Posts from Fate/Grand Order

Gorynych is here.

Well, Mент probably knows this version, and for everyone else, here's an article.

What’s the point of living when Jeanne d’Arc Alter won’t serve you in real life?

I lost my Heroes of Might and Magic account...

I think I still have access to my US account; I checked about six months ago. But I stopped playing in the fall of 2022. I moved, had no internet for a few days, and couldn't log in to do the daily tasks; there was also an event going on about the proto-Japanese. And when the internet came back, I realized I didn't want to spend any more time on it.

I replayed most of the game with such pleasure, but the sixth Lostbelt got on my nerves 😔

I stopped playing before its release...

There’s one about Castoria; you might like it. But in terms of length, it’s probably as long as all the previous ones combined.

Well, they managed to release Castoria, and she came easily (or maybe I saved up a lot of quartz beforehand, I don't remember anymore) and immediately got grailed... So, you gave me a reason to theoretically consider the possibility of her return, but I won't do that right now...

In short, I replayed most of the game and also went through what I hadn't played last time (Avalon, as it happens). This made me realize why many other gachas (especially Chinese ones from the last ~5 years) fail to hold my attention for long. Because both the stories themselves and their presentation with dialogue are dull. The last thing I tried was Wuthering Waves:
- From the very start and throughout the whole game, you're bombarded with some local technical jargon that's useful to you for exactly one chapter, and then it most likely won't be used again.
- The story is on the level of chewing gum — it's playable, but more like forcing yourself through it. Overall, it's not interesting what's happening there, and immersion into the little world is hard to achieve. 
- The protagonist is some godlike being with forgotten memories — the center of the universe — whom everyone adores by default. 
And in the end, you play just to spin the gacha and run around the little world (to be fair, I'll note that the animations are cool and exploring is an order of magnitude more interesting than in Genshin), but you still don't feel any real payoff. 

Meanwhile, in FGO you can play without worrying at all about getting characters — purely enjoying the story, because it's really cool with lots of emotional and breathtaking moments; bonus points for being able to learn something fun from real history. Oh, and speaking of that — someone might say that the way some historical and mythical figures are portrayed here is an outrage against them, but I would completely disagree with that. As I see it, it's actually respect for all of that, because it motivates the player to learn more about it all. If in history class they tell you something about historical person #100100, you'll most likely forget it, but here it's the opposite — genuine interest. The music is also amazing — a treat for the ears, very atmospheric. 

I'd also like to separately note the following: obtaining materials for leveling up characters and quartz (the gacha resource) has been made much more casual now — a newbie can get a ton, so you can go through the entire story without issues, even though you'll have to rely a lot on friend/random supports. Some SRs can be picked up "for free" in the shop. The five-stars I had: 

I didn't hit any insurmountable walls with them (+ the Medusa dropped right at the very end of the playthrough). Though I was of course lucky that when I made a new account, a banner with one of my favorite girls happened to be available.

Also, Gudako/F Ritsuka is super kawaii. Probably my favorite among "self-insert" protagonists.

I don’t remember the main storyline very well; I mean, there were a lot of touching moments, but in the end, I can’t remember anything except for Babylon – that was a truly epic victory, as they said 15 years ago, and it had a great epic feel, and the humor was just top-notch. Oh, and Salem, but I didn’t really understand much there, I just felt the thick atmosphere more. But the event storylines somehow stuck in my memory better, maybe because they were repeated. “Summer in Hawaii” is just great, and by the way, the music on the map there is really good; you really feel like you’re in a loop, and even though you’re constantly working with your team (and you, as a player, are farming the event), the loop is still enjoyable; there are definitely worse things than being stuck with Summer Zhalthar. The first summer was also interesting, when the smartest one came up with magnificent designs for the buildings. I remember the BB event well; we ran it three times, and the twist, where we find notes in which someone writes, “damn, what should I do, I’m losing control…”, and you think it’s a typical story about a demon taking control, but in the end, it’s the opposite – the carrier’s passion is overwhelming the demon’s will – that was just amazing; I had never seen anything like it before, and I haven’t seen anything like it since.

Facts, facts...
I remember really liking Nitocris in a swimsuit; it was a funny skin, but I didn't roll for it; it just appeared randomly on my random matches.