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Who could’ve expected that a very popular anime series and a HoYoverse game would collaborate? Certainly not me. I was taken off guard when I heard that Honkai Star Rail will have a collab with Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. Despite only releasing in 2025, HoYoverse has already announced this upcoming event on July 19, 2024. Considering the length of development, something big may be coming, and fans may not be ready.
What Is Fate/Stay Night?
First of all, let’s start talking about the Fate series. Although this franchise is very popular, some players may not know about this series and are coming in blind. The Fate series is basically a media collective owned by Type-Moon, which includes anime series, games, and visual novels.
It usually focuses on events called Holy Grail Wars that involve Masters, who are usually magi, summoning Heroic Spirits as their Servants. They will fight in a battle royale until one last remaining pair can claim the Holy Grail and fulfill their wishes.
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works is an anime adaption of a visual novel called Fate/Stay Night. It follows the story of a teen called Shiro who got dragged into a Holy Grail War after summoning a Heroic Spirit. The visual novel is divided into three major routes, and Unlimited Blade Works is one of them.
What Can We Expect From Honkai Star Rail’s Upcoming Collab?
I want to make it clear that this part is merely speculation since HoYoverse is very secretive about this collab. However, I have some speculations about what we can expect from the Honkai Star Rail and Fate/Stay Night collab.
Considering the lengthy development time, we may get a story event featuring characters from Fate/Stay Night. Honkai Star Rail is set in a distant future where we can travel to countless planets. It’s not strange if the Astral Express group somehow ends up on Earth. Of course, it is also possible that some magic shenanigans drop the Fate/Stay Night characters on our group’s path.
Since HoYoverse specifies that it will collaborate with Unlimited Blade Works, we won’t be able to see some popular characters from other shows in the franchise, like Astolfo. I believe the most likely characters to show up are Saber, Emiya, Rin, and Archer. Frankly, I hope we can encounter Gilgamesh since he is my favorite.
Besides a story event, Honkai Star Rail fans may actually be able to get a playable Fate/Stay Night character. I’m not sure if they’re going to be a free unit or if there’s going to be a limited-time banner. Based on Genshin Impact’s collab, we should be able to get at least one free character. I just hope they are not going to have a bad kit like Aloy.
The Best Way to Prepare
Since the collab is not going to happen until 2025, Honkai Star Rail players have ample time to prepare themselves. Obviously, I suggest fans at least watch Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works anime, but you can also see other shows, like Heaven’s Feel and Fate/Zero. Ufotable produces the series, and you may have already been familiar with their works if you’ve watched the Genshin Impact‘s anime trailer.
The anime has 26 episodes and is one of the best series you could watch. The show is available on various platforms, such as Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Hulu. I personally will rewatch the anime again when I have free time because it has been a while since I last saw the series.
Although some fans may have concerns about the upcoming Honkai Star Rail collab, I believe you don’t need to worry much. It’s no secret that devs in the HoYoverse team are fans of Nasu, the main writer of the Fate series, as they have dropped numerous Fate references in their games. I think they are going to do their best to make the upcoming event amazing.
