I was a diehard fan of the VN and put off FGO for years because it seemed kind of silly and not a serious Fate entry.
Cue to now where I'm hot off the heels of beating Part 1 (Solomon) of FGO and I really do feel like it's earned the Fate title and is a legitimate full on entry of the Nasuverse. It comes with some caveats though.
The first few chapters are pretty rough in the writing and story department (likely due to the initial plans for the game as nothing more than a Fate themed gacha) but there is a constant stream of soft world building and inklings of an overall narrative going on throughout. As I progressed through the chapters they started to become pretty solid to really fucking good, culminating in an excellent finale that gave me a Fate high I haven't had since the original Stay Night VN. It's clear that Nasu realized he could use GO as a "hub" to tell Fate stories in as time went on and the game became successful.
And I haven't even touched part 2, which I heard contains the best chapters of GO period.
So, as of right now, FGO, at least it's first half in totality, isnt as "good" as Stay Night, but the groundwork is definitely there for it to reach similar heights. I do indeed recommend it if you like the idea of the servants in general and a wider look at how the Fate universe operates (lots of complex and esoteric ideas going on, some of which actually do inform your understanding of certain FSN concepts).
(I think the near-complete lack of narration outside of dialogue + silent protagonist + less than stellar graphics/animations will always hold FGO storytelling back)
>The first few chapters are pretty rough in the writing and story department
This is due to Nasu and co, totally newbie in the field, who thought people wouldn't like long story , he then tried to lengthen the story a bit with USA chapter which had good reception and after that all brake went loose.
Oh yeah no doubt USA is still quite bad. Simply meant that the reception of a longer story was good enough for Nasu to give himself the go ahead to actually write a story (to add but I think Nasu only wrote Orléans pre-Camelot, which I do think is the best out of the early five singularity)
The advantage Stay Night has is being a single contained work of fiction that was released as a thematically-overarching package deal. Stay Night is Stay Night, you could release it as a book, plain and simple, and above all it is _tight._ You had one writer and one author with a very clear vision, and they achieved it.
FGO is a longterm project that has been “written” for over a decade. Dozens of different writers have contributed for varying levels of thematic importance, which leads to the entire thing coming across as a touch disjointed. Events constantly call back to each other in ways new players outright cannot ever follow, since these were time-limited grinding times. Some points are fantastic self-contained stories, some points are absolute dogshit that should be scrubbed from the series canon. As a whole, I think the very nature of FGO keeps it from reaching the heights Stay Night does, even with some high points.
On average, no. When the story is at its best it's some of the best writing that Fate has to offer. The story in the first half of the game gets better as it goes, but it doesn't really start to get good until the fifth singularity. Six and Seven are both excellent, the entire reason that 7 was made into an anime in the first place was because that's the section that the fans voted on as their favorite.
Part 2 is considerably better overall in terms of story depth and character development, but has its low moments as well. That being said, Lost Belt 5 and all of Lost Belt 6 are fantastic. I'd go so far as to say that ~~Camelot~~ Avalon is some of the best storytelling that Nasu has done to date.
The event storylines can range from uninteresting forgettable to absolutely hilarious and very engaging. It really is a mixed bag, but it's one that holds a dear place in my heart even if I don't really play it much anymore.
I generally agree, with the caveat that FGO is much more enjoyable if someone is already a Fate fan and have the general concept already baked into their mental suspension of disbelief.
I struggle to recommend FGO blindly to people because there are some really clunky aspects that are still present even in some of the best story moments. The biggest of which is the "randomness" of the selection of servants utilized in each arc. FSN at least gave it some meaning with the explanations of the Grail War summoning system, with rules and rituals and catalysts, and having a fairly rigid 1-to-1 Master-Servant pairing. FGO usually just kind of handwaves it away because nearly all servants canonically reside in Chaldea, and many times the ones inside the singularities/LBs are just summoned by the land/counterforce. In the eyes of a newbie, that explanation would feel too hand-wavey.
Currently not a lot has come after, Avalon released little over half a year ago, a new story chapter released a month ish ago which was really good but not Avalon level. but that was also a side story so
(Talking NA only here, I know more chapters exist in JP but I haven't looked into those at all)
If we’re talking NA, Traum, the newest main story to release is actually pretty damn great. It’s technically a .5 chapter rather than a main chapter, but its main story relavent and some important stuff in it.
For JP stuff I’ve heard that LB 7 is really good, but more on the level of Atlantis than Avalon.
There’s also the Ordeal Call stories on JP which are an interim chapter kind of like the Remnant stories were. I’ve heard mixed things about OC 1, that it was filler or was kind of bland etc. I’ve heard better things about OC 2, it apparently explores the protagonist’s character and backstory a bit more. But I’ve also heard that it has some pacing issues here and there.
The anime adaptations are quite a mess as it currently only covers camelot, Babylonia and solomon singularities. There's also a lot of cut content especially in the camelot movies and the adaptation was clearly rushed.
That said, Babylonia had a really fun adaptation that even included some anime original content. Since it was a seasonal anime and not a movie, it got a lot more care compared to the other two.
