Watched Fate UBW, then Zero and finished with Heavens feel WHAT NOW????......
As clear from title i have watched **watched UBW, then Zero and finished with Heavens feel** but **want to watch Alternate universe**
From Google searches i came to know about:
**Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/Grand Order**, Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA. and **Specially Fate/strange Fake**
My Questions:
1. What are these Alternate universes all about?
2. Relation to Fate UBW, Zero and Heavens feel? and Relations of alternate universes with each other?
3. Does Shiro, Rin, Sakura, Archer and Saber returns as main characters or side characters in alternate universes?
4. How to Watch Alternate Universes in order? Which Alternate universe to start with? and within alternate universe Watch order?
5. Lastly which Alternate universes have ended and which are ongoing and **which one is BEST**??
From Google searches i came to know about:
**Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/Grand Order**, Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA. and **Specially Fate/strange Fake**
My Questions:
1. What are these Alternate universes all about?
2. Relation to Fate UBW, Zero and Heavens feel? and Relations of alternate universes with each other?
3. Does Shiro, Rin, Sakura, Archer and Saber returns as main characters or side characters in alternate universes?
4. How to Watch Alternate Universes in order? Which Alternate universe to start with? and within alternate universe Watch order?
5. Lastly which Alternate universes have ended and which are ongoing and **which one is BEST**??
Commentaires
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Fate/Apoc is decent. Fate/kaleeid is a full on magical girl alternate story, but kind of heavy on loli fanservice, so if your not into that, I pass.
Kaleid linear is Illya as a magical girl, if she didn't grow up to be the grail
Grand order is confusing lol. I dont know much, but it's everywhere
Did you watch original Fate stay night?
It also doesn't adapt ANYTHING from part 2 which is the real highlights of the game where all of the best arcs are, but that could still be adapted in the future for all we know
The issue is that unlike singularities, all lostbelts are actually important to the story so they can't skip any of them. Animating only, lets say, Avalon le fae without anything prior is way more confusing that just skipping from the prolog to singularity 6.
So either they find a way to make a profit from adapting everything, or they just adapt whatever they want and expect only FGO players to watch it.
Apocrypha is another holy grail war with none of the characters you know.
Grand order adapts a few arcs from the 10 year ongoing mobile game, the Babylona adaptation has an alternate rin and an alternate gil.
Strange fake, currently airing, is yet another holy grail war. Gilgamesh is in it if you like him
Prisma Illya is the loli ecchi magical girl spin off with an alternate Illya as the main character.
There's also fate/extra, which is sort of like an epilogue to some old ps vita(?) games, and alternate rin is in that but without the games there isnt much to get out of it.
Fate is an old franchise with spin offs of spin offs. Strange Fake and Apocrypha are at least worth watching if you just want more fate. And Prisma Illya is good for people that like it.
But it sounds like you never watched Deens 2007 /Stay Night? Watch that next for more Shiro saber rin Sakura archer content.
I wouldn't recommend it to you, and I say this as someone who watched the first 3 seasons and thought it was fine.
If you want more "Fate", then you could check out [*Kara no Kyoukai*](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2593/Kara_no_Kyoukai_Movie_1__Fukan_Fuukei) series of movies; not *really* Fate, but it's kinda in the same universe. The movies are great, but they can get very dark, just so you know.
But again, the early part has loli aecchi, and the animators seemed to REALLY enjoy animating that part.
The movie however is a grand showcase of the best arc of Illya on par with ufotable adaptations.
Apocrypha is about a holy grail war with two sides, each with 7 servants. It’s standalone and can be watched without any further attachments to other series, though the characters do return in…
Fate: GO is the game which is an ongoing mobile game with a HUGE amount of content and acts as a crossover point for all Fate and Type Moon franchises . The story follows the last master of humanity’s fight to regain the earth. There was also a FGO anime that adapted one of the best story chapters, FGO Babylonia that is pretty approachable to a non player.
Prisma Ilya is an alternate universe with magical girl elements and card-invoked servants. It’s sort of like if Cardcaptor Sakura, Digimon and Fate had a child. It’s a bit controversial due to how it’s fairly young characters act and are treated.
Strange Fake, I haven’t experienced the source material but it is about a ‘fake’ holy grail war held in America, it might be helpful to watch Lord El Melloi’s case files first as characters from that feature (it will also let you re-meet Waver from Zero!)
(This is all I have time for now but I’ll come back later)
Iirc even Zero and FSN are officially alternative universes due to continuity issues. It's safer to think that all entries, except for ones that are explicitly stated as sequels (Hollow Ataraxia), are set in an AU.
