Monthly Archives:August 2015

“Fate/Grand Order is easy”, said no weeaboo over.

While the interface itself is fairly straightforward, the shitty RNG that plagues the Grand Summon system often results in erratic rolls, and has the tendency to screw you over with a whole bunch of Craft Essences rather than fresh Servants.

This can often mean that if you’re not a pay-to-win, Saint-Quartz spamming player, you’re going to either be behind on the curve because your Servants aren’t cutting it level wise, or you’re often out of AP, which you need to maximize your story progression.

Thankfully, there are daily Event Quests in game that are designed to help you speed things along, and they aren’t that hard to master.

The trick to it, we realized, is the Sunday Event Quest – the Master Training scenario. We got an early start before last week’s Unlimited Maintenance Works thanks to that, and it’s really helped us come out ahead in the grind.

You can access Dailies through the Chaldean Gate option in Stage Select, and you can start blowing through them as early as Level 10. Just make sure you’ve got Shielder and your Starter up to at least Level 10 using XP-up drops, and you should be all set.

Like all other Dailies, the Master Training scenario has three difficulties and cost either 10, 20, or 40 AP.

1. Master Training (AP 10)

Mooks are werewolves with an average Level of 6 and 3,800 hp, with either Saber, Lancer or Assassin Classes.

Boss is a werewolf Assassin with a Servant level of 15 and 13,765 hp. Abilities include a Critical rate buff and a multi-hit finisher.

Rewards 1,650 xp upon completion.

2. Master Training (AP 20)

Mooks are ghosts with the Assassin class, an average Level of 10 and 6,000 hp.

Leader is a Level 25 ghost with 27,074 hp that can paralyze your party and inflict debuffs.

Rewards 8,310 xp upon completion.

3. Master Training (AP 40)

Mooks are primarily lamia between the Level 12 to 18 range with the Caster class and average 8,000 hp. Every now and then, you might also encounter shadow Servants with the abilities of Medusa (Rider), Euryale (Archer) or Stheno (Assassin).

Boss is a Level 40 demon with the Caster class, 58,503 hp, buff skills and really big damage potential.

Rewards 34,140 xp upon completion.

Since gaining Master levels improves your abilities and also replenishes your AP, you can speedily farm levels as long as you’re able to hit all the right leveling break points. With enough level ups, you can also increase your party size, and attempt the same scenario at a higher difficulty.

The risks are definitely worth the reward, and it’s not uncommon to gain 20 Master levels on a good day before you hit a point where you can’t level up on the quick and need to wait for your AP to recharge anymore.

Does Master Level matter?

A higher Master level means better Master skills, a bigger party of Servants, and more AP to expend for Event Quests and Story Mode.

Right now, my Master rank is 45, with Level 6 in all Master skills. My AP is 70, and my party cost is 69. That means I can run a full party of 5 4-star Servants, or a full party of 3-star Servants with some sick Craft Essences, and that makes clearing stages a breeze.

Daily Quests for Fun and Profit

If you’re just starting out, your best bet is to focus on doing a whole bunch of daily Event Quests rather than jumping ahead with the story.

Some recommended Event Quests to start with are:

Monday, Wednesday & Saturday:

Treasure Vault (QP). Mooks and bosses are primarily Caster types. You’ll need lots of QP to level up your Servants later, so start farming this Event Quest early and often.

Monday & Thursday:

Gathering Sparks (Three Knights). Exp-Up drops for the Three Knight Classes Saber, Archer and Lancer. Focus on this if your preferred Servant is a Saber, Archer or Lancer.

Tuesday & Friday:

Gathering Sparks (Four Horsemen). Exp-Up drops for the Four Horsemen Classes Assassin, Berserker, Caster and Rider. Focus on this if your preferred Servant is an Assassin, Berserker, Caster or Rider.

Saturday:

If you’re in a fairly comfortable position, or have a sizable enough pool of Servants to choose from, you can also do Congregation at Dawn (woohoo, MTG reference!), which has Exp-Up drops for all seven Classes.

Developing a Routine:

Because my starter unit was Ushiwakamaru (Rider), I went with Sunday (Master Training) > Monday (QP) > Tuesday (Four Horsemen Exp-Up) > Wednesday (QP) > Thursday (Three Knights Exp-Up) > Friday (Four Horsemen Exp-Up) > Saturday (QP) > Sunday (Master Training).

This netted me a good amount of QP and Master levels early game and helped to offset some really bad 40 Saint Quartz pulls.

My personal routine now is Monday (Three Knights Exp-Up) > Tuesday (Four Horsemen Exp-Up) > Wednesday (QP) > Thursday (Three Knights Exp-Up) > Friday (Four Horsemen Exp-Up) > Saturday (QP) > Sunday (Master Training).

Once you’ve found a routine you’re comfortable with, the game will turn from an annoyance into a breeze.

I don’t usually play mobile phone games, but for Fate/Grand Order (mostly because the Fate series is my one weeb indulgence), I decided to make an exception.

Grand Order is the latest in Type Moon’s long running Fate franchise. For those of you who have not been exposed to the awesomeness that is Fate, well, think of it as a history lesson for otakus on crack, with a heavy dose of the supernatural thrown in.

