Fate/Grand Order – 2020 First Impressions and Thoughts

Mrs Stix and I are both fans of the Fate series. We’ve loved every incarnation of the Anime since the original Fate/stay Night back in the mid 2000’s.
Granted, I don’t really have much if any experience in the game-verse of the franchise. So with that in mind..

Fate/Grand Order starts off by throwing you right into a tutorial battle with a bunch of Training Golems. Your Servants consist of Saber, Lancer and Archer.
If you’re a fan of the Anime or know anything about the characters, you’ll know exactly who at least 2 of them are right off the bat.
After the tutorial battle, you’re introduced to some of the characters, choose your gender, and are thrown further into the tutorial.
About 20 to 30 minutes go by before gaining control of the game and not being held back by the constraints tutorials often restrict you with.

So, Fate/Grand Order is a little more interesting than traditional Gacha games I’ve realized.
Where normally, you have a world map, chapters, and missions, in Grand Order – while yes, you definitely have the very same in the way of content, you also have an individual “Master,” yourself, who has restrictions based on your level.
These restrictions prevent you from adding additional Servants to your team and prevent you from accessing various types of content in the short-term.
Thus progressing through the game, leveling your Servants, and overall upgrading your Master will allow for you to fully explore and experience the game.

Speaking of Servants, Fate/Grand Order has quite a few. Granted, I don’t know who half of them are because although I enjoyed the various Fate Anime series, I haven’t delved nearly as deeply into the franchises lore to know who’s whom.
I did end up with a plethora of Lancer’s though much to my dismay. And very few characters were female, surprisingly. I’d acquired, 2 females out of like.. 20 Servants I think over the course of my play through.
Now, it seems as though you’re capable of deploying 3 Servants at a time. I had 2 – both Shielder and Lancer, and had 1 support Servant from another player accompany me in to every battle.
Thankfully they were always max level and could carry me, but honestly, that made the game much easier than it otherwise would be.
Combat was turn-based. I’d select 3 Cards, which acted as Servant abilities, after which the enemy would take their turn. This would go back and forth until either I died, or all the enemies were dead.

Graphically, the game held up alright. It wasn’t anything flashy, but at the same time, for the kind of game it was, I’d say the game looked pretty good.
I didn’t really expect anything more when playing, although I guess, if anything, I wish the map was a tad more detailed.

Overall, I had fun. The lack of auto-play meant I needed to dedicate my full attention to the game and that was a refreshing change of pace.