FGO is a completely separate world where singularities threaten humanity. It’s really long and based off the mobile game.
Strange Fake is kind of a pseudo-sequel. It does take place in a world where a version of Fate/stay night did happen. It has the most references to other Type-Moon works.
Waver has a spin-off called Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II. It takes place a little before FSN.
There’s also Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, which is basically the main Fate/stay night cast but with cooking.
There’s also Carnival Phantasm where the FSN cast do wacky hijinks with the Tsukihime cast.
There’s also the Sunny Days OVA, which is a short episode that simply depicts the good ending of UBW.
There really isn’t anything else where the main FSN cast are the main characters anymore.
Strange Fake should be hype but I can't judge it fairly yet. Don't know enough plot. Might as well jump in with the rest of us.
\- Fate/Kaleid started as cute girl with ilya and miyu (new character) as main protagonist who doing magical girl thing and new servant concept with card system, and shiro, rin also here as side character (shiro is just fcking beta here and cannot fight at all). BUT it getting more serious and darker overtime espcially with Movie fate/kaleid snow oath (probably one of the best fate movie) that reintroduce shiro from other timelines (just watch this movie first as stand alone because it just peak).
\- Strange/Fake is another different universe but you still can see some character from zero. Like before, it another holy grail war and servant with some twist (fake and true servant).
\- Fate/GO, is adaptation of the game, its really difficult to explain if you never played the game.
2. Nothing connected at all, it just different universe but you can still see other servant reused in other story.
3. Mostlty no, only fate/kaleid as i said before.
4. Theres no watch order, is stand alone series.
5. Fate/strange fake probably the best one, but still ongoing. Fate/kaleid mainly ecchi anime BUT the movie snow oath IS PEAK. F/GO babylonia as stand alone is epic, from fight, story, and CHAD GILGAMESH as a king ( you need some f/go explanation in youtube before if you dont want to play game at all)
I'm learning about Fate strange Fake like everyone else but having watched the two special episodes and the recent one I'm extra invested.
You can watch fate grand order first order then the canelot movies then fgo babylonia then the solomon movie. First order is an absolute slog to get through so is the first camelot movie but the second camelot movie was fire and babylonia is pretty good especially if you like gilgamesh and I haven't seen solomon yet but plan to soon.
Apocrypha is seperate from everything and entirely self contained it's kinda messy but i found it fun.
Dont think of the others as alternate universes, for simplicity, just think of them as a completely new, unrelated stories. You may notice some character crossovers,. but they are completely different stories
2. Some like El Melloi and Fate Strange Fake take place after a route most probably similar to UBW. FGO takes place in an entirely different timeline where the universe is pretty much at stake. Think of it like Persona 5 palaces if you played that game. Fate Apocrypha takes place in one where the Third Grail War never actually finished for example.
3. Mostly references, like in FGO there is a thing such as "Saberfaces" or "Rin faces" where different kinds of Gods or Servants inhabit the bodies of humans that most exhibit their personalities.
4. My personal order is below, but I cut out what you already watched. Don't worry as they were all before the first thing in the list here.
5. The FGO anime finishes Part 1 of the FGO story, but didn't adapt the first 5 arcs as they're kinda mid. Fate Kaleid doesn't have enough content to adapt in the final movie yet, but it's 4 seasons. Fate Strange Fake just started airing its anime and only has 1 LN (volume 10) left to release. Tbh I wouldn't worry about this too much and dive in. If you have anymore questions feel free to shoot. I love talking about Fate lol.
Here goes:
**Today's Menu for the Emiya Family** (cute short 13min episodes with really nice art style from Ufotable. Features the Fate Stay Night cast, like Rin, Shirou, Archer etc. Last like 3-4 minutes of each episode is about a food recipe) Not a mandatory watch but CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!!
\- [Season 1](https://www.myanimelist.net/anime/37033)
**Lord El Melloi II** Best watched after Fate Zero.
\- [Episode 0](https://myanimelist.net/anime/38936)
\- [Season 1](https://myanimelist.net/anime/38959)
\- [Movie: Magic Lantern](https://myanimelist.net/anime/49361)
**Fate Apocrypha** Usually the first spinoff I recommend after El Melloi.
\- [Season 1](https://myanimelist.net/anime/34662)
**Fate Extra** - This anime is a loose adaptation of the Fate Extra game. It adapts a route that does not actually happen in it. Not the greatest adaptation, but a unique one. It's animated by Studio SHAFT, having a very Madoka-iy look. Like Fate (Season 1 is the first batch of episodes, the last 3 came out later due to production issues)
\- [Season 1](https://myanimelist.net/anime/33047)
\- [Last 3 Episodes](https://myanimelist.net/anime/37651)
Also the game is receiving a remake coming out next year. [Trailer here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJNxMqkgThs) (note it was delayed to 2026) I'd personally suggest seeing it after playing the game at this stage since it's so close.
