Is FGO a good game? What do you like and dislike? How can it be fixed?

[Ubergeneral]

So as we have already discussed that many people aren't happy with FGO and it's current state. People have said newer games have become better and left FGO in the dust. Others blame the gatcha and it's lack of any kind of bad luck protection. Last people have complained about not liking current content and release rate.

So for people that love FGO and fate in general. Here are the questions we need to answer

1. What do you like about FGO (besides that it has fate characters)
2. What gameplay problems do you have with FGO?
3. What are FGO's Gatcha problems? Is it fair or does it need improvment?
4. What should new content look like? What makes an event good, what makes an event bad?
5. What games should FGO look up to for inspiration? Use examples.
6. How should this game be improved? What is your vision for this game in the future?

----

Here are my answers

1. I like FGO because it has the perfect about of simple auto pilot and in game depth. Most farm missions are easy and I can match shapes and colors until I win without paying much attension to it. On the other hand unlike most phone games, the game NEVER plays itself. You must input commands. There is no skip or auto complete. I'm ok with this because I personally just watch anime or play another game while also grinding FGO.

On the other hand I feel there are a lot of mechanics that matter on hard missions. Type match ups, servant skills, battle effects etc. I think this game has a lot of depth when it wants to. In this respect I feel it has the perfect balence. I can mindlessly grind when I want to, but the game won't play itself and battles can really matter when I want to. Not having to pay attention to the game is huge for me.

Last I like that you don't need to do much to level up servants. Its as simple as giving them exp, which is easy and not really that big a grind. New players might get stuck needing ascension materials but events are very generous and they can get many items you need to raise the level cap. On the other hand things like Craft Essence and skills don't matter that much, and FGO isn't bogged down by more systems to level a specific thing or to craft gear.

What I wanted form FGO was a good story with all the servants from the extended universe that I can put on a team. I got that and more and found the gameplay to be perfect for me.

2. I like the basic FGO gameplay because it feels simple and straight forward. When people say that the game sucks I don't understand what their problem could be. My biggest complaint are silly QoL changes the game needs, like switching between CE when leveling them and switching between leveling and ascending servants. Also CE clean up is a pain since old event CE don't tell you if it was used in an event. Event Challenge quests should last a few days after the event ends. I find myself grinding until the last minute and have no time to solve a hard challenge quest. I shouldn't have to choose between farming more or doing the challenge quest.

3. I feel the FGO gatcha is fair. I am still not convinced that it needs any kind of bad luck protection. As a (almost) free player I have gotten most of the 5 star servants I want. Sure I have had my share of heartbreak and will likely have that happen again, but I feel that 5 stars happen often enough and with a lot of patience and saving quartz you can get the 5 star you want. People that say otherwise are just salty.

4. I personally like FGO events. The first two events (Nerofest and Moon daingo bullshit) were lame, but when the first halloween event went in 2015 i was blown away. I like the grindy events because they feel just right most of the time even with my schedule I end up finishing them in the last two days. Once again I can zone out and grind while doing other things. There are bad events. The worst event was Rashimon. I felt this event was too unfair and unforgiving with little reward for finishing.

5. I think that games like GBF are too confusing. I could not understand the game mechanics for that game. I saw how many systems there were, like weapons and the ship and felt overwhelmed. FGO eliminated all this and make it simple and yet gets you to grind for mats and QP to max out your servants.

People keep on bringing up other games that have passed FGO. Which ones? I know Genshin Impact got popular, but it's not really fair to compare that to FGO since they are so different.

6. FGO needs to have smaller gaps between events. Covid really messed up the game but in the second half of 2020 they had some good events. This year has had some really bad dead spots. FGO needs one major event every month. More simple events wouldn't be bad either. Things like Journey to the west didn't have a new map or more than a simple story. It wasn't anyone's favorite but it was a good time waster. Not every event needs to be huge like the collaboration event. Every event must have at least one new servant. Things like Nerofest should still have a new servant in the gatcha, no exceptions. Events like the Murder at the Kogetsukan event must have free quests and a shop. Reruns don't have to follow this rule, unless it's a major event rerun, like the CCC event.