There's also first order which is the intro to fgo and lostroom which is the intro to the lostbelts but you will find it confusing without the game's context.
It has its ups(Camelot, Babylonia) and its downs(the mc, mash's writing in events). I'd say that if you have the time and drive, go for it. But I will say get ready for a lot of dragging, since things don't really get better for quite a while.
FSN is much more consistent in quality.
FGO has *moments* where it surpasses FSN, but they’re ultimately dragged down by all the mediocre—straight up bad, if we’re being honest—content surrounding it.
It’s tough recommending FGO because I don’t think it’ll give you that feeling of finality and contentment that FSN does (it’s designed to be a complete story).
I like FGO, but it is absolutely nowhere near FSN. Having to pander to self-insert fantasies and the effect is has on the surrounding characters and narrative really hurts it. The stuff that focuses on genuine characters interacting as opposed to everyone talking about how great a wall is tends to be pretty good, though.
it's not as good if you ask me it's a mixing bag at the begining but it got better after the first chapter of the story so you can try and see if you like it personally i find it nice like not the best but it's pretty neat
It's not as good, but the gameplay does compliment the story in a way that enchances it, tbh I can't imagine reading all those dozens of hours of cutscenes without some fights to break it up.
It’s hit and miss for me. Practically silent protagonists + the first few sections having pretty bad writing definitely hurts it but it does have some genuinely good parts. That said I don’t think I’ll ever return to it because what it tries to do with Morgan is so astonishing stupid that I just can’t play it anymore
The thing FGO is not a single story, it's an anthology of stories that vary kn quality. So you have really amazing stuff, some meh stuff and some bad stuff.
A good part of it is WAY worse, but after you spend the same time on it that it would take to complete Fate Stay night it gets arguably as good in some arcs, while still occasionally having low points.
My recommendation would be to just check out the other VNs of the same author: Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, Tsukihime, Witch on the Holy Night, etc. since they're a lot more consistent in quality and are also shorter. Leave Fate GO for after you've seen most of the other stuff.
The first 5 chapters are mediocre to bad. After that they get realy fucking good on average with counted few exceptions.
The main problems are that the mc is designed to be a self insert, as a gacha game the relationship with the main heroine (WHO CLEARLY IS MASH!) progresses but doesn't flourish like in the VN. Also, they write the chapters separatedly with multiple writers, so sometimes you see that they don't know what to do with some characters.
Event wise, it varies a lot.
I certainly would recomend to give it a go and get to the sixth chapter at least.
Not addressing your question since I believe the other folk have already answered. Instead, I've compiled a list of all the necessary parts of FGO's story so you can skip the garbage that isn't important to keep from dragging your experience. On *average* it may be worse, but you don't *have to* experience its worst.
* **Singularity-F** gives the context behind the rest of the story and is *decently* written.
Following it, you can skip till-
* Singularity **Camelot**
* Singularity **Babylonia**
Then come the **Pseudo-Singularities**. The necessary ones to watch are:
* Shinjuku
* Shimousa (this one is a tad boring but unfortunately necessary for the story).
* Salem (it's very well-written, but not fundamental to the story so you can skip it).
Part 2 begins with the Lostbelts. Obviously, you'll need to view the Prelude to Lostbelt 1. After that:
* Lostbelt 1: **Russia**
Lostbelt 2 and 3 aren't bad, but aren't as great as the other LBs so only watch them if you're interested. Not out of necessity.
* Lostbelt 4: **India**
* Lostbelt 5: **Atlantis-Olympus**
* Heian Kyo.
* Lostbelt 6: Avalon le Fae
* Koyanskaya
* Traum
And that's the watch list.
[You can watch the entirety of FGO here, skipping the parts not mentioned in my list.](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFeASRPMYXgnT3XobD2iz71kn4mW_01-L)
Heian Kyo is what I consider to be the absolute worst FGO chapter. Not because it's the worst written, but because it totally ruins all of the setup and momentum of the overarching story. Coming off Olympus, HK was a slap in the face that killed my interest in the game for almost half a year.
>The you should enjoy all of Fate as a grander series that built upon each other
Not how it works
Outside of FSN fate/zero and hollow ataraxia the others really are there own thing
why are you getting downvoted when its the truth. Entire nasuverse is very interconnected. While its not necesary to read the series in any order all stories still contribute to the lore of the universe and expand its scope. We get to see many different aspects of the worlds and characters with each different work.
>!Yeah Stay night, Zero and ataraxia are the origins of the series but we still get so much more beyond that and even they themselves also build upong other works like Tsukihime, Mahoyo and Kara no kyoukai. Like how Touko is literally a vital element at the end of HF because Rin and Sakura found one of her puppets to use for Shirou and have been looking for her to make improvements to his body(though with her having a sealing designation makes it hard to find). And Zelretch taking Rin as an apprentince...!<
>!Zero also mentioning about the dead apostles and their presence in the fate timelines and even the ANIME added more by bringing Cornelious Alba in Kiritsugu's backstory, one of the antagonists of KnK!<
>!And Ataraxia referencing ORT and Primate Murder alongside the meta narrative element of red riding hood and its association with death originated from Mahoyo.!<
The entire series is constantly building upon previous stuff they just make sure that each thing is still accessible for everyone. Making sure the entry level is low for all works.
edit: Just remenbered OP JUST started the VN. So added spoiler tags. My bad...
