What is your most favorite NP? and least favorite?

[fumei]

Wow I can't just pick one least favorite.

Ever since F/GO (and to a lesser extent, EXTRA) forced Noble Phantasms into a gameplay system, they've become consistently uninspired and uninteresting. When you need a Noble Phantasm to simply blast mooks, the need for them to serve an interesting story-telling purpose goes out the window.

Strangely this then seems to have carried over into the actual story-telling of the game. Rarely does overcoming an opponents very specific abilities come into play during F/GO's stories. Naturally, it interjects other sources of drama and tension, but the uniqueness of the Noble Phantasm has largely been left behind in the process.

I think this is just one of two groups an FGO NP can fall into. The other group being something that comes about when they try to make it a "real" thing and not just a big blast, but it's so fucking strange with the description and animation it gets, because it needs to fit into the game and LOOK COOL above all, that it just doesn't seem plausible to implement into an actual story as-is. I can't really think of a good example off hand, but it's always some weird shit like "and they drown them in a giant bowl of their tears that they pull out of their ass and the enemy becomes tiny and then gets swirled around and cooked in their tears lol", like how the hell is that even supposed to ACTUALLY work?

[Reign]

I've always had a soft spot for Legend of Dracula because I think it's a really cool way to show Servants being affected by stories about them.

[pinetree]

That's pretty much Shuten's, but the Shimosa manga just turned it into a giant wave of poisonous sake. Which is a pretty good choice imo.

[Comun]

Astrapste Argo is the undisputed champion in both lore effect and animation.

[AAM1232]

I love Sudarshan Chakra Yamaraj and Pashupata, though tbh FGO NPs suffer quite a bit when they're just gameplay animations. Otherwise, Comet Form and Kosmos are pretty cool.

[fumei]

The ones I like most tend to be almost anything from servants, with Pashupata on top (god it tickles my chuuni side so good). Ignoring the dumbest FGO ones (like event ones), the ones I dislike the most are probably stuff like Big Crunch and Reincarnation Pandora that just have absolutely nothing to do with the character and are just there to seem cool or whatever. It's so stupid, just go away. Although, at least, King's Order is really good and makes up for the travesty that is Reincarnation Pandora.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Pashupata was not done justice whatsoever. It should have honestly been ranked higher than Excalibur, or gotten much closer.

[Kubera]

It might have an A+ rank but it probably can get close or equal to A++ levels of power since it clashed with Vasavi Shakti.

What's really unfortunate is that it's basically only ever used as just a fancier beam NP, I'd like to see its "Moksha" function used in a cool way inside a story.

[eddyak]

Favourites:
A thousand and one nights for the creativity involved.
Avalon with "You're now in Fairyland where nobody dies, enjoy".
The idea of Altera killing Mars, but pissing him off so badly whenever she activates his sword, he tries to blast her from the dead.
La Pucelle.
The idea but not the implementation of No Second Strike.
Ionioi Hetaroi, such a great concept for a cult of personality style leader, and what a load of bullshit for powerlevels balancing.
Elementary, My Dear.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon. God, what a cool concept.

Should've-been-NPs:
If there's anybody in legend who deserves a summons-their-friends NP, more so than even Iskander, King Arthur sits at the top of that list. Whenever you think of King Arthur, the first thing that comes to mind isn't Excalibur or its sheath or his spear or anything like that, it's his round table of knights. They really missed a massive opportunity there, whether with Arthur or Artoria.
Astolfo should've had an NP related to giving away and taking NPs, a huge part of his legend was how little the magical weapons and tools mattered to him, he'd pass them to whoever needed them and then find a different one by the side of the road on his next adventure.

Least favourite:
Enfer Chateau D'if. Monte Cristo gets blue fire lasers and superspeed, wat.
The Nobunaga nonsense- a failed conqueror burned a few temples and was called the devil by a few monks gets an NP that's nipponwanked to high hell.
Beowulf. How do you fuck up a monster hunter who literally tore pieces off monsters with his bare hands. How do you fuck up that badly.
Boudicca. Everything about her design is a weak, pathetic mess. "uh she has a laser sword I guess" "uh she has a chariot that does stuff I guess". Why would you even include a character you knew nothing about, and couldn't think up anything for.
Gae Bolg Alternative: It's the original version, what do you mean, alternative?!

[Rafflesiac]

FWIW, Enfer Chateau d'If is the superspeed by escaping his physical limitations part, the lasers come from one of his other NPs - Monte Cristo Mythology. The treasure he found was superpowers, not money.

As for Boudicca, at least her shitty Skyward Sword kinda lines up with her shitty savior of Britain status. The shittier looks-a-bit-like-King-Arthur-when-you-squint gets a shittier Excalibur.

[Comun]

On a semi-related note, Sakurai’s strongest suit really making up conceptual bullshit for Servants who should have been just a guy. I’m thinking Tesla, Nightingale, Babbage, Napoleon, Holmes, Dantés, and even Ozy and Romulus to some extent. There are some huge misses, like Zenobia, but I overall really like the trend.

[Petrikow]

While I appreciate the intent, most of those are misses for me. Especially Dantes. Even if his design looks cool.

[pinetree]

I like Chateau d'If, it's chuuni enough that it works.
Monte Cristo Mythology is really dumb though. They make a whole deal about him being an Avenger so he's only the vengeful character of the book without the happiness he attained in the end... And then give him OC superpowers he got and expended before his revenge even began?

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I mean, Artoria specifically cannot draw upon her friends because the while point of her history in TM was that her perfection isolated her from her friends, which caused the downfall of her realm. She only really learns to trust again in FSN.

[Kubera]

I like to imagine if we ever got a Grand Saber Artoria/Arthur they would be a more complete and mature version of her who would be able to summon her knights and stuff like that.

I like Chateau d'If, it's chuuni enough that it works.
Monte Cristo Mythology is really dumb though. They make a whole deal about him being an Avenger so he's only the vengeful character of the book without the happiness he attained in the end... And then give him OC superpowers he got and expended before his revenge even began?

His revenge might not have began yet, but he definitely was planning it for a very long time.

That said I do think they could have done much better with his NPs, but eh. The dark flames are cool enough anyway.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Also, connecting him with Fate Roa was very cool.

[Reign]

Amakakeru Ryu ga Gotoku has always felt rather out of place, like surely there are actually things from Ryouma's life to make a NP out of instead of making something up whole cloth?

I'm not saying Oryou is bad, she's great and I love her, but specifically her being Ryouma's NP is weird.

[Byegod]

Isnt the oryou thing just really obscure or like merging a few folktales into one?

I dont think its made up like say Ea.

Eddy elaborate on beowulf for me

[Crown]

There weren't any NPs that really piqued my interest until the Zabaniya collection displayed by FSF's zealot. I find them deadly gracious, even their names roll off the tongue.

I don't have a particular least favorite, but if I had to pick one, huh well, Excalibur?

[Tangerang]

I always thought it was tragic that Gae Buidhe's entire power and purpose was shared by Gae Bolg almost like an extra passive compared to its main ability. Like, its sole ability, the thing it specialized in, another noble phantasm also had on top of another extremely powerful heart seeking effect.

Although it was kind of funny that Saber was stabbed by an Irish lancer possessing a spear that created wounds that could not be healed, two wars in a row. Once is understandable, but it happening twice is just kind of weird.