**Fate Grand Order** An adaptation of the Fate/Grand Order gacha game. It's not the best but it generally serves its purpose. Some of it will be way better than the others. First Order is the prologue of the game, and then skips 5 arcs to Camelot so it's gonna be a bit of a jarring jump. Just keep that in mind and you'll be fine. Not totally 1:1 but if you've played the Persona games think of FGO as palaces on a world level.
\- [First Order](https://myanimelist.net/anime/34321)
\- [Camelot Movie 1](https://myanimelist.net/anime/38085)
\- [Camelot Movie 2](https://myanimelist.net/anime/38086)
\- [Babylonia Episode 0](https://myanimelist.net/anime/40206)
\- [Babylonia Season 1](https://myanimelist.net/anime/38084)
\- [Solomon Movie](https://myanimelist.net/anime/41497)
\-- [Moonlight Lostroom](https://myanimelist.net/anime/36915) (can honestly skip this ova. it is insanely confusing if you haven't played FGO.)
**Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya**
(this anime is ultra controversial, there are elementary school girls tongue kissing in it. A shame because it's **actually** a really good story. You can skip if you'd like. There's two really great characters that make an appearance in it that unfortunately don't have any other current anime appearances. They will show up in Carnival Phantasm at the bottom of this list, which is a gag anime.)
\- [Season 1: Prisma Illya](https://myanimelist.net/anime/14829)
\-- [Season 1 Shorts](https://myanimelist.net/anime/19109)
\-- [Season 1 OVA: Dance at the Sports Festival](https://myanimelist.net/anime/18851)
\- [Season 2: 2Wei!](https://myanimelist.net/anime/20509)
\-- [Season 2 Shorts](https://myanimelist.net/anime/25011)
\-- [Season 2 OVA: Hot Spring Inn](https://myanimelist.net/anime/26057)
\- [Season 3: 2Wei Herz!](https://myanimelist.net/anime/27525)
\-- [Season 3 Shorts](https://myanimelist.net/anime/31056)
\- [Season 4: 3rei!!](https://myanimelist.net/anime/31706)
\-- [Season 4 Shorts](https://myanimelist.net/anime/33456)
\- [Movie 1: Vow in the Snow](https://myanimelist.net/anime/34100)
\-- [Movie 1 OVA Sakuras Room](https://myanimelist.net/anime/36833)
\- [Movie 2: Licht Nameless Girl](https://myanimelist.net/anime/42030)
\- [Movie 3: Zoku-hen](https://myanimelist.net/anime/49703/Fate_kaleid_liner_Prisma%E2%98%86Illya_Zoku-hen) (release date unknown, probably the final movei?)
(For Fate Illya you can skip the OVAs and shorts. While there is some comedy that ISNT attached to lolicon bait, pretty much all of it is. The only one I wouldn't skip is Movie 1 OVA Sakuras Room)
**Fate Strange Fake** Fate Strange Fake is a love letter to the Fate series from Ryohgo Narita, author most famous for Baccano and Durarara (both excellent series with excellent anime adaptations). Strange Fake started airing on January 3rd 2026. If you're wondering why I put it down here, it's because it contains references big and small to pretty much everything above. You can technically watch it after Apocrypha, or El Melloi or even Zero, but you'd be missing some really cool references. It's a story that's greatly enhanced by knowledge, as much of it as possible.
\- [Episode 0: Whispers of Dawn](https://www.myanimelist.net/anime/53127) (watch this first)
\- [Season 1](https://myanimelist.net/anime/55830/Fate_strange_Fake) (started January 3rd 2026)
**Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners**
Garden of Sinners is Nasu's first work, and these movies are PHENOMENAL. Animated by ufotable. You'll be immensely surprised how beautiful the animation is given they were releasing from 2007 to 2013. They're ordered in release order, Should be noted the stories themselves are chronologically all over the place but it's intended.
\--[Manners Movies](https://myanimelist.net/anime/23697) (these stop motion shorts played in theaters to tell the audience to mind their manners. Very cute. I suggest interweaving them with each movie.)
