It’s an excellent year to be a fan of TYPE-MOON and the Fate series, with a bumper crop of visual novels, video games, and anime slated to hit your TV (or PC) sometime this year. The most recent announcement was, of course, the official Fate/stay Night remaster, which will see the original visual novel released outside Japan for the first ever, complete with an official English translation.
That’s not all to be excited for though! Prepare your summoning ritual as we check out everything Fate-related coming in 2024 and beyond!
Undoubtedly the most exciting announcement for Fate fans is the forthcoming remaster of Fate/stay Night, the original 2004 visual novel that ignited a multi-billion-dollar multimedia franchise spanning multiple films and games across two decades. The announcement was made on January 30, 2024, exactly twenty years after the original game’s release. The remaster will follow the storyline of Réalta Nua (Irish for ‘new star’), the 2007 PlayStation 2 version of the story that removes the original’s eroge scenes and adds the anime’s voice actors.
For twenty years, fans of Fate/stay Night have struggled with unofficial copies and translations, but the remaster will see Fate/stay Night released outside Japan with English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese language options, for Nintendo Switch and PC.
The truly excellent action role-playing game, Fate/Samurai Remnant, released to surprising praise in September 2023. Putting the player in control of Miyamoto Iori, a historical samurai-turned-master, the game sees Iori navigate a corrupted Holy Grail War known as the ‘Waxing Moon Ritual’, set during the waning years of the Edo period. Popular servants like Gilgamesh and Jeanne d’Arc return, while new servants such as Iori’s late master (and mythical Japanese swordsmith), Miyamoto Musashi, receive a classic Fate-style gender-bending.
Starting in February 2024, the first of three downloadable chapters will become available, with the first entitled Record’s Fragment: Keian Command Championship, centring around Gilgamesh (known jovially as ‘Boss’) and a potential tournament of his own making.
The first half of the visual novel remake, Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon, is heading Westwards in Summer 2024, with Japanese voice acting and a full English translation. Technically the true ‘precursor’ to the Fate universe, Tsukihime sits at the crossroads of creator Kinoko Nasu’s subsequent works, including the mega-success Fate/stay Night. Tsukihime explores concepts like the Dead Apostles and Holy Church that are hinted at in Fate/Zero, the prequel to Fate/stay Night.
Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon first released for PS4 and Switch in August, 2021, remaking the ‘Moon Princess’ and ‘Midnight Rainbow’ routes from the original game, which collectively form the “Near Side of the Moon” portion of the original game. Tsukihime is a direct sequel to Witch on the Holy Night, with the remake project updating the original visual novel to take place in 2010’s Japan.
Admittedly, there’s no firm release date for Ufotable’s anime film adaptation of Witch on the Holy Night, but given the second trailer released on New Year’s Eve 2023, we’re quietly hopeful that the full theatrical release isn’t too far away. If you’re unfamiliar with how Witch on the Holy Night fits into the overall Fate universe, know that it mostly follows Aoko Aozaki—a Magician whose family can access the ‘Root’ (the ultimate goal in Fate/stay Night and Fate/Apocrypha).
Originally released as a visual novel in 2012 for Japanese audiences, an enhanced version with voice acting was released by Aniplex worldwide in December 2022. Unlike Fate/stay Night, Witch on the Holy Night only has a singular ending, using ‘kinetic’ effects to enhance the storytelling. There are reportedly two visual novel sequels to Witch on the Holy Night in the works—but we’ll settle for the movie, especially since Ufotable have proven themselves time and again with Fate/stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works and the Heaven’s Feel trilogy adaptations.
Another anime on the cards, July 2023 saw Aniplex and studio A-1 Pictures release Fate/strange Fake: Whispers of Dawn, a 1-hour TV Special based in Ryogo Narita’s light novel series, Fate/strange Fake. We thought Fate/strange Fake’s special was fantastic, and shortly after the special aired, a full TV anime was announced. Hopefully we’ll see the anime air sometime in 2024, although the production team hasn’t announced a release window as of the time of writing.
Fate/strange Fake follows an alternate Holy Grail War that takes place in the United States, with ‘strange’ servants that have unusual abilities or don’t exist in the normal manner shown within the Fate universe. While we wait for the anime, we’ll be playing the incredible theme song, “FAKEit” by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:Laco, on repeat!