My vision for a better FGO is more events and new servants arriving on each one and main story chapters arrive every six months. As for the rate of the main story release, lost belt 6 concludes in 2021, lost belt 7 2022 and the final chapter in 2023 as a two-parter. If the game continues after that they can release another group of side chapters like Epic of Remnant in 2024. The game should be winding down by that point as it will almost be 10 years old.

Now what are your thoughts?

[Nyarly Alter]

I'll keep my thoughts simple and short.

1. Excellent music and top tier voice acting. Without that, i would've quit this game a long time ago.
2. Farming hell.
3. It's way more fair than other games i've seen. It still can and should improve though.
4. A bad event is one that forces me to farm too much to proceed with the story. The Beni Enma event was annoying to me because of that.
5. I dunno.
6. I'm looking foward to seeing Tsukihime and Melty Blood collabs in the future. If the game dies before they happen my soul will never rest in peace.

[Pendant]

1) I like to see my account grow and become stronger over time. It gives me the sensation that I've built something.
2) I don't even regard farming when asked this since it really should be mechanical and mindless. My issue is when CQs are lazy and really easy to figure out. They are rare enough already so when we get a bad one, and it usually is bad, it hurts doubly so. There are nitpicks about the order of operations in the gameplay that I have as well, like non-damaging NPs being allowed to go off even if a wave is wiped out but I see the opposite argument for it.
3) Just have better rates, honestly.
4) Events are bad when they are easy to clear but stick around for like a week past its sell by date. Also reruns. Events are good when the story is good, when it's not just farming, when the shop is good, and when it has a fun post-game.
5) Doing something like Fire Emblem could be neat where you pick two Servants and have them train/hang out together and you get special scenes between them. It would add a little extra charm to them and you could see how two really unrelated Servants might interact.
6) Dead weeks have got to be addressed. That doesn't mean we need around the clock events but there needs to be something. As it stands, there is no reason to engage with the game when it's dead because when FGO is dead it's super dead.

[eddyak]

I dislike the fairly lazy pull-five-cards gameplay, and the take-turns-punching-each-other-in-the-face thing, but that's more my problems with the turn-based genre than FGO. A more fair criticism would be that I hate pressing a skill once and having it be out of use for the rest of the fight, unless you're playing stall teams. The spend-every-buff-in-a-single-turn gameplay gets boring very quickly for everybody who isn't a number crunching theorycrafter.

The gacha is shit. Gacha in general are shit, but at least with most games there's a better chance of pulling units, the more you spend on it, and the non-scumlord systems all have a pity system. FGO has neither, and the fact that gambling addicts can piss away enough money to remortgage their house and still not end up with their favourite unit, let alone a single gold spark, honestly makes me think the entire gacha system should be as heavily restricted and regulated as actual casinos. Don't even bother mentioning blank spirit origins, those are such a fucking insulting scam I can't believe there weren't riots when they were introduced.

New content? Whatever the devs find interesting, honestly. I could do with cutting out the grindier events (Go West needs to never exist, ever again), but most of the newer events are good or better.

Games to look up to? Anything with a pity system, anything with cutscenes that don't consist of Mash Sprite -> Black background with white slash -> Mash sprite shunted slightly left -> Oh no, this is an intense fight! Seriously, they should've updated the engine and been working with a system that can take even mildly animated cutscenes years ago.

Any game with relationships. My Room content is weak, and interludes for characters you care about are few and far between, and there are maybe two or three in the game that are actually Spend Time With And Get To Know This Servant.

[Reign]

1. What do you like about FGO (besides that it has fate characters)
The story as is the typical response, but I think I'm in the minority in that I actually quite like the battle gameplay. It's nothing in depth but I enjoy it. Sometimes I'll purposefully farm without my dedicated farming team just to engage with it more. I also enjoy just getting characters and seeing my roster expand, even if it's not someone I was specifically gunning for.

2. What gameplay problems do you have with FGO?
I think combat is in a good place so rather than look at it from that angle, it'd be nice if they improved on daily quests. When was the last time those got an update?
Also bring back the free 3-star from completing a main story chapter.

