Shirou’s turning point for me from average heroic male lead to awesome badass was unquestionably during the end of the Fate route when he was down in that hellish pit of Kirie’s and finally came to terms with his past. Now, HF’s Shirou cast aside not only Kiritsugu and his ideal, but these poor people and all those who died in the fire to pursue his own, as you said, selfish desire.

Perhaps this may come down to a simple difference in opinion, but I cannot see him turning his back on all that as anything but cowardice, something which Shirou himself recognizes that he will be punished for. And this is precisely the reason why I cannot bring myself to respect him in HF, regardless of how moving his determination is, nor now utterly blinded he is by his supposed love towards Sakura in order to save her.

As for why I don’t like Sakura, well… it all boils down to my opinion that, quite frankly, I find her to be a weakling – the weakest of the three female leads, as I said.

Both Saber and Rin were strong-minded leads with clear goals of their own – and so, whether you agreed with them or not, that’s part of what made it such a joy to watch them pursue it to whatever end.

In Sakura’s case though, I didn’t know what the hell she was after. Time and again, all I kept seeing was a pained little girl venting her anger and frustration out on countless people, particularly her friends and family. Now, to be clear, I’m not mitigating what she went through nor that she has every right to be angry, but she never found it within herself to move beyond that – and so she was manipulated like a puppet on strings throughout near the entire story, either by Zouken, the Shadow, Shinji, or her own tragic past.

Both Saber and Rin stood on equal ground with Shirou, and that’s part in what made it so fascinating to watch them. But Sakura is so obviously dependent on Shirou that, and I don’t like to have to describe it like this, it makes me sick to have to watch him chase after her like a shining knight to rescue the captured princess.

Now onto Tsukihime… its been about 2 years since I played the game all the way through.. keep in mind that there are multiple routes… 2 in Near side of the Moon.. which are Arcuied and Ciel’s stories. And then you have 3 in Far side of the moon… which consist of Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku. You will need to complete “Near side” before the choices open up for “Far side”. And each Heroine has 2 endings except for Kohaku. Once you complete everything you open up “Eclipse” but I will leave that for you to discover.

You are quite correct that Tsukihime’s production is alot rougher then Fate but also keep in mind this was a fan made game, while Fate was a professional production. With that said Tsukihime still has my vote for better story. They then followed it up nicely with Kagetsu Tohya, which apparently plays out very similarly to Fate/Hollow. That last part is conjecture though since I have yet to play Ataraxia… but its on my list…. :)

@Ubiquitial: I’m expecting Tsukihime to be rougher round the edges production-wise what with it being older and all, but Mirror Moon made such a nice job of F/S N I don’t have any fears for the quality of the translation. Watch this space. ^_^

@Owen S: it’s funny you mention Spiderman, because the choice between getting the girl vs. the greater good reminded me of the first Spiderman movie (haven’t seen the other two yet though). Coming to think of it, ‘acting for the greater good’ like Spiderman and Batman (I’m thinking about the superlative Nolan-directed efforts in particular here) leaves the hero feeling isolated and angst-ridden; Shirou in contrast opted to save the girl he loved and make her happy. Looking at the results, I’d prefer the second option!

I’d recommend that you read Tsukihime (with copious amounts of the included walkthrough) all at one shot with no breaks in-between, because the amount of repeated scenes (although you can choose to skip them, earning you a rather disjointed reading experience) between all five routes are numerous.

Good point about the archery jargon bit — it happened too early on in the game for me to notice that, aside from the faint recognition I had with regards to Shirou, Archer, and their interrelated identities thereof.

What I’ve heard about Tsukihime is that it’s sprawling and has more amateur production values. The English translation is supposed to be a bit lacking, too. But these are just rumours, and I’m sure the translation’s more palatable than the lolcat lyrics to ‘This Illusion’!