How This All Started
So, back in December, Under Night 2 had an open beta on PSN. It gave me the French Bread itch, and I knew I wasn’t going to have the game on release, so I started playing a lot more of Melty Blood Type Lumina. Now, this gave me the Type-Moon itch, so I finally watched Fate/Stay Night : Heaven’s Feel. It reminded me how much I loved Fate, and it since I wasn’t playing Genshin like that, I downloaded Fate/Grand Order.
How It’s Going
The General Experience
FGO has a pretty decent experience, all things considered. Obviously, it wasn’t always like this, but as of now, the game is very convenient to play. Dailies are literally “just do something 3 times”, the low-rarity units are good, and most of the story is easy.
Now, FGO obviously has a lot of waifus, so you’d think I’d be like, “Damn, who do I roll for?” but the thing is, I was already a Fate fan. I like almost all these characters in the first place. So, I came in already understanding I can’t get all my favorites, this game’s horrendous pity system aside. Instead, I’ve had a lot of fun learning more about the units I do have and seeing who I can realistically get. For example, one of my favorite characters in all of Fate is Luvia, who appears in this game as Astraea(or more specifically, she’s Astraea’s host, and has very clearly influenced her mannerisms), and she’s a general pool 4-star, and there’s a 4-star select ticket in May.
Some of my favorites since I started playing include Saint Martha, who was actually my first 4-star when I first tried the game way back around 2017, and Antonio Salieri, a recent favorite from the game’s 2nd saga. A real MVP for my account would be Reines, my first 5-star pull. She has a lot of useful defensive effects and can charge the party’s super gauges.
The pity system is pretty bad coming from Genshin. In Genshin, at 90 rolls, you are guaranteed a 5-star. The game will do a coin flip and decide if you get the rate-up 5-star or a general pool 5-star. This is the dreaded 50/50. If you lose this 50/50 and get the general pool, your next 5-star is guaranteed to be the rate-up. This carries across banners. For example, I lost the Yae Miko 50/50 a couple weeks ago. My next 5-star is guaranteed to be the rate-up if I reach 90 wishes or just get lucky within those 90. I can use this to guarantee Arlecchino next month. In FGO, Pity comes in at 330 wishes compared to Genshin’s 180. This is slightly deceptive, since every 10 rolls in FGO gives a free 11th, so it’s really just 300 rolls, but that’s still nearly double Genshin’s pity. Also, this pity does not carry over. If you didn’t get a 5-star, your progress towards 300 rolls resets on the next banner. Pretty brutal. Still, this isn’t too bad of a problem for me since, again, my favorite character is a 4-star, and also because the NA version of the game is 2 years behind the JP version, meaning I can look ahead and see when a 5-star I want is coming and plan accordingly.
The Story
While FGO’s gameplay actually isn’t bad (it’s really similar to Pokemon, honestly), the real draw is the story. Now, it doesn’t start off particularly outstanding, and one of the early arcs is straight-up mediocre, but starting from the 5th singularity, it starts and holds a certain standard of quality. Now, the story can only be so good when the protagonist is aggressively self-inserted, but the general narrative and especially the other characters carry really hard. It comes together as a really fun grand adventure. If you liked the Fate animes, I would definitely recommend FGO’s story. Even just reading it on one of those archive sites would do.
I’ve only taken part in two events so far, but they’re really fun. The main story, while not devoid of humor, is still serious and takes itself seriously. The events throw any pretense of seriousness out the window, and I enjoy that. They’re silly and full of fanservice, and that’s perfectly fine.
Gameplay
Probably the biggest claim to fame FGO has gameplay-wise is that your low-rarity units are probably your strongest soldiers. A big part of the game is taking advantage of class interactions and unit abilities, so even your one-star units can end up being godly once the situation actually calls for them. Units either have AOE, single-target, or support supers, and these only get stronger once you acquire more copies of a unit. This is also another reason low-rarity units can hit above their weight class; 1, 2, and 3 stars are all but guaranteed to eventually end up being NP5 (Noble Phantasm (i.e., Super) level 5) unless they are limited, meaning they will generally have supers that hit just as hard, if not harder, than their 4 and 5 star counterparts. Granted, that is only super damage and not the damage done by their normal attacks, but it’s still a feather in their cap that can’t be understated. Also, low-rarity units have a low party cost, which is a boon in team-building. If you have nothing but 4 & 5 stars as your party members, you won’t have any party cost left over to use good Craft Essences, which are basically this game’s equivalent of RPG Equipment, and unlike the units, the lower rarity craft essences are actually lacking. You can do a team of 3 star units just fine, but a team with only 3-star or lower craft essences is gonna be pure pain.
You also have a lot of ways to invest in units you particularly like or use a lot. You can use the Holy Grails given out as rewards to increase your unit’s level all the way to 120, give them up to 2k extra attacks and HP stats through Fous, add special effects to their normal attacks, etc. You can absolutely turn your favorite character into a weapon of mass destruction. I grailed my Kojiro to level 90 and have given him 1K worth of extra attack stats so far.
General mobs in the game aren’t particularly challenging, but bosses can be a good test of team-building. Setting up your frontline and backline is really important and having units that fill a variety of roles pays off. Healers, buffers, debuffers, and taunters are just as important as damage dealers.
Other Fate Stuff
I’ve also gotten into more Fate media besides the phone game. There are a lot of fate spinoffs. I’ve mainly gotten into Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files, Fate/Strange Fake, and Fate/Type Redline.
I do want to play OG FSN at some point. There’s also a sequel I never knew about called Hollow Ataraxia. And of course, the latest game, Fate/Samurai Remnant, is on my radar.
Fate’s a big IP, man. I’m not complaining, though. The Unlimited Blade Works anime still holds a special place in my heart, so coming back and experiencing more of the Fate universe is fun, and there’s a lot I can sink my teeth into.