3. What are FGO's Gatcha problems? Is it fair or does it need improvment?
Heard it has bad rates compared to its competitors, but that's not something I can speak for as I don't generally play gachas. There definitely needs to be a pity system in place though.

4. What should new content look like? What makes an event good, what makes an event bad?
As I play on NA I haven't experienced Grail Fronts first hand but I thought the footage I've seen of them look really interesting, so more experimental stuff like that would be cool to see. I enjoyed Ooku's labyrinth except for the loading, bringing that mechanic back if they find a way to fix or tone the loading down could be neat.
I'd like events to feel more serious than wacky going forward. By this I don't mean make them all main story relevent like CCC and Ooku, but rather don't have every one be just gags. When some are gag events it's fine, but the problem is gag events feel like the majority. I'd like it to be more balanced. Ironically the Gudaguda events have trended more toward serious despite their origin as a gag manga.
Farming is expected in this genre so as long as they don't go completely overboard with it (Go West, CCC) it's fine.

5. What games should FGO look up to for inspiration? Use examples.
I can't comment on here as the only other mobage I've played in-depth was the Kingdom Hearts one which was way worse with both balance scaling and dragging out the story (good story tho).

6. How should this game be improved? What is your vision for this game in the future?
Downtime needs to be dealt with. Even if there's still several months between main story updates they need to find a better way to fill that gap. It shouldn't be back to back nonstop (I heard that's why Magia Record failed in NA, but that's just stuff I've heard secondhand) but they need to manage their time better.

[Nikiri]

1. music, story, servants made by various artist
2. it's boring, it's been almost 6 years and it's still the same, everything that they try to add (gold fous, paws, bond ce, command codes) barely changes anything
3. ceiling would be nice
4. at this point idgaf about events, i just want the story and let fgo die
5. n/a
6. no future

guess i'm burnout

[Ubergeneral]

I dislike the fairly lazy pull-five-cards gameplay, and the take-turns-punching-each-other-in-the-face thing, but that's more my problems with the turn-based genre than FGO. A more fair criticism would be that I hate pressing a skill once and having it be out of use for the rest of the fight, unless you're playing stall teams. The spend-every-buff-in-a-single-turn gameplay gets boring very quickly for everybody who isn't a number crunching theorycrafter.

How would this be fixed at point? The only concievible way to change this is to make a whole new game.

I'm looking foward to seeing Tsukihime and Melty Blood collabs in the future. If the game dies before they happen my soul will never rest in peace.

Add fate strange fake as well. I would do crazy things to have True Archer and True Rider in my chaldea.

[eddyak]

How would this be fixed at point? The only concievible way to change this is to make a whole new game.

FGO 2, if that ever comes out.

Five attacks per turn, no shitty card drawing, using a skill takes up one or more attack turns, with shorter cooldowns. Or something. I like Epic Seven's thing, but that might not be doable without a cancerous gearing system.

[Helga]

1- the gameplay, the thing I loved about it when I first play it was the gameplay. The story was nah and I only cared about opening new topic with my friend never thinked about Nasu as great writer (still to this day) so yea the gameplay was great when I first started it.
2- like I said I like the gameplay, the only problem I have is I get bored after 2.6 year of playing the same shit. If there's something I want to add to fgo its random team generator. It's will be fun to try random ass team build xD.
3- GSSR (pity) it's really annoying if you spend xxx sq on that servant.
4-
5-
6- in game power lvl of servant done by Nasu himself

[mami-kouga]

1. Was my first gacha game and the standard I hold all future one's to writing wise. I enjoy the story and characters a lot and it's simple to understand.
2. Mat grinding is overwhelmingly tedious and some events are just annoying for seemingly no reason
3. There's nothing fair about a gacha system where the only semblance of a pity system is only useful to whales
4.
5.
6. It should be obvious but I don't care about the gameplay of this game. I just want it to stop being so overwhelmingly biased towards straight male otakus.

