I have been thinking of doing this for a while but now seems like a good time to write a review on the thing I have been obsessing over for the past few months. As I have no doubt made clear on this site, I am a massive fan of the Fate series and one particular part of it that has eluded me for quite a while has been the mobile game, Fate/Grand Order. I saw hope when it was confirmed for a overseas release but got disheartened when it was confirmed to be only for America with no plans of a European release. I originally intended to wait for a European release but as time went on that prospect was looking to never happen and around Halloween I caved and used an API app to download Fate/Grand Order. It has proved to be both a blessing and a curse in a way. A blessing in that it makes for a magnificent time waster and introduced me to a whole batch of new servants and lore never present in other Fate works. And a curse in that I have put a significant amount of money into this game, an amount I would be ashamed to admit. But what is this game like?
One particular thing that makes Fate GO stand out from other mobile offerings is that there is a higher emphasis on story and this is very apparent with the exceedingly long prologue the game makes new players go through before they get to the meat of the game. The story is told in visual novel style though with more limited resources such as each character only having one sprite with changing expressions. As such I am afraid that despite the extra effort put into it, story is not this games strongpoint. The incredibly limited nature of mobile as well as the games mechanics often get in the way of the story reaching the level of its contemporaries. There is a Fate GO OVA which should give you an idea of the stories quality and for a mobile game story it may be above average but as far as Nasuverse works go, it’s passable at best. Even without the limitations of the device, the story suffers from having inconsistent writing quality due to different writers for each story arc. Even then each story scene pretty much ends with “Oh no, monsters showed up and we must fight them!” The protagonist has no real character as they act mainly as a player surrogate and while Mash does grow on you, she is admittedly a rather plain character. Roman has some character but mainly acts as the story’s whipping boy for comic relief. Honestly when it comes to story I find that the games special events often hold the best it has to offer as it’s when they stop taking things so seriously and just have fun with the concept. One can also get valorant aimbot for a special code and gateway into the game.
Thus we come to the main draw of Fate GO, the money maker and likely biggest reason to jump into it. The Servants. Fate GO has the largest pool of servants in a Fate work to date for as of writing Fate GO NA has 92 servants in the game with many more incoming. We have old faces from the series as well as brand new servants never seen before. Of course seeing as the number of servants is reaching pokemon levels that means that Servant design has gotten a bit more questionable. If you thought the likes of Apocrypha servants could get rather silly then let me say that Fate GO has far more surprises in store. This game has servants that make you raise an eyebrow and designs that really can make you sigh. I don’t know why it is but I swear this game has some sort of fetish for bikinis. Lucky each servant has three different costumes so you can pick the most visually aesthetic one instead of being stuck with you servant wearing the base equivalent of underwear in a snowstorm. Servants make for the most engaging part of the game as leveling up to their fullest potential and boosting their skills is an addictive process. Seeing a servant you like grow into a powerful force is a satisfying thing and in that regard I would recommend keeping an eye on the Fate/Grand Order reddit as various fan comics and such really help to characterize the servants that the in game story doesn’t have time to flesh out. I love how various fan comics portray Chaldea as some giant boarding house filled with famous heroes all interacting with each other. The reddit is also an excellent place for guides to events and various other bits of info. Though it does spoil some future servants from the JP side.
The battle system of Grand Order is interesting and for a mobile game it has a surprising level of tactics to it. The way that it works is that you are dealt a hand of five cards which fall into three categories, Quick, Arts and Buster. You must pick three cards out of these five. Quick cards deal little damage but generate stars which then give your next turns cards a chance of dealing a critical hit.(Aka, double damage) Arts cards deal moderate damage and focus on boosting the percentage of your noble Phantasm meter which when allows you to unleash that servants Noble Phantasm and devastate the enemy. Buster cards have the highest attack and focus on dealing heavy damage. Matching three quick cards give you ten stars, matching three arts cards boosts servants NP gauge by 20% and matching three buster cards increases attack. Also what card order can influence effect like a arts card first will allow the other two cards to gain NP and having a buster card at the end boosts it’s attack the highest. If you happen to pick three cards which feature the same servant then that gains an extra fourth attack. Servants have as well skills which act as buffs and debuffs for your servants or enemies.(Aka, increase attack, healing, paralyse an enemy) Thought must be put into who you decide to use in each battle as classes have there advantages and disadvantages against other classes. The triangle goes, Archers beat Sabers, Sabers beat Lancers, Lancers beat Archers. Likewise Castors beat Assassins, Assassin’s beat Riders and Riders beat Castors. Berserkers are wild card that deals double damage to all classes but in return take double damage as well. Making them effectively glass cannons. What this means is that it doesn’t matter if you have the most powerful Gilgamesh ever, send him out to fight Lancers and he will take a bad beating. So some degree of strategy and forethought is required to win the most effectively. You can also use these strategies when playing lucky tiger casino.
