What do you like/dislike about Fate/Grand Order's story?

[OverMaster]

I'd like for our decisions to actually change the course of the story, and maybe for us to be able to pick different Masters with their own personalities and compatibilities with different Servants instead of following the same generic flimsiest excuse for a character, but I realize those are necessary shortcomings of the format that can't really be helped. There's just so much you can pack in a game format like this.

Likewise, I'm torn between just wishing dead characters could just stay dead instead of being resummoned just as soon so death happening to anyone not named 'Roman' or a literal extra has an actual weight, and being thankful characters get second chances to show off what they can do and what can be told regarding them after being wasted off.

Come to think about it, maybe what I'd like is for this to be another kind of game altogether, even if following more or less the same plot and using the same characters.

[Inuhanyou]

that its told through a gacha game instead of traditional game or series. A lot of the plots and situations and scenarios are too good for being a phone game locked off from a lot of people's experience

[Lily Emilio]

Define "a lot", who are these a lot of ppl, because the game has a huge amount of players. I would argue that if it was in the traditional Visual novel format it would have 100 times less the playerbase.

Agree on the downside of the format tho, like most fight scenes outside of super duper important story ones are literally just clashing sounds and some meh effects, while missing narrations and explanations.

[Inuhanyou]

Define "a lot", who are these a lot of ppl, because the game has a huge amount of players. I would argue that if it was in the traditional Visual novel format it would have 100 times less the playerbase.

Agree on the downside of the format tho, like most fight scenes outside of super duper important story ones are literally just clashing sounds and some meh effects, while missing narrations and explanations.

all the people who arent gonna play a gacha game to get the story, which is a decent amount

[Mattias]

Compared to all the people who wouldn't play a visual novel that never got translated out of Japanese, like all the other TM things?

As bad as gatcha games are, aside from the Extra games it's the only one to get an official translation.

[Reign]

all the people who arent gonna play a gacha game to get the story, which is a decent amount

It's definitely missing out on a potential playerbase in its current format, but I don't think TM is really bothered by that when the playerbase it does have is enormous. It wouldn't have done nearly as well as a VN compared to its size as a mobage. TM VNs never sold badly but they never reached even a fraction of the size of GO either.

But yeah the narrated fight scenes are missed.

[OverMaster]

Compared to all the people who wouldn't play a visual novel that never got translated out of Japanese, like all the other TM things?

As bad as gatcha games are, aside from the Extra games it's the only one to get an official translation.

I'm pretty sure Unlimited Battle Codes got an official translation too.

It's definitely missing out on a potential playerbase in its current format, but I don't think TM is really bothered by that when the playerbase it does have is enormous. It wouldn't have done nearly as well as a VN compared to its size as a mobage. TM VNs never sold badly but they never reached even a fraction of the size of GO either.

But yeah the narrated fight scenes are missed.

Isn't this kind of a false dilemma? Adaptations can coexist with the source material, in this case the gacha game.

[Lily Emilio]

all the people who arent gonna play a gacha game to get the story, which is a decent amount

Still much more than the amount of ppl who willing to play a visual novel nowadays.

[SeiKeo]

Isn't this kind of a false dilemma? Adaptations can coexist with the source material, in this case the gacha game.

Not in terms of time; Nasu can either write (say) all the battle scenes for Part 1 or half a year's worth of events, and which one of these has better ROI.

[Spartacus]

I think much more is an understatement.

The success of FSN VN and its player base is probably not even reaching 10% of FGO's.

[Lily Emilio]

Like, I can relate because I played too many VNs in my life to count, and the amount of discussions you can find on those VNs is literally nonexistent outside of Japan. Take my favorite VN Himegari Dungeon Meister for example. If it got a VN remake (it's a very old game, like, nearly as old as FSN) then it would only be played by otakus in Japan for the most part. But it got a web browser DMM game remake instead which was definitely not what I wanted, but it is constantly on DMM's top 20-30 grossing app and gave the company I support (Eushully) a lot of money to fund their other VN projects. Result is that their anniversary game topped the sales chart in Japan the first week it released.

