is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Type-Moon, and released on October 28, 2005 for Windows. Type-Moon released a version of the game without erotic content, with a PlayStation Vita port in November 2014. The game is a spin-off of Type-Moon's earlier adult game Fate/stay night for mature audiences. A remastered version of Fate/hollow ataraxia, was released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch in August 2025. The story takes place in Fuyuki City in a time loop imposed on Shirou Emiya, Avenger and Bazett Fraga McRemitz, a few months after the events of Fate/stay night.
Development began between 2004 and 2005 as Japanese author Kinoko Nasu designed a story centered around characters in a time loop, that allowed for new character interactions, daily life scenes, and the reveal of the mystery behind the Grail War. The game was introduced primarily as a fan-disc intended to deliver a more "happier" follow-up to Fate/stay night that allowed the characters to coexist peacefully after the "tragic" events of the original visual novel.
The gameplay in Fate/hollow ataraxia uses non-linear gameplay which offers different scenarios with courses of interaction. The game was well received based on sales and critics. Critical response to the game's narrative and cast was generally favorable. The game ranked as one of the top selling visual novels for the time of its release. A manga adaptation illustrated by Medori was serialized into 20 tankà Âbon volumes in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shounen Ace magazine.
Fate/hollow ataraxia is a visual novel that abandons the route-based system and traditional linear gameplay of its predecessor, Fate/stay night. Unlike the mainline Fate series of dark fantasy and action visual novels, the spin-off Fate/hollow ataraxia features a "lighter" tone through a slice of life approach. In an open-ended structure, players experience recurring a four-day time loop in Fuyuki City from the perspectives of Shirou Emiya and Bazett Fraga McRemitz. The game features an interactive aerial map of Fuyuki to allow players to choose specific scenes during morning, noon, and night. Players must investigate the mystery of the loopâÂÂmarked by "!"âÂÂor explore comedy and slice-of-life character moments and scenesâÂÂlabeled "New"âÂÂto deepen relationships with both returning and new characters. For progression, flags are retained across loops, allowing players to gradually unlock new events and eventually resolve the loop. Throughout the game, multiple minigames can be unlockedâÂÂincluding a Hanafuda card game, "Operation Illya's Castle", and a built-in tower defense game titled "Capsule Servant" in the PS Vita/Remastered versionsâÂÂalong with extras like the "Eclipse" side stories.
The plot of Fate/hollow ataraxia takes place a few months following the events of Fate/stay night in Fuyuki City. Bazett Fraga McRemitz, a member of the Mages' Association and participant in the Fifth Holy Grail War, wakes up on the fourth day of the Fifth Holy Grail war with a new servant, Avenger, and no memory of what happened to her beforehand. She and Avenger set off to fight and win the Holy Grail War. Meanwhile, Shirou Emiya lives a peaceful life with all of his friends from the Fifth Holy Grail War. After one of her experiments changes time and space, Rin Tohsaka leaves to fix things with the Mages' Association in England. The time loop occurs due to Rin Tohsaka's tampering with her Jewel Sword that inadvertently merged all potential timelines of the Holy Grail War. The Servants sense a new danger while dark creatures appear soon afterward. Emiya finds himself frequently meeting Caren Ortensia and suspects something is wrong. He realizes that Bazett and him are in a time loop which begun on the fourth day of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Each time they die or survive, Emiya and McRemitz wake up on the first day of the loop, essentially restarting the process. They fight to discover the truth and end the loop. It is revealed that Avenger was using Shirou's body as a vessel, while also being shown as the one responsible for the time loop.
Avenger is revealed as the being who corrupted the Holy Grail in the previous Holy Grail War up until he was released when Shirou and Saber destroyed the Grail at the end of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Having become a weak Grail with the destruction of its physical vessel and his soul separated of Greater Grail in process, his spirit came across a dying Bazett and responded to her wish to live. He created the time loop inside of Bazett's mind and replicated the characters in this dream world, while the real Shirou and his friends are living peacefully in the outside world. After learning the truth from Caren, Avenger and Bazett destroy the Grail to put an end to the loop. Bazett awakens from her coma in the real world and Avenger returns to the void. He revives the participants of the Fifth Holy Grail War who died more than half a year ago excluding Kotomine Kirei. In the epilogue, Bazett quits the Magic Association and becomes a freelancer. She visits Shirou to ask for a temporary stay at his house until she finds a job. Which is later followed by Caren's request to stay until the church's renovation is completed.
After the release of the Fate/stay night visual novel, there were no plans for a sequel. As Japanese author Kinoko Nasu felt Emiya's character arc and the Holy Grail War fully concluded within the original three routes. The concept of hollow ataraxia started with Nasu's idea to merge the routes of Fate/stay night into a "cohesive" story. The game was designed as a fan-disc to act as a sequel to Fate/stay night. Development for Fate/hollow ataraxia begun following the release of its predecessor in January 2004. He began writing the plot, everything from the Holy Grail War on the first night until the completion of the story. Japanese artist Takashi Takeuchi was the character designer and art director, whom previously worked on Fate/stay night for Type-Moon. For work on the scenario, Nasu contributed along with writing and noted that daily writing and editing was sometimes left to sub-writers.
Further writers include Meteo Hoshizora and several other new scenario writers to Type-MoonâÂÂincluding Aramoto Kei, Hikaru Sakurai, and Morisaki Ryouto.
Fate/hollow ataraxia was released as an adult game on October 28, 2005, playable on Windows PCs, and as a bonus came bundled with the visual novel's original soundtrack. The manufacturing of the adult version has since been suspended. An updated all ages version compatible for the PlayStation Vita was released by Japanese game developer Type-Moon and HuneX on November 27, 2014. It had included a new opening, theme songs by Japanese singer Aimer, full-voice acting, among other additions. In August 2024, a remastered version was announced for release. Type-Moon would release Fate/hollow ataraxia Remastered on August 7, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and Windows.
Different sets of manga anthologies based on Fate/hollow ataraxia have been produced. The first volume of the earliest anthology series was released by Ichijinsha with the title Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Anthology Comic, on January 7, 2006, under DNA Media Comics; the fifteenth volume in the series was released on August 25, 2008. Two anthology series were then released by Kadokawa, released between January to May 2006. Another two were then released by Enterbrain. Fate/hollow ataraxia Anthology Comic was released between January 30, 2006, and May 25, 2007, in nine volumes under their Magi-Cu Comics imprint. A yonkoma series was later published by Enterbrain between December 25, 2007, and December 25, 2008, in six volumes. In 2013, a Fate/hollow ataraxia manga illustrated by Medori and published by Kadokawa began serializing.
The Fate/hollow ataraxia Original Soundtrack, bundled with the original release of Fate/hollow ataraxia, was released through Geneon Entertainment on November 23, 2005, bearing the catalog number TMC-1007; it was re-released alongside Fate/stay night Remastered in August 2025. The game's theme song "Hollow", was released by Type-Moon on October 28, 2005.
Fate/hollow ataraxia was regarded as one of the top selling visual novels of 2005. In Japan, the PSV version sold 53,979 copies within its first week, ranking at fourth place amongst all Japanese software sales for the November 24âÂÂ30, 2014 week of sales charts. The Steam release had an estimated over 60,000 players by March 2026.