For anyone looking to jump on the Fate/ train for the new anime, here's a quick guide of what you probably want to go through. I'm also going to assume you're committed to this enough to dive head-in to the VN. If you're looking to test the waters first, you can try out the ufotable anime and then come back, there will be some spoilers you get from doing this but you probably already know most of them from hanging around otaku circles. Also, my knowledge isn't perfect so I may be missing some things.
Step 1: Read the VNDownload the Mirror Moon TL of the enhanced Realta Nua version with the ero scenes from the original game patched back in. The TL isn't perfect, or even really that good, but it's what everyone you talk to will be quoting and the official TLs for Fate have proven far worse in the past. Play through all three routes in order, try to get all the bad ends, but make sure you get Mind of Steel and Sparks Liner High as those "bad ends" are on par with actual alternate endings.
Adaptations: The stay night route technically has anime and manga adaptations, but both do the old VN adaptation thing of mashing routes together and are generally low quality in terms of art and animation.
The UBW route has an awful movie adaptation and a quite good TV anime. It does favor style over accuracy to the lore, which upsets some autists, but it's overall a solid adaptation and the only good way to see these characters in motion. There's also a manga, but it's pretty new.
The HF route has a movie trilogy which looks pretty, but rushes the plot way too much, ignores the VN writing to an excessive degree, and rewrites thinks to make Sakura look better. Only watch if you're a sakugafag or a Sakurafag. There's also a manga for this, which is really good at covering the whole story with great visualizations (especially for the lewd scenes), but it's got a lot more to cover before it's complete.
All of this is to say,
you really have no choice but to read the VN because the only good substitute only covers the middle third and the game makes you do routes in order so you have to play that part anyway.
Step 2: Round out the core trilogyHollow Ataraxia, a fandisc VN, is the next step and the official not-quite-sequel. It introduces a lot of new stuff to the world. Anime never ever.
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