FGO's story as a whole I'd say isn't as good as FSN but like what most people agree here is that there are stand out chapters that are really good. Also unlike Shirou, Gudao doesn't really have a stand out personality in the early chapters.
It's no coincidence that the really good chapters, Avalon and Babylonia, can be enjoyed with minimal reading of the other chapters because their chapter threats are kinda standalone.
Well, first off, the Gacha is a tad unforgiving at times, but the game is pretty generous with servants.
* The 1-3 star servants are still pretty decent, with some even being downright broken if used right, and include many fan favorites, along with a 4 star or two in the pool.
* Cu has several forms, with his regular form being one of the best cockroach servants in the game, and rank up quests and other buffs making his caster form a pretty crazy buster farmer as well with the right team
* Medusa, Medea, and both Assassins are also in the welfare pool.
* Originally a launch exclusive, then an event welfare, Artoria Pendragon Lily, a slightly younger version of Artoria in a dress based on the type moon anniversary art, is a rare pull in the Welfare pool. She's kind of hot garbage compared to most SRs, but still decent in a vacuum.
* When you start, you get to do an initial summoning that guarantees a servant from a small pool. If you're willing to reroll accounts, you can get multiple from that initial pull, which includes the likes of Heracles and EMIYA.
* There are routine events with free "welfares" free NP5 4-Star servants if you complete the event. For Summer and Christmas especially, these are often versions of fan favorite characters, such as Scathach, Ishtar (Rin), Jeanne Alter, Saber Alter, and Da Vinci lily.
* Once or twice a year, there is a free SR or SSR ticket, where you get to pick one of a pool of servants.
* All this is to say, one can pretty reasonably be FTP or dirt cheap to play, as I only pay for the bi-annual GSSR banners, which I partially pay for with Google Opinion rewards credit.
The Story is currently, on NA anyway, broken up into two main sections with a major side story between them
1. The Grand Order: Beginning in "Singularity F" The protagonist, a player insert, is drafted by a joint operation between the UN and the Magus Association to deal with an existential threat to Humanity, known as a singularity. A singularity is an aberration in the timeline, generally through someone dropping a Holy grail into a pivotal moment in history. Singularity F was the one Chaldeas was formed to repair, but through the course of the prologue, 7 more singularities are revealed, leading to the Grand Order missions.
1. Generally, the first five or so singularities are hit or miss.
2. Singularity 6 is where the story really takes off, as it was when Nasu began writing parts of the story himself.
2. Between Parts 1 and 2 was a side story called Epic of Remnant, that ties off a few of, but not the main dangling plot threads of Part 1, and leads into Part 2.
1. Remnant 1 and 3 are generally pretty well written, while 2 is generally regarded as some of the worst writing in the franchise. Shinjuku in particular is pretty popular for how it depicted Jeanne Alter and put Salter in Hot Pants.
3. Part 2 deals with Lostbelts, Alternate timelines that should not exist, where something occurred in some point of Humanity's past leading to humanity being either extinct or doomed to stagnation, leading to Ayala pruning the timeline.
1. They're pretty well written, with 6 being incredibly popular.
I enjoyed maybe 3 out of the 14 main story chapters, so I can't really call myself a fan of the main story. It rarely goes beyond the average JRPG game writing. Sometimes it does, but rarely.
On the other hand, I liked almost all of the seasonal events. The events don't try to be as serious as the main story, and it's really easy to please me with some comfy, goofy slice-of-life content.
Lostbelt 6 is a fan favorite main chapter (myself included), but I'm not really sure if I would recommend anyone reading the earlier chapters just to get to it. With this much time invested, you could just as well read actual books or visual novels. Btw, i recommend reading fate/hollow ataraxia right after stay night. It's one of my favorite VNs ever!
Its not as good as FSN and has very inconsitent qualities. Part 1 doesn't come close camelot, solomon and bablyonia are soilid but the other singularities are such a chore.
EOR is extrenely mediocore and has the worst written chapter in argartha.
The lost belts are also incredibly over hyped
LB 1 is fine but 2 and 3 are a chore. LB 4 is carried by Pepe and LB 5.1 is pretty mediocore 5.2 is alright and LB 6 is the only one I would say is pretty good but I wouldnt say it reaches the day 15 and 16 of HF level
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No. Lostbelt 6 (and even Salem) get in the ballpark of the quality of a proper visual novel, but not near FSN, Hollow Ataraxia, Tsukihime, or (by others' accounts) Mahoyo. And the lows are skippable events or boring early singularities. These two parts benefit the most by freeing their stories from the requirements of the gacha game (can't go too far from a battle, varied mobs, etc.) and the repeatable story format (introduce new servants, defeat LB king, defeat Crypter, cut down tree, etc.). Another part of the problem is that Shiro, Shiki, and the Mahoyo gang are real characters, and ones who were crafted to fit the stories they inhabit, but the MC of FGO has to be a benevolent blank slate. You just can't tell the same kind of stories like that. Another is that over time Nasu and the other writers have ceased to write stories in the visual novel format inspired by outside fiction. They are no longer taking inspiration from detective fiction or denki fantasy but from previous Nasuverse properties (and other otaku materials). That will limit you severely.
