Announced as a last-second feature in the Honkai: Star Rail 2.4 Special Program livestream, the game will receive a collaboration event with Fate/Stay Night during the next year. Not much is known about this unexpected joint effort, but there’s a lot to look forward to.
While it didn’t receive much of the spotlight during the stream, the announcement was definitely one of its highest points. The event is scheduled for Q3 2025, exactly one year from now, so don’t expect any news on it for a good while. However, we may have some idea of what to expect during this future event.
Fate series creator Kinoko Nasu and Star Rail producer David Jiang talked earlier this year, which was probably pivotal for the collab to happen. Both revealed to be big fans of each other’s works, with Fate being arguably one of the many inspiration sources for Star Rail. Clara and Svarog were very likely inspired by Ilya and Berserker, for example, and we had various other nods to the series through some of the game’s dialogues.
The Fate logo displayed was specifically for the Unlimited Blade Works anime from 2014, which follows the second route of the original Visual Novel, so there’s no Fate/Grand Order content here, as much as it would make sense. Notable characters from this route that could become units include Saber, Archer, Caster, Gilgamesh, and even Shirou himself. We could also get some alternate outfits, with the first obvious choice being illustrated above, even with Ilya’s smaller involvement in UBW‘s storyline.
Related: All Honkai Star Rail (HSR) Codes (July 2024) – Livestream 2.4
This isn’t Hoyoverse’s first big IP collab, as Genshin Impact had its infamous Horizon: Zero Dawn collab with Aloy. However, Honkai Impact 3rd had a better-received Evangelion collab where Asuka Langley was made playable. One can only hope for something more akin to the latter, as Asuka was a powerful asset to any account and was widely considered a better fit for that game’s universe, unlike Aloy, who’s still regarded as one of the worst characters in the game and somewhat unfitting for the setting.
While it’s still months away, the earliest we may expect more info on this Star Rail x Fate/Stay Night collab would possibly be at the game’s next anniversary event, as it would only make sense to shed more light on it during such a special date. Let’s only hope that it doesn’t become another Genshin anime situation.