Fate/megami atelier

Most crossover JRPG plots, such as Namco X Capcom, Chaos Wars and Cross Edge, are fairly light-hearted affairs, being based almost entirely around Rule of Cool and Fan Service and having stories consisting of the awesomeness of having all your favourite heroes from different franchises teaming up with each other (and some Original Generation characters) to defeat the villains of the franchises who apparently have also teamed up (along with some new Big Bad).

Guest Of Dishonour's Fate/megami atelier does not work that way.

A Cult ritual gone horribly awry has torn open the barriers between different dimensions, creating rifts connecting the hi-tech harbour city of Skymantle to the worlds of the Nasuverse, the Shin Megami Tensei games and the Atelier Series. Also time has too been warped, making it so that there's now two Holy Grail Wars running at once. Chaos and confusion ensue.

Four people (and one cat) have ended up straight in the middle of the whole mess, Rin Tohsaka, a magus who'd prefer to be concentrating on the Holy Grail War they were supposed to be in, Raidou Kuzunoha, Taisho Era Detective and Devil Summoner Par Excellence (and by extension his feline overseer Gouto), Rorona Fryxell, a ditzy alchemist who'd rather bake pies than fight demons, and Elyssa, a young, old-fashioned girl dealing with the death of her childhood friend Gareth. They all realise that unless they work together and recover the Tome of Eldritch Lore that started the entire thing everyone's lives will never be returning back to normal.

The fanfiction (although originally envisioned and written like an Eastern RPG) is divided into three different routes, each told from the view of a different protagonist mentioned above. The routes are:

The Distant Grail (Fate route)
 * The Tome ends up in the hands of the Devil Summoner Hikawa, who plans to manipulate both Grail Wars into his favour to begin his new Assimilation Plot. Another large threat is the Council of Angels who plan to end the chaos of the broken worlds by setting up an iron-fisted dictatorship "for the glory of God" in their own words. Poor Rin is caught right in the middle of this, which is not made easier by Tokiomi Tohsaka's and Shinji Mato's involvement.

The route would feature, gameplay-wise, Weapon Synthesis.

Vortex Hellfire (Megami route)
 * Based on "What If the Tome never fell into Hikawa's hands?". Viewed from Raidou's perspective, the Tome's completely unknown whereabouts make the story initially more of a clue-finding ordeal rather than a Stop This Villain plot.

The route would feature, gameplay-wise, Devil Fusion.

Mysteries Of The Heart (Atelier route)
 * Based on "What If Gareth never went to the factory and interrupted the cult ritual?". Despite featuring an Atelier Series character (Rorona) as the protagonist the story is the most cynical of the three routes, as it shows what the cult (whose leader is now the initial Big Bad) is really capable of and focuses more on the confusion in Skymantle.

The route would feature, gameplay-wise, Item Crafting.

The story part can be read on this site's own Writer's Block forum here. Note that this is a work majorly in-progress.

Author's Note: As I can no longer care at all for Fate Stay Night, more specifically it's characters (save for three of them) and it's plot, this fic is pretty much abandoned.

This fanfiction contains examples of:

 * An Aesop - The main moral of the story is the importance of Nakama comradeship and how sometimes you just can't call a single person "The Hero".
 * The Berserker - Both of them, as well as the entire Berserker class of demons.
 * Break the Cutie - Considering who they're crossing over with, this happens to pretty much the entire Atelier universe.
 * Crap Saccharine World - Skymantle, but also Arland is implied to truly be this.
 * Deconstruction - Of Massive Multiplayer Crossovers in the vein of Battle Moon Wars, Namco X Capcom, Chaos Wars and Cross Edge, and to a lesser extent of the various 'verses brought in.
 * Determinator - Several characters.
 * Eldritch Abomination - The entire Lovecraftian crew shows up later on.
 * Enemy Mine/ Strange Bedfellows - Quite a few of them.
 * Eviler Than Thou
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink - Fate Stay Night and Shin Megami Tensei (and the Atelier Series has been known to have a bit of this).
 * Freak-Out - Both Elyssa.
 * Future Me Scares Me - Not just who you'd expect, but also quite a few others due to Time Distortion.
 * Grey and Gray Morality
 * Heroic BSOD - Elyssa, due to Gareth's death,.
 * Heroic Mime - Raidou and Naoki, averted with.
 * Hero With Bad Publicity - Varies from route to route, at best he public just have a very mild distrust of you, at worst you're Public Enemy No. 1. On the other hand sometimes him resembling a police officer (well, because he sort of is) gets people to trust Raidou.
 * I Am Who? -  on the other hand, never relearns his memories of the.
 * Justified Title - Fate/megami atelier refers to the series crossing over, but it can also mean Workshop of the fate goddess.
 * Let's See You Do Better - What this entire thing is, myself trying to make a better crossover than recent Massive Multiplayer Crossover RPGs such as Chaos Wars and Cross Edge.
 * The Man Behind the Man - Several.
 * Mega Crossover
 * Nakama - Even if it's a transdimensional one, still one nevertheless.
 * Not So Different - Hikawa, the Council of Angels and you all generally have the same goal, restore harmony to the torn dimensions. Problem is, while you do it by helping everyone out and bringing peace, the angels want to do it by setting up an iron-fisted dictatorship to keep everyone in line while Hikawa tries to do it by removing everyone's emotions..
 * Original Generation - Gareth and Elyssa. The former's very early death is a Take That to Original Generation lead characters (the actual three protagonists are all from pre-established worlds) as well as the typical shonen anime hero (although this isn't his death's only purpose). The latter survives and is important to the plot.
 * Out-Gambitted - Happens a lot in the story itself, but the ultimate example is.
 * Save the Villain - Numerous times.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism - Depends on the route. Most of the time the story falls in the middle, however it can get very, very cynical when it wants to.
 * Talking to Himself - If they were to speculatively make this into a proper game (key word speculatively), this could be a problem, Gouto and Kotomine for example. Also happens literally due to Time Distortion.
 * Time Paradox
 * Token Evil Teammate - Shinji (well, he would be evil if he got the chance), Crowley, Nrvnqsr and Ryuunosuke/ Zero Caster.
 * Too Cool to Live - Actually averted in the case of the Servants, as after they die Raidou can learn the recipe to fuse them at the Gouma-Den.
 * The Unmasqued World - Completely unintentionally, and completely disastrous..
 * Villain Team-Up - Some genuine examples, but a lot more aversions.
 * The Unmasqued World - Completely unintentionally, and completely disastrous..
 * Villain Team-Up - Some genuine examples, but a lot more aversions.

(Character-specific tropes to be listed on the upcoming Character Sheet.)