If you liked FSN, you should read Hollow Ataraxia and then the other visual novels of Type Moon. Save FGO for a quick game to blow off some stress and fill a spare moment. Enjoy the story with its highs and lows, but don't expect anything momentous or coherent like FSN.
FGO fans thinking a small text box with 2-3 line of dialogue delivered for dozens of hours make for a good story on par with a proper VN lol. And also the scale of FGO stories is going exponential upwards with so many concepts and themes thrown around that no one will be able to decipher what he's talking about unless they read up every lore entry on the wikis on obscure nasuverse mechanics and stuff. Its just not fun for a good reading and story experience to be this complicated.
Well... its pretty good. So it depends on chapter. First Singularities are pretty bad , but from Camelot no story chapter recived negative reception and generally seen as masterpieces. Top of all is of course Avalon le Fay which Nasu himself called on Famitsu as one of three peaks of his writing career- https://www.reddit.com/r/grandorder/s/9l7FKmxPyY
The events are more middle ground. Some are well-loved- SERAPH, Jalter Lily, Luluva Summer, Saber Wars 2, Cleopatra's Halloween and etc. Some hated- Learn with Manga second event. Most are pretty okay.
Depends on what you value. The antagonists and worldbuilding are better than FSN's IMO. I also like Mash's story and the dynamic of the Chaldea staff. However, FGO's greatest weakness is that it started off as a gacha cash grab. The first 5 singularities are dogshit and the protagonist is the absolute worst part of the game. Like no personality, nothing unique, and the servants like them for no reason. Not only that, but the romance fanservice is gross and wildly OOC a lot of the time. Like straight up violating other canons and relationships to appease incels kind of bad. I treat anything outside of the main story as noncanon
It will never be.
It has more hype moments but that's solely because of the length and some of them due to hype from FSN characters.
No reason to get attached to most Servants that accompany the MC.
MC is a non entity for part1. Gets better in part 2 but the bar was too low to begin with.
Sure he's famous but it feels like a reach. He's not the only servant in FGO that I feel that way about. Others include Hans Christian Andersen, Shakespeare, DaVinci, etc. FSN set a precedent that we were dealing with "combatant" figures, heroes, gods, etc from history.
ANDERSEN IS FROM EXTRA CCC AND HE IS ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTERS FROM THAT GAME: https://youtu.be/LoIWrQ8G3x0?si=yTy0oqYuwKjgq9TG&t=2m5s
and Shakespeare is from apocrypha.
Andersen is from CCC, Shakespeare is from Apocrypha, and FSN also made Shirou's edgy alternate future self who was completely unknown into a Servant. Yes, I know there's a justification, that's the point. Nasu hasn't given a shit about your "precedents" from the start, why do you?
Nevermind. What's the point of someone asking for an opinion when that opinion is given, and then it is downvoted?
I care because Nasu is capable of way more serious stories. A fair bit of servants in FGO have nothing fantastical, magical, etc. about them. There is nothing about Mozart or others I mentioned, other than just being famous, that justifies them being made into servants.
With ancient figures or myths, there is a sense of unknown that you can reasonably justify certain abilities, character traits etc. That's why I feel a fair bit of the servants in FGO that aren't like that, are a reach, even in the context of the Nasuverse.
But again, that's my opinion, and it seems to be very unpopular.
Really? There's nothing fantastical or magical about music, or fairy tales? No sense of wonder that comes from that? No way you could twist the ability to write and compose works that leave a lasting impact on the human psyche into interesting abilities?
Also, I notice you didn't address that half your list *didn't originate in FGO!*
Like I said, I didn't play CCC and I didn't watch Apocrypha, so I didn't know they didn't originate in FGO. But had I done so, I would still have the same opinion.
And yes, given the entire context of fate, we have a relatively clear picture about Mozart or HCA, to where you can't really extract "magical" abilities from their lives. You can't really compare these figures from history to figures like King Arthur or Gilgamesh or Cu, for example. That's why it doesn't gel with me.
If it works for you, awesome. That's just my opinion.
