Media discourse today sounds like everyone is talking about the himalaya mountains. Everything is the highest peak or the biggest fall of. I would argue that most titles are not in the territory of mountains but more in the range of hills. Yes they have highs and lows but most of the time these are not as big and dramatic as people make them out to be and thats fine. Nothing wrong with appreciating a clean hilly landscape or even preferring them over the mountains.

After playing/ reading this VN I can hawever confidently say: this is truly one of the peaks. But why? Well lets dive into it.

Lets get one thing out of the way: this is a VN. There is no complex gameplay here, no skill to be displayed. One cannot be "good" at playing VN's, it is all about experiencing and enyoing the story and characters. If that is a total dealbreaker for you than you probably won't enjoy this. But if you are ready to even give the slightest of chances to this genre of game than you are good to go. This was my first VN as well and I had no prior preference for VN's and I still would not consider myself a VN fan.

Okay then, why do I like the story so much? At it's core, this VN is structured in 3 routes (one per main heroine) in a fixed order. I will not go into their stories in detail. I will however explain how they differ from one another and where their individual strengths lie, as the game does a very good job at creating a very distinct feeling for each route and I consider this one of the biggest strengths as there is something for everyone depending on the route.

The first route (titled "Fate route") is the most "introverted" route. It has the least amount of focus on external conflict and mainly orbits around the realtionship between the MC and the heroine of the route, saber. In comparison to the other routes it resembles the "tragic backstory/ foundation but hopeful outlook" archetype, which is fairly common.
This seemingly "vanilla" template is chosen because this route also does the heavy lifting in introducing the world, it's rules and the magic system as well as the basic cast of main and side characters.
Despite the standard template however, this template is executed exeptionally well. The main conflict in this route is prioritizing duty/ ideals vs. your personal needs as a person, which is represented in both main characters respectively.
This is not done in a black and white one vs. the other person kind of way as both struggle with this conflict which I found to be very interesting. They both play of each other well and by seing their issues in the other as a kind of mirror, they heal each other and together.
The way this is done is also a very organic and engaging which enables the reader to go on that internal journey with the characters, especially saber, and led to me replaying and thinking about their shared development in my head even days later. I am not really emotional when it comes to media but the ending managed to really tuck on my heartstrings. This masterclass of a character relationship of the MC and saber was probably my favorite part of the VN.
All of these character aspects are very well integrated in the overarching story and the themes/ messages the route wants to convey so that one could not work without the other.

The second route (titled"Unlimited Blade Works" or "UBW" for short) is the "shounen" route as I would call it. It has the biggest focus on external conflict and - similar to a shounen anime - uses this to give internal/ ideological conflcts an external form. Before this route I would have been unsure how well this could work in a mostly text based form as I often find written fights to be tedious, but UBW makes excellent use of the limited visual capabilities of a VN in combination with some iconic soundtracks. It deals with the conflict ideals vs. the real consequences of following these ideals and how much you are willing to sacrifice and compromise in the pursuit of them.

The third and final route (called "Heavens Feel") is between the two others in terms of external vs. internal conflict. It does however include a very rapid tonal shift as it is way more tragic and bleak than the other two as time goes on. The interesting thing is that it manages bleakness in two very distinct ways:
1. by revealing more and more about the up untill this point unknown backstory and events surrounding one specific character (trust me at the end of it you are left to wonder how in the hell this person could endure all that)
2. by recontextualizing a relevant amount of the other routes scenes through this additional information. This hits especially hard when you remember that the other routes initially had a much brightere tone
This bleakness is not a self serving purpose however. Through it the route asks the question: Is there a point where one has to abandon their ideals for the sake of yourself or a close friend and if yes, when is that point reached? And because the previously hopefull tone is lost you really get into the mindset of "is this ideal really worth it?" on an emotional level and not just as a detached reader. One central moral dilemma this route poses (which I will not spoil for obvious reasons) is especially jarring as I personally still don't have an answer for it that I am comfortable with.

In conclusion I can only say that the very diverse options of routes enable everyone with even the slightest interest in VN's or the Fate franchise (for which this is the optimal entry, let there be no doubt about that) to find enjoyment in this story.
I guarantee that you will find some really thought provoking scenarios and questions in your favorite route that may even be relevant to your personal life as long as you have some affinity for the theme of struggling with ones ideals. And even your least favorite route (which was UBW for me) will still be easily acceptable and not leave a bad taste in the sense of being badly written or a bad time in general.