\- [Movie 1: Overlooking View](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2593)
\- [Movie 2: Murder Speculation Part 1](https://myanimelist.net/anime/3782)
\- [Movie 3: Remaining Sense of Pain](https://myanimelist.net/anime/3783)
\- [Movie 4: The Hollow Shrine](https://myanimelist.net/anime/4280)
\- [Movie 5: Paradox Spiral](https://myanimelist.net/anime/4282)
\- [Movie 6: Oblivion Recording](https://myanimelist.net/anime/5204)
\-- [Movies 1-6 Recap: Gate of Seventh Heaven](https://myanimelist.net/anime/6624) (recaps the movies if confused, can skip if not. Pretty good though.)
\- [Movie 7: Murder Speculation Part 2](https://myanimelist.net/anime/5205)
\- [Movie 8: Epilogue](https://myanimelist.net/anime/6954)
\- [Movie 9: Future Gospel](https://myanimelist.net/anime/14807)
\- [Future Gospel: Extra Chorus](https://myanimelist.net/anime/22763)
**Mahoyo/Witch on the Holy Night** (Technically prequel to Tsukihime, leads me to believe Ufotable will do a Tsukihime anime adaptation afterwards)
\- [Movie](https://myanimelist.net/anime/50668) (not out yet, but this is most probably where I'd put it.)
[Here's a trailer.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML10KNGEif8)
**Carnival Phantasm** - Time for the treats. Funny gag section of pretty much all of the Fate content you just watched. So many memes. Includes Tsukihime characters, but don't worry about it. Tsukihime will for sure get an anime adaptation at some point (totally not coping)
\- [Season 1: Carnival Phantasm](https://myanimelist.net/anime/10012)
\- [Season 1 OVA: Carnival Phantasm EX](https://myanimelist.net/anime/12187)
\- [Carnival Phantasm: HibiChika Special](https://myanimelist.net/anime/15927)
\- [Fate Prototype](https://myanimelist.net/anime/12565) This is the original draft of Fate Stay Night, animated in a short 12 minute episode.
\- [Fate Kaleid: Illya Prisma Phantasm!](https://myanimelist.net/anime/38897)
\- [Learning with Manga: FGO!](https://myanimelist.net/anime/38958)
\- [Fate Grand Carnival](https://myanimelist.net/anime/44248)
You could if you wanted to watch Fate 2006 at this point, as there's literally nothing else to watch but I'd play the VN for Fate route or wait hopefully for a ufotable adaptation.
Other things that might interest you (all steam links)
Games:
[Fate Stay Night Remastered](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396980/Fatestay_night_REMASTERED/) - The remaster of the OG visual novel. Strongly recommend playing.
[Fate Hollow Ataraxia Remastered](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396990/Fatehollow_ataraxia_REMASTERED/) - The Sequel to Fate Stay Night.
[Witch on the Holy Night](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2052410/WITCH_ON_THE_HOLY_NIGHT/) - Witch on the Holy Night visual novel. Getting an anime movie from ufotable as mentioned earlier.
Tsukihime - Visual novel of Tsukihime, not currently on steam but the remake is on switch and ps4.
[Fate Samurai Remnant](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902690/FateSamurai_Remnant/) - Action RPG set in the Edo period. I have not yet played it myself but it has very positive reviews.
[Fate Extella](https://store.steampowered.com/app/511680/FateEXTELLA/) - Action RPG. Sequel to Fate Extra. Would recommend waiting for the Fate Extra Record game coming out in 2026 before playing.
[Fate Extella Link](https://store.steampowered.com/app/622220/FateEXTELLA_LINK/) - Sequel to Fate Extella
Strange Fake feels very much like a spiritual sequel to it (and they *can* be broadly considered canon to one another), to the point the CF author was consulting with the SF author on writing some of its shared characters to be consistent, particularly Flat since he's prominent in SF.
You are technically not wrong, but it is funny because Prisma Illya is also the 3rd most popular Fate related work, only behind F/SN and FGO.
It has 4 anime seasons, 2 movies, a third movie in production, 3 Manga, 1 ongoing and the amount of merchandise and collabs it gets every year is only beaten by FGO. It even has its own dedicated section at most stores in Akiba. No other Fate spin-off/work related (aside from the already mentioned) is even close to Prisma in popularity.
When it sucks I genuinely recommend skipping episodes, but when it's great it's fucking peak.
Edit: After skimming the other Fate thread I think I get it now.
Each AU is basically just an alternate timeline. You’ll see familiar characters show up, though the core cast of FSN *mostly* don’t appear or take supporting roles.
