Capsule Servant is a side-scrolling Tower Defense game developed by Type-Moon as a minigame for the PlayStation Vita rerelease of Fate/hollow ataraxia.
Some time in the future, Holy Grail Wars have gone from violent death matches to friendly competition between kids. Rather than the complicated summoning rituals we're used to, a simple method called "Capsule Summoning" allows users to summon smaller, chibi-styled Servants from a gashapon-esque Greater Grail. Somewhere in Fuyuki City, however, somebody (again) is causing a disturbance in space-time with the little creatures as part of some nefarious plan. Two young children rise to the challenge to defeat them: the enthusiastic and straightforward Master Shirou, and the savvy and pragmatic Rin. Together, they'll fight many strange Masters, collect over 50 Capsule Servants, and maybe run into different genres along the way. Do they have what it takes to become Capsule Servant masters?
The game was ported to Android and iOS by Delightworks in 2019 as part of the 15th anniversary celebrations for Fate/stay night. While either version of the game remains to be officially translated, a full fan translation of the story can be found here.
Tropes present in this game include:
- Affectionate Parody: Serves as one to the Fate stories that preceded it, with a bit of Phonýmon mixed in for good measure.
- Alternate Self:
- Master Artoria is one for Saber, albeit carrying around a katana rather than a western-style sword.
- Professor Tokiomi is from an alternate universe where he is forced to work under the galactic organization MATO.
- TO-SAKA is Rin from a universe where EMIYA never existed.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- Shinji knows he's the designated tutorial fight and takes it with gusto, even if he gripes about it.
- In Rin's route, Ayaka is paranoid that Rin wants to get rid of any competition to become a heroine and preemptively challenges her over it.
- Galactica Saber is mentioned by multiple characters to be illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi in-universe.
- Jeanne really wants to become the next Breakout Character, and often has delusions of grandeur about how famous she'll get.
- Brutal Honesty: Shirou has no filter and speaks his mind, no matter how badly it would insult his opponent.Kayneth: Just how much do you think I’ve invested in this? Capsaba is already my life!
Shirou: Yep, then your life will be over when you run out of money!
Kayneth: T-that’s quite wise… Then I must recognize you as a formidable opponent. - The Cameo: Issei, Kuzuki, and Taiga appear during the end of the final route. Taiga complains that this is her only appearance.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: Illya is famed in-universe for being rich enough to buy the Servants she needs to win. She's one-upped by Gilgamesh, who spent his entire, nigh-infinite treasury on trying to get the rarest and most limited versions of Saber.
- For Want Of A Nail: FRAGA's contract with Shirou ends up being a boon in a more traditional Holy Grail War, as her Boxer skills are so powerful she can trash Gilgamesh.
- Giant Woman: Gigantic Sakura, MATO's greatest weapon. Sakura herself isn't too happy about it.
- Goo-Goo-Godlike: A baby Caren turns out to be the entity behind the game's events.
- Got Volunteered: After Caren-chan is reduced to a harmless infant, Shirou volunteers to take care of the child and give her a loving home. He then adopts Caren under Taiga's family name for legal reasons, whom doesn't figure out about it until long after Shirou filled out the adoption papers.
- Heroes "R" Us: Bazett (under the name FRAGA) works for the Heroic Spirit Association, a temp agency that allows people to work as Servants part-time.
- Klingon Promotion: Rin's "Ultimate Weapon S Number 1" ending has her pull a Face–Heel Turn after defeating MATO and conquer the multiverse as Kaiser Rin.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The game assumes you already know the identities of Saber, Archer, and Avenger, though it lampshades this by having the latter two interrupt themselves in the middle of telling their names to their masters. Justified in part to its origins as a minigame unlocked after beating hollow ataraxia.
- Lighter and Softer: This is one of the cheeriest AUs for stay Night that Type-Moon's ever put out.
- In-Series Nickname: Both the game and Servants are referred to by the Portmanteau "Capsaba".
- Mistaken Identity: Rin mistakes Master Artoria for a stray Saber, and tells her she doesn't have to fight anyone since there's no war going on.
- My Future Self and Me: Rin's encounter with TO-SAKA, an adult version of her from another timeline, sees them fighting and reluctantly sticking together. She's more annoyed with TO-SAKA than anything once she figures out why she's running around Fuyuki.