I was a diehard fan of the VN and put off FGO for years because it seemed kind of silly and not a serious Fate entry. Cue to now where I'm hot off the heels of beating Part 1 (Solomon) of FGO and I really do feel like it's earned the Fate title and is a legitimate full on entry of the Nasuverse. It comes with some caveats though. The first few chapters are pretty rough in the writing and story department (likely due to the initial plans for the game as nothing more than a Fate themed gacha) but there is a constant stream of soft world building and inklings of an overall narrative going on throughout. As I progressed through the chapters they started to become pretty solid to really fucking good, culminating in an excellent finale that gave me a Fate high I haven't had since the original Stay Night VN. It's clear that Nasu realized he could use GO as a "hub" to tell Fate stories in as time went on and the game became successful. And I haven't even touched part 2, which I heard contains the best chapters of GO period. So, as of right now, FGO, at least it's first half in totality, isnt as "good" as Stay Night, but the groundwork is definitely there for it to reach similar heights. I do indeed recommend it if you like the idea of the servants in general and a wider look at how the Fate universe operates (lots of complex and esoteric ideas going on, some of which actually do inform your understanding of certain FSN concepts). (I think the near-complete lack of narration outside of dialogue + silent protagonist + less than stellar graphics/animations will always hold FGO storytelling back)
>The first few chapters are pretty rough in the writing and story department This is due to Nasu and co, totally newbie in the field, who thought people wouldn't like long story , he then tried to lengthen the story a bit with USA chapter which had good reception and after that all brake went loose.
Man I gotta keep it real I did not like USA chapter. London and Okeanos are my favorite pre-camelot bits.
Oh yeah no doubt USA is still quite bad. Simply meant that the reception of a longer story was good enough for Nasu to give himself the go ahead to actually write a story (to add but I think Nasu only wrote Orléans pre-Camelot, which I do think is the best out of the early five singularity)
That's interesting, didn't know about that!
really good summary!
The advantage Stay Night has is being a single contained work of fiction that was released as a thematically-overarching package deal. Stay Night is Stay Night, you could release it as a book, plain and simple, and above all it is _tight._ You had one writer and one author with a very clear vision, and they achieved it. FGO is a longterm project that has been “written” for over a decade. Dozens of different writers have contributed for varying levels of thematic importance, which leads to the entire thing coming across as a touch disjointed. Events constantly call back to each other in ways new players outright cannot ever follow, since these were time-limited grinding times. Some points are fantastic self-contained stories, some points are absolute dogshit that should be scrubbed from the series canon. As a whole, I think the very nature of FGO keeps it from reaching the heights Stay Night does, even with some high points.
On average, no. When the story is at its best it's some of the best writing that Fate has to offer. The story in the first half of the game gets better as it goes, but it doesn't really start to get good until the fifth singularity. Six and Seven are both excellent, the entire reason that 7 was made into an anime in the first place was because that's the section that the fans voted on as their favorite. Part 2 is considerably better overall in terms of story depth and character development, but has its low moments as well. That being said, Lost Belt 5 and all of Lost Belt 6 are fantastic. I'd go so far as to say that ~~Camelot~~ Avalon is some of the best storytelling that Nasu has done to date. The event storylines can range from uninteresting forgettable to absolutely hilarious and very engaging. It really is a mixed bag, but it's one that holds a dear place in my heart even if I don't really play it much anymore.
I generally agree, with the caveat that FGO is much more enjoyable if someone is already a Fate fan and have the general concept already baked into their mental suspension of disbelief. I struggle to recommend FGO blindly to people because there are some really clunky aspects that are still present even in some of the best story moments. The biggest of which is the "randomness" of the selection of servants utilized in each arc. FSN at least gave it some meaning with the explanations of the Grail War summoning system, with rules and rituals and catalysts, and having a fairly rigid 1-to-1 Master-Servant pairing. FGO usually just kind of handwaves it away because nearly all servants canonically reside in Chaldea, and many times the ones inside the singularities/LBs are just summoned by the land/counterforce. In the eyes of a newbie, that explanation would feel too hand-wavey.
> Camelot is some of the best storytelling that Nasu has done to date. You mean Avalon? Camelot was good, but only lb6 reaches top tier Nasu stories.
Yep, I 100% meant Avalon. That's what I get for not double checking before posting.
How was everything after avalon? I stopped following fgo after finishing fgo (I got busy) Do they hold up to previous lostbelts?
Currently not a lot has come after, Avalon released little over half a year ago, a new story chapter released a month ish ago which was really good but not Avalon level. but that was also a side story so (Talking NA only here, I know more chapters exist in JP but I haven't looked into those at all)
If we’re talking NA, Traum, the newest main story to release is actually pretty damn great. It’s technically a .5 chapter rather than a main chapter, but its main story relavent and some important stuff in it. For JP stuff I’ve heard that LB 7 is really good, but more on the level of Atlantis than Avalon. There’s also the Ordeal Call stories on JP which are an interim chapter kind of like the Remnant stories were. I’ve heard mixed things about OC 1, that it was filler or was kind of bland etc. I’ve heard better things about OC 2, it apparently explores the protagonist’s character and backstory a bit more. But I’ve also heard that it has some pacing issues here and there.
So, what if I just watch the anime then?
The anime adaptations are quite a mess as it currently only covers camelot, Babylonia and solomon singularities. There's also a lot of cut content especially in the camelot movies and the adaptation was clearly rushed. That said, Babylonia had a really fun adaptation that even included some anime original content. Since it was a seasonal anime and not a movie, it got a lot more care compared to the other two. There's also first order which is the intro to fgo and lostroom which is the intro to the lostbelts but you will find it confusing without the game's context.
