Updated on August 21, 11:38 a.m. (GMT+8): Added new teaser trailer that premiered at Gamescom 2024.
In a major announcement for fans of both franchises, HoYoverse’s turn-based RPG gacha game Honkai Star Rail teased a collaboration with the iconic fantasy-action anime series Fate stay night: Unlimited Blade Works.
This marks the first official Fate stay night collaboration for Honkai Star Rail.
The collab was revealed during the HSR version 2.4 special program. The program host, Owlbert, teased a “mysterious collaboration” coming to the game.
Hoyoverse teams up with Type-Moon and ufotable in massive Honkai Star Rail and Fate stay night collaboration
The collaboration brings in characters and elements from Fate stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, featuring ufotable’s 2014 anime adaptation, known for its incredible visuals and action sequences.
The Unlimited Blade Works route focuses on Shirou Emiya and his bond with Rin Tohsaka during a magical tournament called Holy Grail War.
HoYoverse is keeping the details of the collab under wraps, but that hasn’t stopped players from speculating. Trailblazers have high hopes of seeing playable characters or skins inspired by the Holy Grail War’s most iconic participants — Shirou, Saber, Rin, and Archer, to name a few.
Players can expect this exciting crossover to be released in the third quarter of next year, sometime between July and September of 2025.
Unlimited Blade Works isn’t HoYoverse’s first foray into anime collaborations. They’ve brought crossovers to their action RPG Honkai Impact 3rd, featuring mecha anime Evangelion and anime film Promare.
In a separate project, HoYoverse is collaborating with FSN animation studio ufotable to bring the world of Genshin Impact to life in an anime series.
During Gamescom 2024, a new teaser was shown. Pom-Pom was sweeping the floor in the Astral Express when a red light flew by. Feeling angry, Pom-Pom entered one of the rooms shouting, “What are you three up to now?” before realizing that it wasn’t the Astral crew that caused the ruckus.
At the end of the short clip, Archer’s voice was heard saying, “Looks like I just met another impressive Master.” He is voiced by Junichi Suwabe.
The HSR and Fate stay night collaboration appears to be highly synchronous because of the game and anime’s shared thematic elements and structural similarities. Fate stay night (FSN) features a class system where Heroic Spirits are assigned to different classes, each with unique abilities and traits. HSR’s path system mirrors this class system.
This focus on heroes goes beyond just gameplay mechanics. HSR lead producer David Jiang, in an interview with Famitsu and Denfami Nicogamer, revealed that some of the game’s characters were actually inspired by the Servants in FSN.
“During the early stages of planning HSR, when discussing what kind of story to create, I had already conceptualized the desire to create a story about heroes,” David said. “The heroic figures that came to mind at that time were the Servants and characters from the Fate series.”
The love for both franchises seems to be mutual. In the same interview, Fate stay night series author Kinoko Nasu revealed he’s an avid gamer of HSR, along with other HoYoverse titles.
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