Sakura route for sure. It's the one where you learn the most world lore and background of the war that really isn't explained in the previous ones. Fate is a lot of "girls should stay in the kitchen, even superheroes" and UBW is pretty interesting but not as substantial, IMO. Also less important but still a factor: HF is the only route where the sex scenes don't feel totally contrived to just sell the game. Put another way, the replacements in Realta Nua detract from HF route the most, while Fate and UBW are more or less the same.
In hindsight HF makes Fate and UBW feel like the Bishoujo and Cool routes to hook people. Which is not a bad thing - if you overload people with dense exposition from the start it will turn them off.
Last edited by mewarmo990; October 8th, 2014 at 08:35 PM.
It's funny because the route that frontloads the most exposition is probably Fate anyway.
even if a part of that exposition is only there to be proven wrong later
[04:55] Lianru: i3uster is actuallly quite cute
That might be objectively true but I'm just describing the impression I am left with, not having played through the game since 2007 or so. I was left pretty satisifed with HF because things made a lot more sense now. Plus that shout-outs to Touko and Zelretch were so satisfying to finally read.
On that last bit, what I mean is that it wasn't positively clear if Fate/ was set in the same (multi)verse as Rakkyo and Tsukihime. Counter Force gets brought up a lot but is described very differently, and Tsukihime doesn't have much connection at all.
Last edited by mewarmo990; October 8th, 2014 at 08:43 PM.
Also, really guys, you're so scared of discussing favorite routes now that you request locks? Are we really at this point? Has this become 4chan?
We had like 50 page favorite route threads back when polls was still active, why are you all panicking. We can do this without being retarded if nobody is being retarded (fun things are incidentally fun)
[04:55] Lianru: i3uster is actuallly quite cute
Well then fuck that guy.
This is the reason why I think Fate is the weakest. F/SN is great in utilizing its structure for cathartic moments which is something Fate doesn't have at all, because it can't. It has to be completely self contained in its payoffs until replay while also having to put out all the hooks for the later routes.
Liking Fate from what I saw boils down to an 80/20 split of liking the romance aspect of it which is the best one of the routes imo (and in the opinion of many others) and in the way it delivers its core message and people agreeing with the way it handles it over UBWs less idealistic version. But to me Fate really doesn't offer a message that can be disconnected from UBW so I can't really understand that part.
i can understand waifuism tho, i finished that shit and was ready to be on team saber
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I would put HF equal to UBW but the day..I think 7/8 SoL parts legitimately made me drop HF for almost a month.
[04:55] Lianru: i3uster is actuallly quite cute
I like all the routes, but liked UBW the best. Felt the most "balanced", out of the three. Not much else to say about it.
Well, Rin and Archer are both some of my favorite characters; Lancer, Caster, and Assassin are also cool; and Answer was one of my favorite scenes in the entire novel. It also had an ending I quite liked, Brilliant Years. (For comparison, I didn't like either of HF's endings too much. Not bad, but not the best. Continuation of the Dream is my absolute favorite)
Linger: Complete. August, 1995. I met him. A branch off Part 3. Mikiya keeps his promise to meet Azaka, and meets again with that mysterious girl he once found in the rain.
Shinkai: Set in the Edo period. DHO-centric. As mysterious figures gather in the city, a young woman unearths the dark secrets of the Asakami family.
The Dollkeeper: A Fate side-story. The memoirs of the last tuner of the Einzberns. A record of the end of a family.
Overcount 2030: Extra x Notes. A girl with no memories is found by a nameless soldier, and wakes up to a world of war.
I get what you're saying, buster. Fate is constrained out of necessity for a lot of reasons. The other routes have to explain things that it can only hint at, it has to have a waifu/romance to hook first time players, etc. Doesn't mean I didn't like it, I even teared up towards the end. But world lore-wise (which I really want) it's the weakest.
Last edited by mewarmo990; October 8th, 2014 at 09:05 PM.
For Fate, I actually did quite like it, though I don't remember why. I really liked the finale and ending though. Not the most "epic", but the Fate finale was one of my absolute favorite scenes, no matter what others say.
HF has a lot of cool moments, but Sakura is my least favorite heroine. Just don't care for her. Best parts of HF were Kotomine and Illya.
Linger: Complete. August, 1995. I met him. A branch off Part 3. Mikiya keeps his promise to meet Azaka, and meets again with that mysterious girl he once found in the rain.
Shinkai: Set in the Edo period. DHO-centric. As mysterious figures gather in the city, a young woman unearths the dark secrets of the Asakami family.
The Dollkeeper: A Fate side-story. The memoirs of the last tuner of the Einzberns. A record of the end of a family.
Overcount 2030: Extra x Notes. A girl with no memories is found by a nameless soldier, and wakes up to a world of war.
It's still far from bad. I guess you can argue that it managing to be a good self-contained story while also having to dump setting info and foreshadowing for two other routes makes its writing superior to the other routes if you want to? But to me the actual experience matters more, which is why I can't count handicaps like that in my evaluation.
[04:55] Lianru: i3uster is actuallly quite cute
UBW because it has the most Tohsaka and Tohsaka makes me laugh. I imagine other stuff happened too but it's probably not important anyway.
Ahem, he was a pretty big threat in the route.
Whooping servants left and right, needed Archer, Saber, rin and Shirou to off him for good.
While UBW has his best moment, it also expects you to know how unstoppable he is to appreciate it.
Else he is just a fodder who happened to break a chain and not die for a few seconds before dying (something cu does better)