- Mythology Gag:
- Ayaka mentions she has hidden heroine potential, calling back to when she was originally supposed to be the protagonist in the initial incarnation of stay night.
- Rin feels a bit of familiarity when she sees that Hakuno seems to get along with her Archer.
- Rin still doesn't get a Saber when she tries summoning a Servant in her teen years, although Jeanne claims she can try for the class.
- Benkei (Musashibo Benkei) and Golden (Sakata Kintoki), two of the cut Servants from the initial drafts for Fate/Apocrypha, are playable units here.
- Rin's two Mecha-Sakuras are respectively based off of Sakura's Superpowered Evil Side from Heaven's Feel and BB from Fate/EXTRA.
- Shirou's Servant in the timeskip is a woman regarded as male in life, though in this case the person who thought so was Shirou himself.
- New Jobs As The Plot Demands: Bazett works as a temp Servant in Shirou's route, while in Rin's route she shows up as the cop sent to arrest her for forgery.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After battling TO-SAKA, Rin helps her realize she doesn't need to keep destroying Grails to pay off her debt, as she's already filled her quota and then some. TO-SAKA's so happy she throws herself and Rin a party... and overspends so much she's back in the red again, prompting the World to contract both girls as Heroic Spirits and work the debt off.
- Patchwork Map: See for yourself.◊ While the left half of the map's plains, town, and mountains are plausible, the right half abruptly cuts off to a high-tech city and has two islands that are respectively made of pure crystal and city rubble.
- Periphery Demographic: Parodied with the in-universe "Capsaba Uncles", adult players of the game similar to real life kid games' "Big Friends". Unfortunately, this faction is represented by Kayneth and Tokiomi, who both Rin and Shirou are creeped out by.
- Phonýmon: Unlike most parodies, it goes for a Tower Defense angle rather than the usual RPG or card game.
- Product Placement: Jeanne (the real deal, not just an Alternate Self) carries around a copy of Fate/Apocrypha to get people to read about her.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: Master Artoria's father is Gawain (originally her nephew), her older brothers are Lancelot (originally unrelated) and Kay (originally her foster brother), her younger brother is Bedivere (originally unrelated), and her cousin is Mordred (originally her child).
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After seeing how petty Illya and Gilgamesh can get over buying Capsabas, Shirou decides to call it quits.
- Self-Applied Nickname: Illya's given her gaming persona the name "Celebloomers", and insists on being called that.
- Sexy Whatever Outfit: Bazett's police uniform looks like a sexy policewoman costume. It leaves Rin incoherent with laughter.
- Shout-Out:
- Shirou's "Ultimate Weapon S Number 1" ending advertises his further adventures in G-Sakura: The Movie.
- TO-SAKA's appearance is a blatant Bayonetta homage.
- The World is portrayed as the black box-style monoliths SEELE's holograms become in the latter half of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Shoddy Knockoff Product: In "My Strongest Partner", Rin's Archer shows her that he can use his Projection ability to make fake Capsabas. While they initially use this tactic to overwhelm Illya's unlimited fund-backed team, Rin eventually decides to make a bootleg Capsaba empire. Unsurprisingly, she's caught by the police by the end.
- Stock Shōnen Hero: Shirou here is straightforward, friendly, and almost frighteningly honest. He generally treats the story as one long Tournament Arc, declaring how he's going to beat every single one of his opponents.
- Super-Deformed: The Servants are drawn in an extreme version of this style, cribbed from the Koha-Ace manga.
- Take Over the World: Played for Laughs. After Professor Tokiomi bequeathes Rin with a giant mecha version of Sakura, Rin promptly creates even more mecha Sakuras and goes on a power-hungry quest to take over the world.
- Tomboy: Bazett's business suit and Boyish Short Hair have Shirou mistake her for a man. He continues to call her "mister" even after she corrects him.
- The Voiceless: Female Hakuno doesn't utter a single word in the game unlike everyone else despite being surprisingly expressive and rather quirky in Shirou and Rin's (especially the latter) encounters with her.
- You Can Talk?: Rin has this reaction when she encounters an Archer that can hold conversation. He claims that he's a "Special Servant". Bazett later finds an Avenger and a Lancer that talk the same way.
- Younger and Hipper: The original teen Masters are Cheerful Children here, without any of the baggage their actual child selves had. Nasu has even noted that this is essentially what Shirou would be like growing up in any timeline without any trauma.