The Apocrypha anime is a complete adaptation, so no worries about being left hanging there. The Grand Order anime adaptations only adapt certain chapters of the game, so you’ll miss out on a bunch of story. Prisma Illya is infamous for its loli fanservice but if once you get to the fourth season and the movies it suddenly becomes incredibly hype, but it’s not a complete adaptation (and the manga is still ongoing) and the last movie ends on a **brutal** cliffhanger. The Strange Fake adaptation literally just started its broadcast.
Also keep in mind that Fate is part of a larger multiverse called the Nasuverse. The Kara no Kyoukai/The Garden of Sinners movies are part if it, as is the upcoming (whenever ufotable gets around to it) Witch on the Holy Night movie. There’s also a visual novel called Tsukihime. The original version of Tsukihime is abandonware and easy to find downloads of, and there’s also a remake of the first two routes available on PS4 and Switch. **There is no Tsukihime anime.**
Prisma Ilya is garbage. The other Fate stuff feels pretty low effort.
Normally ud watch zero first and then it basically splits into three different story paths wich all have bits of information, clues and plot that give you a better picture of everything. Zero -> Fate/Stay Night -> Fate/ Unlimited Blade Works ( has a s series or you can watch the movie) -> Fate/Heaven's Feel ( 3 Movie Series ).
Those 4 are the original mainline Series.
As others have already pointed out there are several other licenced spinoffs like grand order that are based off the Gacha Game and highly confusing if you didn't play the game, Prisma Lilya that is some kind off alternative Lilya roleplaying the Fate series coomer Loli style, Fate Prototype that was supposed to be a different kind of twist on the series but didn't go anywhere after the pilot episode, Fate Apocrypha wich is pretty good, it's a grail war witch twice as many servants and basically team vs team oriented with some new servant classes.
Then there's also Fate Strange Fake wich is now airing, from the episodes I watched so far it's looking good but coming out slowly...
There's also weird stuff like cooking with shirou or those weird spinoffs like saber the maid, calleidoscope and etc, no need to watch those.
Other way around, normally you finish the 3 routes of Fate/stay night and then Fate/zero and other spinoffs. Fate/zero was written after Fate/stay night by a different author who explicitly stated he wrote it with the idea that people had finished Fate/stay night beforehand.
Play the Cannon Sequele [Fate/Hollow Ataraxia on steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396990/Fatehollow_ataraxia_REMASTERED/)
Play [Mahotsukai no Yoru](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2052410/WITCH_ON_THE_HOLY_NIGHT/) on steam
Watch the [Kara no Kyoukai Movies](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2593)
Bonus: I would have watched Zero after the HF movies but its too late for that
Each has their own setting within Fate
Their relationship with the OG varies outside of "it happened"
Yes and no, they may or may not return, in most they dont return.
Matter of preference
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL853Lf5HtEQyK0_w0wNd860HLae2o94GV&si=Mg9S0zaJhJ8d57wk
Best is a matter of preference.
Meanwhile, Strange Fake takes place in sort of a hybrid mixed universe? It doesn’t really care about being accurate to any specific timeline, it’s its own thing, but in the timeline that it takes place in, the 5th holy grail war did occur, and in episode zero, you can see a photo of Waver’s students on his desk, and you can see that Rin is one of them.
There is no order. Watch whatever you like.
leave this franchise and runnaway of this black hole before turns to late
Maybe this is unpopular here, but I personally find most of these Fate spinoffs kind of… meh, and retreading old grounds and following the Fate formula on a surface level. Fate just seems like this big franchise now where everyone wants to dip their toes in. The only "spinoff" that I really liked was Fate/Zero so far (I call it a spinoff because it wasn't written by Nasu, although Fate/Zero was really the show that revitalized the Fate franchise due to Ufotable doing a great job and Gen Urobuchi writing a good story).
If you want to stick with watching anime (rather than say reading the VN source materials), I actually recommend watching **Kara no Kyoukai (Garden of Sinners)** and **The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II** instead. But then Fate/strange is airing now so it could be fun to watch it concurrently.
Kara no Kyoukai is the first work published by Nasu and feels to me thematically more coherent with the actual Fate/stay night. It's by the same author, and shares kind of the same world, with some minor (not a lot though) overlapping characters. It's a different type of story with no Holy Grail war though so it depends on why you like Fate. The anime adaptation was also what put Ufotable on the map before their next work Fate/Zero.
The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II was kind of fun and focused on an adult Waver Velvet (from Fate/Zero) and his students in the Clock Tower.
I also have a soft spot for the original DEEN adaptation of Fate/stay night. It's what introduced me to the franchise, although maybe objectively it was not as good and didn't find a good way to adapt all 3 paths into a single anime show.