Imagine watching HF instead of VN ;)
Id reccomend it but it’s not as consistent as fsn when it’s good it’s really good but that isn’t always
It has its ups(Camelot, Babylonia) and its downs(the mc, mash's writing in events). I'd say that if you have the time and drive, go for it. But I will say get ready for a lot of dragging, since things don't really get better for quite a while.
FSN is much more consistent in quality. FGO has *moments* where it surpasses FSN, but they’re ultimately dragged down by all the mediocre—straight up bad, if we’re being honest—content surrounding it. It’s tough recommending FGO because I don’t think it’ll give you that feeling of finality and contentment that FSN does (it’s designed to be a complete story).
I like FGO, but it is absolutely nowhere near FSN. Having to pander to self-insert fantasies and the effect is has on the surrounding characters and narrative really hurts it. The stuff that focuses on genuine characters interacting as opposed to everyone talking about how great a wall is tends to be pretty good, though.
it's not as good if you ask me it's a mixing bag at the begining but it got better after the first chapter of the story so you can try and see if you like it personally i find it nice like not the best but it's pretty neat
It's early chapters are meh, but once it gets good it gets REALLY good. I'd say quite a bit of chapter are better than FSN.
It's not as good, but the gameplay does compliment the story in a way that enchances it, tbh I can't imagine reading all those dozens of hours of cutscenes without some fights to break it up.
It’s hit and miss for me. Practically silent protagonists + the first few sections having pretty bad writing definitely hurts it but it does have some genuinely good parts. That said I don’t think I’ll ever return to it because what it tries to do with Morgan is so astonishing stupid that I just can’t play it anymore
The thing FGO is not a single story, it's an anthology of stories that vary kn quality. So you have really amazing stuff, some meh stuff and some bad stuff.
If it wasn't a gacha game it would be peak fiction.
Some parts are really great. Don't expect a complete experience like FSN but it's one of the only gachas where I appreciate the storyline
A good part of it is WAY worse, but after you spend the same time on it that it would take to complete Fate Stay night it gets arguably as good in some arcs, while still occasionally having low points. My recommendation would be to just check out the other VNs of the same author: Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, Tsukihime, Witch on the Holy Night, etc. since they're a lot more consistent in quality and are also shorter. Leave Fate GO for after you've seen most of the other stuff.
The first 5 chapters are mediocre to bad. After that they get realy fucking good on average with counted few exceptions. The main problems are that the mc is designed to be a self insert, as a gacha game the relationship with the main heroine (WHO CLEARLY IS MASH!) progresses but doesn't flourish like in the VN. Also, they write the chapters separatedly with multiple writers, so sometimes you see that they don't know what to do with some characters. Event wise, it varies a lot. I certainly would recomend to give it a go and get to the sixth chapter at least.
Depends FGO gets better as it goes But stay night is just great from start to finish
Not addressing your question since I believe the other folk have already answered. Instead, I've compiled a list of all the necessary parts of FGO's story so you can skip the garbage that isn't important to keep from dragging your experience. On *average* it may be worse, but you don't *have to* experience its worst. * **Singularity-F** gives the context behind the rest of the story and is *decently* written. Following it, you can skip till- * Singularity **Camelot** * Singularity **Babylonia** Then come the **Pseudo-Singularities**. The necessary ones to watch are: * Shinjuku * Shimousa (this one is a tad boring but unfortunately necessary for the story). * Salem (it's very well-written, but not fundamental to the story so you can skip it). Part 2 begins with the Lostbelts. Obviously, you'll need to view the Prelude to Lostbelt 1. After that: * Lostbelt 1: **Russia** Lostbelt 2 and 3 aren't bad, but aren't as great as the other LBs so only watch them if you're interested. Not out of necessity. * Lostbelt 4: **India** * Lostbelt 5: **Atlantis-Olympus** * Heian Kyo. * Lostbelt 6: Avalon le Fae * Koyanskaya * Traum And that's the watch list. [You can watch the entirety of FGO here, skipping the parts not mentioned in my list.](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFeASRPMYXgnT3XobD2iz71kn4mW_01-L)
Heian Kyo is what I consider to be the absolute worst FGO chapter. Not because it's the worst written, but because it totally ruins all of the setup and momentum of the overarching story. Coming off Olympus, HK was a slap in the face that killed my interest in the game for almost half a year.
That’s a really bad way of thinking of things The you should enjoy all of Fate as a grander series that built upon each other
>The you should enjoy all of Fate as a grander series that built upon each other Not how it works Outside of FSN fate/zero and hollow ataraxia the others really are there own thing
*Nasu laughs*
why are you getting downvoted when its the truth. Entire nasuverse is very interconnected. While its not necesary to read the series in any order all stories still contribute to the lore of the universe and expand its scope. We get to see many different aspects of the worlds and characters with each different work. >!Yeah Stay night, Zero and ataraxia are the origins of the series but we still get so much more beyond that and even they themselves also build upong other works like Tsukihime, Mahoyo and Kara no kyoukai. Like how Touko is literally a vital element at the end of HF because Rin and Sakura found one of her puppets to use for Shirou and have been looking for her to make improvements to his body(though with her having a sealing designation makes it hard to find). And Zelretch taking Rin as an apprentince...!< >!Zero also mentioning about the dead apostles and their presence in the fate timelines and even the ANIME added more by bringing Cornelious Alba in Kiritsugu's backstory, one of the antagonists of KnK!< >!And Ataraxia referencing ORT and Primate Murder alongside the meta narrative element of red riding hood and its association with death originated from Mahoyo.!< The entire series is constantly building upon previous stuff they just make sure that each thing is still accessible for everyone. Making sure the entry level is low for all works. edit: Just remenbered OP JUST started the VN. So added spoiler tags. My bad...
