I've written plenty about the Fate franchise in the past, so I feel like I probably ought say something about this, but, well. What would I even say? Something like "I have complex feelings" seems like it's both overselling it and underselling it.
I wouldn't call myself a Type-Moon old-head necessarily, but I suppose I am by the standards of today seeing as I played the fan patches of both Tsukihime and F/SN. My cracked install of the latter has been clicked-and-dragged across literally four separate machines over the years. My desktop feels off without the shortcut with Saber's little pixellated face. Back in my day, it was just the only way a westerner could interact with the franchise other than watching the DEEN anime or getting Fate/Unlimited Codes on the PSP.
I simply didn't think they'd bother bringing over F/SN at this point; FGO and the various anime are huge enough as it is. How many western FGO players have played F/SN? 10%? Is it a greater or lesser number than the amount who played the western release of MaHoYo? The fact I can ask this question at all already feels incredibly bizarre. Does it even matter? Why would anybody care? Why do I still feel like I might care?
If I think about it, it's just another "franchise I was really into a while back". Another Sanderson Cosmere, where once I cared so, so much and now I'm just... "scarred" or "traumatized" would be too much. "Plagued", perhaps; "marked". I can't find it quickly enough to link here, but there's an older Cohost post roughly about how "anywhere you spend enough time in feels important", regardless of if it was a good experience or not. I kinda feel like that, I guess. With big franchises, your devotion never actually gets rewarded, only exploited.
Five, ten years ago, I would have said "it's about time". In 2024, I'm just tired.
Really curious about how this is going to land now, especially with a 2020s translation. F/SN is uneven--honestly I don't remember finding the first arc very much more substantial than the Deen adaptation, and you kind of get the impression that Nasu was more enthusiastic about some parts than others. But it has its moments.