[Bottom Black]

1. I like the story, we have some good infos for the Nasuverse there. I'm also really grateful for the FGO CCC Collab Event since EXTRA CCC was one of my favorite stories.
2. I'm actually fine with the gameplay. I like playing with my favorites. Farming can be boring for some people and I can understand them, but I'm surprisingly fine with it.
3. It's really unfair. We need a pity system at least (USO doesn't count). I do like single rateups tho, most gacha games have multiple rateups at the same time, so it's hard to get the character you want.
4. Good story and interesting characters, that's it for me.
5. I'm not sure, maybe Granblue Fantasy.
6. They need to update a lot of servant animations, like Mata Hari and Raikou, they also need to buff weak servants like Summer Tamamo. We need a better pacing of events/main story chapters and, of course, they need to make the gacha less bad, but I don't think they'll do it... I feel like they're actually pandering to people that can spend a lot instead.

[Escavalien]

1. The animations and the story, though I am a dokkan battle player so cool animations are a big reason I give a shit about most of this genre
2. How repetitive skills are, and the balancing. I just want to run servants I like and I would rather them have unique abilities than generic mana burst number 69!
3. The rates. They're fucking atrocious. I had a two year dry streak without a single 5* servant, once it rained it poured but that didn't last long either. Nobody should have to spend two years feeling like they can't play with servants they like.
4. New content should be fun to read stories with challenging but not completely broken difficulty. I generally don't like events cuz I'm not very into HAHA HOT WAIFU WELFARE ADDED, DID YOU SEE THE 99 JOKES WE CRAMMED INTO THIS EVENT? and mostly lean towards the events that try to be at least a bit serious or have some sort of meaning.
5. idk dragon quest 11? any good rpg really
6. A major rework for the UI and the gameplay with a change to the systems that make up the servants kits would be nice, but a much simpler and just as effective change would be to INCREASE THE DAMN RATES. On the other hand, I can ignore all of that if they simply make proto Arthur grand Saber. Now THAT would be a game saver, believe me. It'd patch the wonky systems right up.

[Lily Emilio]

1. What do you like about FGO (besides that it has fate characters)

Let's just say that if it wasn't for the Fate name I would have stopped playing FGO after the first hour.

2. What gameplay problems do you have with FGO?

Repetitive and grindy, couple with its uninteresting gameplay. In other games they assist you with this chore by having an auto function or speed up the process where you spend x10 stamina cost for x10 the rewards with just 1 run for example. I don't want to spam the exact same skill buttons and use the same NP cards over and over again, and I'm saying this as someone who played a bunch of MMOs that required a lot more grinding. The reason those games did not bore me (even without an auto system) is that the combat itself is engaging and fun.

3. What are FGO's Gatcha problems? Is it fair or does it need improvment?

Probably the worst gacha system I've encountered. Any improvement to it (especially a proper pity system) is revolutionary.

4. What should new content look like? What makes an event good, what makes an event bad?

Contents don't have to be super special or different, because the game has limitations due to its structure. I don't even require god-tier events with 10/10 stories even. I just want those events to not be a slog to read and play through. Too much grinding, story being plagued with lame interactions, same and predictable plot...etc are things that driven me to the point of skipping through 80%+ of the recent event stories. There are people who enjoy those and that's good for them, but not me.

5. What games should FGO look up to for inspiration? Use examples.

A lot of QoL changes can be taken from other games. Taimanin RPG has a great rerun system for old events, a tower for you to climb to explore, raid bosses monthly, and an excellent story archive where chapters are listed and organized in a very easy to view manner. Also take Genshin Impact's gacha pity system. I'd take that than the unsigned saint graphs or w/e they are called.

6. How should this game be improved? What is your vision for this game in the future?

I've talked about this before in some of my posts in other topics, but at this stage of the game it is more efficient and safe to make QoL changes and improvements, as well as making new type of events using available systems. The grail front is a good direction and I'd like to see more of those. The game prob won't be dying anytime soon thanks to the Fate name being its life support, and the amount of work putting into making new servants. But I don't see it as a game that other companies should look up to and copy (in fact, several attempts at recreating the FGO magic has failed).