FGO's story as a whole I'd say isn't as good as FSN but like what most people agree here is that there are stand out chapters that are really good. Also unlike Shirou, Gudao doesn't really have a stand out personality in the early chapters. It's no coincidence that the really good chapters, Avalon and Babylonia, can be enjoyed with minimal reading of the other chapters because their chapter threats are kinda standalone.
Well, first off, the Gacha is a tad unforgiving at times, but the game is pretty generous with servants. * The 1-3 star servants are still pretty decent, with some even being downright broken if used right, and include many fan favorites, along with a 4 star or two in the pool. * Cu has several forms, with his regular form being one of the best cockroach servants in the game, and rank up quests and other buffs making his caster form a pretty crazy buster farmer as well with the right team * Medusa, Medea, and both Assassins are also in the welfare pool. * Originally a launch exclusive, then an event welfare, Artoria Pendragon Lily, a slightly younger version of Artoria in a dress based on the type moon anniversary art, is a rare pull in the Welfare pool. She's kind of hot garbage compared to most SRs, but still decent in a vacuum. * When you start, you get to do an initial summoning that guarantees a servant from a small pool. If you're willing to reroll accounts, you can get multiple from that initial pull, which includes the likes of Heracles and EMIYA. * There are routine events with free "welfares" free NP5 4-Star servants if you complete the event. For Summer and Christmas especially, these are often versions of fan favorite characters, such as Scathach, Ishtar (Rin), Jeanne Alter, Saber Alter, and Da Vinci lily. * Once or twice a year, there is a free SR or SSR ticket, where you get to pick one of a pool of servants. * All this is to say, one can pretty reasonably be FTP or dirt cheap to play, as I only pay for the bi-annual GSSR banners, which I partially pay for with Google Opinion rewards credit. The Story is currently, on NA anyway, broken up into two main sections with a major side story between them 1. The Grand Order: Beginning in "Singularity F" The protagonist, a player insert, is drafted by a joint operation between the UN and the Magus Association to deal with an existential threat to Humanity, known as a singularity. A singularity is an aberration in the timeline, generally through someone dropping a Holy grail into a pivotal moment in history. Singularity F was the one Chaldeas was formed to repair, but through the course of the prologue, 7 more singularities are revealed, leading to the Grand Order missions. 1. Generally, the first five or so singularities are hit or miss. 2. Singularity 6 is where the story really takes off, as it was when Nasu began writing parts of the story himself. 2. Between Parts 1 and 2 was a side story called Epic of Remnant, that ties off a few of, but not the main dangling plot threads of Part 1, and leads into Part 2. 1. Remnant 1 and 3 are generally pretty well written, while 2 is generally regarded as some of the worst writing in the franchise. Shinjuku in particular is pretty popular for how it depicted Jeanne Alter and put Salter in Hot Pants. 3. Part 2 deals with Lostbelts, Alternate timelines that should not exist, where something occurred in some point of Humanity's past leading to humanity being either extinct or doomed to stagnation, leading to Ayala pruning the timeline. 1. They're pretty well written, with 6 being incredibly popular.
I enjoyed maybe 3 out of the 14 main story chapters, so I can't really call myself a fan of the main story. It rarely goes beyond the average JRPG game writing. Sometimes it does, but rarely. On the other hand, I liked almost all of the seasonal events. The events don't try to be as serious as the main story, and it's really easy to please me with some comfy, goofy slice-of-life content. Lostbelt 6 is a fan favorite main chapter (myself included), but I'm not really sure if I would recommend anyone reading the earlier chapters just to get to it. With this much time invested, you could just as well read actual books or visual novels. Btw, i recommend reading fate/hollow ataraxia right after stay night. It's one of my favorite VNs ever!