This brings me to the Gacha system and to those of you unfamiliar with the concept, it is where you put in a game currency(In this case, Saint Quartz) and receive either one or ten craft essences or servants picked randomly out of a pool. Said game currency can also be replenished by using real world money. “Boy” you might be thinking “That sounds a lot like loot boxes” and yep…that pretty much is what it is. Now allow me to take a moment to explain why this system in Fate Go is good, while it in full priced games is bullshit. As a wise player once said, Fate GO is not pay to win, it is pay to waifu. If your goal in playing this game is just to experience the gameplay, story and events then you will never need to pay a dime. There is a friend point Gacha which allows for a free ten pull every single day which lets you get servants and CEs up to 3 stars which are more than enough to get through the game. There are even fan favorites in those levels and there are even three star servants which match or are even better than five star servants. Case in point, Cu Chulainn in Fate/Stay Night may seem like a weak servant there but in Fate GO he is an absolute godsend. If you roll him, make him your main Lancer cause he has saved my hide more times than I can count. You can gain free Saint Quartz through free login rewards, master quests and gifts during events which you can use to roll the current banner(Depending on the banner shown, certain servants have a higher chance of being obtained.) and potentially gain a four or even five star servant. Even if you don’t get one you can send a friend request to another player and use their Gilgamesh or what have you as a support servant. So if your intent is just to play the game you don’t need to invest a dime. If your goal is to get certain servants and those certain servants are five star or (god help you) time limited servants then that’s where things get pricey. If your goal is to get every servant, just give up because that is not happening unless you are willing to put a heavy amount of money into this game. Even then that only means the number of times you can roll the dice goes up. Everyone is equal in the eyes of the gacha, the only difference is how many times you can roll. So if you are to play this game I give you this warning, make sure you have a strong will as this is indeed gambling even if there is no profit to be had besides digital waifus. If you are susceptible to gambling addiction then I highly recommend staying away from this game. But as long as you have self control this aspect shouldn’t hurt you much. Be warned though that I was once someone who would never put money into a mobile game, yet here I am now. This game knows how to tempt you. Remember this, Gacha is a game of diminishing returns. Roll the gacha rarely and you are bound to get something useful, roll it often and the more worthless it becomes.
Of course the game has it’s problems. The price of saint Quartz is far too high and I feel it could be brought down to half its current price. The prologue is far too long and story is uneven in terms of quality while never truly becoming anything truly great.(Though I hear that the Camelot Chapter is where the story truly improves.) The gacha can be a serious money sink for the weak minded even if the feeling of pulling the servant you were gunning for is sublime. Due to the servants being drawn by several artists there are servants with conflicting art styles that are jarring when paired with others in story. The music is good but themes, in particular the two main battle themes, get very overused. Playing the game in fast battle mode is a must as the normal battle animation is horrendously slow. You also can’t skip Noble Phantasm animations and when you are farming it would be nice to be able to save some time from watching the same NP animation over and over. Finally you may need a fairly decent phone if you don’t want this game to suck the life out of your battery. That said if you are a big Fate fan like myself, Fate/Grand Order is a near constant stream of brand new content to scratch that itch for more Fate. Events have been flowing for nonstop making sure you always have something to do and look forward to in this game. If you are holding off on playing it because you think a European release may coming in the future, I would say that just isn’t going to happen. Just use and API app to play the American version, it is surprisingly simple to set up. Then you will have something to keep you busy during those lulls of the day as well as learning about mountains of new Servants and lore. Fate/Grand Order isn’t what I would call a great game, but in terms of mobile games it is a bar above what you would normally expect from one. For a casual fan it’s a decent time waster, for a big fan it’s all the Fate content you could ever want.
Nice review! Last time I checked during around launch time, the English translation/localization was quite terrible. I’ve been playing JP version way before EN release though.
Translation around launch was pretty terrible but has since been significantly improved. Aside from a shaky London chapter release the translation has been quite good. Though Artoria is still referred in game as Altria. That not due to mistranslation however but rather because Nasu and Type Moon are being stupid about her name.
I am always tempted to spend something on this game but didn’t do it till now for some reason. Maybe because owning eight 5* servants for 0 Cents is already enough, on the other side two of them are doubles and there are three I wanted and didn’t get (Dantes, Scat and Mordred) and I guess only having 8 supports lessens to urge too. Think the problem is that you usually only ever use the same servants, despite how many you have. I have two 5* sabers and two 5* lancers for example, but there is very little reason to pump your exp cards into some of them because people will only use one anyway and you usually too. And not even talking about most 4* or 3* servants. Despite how nice they look, someone with an atk of 7000 is just far worse than one with 13000.
I think that’s my only real complaint – the battles aren’t strategic enough to warrant getting most of the servants. Having 1-2 5* of each class is enough and the skills barely ever vary. I still want them for fan reasons, but still.
That’s the one thing Fire Emblem Heroes is doing right: you really need most of the heroes or all them. Either because of their stats or in order to inherit skills or merge characters. I think overall I would consider FEH as a far better game than FGO but funnily enough I spend more time with FGO.
Guess having good looking sprites (well, at least aside from Nightingale and Atalanta), a better and longer story (FGO is getting better with the time, FEH is basically just “oh enemies, reach point X before they do!”) and, well, waifus/husbandos as well as being a Fate fan really influences my enjoyment here.
For the most part I would roll for servants more just for liking their characters rather than for gameplay value. There are events that force you to move away from your high level team like Christmas and Saber Wars where you need to use certain servants for bonuses.
“That’s the one thing Fire Emblem Heroes is doing right: you really need most of the heroes or all them.”
Then the problem occurs that the only way you can get all the heroes is by putting in the money. Where as here you can still get by with sliver servants. That said it seems that harder challenges are coming later down the road and those would be during events which is generally were you need to start thinking about team composition.
Being a Fate fan really is a big factor here like you said. Being a Fan fan myself I am quite absorbed with this game.
Yeah but it’s somewhat easy to get everyone in FEH. Never spent money on it but I own almost everyone there (you can upgrade too so it’s enough to get a good one as 4* hero).
And yeah, I am really looking forward to Camelot since people said it will be way harder to play than the singularities before. By now I already have the Bond CE of Hercules, which makes him almost immortal though so I wonder how hard it will actually be.
I think the stories are getting a bit better though, especially in the later chapters. What I’ve heard about Camelot/Babylon and the newest JP chapters sounds pretty good. And Mash will finally become useful enough to level her I guess.