exactly what the title indicates. The story of the OVA basically takes place during the Christmas season at Chaldea, where Ritsuka Fujimaru finds himself in a lost corner of Chaldea and is transported to several alternate universes, ranging from him fighting alongside Olga Marie in E Pluribus Unum despite her being dead ever since the prologue to him actually getting to fight and meet Galahad himself. It does seem that the anime genuinely has some awesome moments and even more Adaptation Expansion like First Order, but it seems MyAnimeList.net still isn't too fond of Lay-duce's FGO OVA productions. Regardless, this seems to be a nice OVA to look at. It probably isn't great, but it at least seems fun to watch if you're an FGO player.