[Spartacus]

>1. What do you like about FGO (besides that it has fate characters)
That it is a typemoon game :rofl:
The visual is pretty damn good.

>2. What gameplay problems do you have with FGO?
Surprisingly none.

>3. What are FGO's Gatcha problems? Is it fair or does it need improvement?
Back when it was launched, it was okayish to have a gacha without a failsafe. But nowadays stuff like Arknights and Genshin comes out and has a guaranteed pity, this game's gacha is now among the shittest.

>4. What should new content look like? What makes an event good, what makes an event bad?
Have no answer to the first question. If the event takes so much time or can't be completed within two days of grinding, I consider the event bad.

>5. What games should FGO look up to for inspiration? Use examples.
Arknights and Genshin or anything nowadays with soft pity.

>6. How should this game be improved? What is your vision for this game in the future?
Abandon Servantverse bullshit, no one but the writers like it.

[Deathhappens]

>1. What do you like about FGO (besides that it has fate characters)
That it is a typemoon game :rofl:
The visual is pretty damn good.

>2. What gameplay problems do you have with FGO?
Surprisingly none.

>3. What are FGO's Gatcha problems? Is it fair or does it need improvement?
Back when it was launched, it was okayish to have a gacha without a failsafe. But nowadays stuff like Arknights and Genshin comes out and has a guaranteed pity, this game's gacha is now among the shittest.

>4. What should new content look like? What makes an event good, what makes an event bad?
Have no answer to the first question. If the event takes so much time or can't be completed within two days of grinding, I consider the event bad.

>5. What games should FGO look up to for inspiration? Use examples.
Arknights and Genshin or anything nowadays with soft pity.

>6. How should this game be improved? What is your vision for this game in the future?
Abandon Servantverse bullshit, no one but the writers like it.

I don't want to say an opinion is wrong, but boy howdy there is a lot of wrong here

[Spartacus]

OK

[Escavalien]

I would say I don't like the servantverse stuff but to be fair I despise a lot of the stories told in FGO, events most of the time, but I have cringed at main story often too so that's not much of a specific issue in my case.

[Menwearpink]

I'll note that I haven't personally played FGO in a few years because why would I stick with it. However I have friends that still do, and I keep it in my sphere of awareness because Type Moon Fan, so I'd say I'm educated enough on the topic to speak on it. However still take my opinions with a pinch of salt I guess. Disclaimer over.

1. What do you like about FGO (besides that it has fate characters)

Frankly? not a lot. What I enjoy about it story-wise, or presentation-wise I've seen better in most other competitors, and not just in games that are much newer than it.

There's one thing I think is legitimately fantastic that carries FGO really hard, and that's Sprite-kun.

2. What gameplay problems do you have with FGO?

Clunky, slow and stagnant. Classes don't really matter that much imo and there aren't really a massive amount of playstyles possible I feel compared to other RPGs or gacha RPGs. Considering I play Granblue it's funny to complain about it, but the farming and grinding I felt was obnoxious. Part of it might be that you essentially only can farm and improve individual servants, so you don't really feel like you're making progress or getting overall stronger. You're just spending time to raise the new character you rolled so they can be used and any power that they come with, power creep or not is tied to just how they made them period.

As bad as I think Genshin was in this regard also, even it had artifacts that can carry between different characters and what not. In Granblue half the power is your overpowered powercreep characters, but the other half is grid and set up and summons. Craft Essences are a little cherry on the top, and so are command codes and what not.

What they do add to make new stuff in the game, it's just small little bonuses that don't really add up to anything meaningful. Rather than something that allows for new build styles, metas or new gameplay.

What've they really done new in a sense? Break bars a long time ago felt like a bandage to a much needed problem in multiple ways, although I won't complain that they exist. Playing with things like enemies with command seals was fun back with Zouken in the fate/zero event, and with the crypters but I think things like that end up gimmicks that don't really add or build upon systems, but are ways to try and add a flair outside of it.

