Admittedly, this is my first Visual Novel or even my first pure Adventure game in general so it's hard for me to say what was well-done on the technical side of thing but I'm capable of looking at what this does do in terms of writing.
There are two interesting things about FSN to me, those being:
- A full narrative that transitions between each route (meaning the story in-fact develops from the last route)
- Interesting ways Shirou can die (or how magic works in this world)
I doubt FSN is the first VN to have the route-to-route narrative progression I've mentioned but I found it interesting that it purposely bars you from proceeding to other routes until you've completed the previous one. It made the total VN into one huge story rather than 3 separate, smaller stories (though it can still be read that way)
Its story structure aside, the general writing is rather strong. Hosting well-thought through characters that are consistent within they're given characterisation on the surface and on deeper analysis.
Though the capabilities of Servants are extremely unclear as you'll find them scaling skyscrapers through assumedly magic, or have super-human abilities on their own or even losing to humans which are said to be weaker than Servants towards. It leads to my suspicion of disbelief to become strained and cause me to stop taking the entire story seriously. But with some thought from yourself you could come up with assumptions as to why this is and make sense of it on your own but it'll never really be confirmed in the story itself.
I also find it strange that the story surrounds a battle royale plot and yet the story/themes itself aren't based around the perspective of multiple characters. Instead it's a character study of our protagonist proceeding a loose following of the Coming-of-Age narrative. Not that this is a flaw necessarily but it does strike me as 'unfitting' somewhat but it works here.
Also try to die a lot, there're plenty of dead/bad ends that add a lot to the based narrative. It's also a shame that this game is also blatantly unfinished, most obviously seen within the final route where everything is thrown at you at light-speed, almost as if there was meant to be a fourth route.
There are two interesting things about FSN to me, those being:
- A full narrative that transitions between each route (meaning the story in-fact develops from the last route)
- Interesting ways Shirou can die (or how magic works in this world)
I doubt FSN is the first VN to have the route-to-route narrative progression I've mentioned but I found it interesting that it purposely bars you from proceeding to other routes until you've completed the previous one. It made the total VN into one huge story rather than 3 separate, smaller stories (though it can still be read that way)
Its story structure aside, the general writing is rather strong. Hosting well-thought through characters that are consistent within they're given characterisation on the surface and on deeper analysis.
Though the capabilities of Servants are extremely unclear as you'll find them scaling skyscrapers through assumedly magic, or have super-human abilities on their own or even losing to humans which are said to be weaker than Servants towards. It leads to my suspicion of disbelief to become strained and cause me to stop taking the entire story seriously. But with some thought from yourself you could come up with assumptions as to why this is and make sense of it on your own but it'll never really be confirmed in the story itself.
I also find it strange that the story surrounds a battle royale plot and yet the story/themes itself aren't based around the perspective of multiple characters. Instead it's a character study of our protagonist proceeding a loose following of the Coming-of-Age narrative. Not that this is a flaw necessarily but it does strike me as 'unfitting' somewhat but it works here.
Also try to die a lot, there're plenty of dead/bad ends that add a lot to the based narrative. It's also a shame that this game is also blatantly unfinished, most obviously seen within the final route where everything is thrown at you at light-speed, almost as if there was meant to be a fourth route.