Pst, hello! 👀 What your reccomendation if I wanted to get into the Fate series? There's so much material 😂
FATE SERIES FATE SERIES FATE SERIES
the tl;dr of the whole thing is "read the realta nua version of the fsn visual novel and then hollow ataraxia please and thank you; download links provided under cut (っ˘ω˘ς )"
(or if you prefer anime start with fate/zero or fate/unlimited bladeworks and then watch the other one. order doesn't really matter, but those two will provide a solid base.)
Okay. I'm going to blast you with some text so be prepared.
I could give you a whole flowchart to let you decide, but I think that's probably Not The Best Idea since it's also pretty overwhelming :V
It very much depends on if you're just curious about the series and want to take a peek or you have a decent amount of time to invest in it and want a better understanding of the series. (Basically, the 'do I want to start with the anime or the visual novel?' dilemma.)
Starting with the visual novels
My #1 recommendation is to start with the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel — or the Realta Nua version of it, depending on preference — since that gives the strongest base. 100% all three routes of the VN takes roughly 80 hours, so taking several sessions to complete it is recommended :y
(Do take note that the OG VN is an eroge with comically badly written H scenes (Nasu, the author of it, is notorious for his copious food metaphors in those). Realta Nua essentially removes those (but there is the option to put them back in) and revises a bit of the writing and characterisation, and has some extra content. If you asked me, Realta Nua has the better experience.)
(Also very important: order of the routes are Fate/Stay Night -> Fate/Unlimited Bladeworks -> Fate/Heaven's Feel. UBW has spoilers for FSN, and HF has massive spoilers for the two others.)
After all that, very very recommended to go read Fate/Hollow Ataraxia because it's funny and amazing and you get to see Bazett who was not featured in the og vn and despite how great it is it doesn't have any completed adaptations :(
(FHA is a sort of sequel to FSN? But in an AU sense, like from an ending that was never achieved in FSN. You'll understand it when you get to it. Probably. Maybe. It also does have H scenes, so have that in mind if you ever decide to play it.)
Starting with anime
This is the better option if you're not sure you'll like the series or don't want to sit through what is essentially an interactive novel.
I would like to recommend you the 2006 anime adaptation of Fate/Stay Night by Studio Deen, but the animation is. um. subpar, in few words. There is a bad CGI of the sex dragon in it though, so if anything you can look forward to that. It would also give you a decent foundation for the system in place and doesn't have any spoilers for Unlimited Bladeworks or Heaven's Feel, which is nice.
Though usually, when people get into Fate by anime it's through Fate/Zero or Fate/Unlimited Bladeworks, both animated by Ufotable.
Fate/Zero was originally a light novel written by Urobutcher Urobuchi, so if you're familiar with his works you can expect a similar feel with this one. It's in some sort a prequel to the FSN but not quite; it's set in an alternate universe but the events are close enough that you could just consider them a direct prequel to the FSN events.
Fate/Unlimited Bladeworks has amazing battle animations and I can definitely recommend you to watch it if only for that. They're just!! So neat and pretty to look at!!! Pretty much my only gripe with it is some characterisation issues with my favourite blorbo :^(
There's also the Fate/Heaven's Feel movies (trilogy, if I'm not wrong), also animated by Ufotable. Great animation, faithful adaptation from what I've heard. Not recommended to watch unless you've already finished at least UBW or FSN, in either anime or VN form.
And this covers the "base" that you need for most other Fate medias! A lot of them will make references back to these, so if you do progress further you might catch a few of them :> Though I do have more things to say...
And this is getting a bit long (understatement, but ignore that), so I'm going to put the extra notes on other works below the cut + some links to the downloads for the stuff above (＠＾◡＾)
