As someone who :
1. Has never played a traditional visual novel
2. Knew absolutely nothing about the franchise before playing/reading
, I am enamored with Fate/Stay Night. Everything from the characters, writing, story, artwork, and music has left me in awe and makes me want to see more of what this series as a whole has to offer.

The game offers three routes for the story: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. Besides each route having their own unique general flow of events, each one also focuses on a different heroine and also lead to big reveals that aren't present outside that chosen route. In addition, at certain points during the story you will be given the chance to make choices on how the story progresses. These may range from choosing which character you want to hang out with to heavier moments that determine whether you will die or survive. (Slight spoilers: without a guide you'll most likely pick the bad end options first)

Aside from the story, the thing that mainly kept me going through the experience were undoubtedly the writing and strong characterization. To my knowledge this is the first time that this game has ever received an official English localization and for the most part its quality is top notch. I rarely ever had a hard time visualizing the environments, conflicts, and character moments with how detailed it is all told. Even the more mundane moments in the story are made all the more engaging with it.

The last few things are the art assets (both character sprites and full splash art) and the music. The art-style as a whole just screams early 2000s anime and it really works for this game. The character sprites are plentiful and expressive while the environments are simplistic but pleasant to look at. And then the cherry on top of this entire game has to be the music. It is ethereal and just like the art, it works for this game. It genuinely is hard to describe how the music is to one who has never heard it before and just like the story I think its best to experience it blindly while playing for the first time.

These aren't exactly flaws but I feel as though some people might care :
- You can't choose whichever route you want to play first. If you want to experience UBW you have to beat Fate route first. And if you want to go through Heaven's Feel you have to finish UBW.
- There are several times during the latter parts of each route where typos will be noticed. Again, I've only noticed typos appearing during later chapters but they also are rare and far apart from each other.

My experience with Fate may still be minuscule, but I already wholeheartedly agree with the more avid fans of the franchise that Fate/stay Night Remastered is indeed the best place to start in experiencing this series. The fact it managed to draw in someone like me whose never played these types of game says a lot about its quality.
Now to wait for Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Remastered.