Gacha model is just much more accessible and profitable nowadays.

[weeblord]

It’s not like FGO’s format makes it impossible to write fights with narration, it’s just that they made the decision to have zero narration and a semi-silent MC. This leaves poor Mash with the role of both having to comment unnaturally on every action to explain whats happening and also act as Gudas mouthpiece when something more complicated than an epic as frick meme needs to be said.

[Historia]

that its not a vn or ln series

that and it has different writers for each segment so some parts are shit, others are okay, and a few are prudy gut

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i think it'd even be better if they did a full-on manga series, with different writers and artists, instead of, eh

but whatever works

[Mcjon01]

i think it'd even be better if they did a full-on manga series, with different writers and artists, instead of, eh

but whatever works

Aren’t they doing that though

[Sandstorm77]

Yeah we have 6 different FGO manga being done by 6 different artist right now.

[I3uster]

If I boil it down to just one point I would say it's its over-reliance on comedy that really deflates 90% of scenes that are supposed to be dramatic. It's fine to shake stuff up with comedy, F/SN has tons of funny scenes but none ever felt like they undermine the character in question. There's plenty of FGO characters you just can't take seriously in their role in the story because they do dumb goofy jokes all the time.

[Laserman]

If I boil it down to just one point I would say it's its over-reliance on comedy that really deflates 90% of scenes that are supposed to be dramatic. It's fine to shake stuff up with comedy, F/SN has tons of funny scenes but none ever felt like they undermine the character in question. There's plenty of FGO characters you just can't take seriously in their role in the story because they do dumb goofy jokes all the time.

[Reign]

If I boil it down to just one point I would say it's its over-reliance on comedy that really deflates 90% of scenes that are supposed to be dramatic. It's fine to shake stuff up with comedy, F/SN has tons of funny scenes but none ever felt like they undermine the character in question. There's plenty of FGO characters you just can't take seriously in their role in the story because they do dumb goofy jokes all the time.

Good post.

[OverMaster]

If I boil it down to just one point I would say it's its over-reliance on comedy that really deflates 90% of scenes that are supposed to be dramatic. It's fine to shake stuff up with comedy, F/SN has tons of funny scenes but none ever felt like they undermine the character in question. There's plenty of FGO characters you just can't take seriously in their role in the story because they do dumb goofy jokes all the time.

I mean, it'd be fine of the goofy characters and the serious characters stood separate. I don't think anyone can take Nobunaga seriously, much like you can't take Taiga seriously for long stretches beyond the occasional reminder she genuinely loves and cares for Shirou, but that's fine. The problem is pretty much every time a major GO character gets established as a serious thing, the story then goes and makes them into a joke that grows lamer with each repetition.

Jeanne Alter is probably the most notorious example. She always was a bit pathetic deep down when you thought about it, but she still was the kind of pitiful people who would burn people alive and then command genocide on a whole country. Now she's a gibbering chuuni in perpetual unadmitted love who makes Helga from Hey Arnold look mature.

Your whole party is massacred in London by Solomon just so you can get rubbed on your face how dire things are? Eh, by the next event they all will be back making fun of each other.

Solomon's sacrifice is pretty much the only thing that keeps any major dramatic weight because it's the only one that sticks. The Lostbelts try to make up for that by wasting their own NPCs and trying to make us feel bad for them because they are disposable non-Servants who won't come back, but they're just redshirts. Trying to make me feel bad for Greta the Gotterdamerung Girl or even her pre-Lostbelts predecessor Mabel Marble from the CCC event is like trying to make me feel bad about Ensign Disposable who beams down with Kirk, Mc Coy and Spock. They have 'I'm Going to Die' painted all over their chests, so when they die you only feel like you've wasted your time with someone who obviously was never going to make it out, while Servants get to die like 1,000 fucking times and come back as if nothing had happened.

[Bobin]

Jeanne Alter is such a particular case of joke becoming personality that it feels even dishonest to be using as a example tbh.