The newest version of the popular Fate franchise will soon be released with the new phone game, Fate/Grand Order. It will be arriving on Japanese Android and iOS phones at the end of the month. While the franchise is more of a cult hit here in the states, the franchise is immensely popular in Japan with a brand new story.
The Fate franchise started in 2004 with the visual novel Fate/Stay Night. The story surrounds the war for the Holy Grail and mages who summon heroes from myth and legend to fight to achieve it. Think of it like Pokemon for mythology nerds. Also, King Arthur was actually a cute anime girl, T.H. White neglected to mention that. Since the series aired it’s had numerous spin-offs that include, anime, light novels, and video games. The war in the series usually consists of seven mages and their summoned warriors, so it will be interesting to see how that model will be handled on an online multiplayer game. The franchise has modified that format before though, so there’s no telling.
No word on an American release and I wouldn’t hold my breath either. Only the anime adaptations and one of the video game spinoffs have been localized. Even with the upswing of localizing visual novels Fate/Stay Night still hasn’t come over, to say nothing of the light novels. Still, I never thought any visual novels would come to America and here we are, so hope springs eternal.