3. What are FGO's Gatcha problems? Is it fair or does it need improvment?

The only good thing about it is that it's got a good single rate up for the banner characters. You have a significant rate up for the person who is on rate up. Otherwise it's probably the worst Gacha system I've ever encountered and I've encountered a lot. The pity is a joke, but I don't see them ever changing it because due to how the gameplay is set up they'll probably lose a lot of money if they actually set up a sane pity from casual spenders, and whales.


4. What should new content look like? What makes an event good, what makes an event bad?

FGO might be sold as being a narrative and plot based game, but well, last time I played it needed way more actual gameplay focused events. Challenge fights, or something new. You miss all the shots you don't take, and Delightworks just doesn't really try. There was that Grail Front I guess. Praising them for that how many years into the game? sounds like praising them for the bare minimum but I should still mention it.

I think that the battle system is too limited, and that it smothers them.

5. What games should FGO look up to for inspiration? Use examples.

Considering how the gameplay is, it really should have an auto system. All the people I know add scripts, even if its not really suppose to be allowed by the game to farm their stuff for them so they don't have to actually play the game. I feel like FGO in its gameplay without any auto function essentially is taking you and your time hostage for a lot of braindead content.

Granblue is probably a good competitor to look at.

1: fully voiced events: The writing and format of FGO is, frankly? it's lacking and mobile gachas games will always have that problem. There's a shallowness that you can compensate for by the performance and addition of acting and voices that helps supplement moments hard. Considering the content gaps that exist, and the name and revenue FGO has this should not be a crazy demand at this point.

It does have longer main story and sometimes longer event stories than other gacha games, but I'd say that some of it is kind of bloat and otherwise it's something they have to man up and just deal with. If that's how they write it, then they'll need to figure out how to deal with the drawbacks involved in voicing it and improving it. While you can say it also limits you to an extent in terms of revisionism there's another option. Adding voices later. Some players might be unhappy that they have to go through things again later, but it might also cause further engagement if the voice director and voice actors get together to voice and work through an already released lostbelt or singularity for example. While the writers are working on the next one.


2: constant treadmill of events/content of some sort. Although it hasn't been as good about it in this year.. Granblue generally has something going on, and it also has a collection of always available past events you can go through the story of. FGO does want to keep certain encounters as one offs to keep them special, but I think there's a balance you can strike between that and making hardcore/end game refightable bosses out of story enemies as content.

FGO's content generation feels inefficient on top of everything I guess.

3: Changing playstyles and metas. Of course this goes with (sometimes gross) powercreep, but it helps things stay fresh.

You have crit and big boom, you have NP loop, you have stall... and that's mainly it isn't it? I don't think much really changes.

For better or worse you have various types of playstyles from grid, and characters. Skill nuke/auto nuke comps, auto attack race comps, full auto play comps, stamina (you have more power the higher your hp is) enmity (more power the less your hp is) and a lot of tools like Garrison (defense goes up the less hp you have), supplemental damage, and what not. Sometimes its just about the means of more number up. But sometimes its about the tools to enable certain hp ranges and the benefits that come from it.

Hey it feels different, and metas can come and go. There's some cancer in Granblue, but I feel like there's enough of a difference in various elements and party playstyles even within that element that I have that I can do something else and feel refreshed from it.

4:Power that relates to more than just the character themselves and a better sense of progression.

Command Codes and CEs aren't super meaningful and are more like cherries on the top. Sure, numbers are good and btween Fous, CEs and CCs someone who has invested into boosting a servant over someone who just raises them to level 80 and the skills will have performance that isn't as good but I don't think its that huge of a difference. Nor is there much of a difference or build up really as an account that's been playing a long time or has advanced in the game.


...Now back to the questions of the OP.

6. How should this game be improved? What is your vision for this game in the future?

Uhh, beyond the gameplay problems, the foundation that FGO was born from and its approach to chapters is not a good one for writing what they want, a large scale continuous story. I think that honestly they should make a FGO 2, or a Fate/something whatever game that's just very different.

[Deathhappens]

You keep fishing, but you're not getting any bites.

[Namelesss]

It was born to be a kusoge