Fate/Hollow Ataraxia

Fate/hollow ataraxia is a visual novel that abandons the traditional linear gameplay and route-based system of Fate/stay night. It features a "lighter" tone than its predecessor through a slice of life approach. through the perspectives of Avenger, Shirou Emiya and Bazett Fraga McRemitz. An interactive aerial map of the city allows players to choose specific scenes during morning, noon, and night. Players must investigate the mystery of the loop—marked by "!". For progression, flags are retained across loops, allowing players to gradually unlock new events and eventually resolve the loop. Throughout the game, multiple minigames can be unlocked—including a Hanafuda card game, "Operation Illya's Castle", ==Plot==

Fate/hollow ataraxia takes place several months after the events of Fate/stay night in Fuyuki City. A time loop occurs due to the tampering of Rin Tohsaka's Jewel Sword which inadvertently merged all the potential timelines of the Holy Grail War. Tohsaka later embarks on mission to fix things with the Mages' Association in England. Emiya suspects something is wrong when he finds himself repeatedly meeting Caren Ortensia in the same scenarios. He realizes that Bazett and him are in a time loop that begins on the fourth day of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Each time Emiya and McRemitz die or survive, they wake up on the first day of the loop. Avenger is revealed as the catalyst of the corruption of the Holy Grail in the previous Holy Grail war, and the time loop. Having become a weak Grail with the destruction of its physical vessel and his soul separated of Greater Grail in process, his spirit came across a dying Bazett and responded to her wish to live. He created the time loop inside of Bazett's mind and replicated the characters in this dream world, while the real Shirou and his friends are living peacefully in the outside world. After learning the truth from Caren, Avenger and Bazett destroy the Grail to put an end to the loop. Bazett awakens from her coma in the real world and Avenger returns to the void. He revives the participants of the Fifth Holy Grail War who died more than half a year ago, excluding Kotomine Kirei. In the epilogue, Bazett quits the Magic Association and becomes a freelancer. == Development ==

, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. After the release of the Fate/stay night visual novel, there were no plans for a sequel. As Kinoko Nasu felt Emiya's character arc and the Holy Grail War fully concluded within the three original routes. The concept of hollow ataraxia started with Nasu's idea to merge the routes of Fate/stay night into a "cohesive" story, inspired by the concept of their previous work, Kagetsu Tohya. Development for Fate/hollow ataraxia began after the release of its predecessor in January 2004. Nasu wrote the narrative, while Takashi Takeuchi was the character designer and art director. For work on the scenario, Nasu contributed alongside sub-writers who aided with daily writing and editing. Further writers included Meteo Hoshizora and several other new scenario writers to Type-Moon—including Aramoto Kei, Hikaru Sakurai, and Morisaki Ryouto. and as a bonus came bundled with the visual novel's original soundtrack. The manufacturing of the original adult version had since then been suspended. Also along with having full-voice acting, an opening video by Japanese animation studio Ufotable, and theme songs by Japanese singer Aimer, the limited edition version was bundled with a collection of art material and a mini-Nendoroid figure of Avenger. In August 2024, a remastered version was announced for release. ==Media==

Manga Several sets of manga anthologies based on Fate/hollow ataraxia were produced. Including Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Anthology Comic, released by Ichijinsha on January 7, 2006, under DNA Media Comics; the fifteenth volume in the series was released on August 25, 2008. Two anthology series were then released by Kadokawa, released between January to May 2006. Another two were then released by Enterbrain. Fate/hollow ataraxia Anthology Comic was released between January 30, 2006, and May 25, 2007, in nine tankōbon volumes under their Magi-Cu Comics imprint. A yonkoma series was later published by Enterbrain between December 25, 2007, and December 25, 2008, in six volumes. In 2013, a Fate/hollow ataraxia manga illustrated by Medori and published by Kadokawa began serializing in the Monthly Shounen Ace magazine. bearing the catalog number TMC-1007; it was re-released alongside Fate/stay night Remastered in August 2025. The game's theme song "Hollow" by rhu, was released by Type-Moon on October 28, 2005. Aimer's songs "broKen NIGHT / holLow wORlD," and "Open The Doors" were used as the opening and ending theme songs for Fate/hollow ataraxia respectively. ==Reception==

Fate/hollow ataraxia was regarded as one of the top selling visual novels of 2005. In Japan, the PlayStation Vita (PSV) version sold 53,979 copies within its first week, ranking at fourth place amongst all Japanese software sales for the November 24–30, 2014 week of sales charts. By February 2017, the game had sold over 100,000 copies. The Steam release had an estimated over 60,000 players by March 2026. ==Notes==