A Beginner’s Guide to the Spin-offs and Side Stories of Fate Series

The Fate franchise has become popular worldwide and is one of Japan’s most renowned multimedia franchises. Made by Type-moon, Fate was first released as a visual Novel in 2004 as Fate/Stay Night, a story-driven erotic Visual Novel that follows a young boy called Emiya Shirou who suddenly finds himself in a secret magical war filled with Heroic Spirits. The purpose of this war is to win an all-powerful magical item called the Holy Grail that can grant the winner any wish. The premise of the series centers around Mages called Masters that summon Heroic Spirits called Servants to fight in a battle royale for the claim of the Grail. However, this is not always the case, as some installments of the series explore other rules and settings that deviate from this premise.

The Fate series is enjoyed by fans because of its many distinctive qualities, including its unparalleled and crisp animation, multifaceted story, and many unique installments and timelines, but there are some minor issues. New fans of the series, and even long-time watchers may encounter problems solving the puzzle of what order to watch the series in and even how to go about its side stories and spinoffs, and for good reason. The story has a vast and ever-expanding universe with different stories and similar but ultimately different characters that may confuse fans who are not privy to the grand order of the series.

The Main Story

The Source Material

To have a clearer picture of the overarching story of Fate, fans must understand the storyline of the first visual novel and the themes explored in its story. This sets the tone for the rest of the Fate series and explains the main storylines, regardless of what form of media these stories appear in, be it a light novel, game, or anime. The original visual novel had a romance-based narrative that could lead the protagonist Emiya Shirou through three possible routes depending on his choices between three primary love interests. It is worth mentioning that besides the three main story routes including; Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel, there is also Fate/Zero, and Fate/hollow Ataraxia, which, although serve as prequels and sequels respectively, are ultimately alternate routes in the mainline story.

Fate/Stay Night

The first route of the Fate/stay Night visual novel is the Fate route, which focuses on Emiya Shirou’s Servant and Heroic Spirit Saber in the fifth Holy Grail War. Saber also known as Arthuria Pendragon, the King of Camelot serves as the primary love interest of Emiya Shirou. This story route must be finished first before the Unlimited Bladeworks and Heaven’s Feel route can be played. The Fate route was adapted into an animated series titled Fate/Stay Night in 2006, and produced by Studio Deen.

Unlimited Blade Works

The Unlimited Blade Works Route focuses on Emiya Shirou’s relationship with Rin Toshaka and her Servant Archer. Rin Toshaka is the head of the Toshaka mage family and a fellow Master in the fifth Holy Grail war and serves as the heroine and love interest of Emiya Shirou in this route. This route focuses heavily on the character progression and development of the main cast with an emphasis on the ideals and beliefs of the characters. The best way to access this route in the visual novel is to finish the Fate route. The Unlimited Blade Works route has been adapted into multiple media formats including;

• Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – The Anime Series
• Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works- Anime Movie
• Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works – Manga Adaptation
• Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – Stage Play
• Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works- Audio Drama

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Heaven’s Feel

Heaven’s Feel is the final route of the Fate/stay Night visual novel. This route can be accessed after finishing both the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works routes. Sakura Matou serves as Emiya Shirou’s primary love interest, and her Servant Rider is the major servant protagonist in this route. It is one of the longest and the most complex of the three featured in the visual novel. It goes in-depth on a lot of previously undiscovered history and lore of the Holy Grail highlighting the dark and twisted aspects of the war. Some of the adaptations of the Heaven’s Feel route include:

• Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel I. presage flower: Anime Movie
• Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel II. lost butterfly: Anime Movie
• Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III. spring song: Anime Movie
• Fate/stay night Heaven’s Feel: Manga
• Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel: Audio Drama
• Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel: Stage Play

Side Stories

Alternate Stories Of The Series

The Fate series has numerous side and spin-off stories that deviate from the main story in numerous ways. These deviations could be in their protagonists and the overarching story, or differences in the structure of the Holy Grail War. The stories range from serious alternate timeline stories to light-hearted and comedic stories, but regardless of the tone, there are a myriad of stories to choose from. These stories range from Anime to light novels and everything in between.

Fate/Grand Order

The Fate/Grand Order series is based on the popular mobile RPG game released in 2015. The game is heavily narrative-driven with story arcs dedicated to specific Heroic Spirits. The Premise of this story centers around a group known as Chaldea, an organization tasked with the survival of humanity. This organization predicts that humanity will be extinct by the year twenty seventeen, and believes that this extinction event is caused by abnormalities in history known as Singularities. The story centers around Masters and Servants who work for Chaldea for the sake of finding and neutralizing Singularities. Chaldea utilizes a technology called SHEBA to locate these Singularities with the aid of a powerful teleportation technology called Rayshifting to teleport the Masters and Servants to them. Fate/Grand Order has numerous Anime adaptations including:

• Fate/Grand Order: First Order: TV Special
• Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom: TV Special
• Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front: TV Series
• Fate/Grand Order: Camelot: Wandering; Agaterám: Anime Movie
• Fate/Grand Order: Camelot :Paladin; Agaterám: Anime Movie
• Fate/Grand Order: Solomon: Anime Movie

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA is a Fate/Stay Night spin-off series set in an alternate universe with the first iteration being a manga. In this universe, the main protagonist is Illya, who appears as a middle school girl, who lives a peaceful life with her adoptive brother Emiya Shirou. The story begins when Illya gains a magical wand called Ruby that grants her magical girl powers. This story strays away from the traditional fate structure in the sense that there are no Masters and Servants, just Heroic spirits Illya collects. The spin-off has multiple Anime adaptations including;

• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Anime Series
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei!: Anime Series
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei Herz!: Anime Series
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei!! : Anime Series
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Oath Under Snow: Anime Movie
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Prisma☆Phantasm: OVA
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Prisma☆Phantasm: OVA
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Licht: The Nameless Girl: Anime Movie
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Prisma☆Phantasm: OVA

Watch Order

The watch order of the Fate Anime series isn’t a complicated affair. There is a relatively correct order for both the mainline story Fate/Stay Night, and the spin-off and side stories. Other additions such as OVAs and specials can be watched and enjoyed without any chronological restrictions.

Main Story

The main story can be watched chronologically in this order:

• Fate/stay night (2006)
• Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
• Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel I. presage flower
• Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel II. lost butterfly
• Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III. spring song
• Fate/Zero

Spin-off Order

• Fate/Prototype (2011) – Concept Video
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei!
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei Herz!
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei!!
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Oath Under Snow: Movie
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Prisma☆Phantasm: OVA
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Prisma☆Phantasm: OVA
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Licht – The Nameless Girl: Movie
• Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Prisma☆Phantasm: OVA
• Fate/Grand Order: First Order: TV Special
• Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom: TV Special
• Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front: TV Series
• Fate/Grand Order: Camelot – Wandering; Agaterám: Movie
• Fate/Grand Order: Camelot – Paladin; Agaterám: Movie
• Fate/Grand Order: Solomon: Movie
• Fate/Apocrypha
• Fate/EXTRA Last Encore
• Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files (Rail Zeppelin Grace Note)
• Fate/strange Fake: Whispers of Dawn: TV Special
• Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family: TV Series
• Carnival Phantasm: OVA Series

Following this, fans will be able to watch the franchise in a synchronized order.

Fate/Zero is now available to watch on Crunchyroll.

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Fate/Zero

Studio

Ufotable

Creator

Gen Urobuchi

Number of Episodes

25