First off a couple of disclaimers:

1. This is not going to include a watch order of the series, however I will explain whether the new comers should start here (or not) and my reasons for it

2. I will be evaluating this entry on it's own merits, and thus, comparisons with the visual novel will be kept at a minimum

3. I'm skipping over the history of the series and it's entire background as I wanna get to the point I want to make about it

With that out of the way, let's jump in:

Starting with the more apparent characteristics of the show, those being the overall presentation and the sound design, and I will start by saying that for a show that premiered in 2006, it's not that terrible looking, with very detailed background shots, good story boarding to where it even replicates notable shots from the Visual Novel, and the fight sequences are exhilarating to watch, some of which are decently choreographed, plus the character designs do a good job at replicating the original ones from it's source material, however the age starts to show when some still shots ocurr, either during sweeping shots or shaking camera effects, as well as when characters go slightly off model from time to time, and I will only briefly mention the infamous CG dragon scene.

Sound wise it's where this series holds up the most, given the repertoire of it's composer, and I'm no expert in this area, but the score itself was fitting enough for the scenes it played on top of, plus the remixing of some tracks from the media it's adapting from also seem pretty decent sounding, the sound design is also fine on it's own too, as it should give a good speakers and/or headphones some work to do, and that's all I'm gonna say on that front.

Now here's the meat and bones of it, in terms of it's narrative, I can safetly say that it's consistent enough on what it tries to tell it's audience, at least on this specific route, in terms of the main character's severe hero complex, the backstory and development of him and his love interest, and how they juxtapose each other in terms of them being a heroic figure, as well as becoming champions of justice, while also being technically two birds of the same feather as far as how their ideologies go, my complaints are as follow though, I wish there was enough time for the show to explain some of the intricacies of how magic and servants mechanically work, which is prompted by what is my biggest issue with this show, and that is what happens midway into the 2nd cour of the show, where somehow they fitted in a very crucial plot point from the Heaven's feel route in a very bizarre way, presumably due to them being uncertain about future adaptations, on the plus side though, I appreciate the inclusion of a proper confrontation between Archer and Berserker when it was only relegated to the outcome of such in an interlude upon reading the VN, and I was pleasantly surprised upon my 2nd viewing of this show.

In conclusion, the first thing I wanna say is that, if anyone is interested in getting into the fate anime adaptations, this is a good place to start, albeit with the following fan editted version of it, as it gets rid of what I complained about earlier, and it's the most spoiler free ticket, I highly suggest you start by watching the first 2 episodes in the platform you desire and then proceed with the 2nd episode of said fan edit, some of the cuts can also be a bit jarring, but this is the best we all have, until ufotable decides to readapt this route and make the events that were trimmed here, flow much better:

My overall thoughts on this adaptation is that I like it on it's own and what it's about, as long as I don't preach about it's short comings, and ignore my greatest gripe with it, with all of that said, I believe this to be a decent experience, all things considered, however, it depends on whether you prefer it's aesthetic or not, and some of the writing might've been lost on translation, and at times, is the source of ridicule when you take some lines out of context, and there are also areas where the visual quality is rather unpleasant for the eyes