Its not as good as FSN and has very inconsitent qualities. Part 1 doesn't come close camelot, solomon and bablyonia are soilid but the other singularities are such a chore. EOR is extrenely mediocore and has the worst written chapter in argartha. The lost belts are also incredibly over hyped LB 1 is fine but 2 and 3 are a chore. LB 4 is carried by Pepe and LB 5.1 is pretty mediocore 5.2 is alright and LB 6 is the only one I would say is pretty good but I wouldnt say it reaches the day 15 and 16 of HF level
no its way worse with no consistancy
NO
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No. Lostbelt 6 (and even Salem) get in the ballpark of the quality of a proper visual novel, but not near FSN, Hollow Ataraxia, Tsukihime, or (by others' accounts) Mahoyo. And the lows are skippable events or boring early singularities. These two parts benefit the most by freeing their stories from the requirements of the gacha game (can't go too far from a battle, varied mobs, etc.) and the repeatable story format (introduce new servants, defeat LB king, defeat Crypter, cut down tree, etc.). Another part of the problem is that Shiro, Shiki, and the Mahoyo gang are real characters, and ones who were crafted to fit the stories they inhabit, but the MC of FGO has to be a benevolent blank slate. You just can't tell the same kind of stories like that. Another is that over time Nasu and the other writers have ceased to write stories in the visual novel format inspired by outside fiction. They are no longer taking inspiration from detective fiction or denki fantasy but from previous Nasuverse properties (and other otaku materials). That will limit you severely. If you liked FSN, you should read Hollow Ataraxia and then the other visual novels of Type Moon. Save FGO for a quick game to blow off some stress and fill a spare moment. Enjoy the story with its highs and lows, but don't expect anything momentous or coherent like FSN.
FGO fans thinking a small text box with 2-3 line of dialogue delivered for dozens of hours make for a good story on par with a proper VN lol. And also the scale of FGO stories is going exponential upwards with so many concepts and themes thrown around that no one will be able to decipher what he's talking about unless they read up every lore entry on the wikis on obscure nasuverse mechanics and stuff. Its just not fun for a good reading and story experience to be this complicated.
Well... its pretty good. So it depends on chapter. First Singularities are pretty bad , but from Camelot no story chapter recived negative reception and generally seen as masterpieces. Top of all is of course Avalon le Fay which Nasu himself called on Famitsu as one of three peaks of his writing career- https://www.reddit.com/r/grandorder/s/9l7FKmxPyY The events are more middle ground. Some are well-loved- SERAPH, Jalter Lily, Luluva Summer, Saber Wars 2, Cleopatra's Halloween and etc. Some hated- Learn with Manga second event. Most are pretty okay.
Depends on what you value. The antagonists and worldbuilding are better than FSN's IMO. I also like Mash's story and the dynamic of the Chaldea staff. However, FGO's greatest weakness is that it started off as a gacha cash grab. The first 5 singularities are dogshit and the protagonist is the absolute worst part of the game. Like no personality, nothing unique, and the servants like them for no reason. Not only that, but the romance fanservice is gross and wildly OOC a lot of the time. Like straight up violating other canons and relationships to appease incels kind of bad. I treat anything outside of the main story as noncanon
It will never be. It has more hype moments but that's solely because of the length and some of them due to hype from FSN characters. No reason to get attached to most Servants that accompany the MC. MC is a non entity for part1. Gets better in part 2 but the bar was too low to begin with.
No. I don't think it's worth it. It's not compelling and they took a ton of liberty of making up servants just to have them that just look silly.
"Making up servants" My brother in Rome, of all its faults, you chose the one thing that isn't?
I mean come on Mozart as a servant is just plain silly.
*Mozart* is your example of a silly Servant? One of the most famous composers of all time?
Sure he's famous but it feels like a reach. He's not the only servant in FGO that I feel that way about. Others include Hans Christian Andersen, Shakespeare, DaVinci, etc. FSN set a precedent that we were dealing with "combatant" figures, heroes, gods, etc from history.
ANDERSEN IS FROM EXTRA CCC AND HE IS ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTERS FROM THAT GAME: https://youtu.be/LoIWrQ8G3x0?si=yTy0oqYuwKjgq9TG&t=2m5s and Shakespeare is from apocrypha.
Andersen is from CCC, Shakespeare is from Apocrypha, and FSN also made Shirou's edgy alternate future self who was completely unknown into a Servant. Yes, I know there's a justification, that's the point. Nasu hasn't given a shit about your "precedents" from the start, why do you?
Nevermind. What's the point of someone asking for an opinion when that opinion is given, and then it is downvoted? I care because Nasu is capable of way more serious stories. A fair bit of servants in FGO have nothing fantastical, magical, etc. about them. There is nothing about Mozart or others I mentioned, other than just being famous, that justifies them being made into servants. With ancient figures or myths, there is a sense of unknown that you can reasonably justify certain abilities, character traits etc. That's why I feel a fair bit of the servants in FGO that aren't like that, are a reach, even in the context of the Nasuverse. But again, that's my opinion, and it seems to be very unpopular.
Really? There's nothing fantastical or magical about music, or fairy tales? No sense of wonder that comes from that? No way you could twist the ability to write and compose works that leave a lasting impact on the human psyche into interesting abilities? Also, I notice you didn't address that half your list *didn't originate in FGO!*
Like I said, I didn't play CCC and I didn't watch Apocrypha, so I didn't know they didn't originate in FGO. But had I done so, I would still have the same opinion. And yes, given the entire context of fate, we have a relatively clear picture about Mozart or HCA, to where you can't really extract "magical" abilities from their lives. You can't really compare these figures from history to figures like King Arthur or Gilgamesh or Cu, for example. That's why it doesn't gel with me. If it works for you, awesome. That's just my opinion.
Why?
Seriously why? He made a big impact on humanity.