In the setting, magicians vie for supremacy in Holy Grail Wars, with the ‘heroic spirits’ of famous persons from the past as their battle companions. These spirits are categorized loosely into RPG style archetypes like Archer, Assassin, Berserker, Caster, Lancer, Rider and Saber, and possess both mysterious powers and arcane relics (called Noble Phantasms) inspired by their real-world legends.

I could go on and on about the setting and all, but it’s really easier to just scoot over to the Type Moon Wiki for a quick look.

Now, on to the review.

Fate/Grand Order puts you in the role of a fresh recruit in Chaldea, an organization that oversees human history (it’s kinda like S.H.I.E.L.D., but with magic users).

Naturally, being the typical spiky-haired anime-style protagonist that you are, you quickly get embroiled in all sorts of trouble, and have to plunge through time to save the world.

Of course, as in all things Fate, the Master (that’s you) isn’t capable of going it alone since you know, people tend to die when they’re killed. That’s why you’re relegated to more of a support role, slinging heals and buffs while your Servants handle the heavy lifting.

Gameplay switches between a simple map-based navigation, VN style narration, and fights with some repetitive mooks and the occasional stage boss.

Attempting stages consumes AP (like any other mobile game), and naturally, you have to conquer stages to progress in the story.

Combat is simple and essentially a spin on the Rock, Paper, Scissors (and in this case also Lizard and Spock) system, coupled with match-3 elements.

Each Servant has a predetermined pool of color-coded cards determined by their class, which contain Arts (Blue), Buster (Red) and Quick (Green) moves.

In a nutshell, Arts cards increase the Servant’s NP (Noble Phantasm) gauge, which allows them to pull off their special attacks, Buster cards inflict a large amount of physical damage, and Quick cards add to your Critical chance in the following round, allowing for bigger numbers on a successful hit.

Each round, the game pulls five cards, and after making tactical decisions such as using Servant abilities or Master buffs, you can lock in three of the five cards to form an attack chain.

Chaining the same type of moves can grant a stronger effect (a successful Arts chain fills the NP gauge of all Servants participating in that attack by 20%, for example), while chaining three attacks by the same Servant (by picking 3 similar portraits rather than move types) grants an extra attack. You can combine both move chains and Servant chains for even greater effect, but such occurrences tend to be rare.

Filling up a Servant’s Noble Phantasm gauge lets you use their special attack. These stronger moves also fall under the Arts, Buster, or Quick categories, so chain them strategically to take down difficult enemies.  Each Noble Phantasm activation also comes with animation and cut-ins, so Fate fanboys who’ve always wondered how some of these attacks look like, rejoice.

There are currently 59 Servants and 36 Mystic Codes (called Craft Essences in the game) to be collected, and rolling for them is done lottery style through the Grand Summon interface.

These Servants include fan favorites like Arturia, Cu Chulainn and Gilgamesh, as well as brand new ones created just for Grand Order. Nasuverse followers will also recognize Mystic Codes such as the Black Keys, the Kaleidoscope and Rin’s pendant in the Craft Essence pool.

You get a free low-tier summon each day, which may result in a 1-star, 2-star (or extremely rarely) 3-star unit or item. You can also make additional low-tier summons with Friend Points acquired from fighting alongsideton your contact list.

Expending Saint Quartz (acquired through completing objectives and stages or through real money microtransactions), by comparison, guarantees a 3-star or higher unit.

The cost is fairly prohibitive though, and with the very iffy RNG system (I’ve been rolling more Craft Essences than I have Servants), you’re better off saving them till later when the game gets patched and things become a little more stable.

Needless to say, this means that while the game has it going with the story, the biggest woes plaguing it right now are all design related.

Fights tend to be repetitive and lacking in variety, the recharge rate for AP is tediously slow (which reduces replay value), and Servant balance is questionable at best.

For example, I’ve pulled some really abysmal 4-star Servants, while most 5-star ones I’ve seen are insanely overpowered, with ridiculous parameters and abilities. 1-star and 2-star Servants, by comparison, are little better than chump blockers and the same disparity applies to Craft Essences as well.

This, of course, begs the question – could the game have been tested more rigorously before release? It’d have definitely mitigated the slew of QQing the devs are seeing on social media to say the least.

Fixing these problems in the first few weeks will be crucial, since player satisfaction and retention pretty much makes or breaks mobile games.

Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if this title manages to take off once the teething pains are over.

While the system lacks in polish, the game is faithful to, and builds upon, the source material. It documents several Holy Grail Wars that never made it onto the small screen, and that’s sure to whet any fan’s appetite. The art is generally pretty, the animation smooth, and the sheer number of new Servants makes for more story and waifu (or husbando) potential. 

Fate/Grand Order is currently gated for Japan (to keep us ignorant gaijin types out), but we all know dedicated fans will find a way. It’s also unlikely that there will ever be an English port, but the game’s intuitive enough that you can manage without knowledge of moon runes. 

Final Verdict: 3.5/5

For more information about the game, check out the Official Site at: http://www.fate-go.jp.