So I don’t keep it a secret that my favorite Fate franchise work is the anime and manga series Fate/Kalied Liner Prisma Illya. However, Illya herself is not my favorite character from it. Rather the series’ other main character Miyu is my favorite. Once I had finished watching the Prisma Illya movie, Vow in the Snow back in January 2020, I looked up and found out that Miyu was in Fate/Grand Order. I decided that I wanted her, nay, I needed her. However I would have only one opportunity to get her since I missed the first time she was in the game, and my one and only chance was February 2021. Thus, my journey through playing Fate/Grand Order had begun.
I started the game and began to play through the tutorial, during which the first gacha pull Fate/Grand Order gives you a free 4-star servant from a small pool. As luck would have it, I got the 4-star Berserker servant Hercules. Getting Hercules is a bit of funny irony considering his relation with Illya and how I started this game to get an Illya related servant. Hercules is apparently a really great Berserker servant according to my other friends who play Fate/Grand Order frequently. I wouldn’t know, for to this day I have kept him lvl. 1. I still would use him a lot early on, in fact I have him at bond lvl. 5. I just kept him at lvl. 1 because I found the idea of having him stay at that level funny.
Thankfully, I had joined the game at a great time. The day I joined, January 22nd, had a special campaign where anyone who had cleared the tutorial singularity of the game was allowed to choose to get any free 4-star servant. Staying on-brand for myself, I chose to get the servant Medusa Lancer (Shall be referred to as Medusa Lily from here forth). As we go through this journal you’ll probably understand my taste in characters more and judge my taste and block me on social media.
Medusa Lily is now my favorite Fate servant
The early game was incredibly easy, early Fate/Grand Order’s story is generally considered to not be very good, so I was skipping very liberally through the early singularities. I also binged the game very hard early on. Within my first three days of playing I had made it to the fourth Singularity: London. Of course, it wasn’t by my own power that I was able to play this fast, one of my friends had a lvl. 100 Edmond Dates as their support servant.
However, London was the turning point in my quick run through singularities. Just having a very low lvl. Medusa Lily (around lvl. 25 at the time) and a lvl. 1 Hercules wouldn’t be able to carry me any longer. I would need to do what I had considered the bane of my existence at the time: grinding for EXP embers. Originally I hated Fate/Grand Order grinding. I felt weak and the only thing I could do was waste a large amount of AP playing the same few stages. However that was just because I was weak at the time; speaking from my current experience where I have several high leveled servants, I find grinding to be more relaxing and rewarding than anything else.
There being no way for anyone to skip grinding, not even paying players was something I found annoying at first, however with the gacha business model of being designed to extort money, a large amount of the game being something that can’t be bypassed with money is something to appreciate.
Anyway, as I was grinding I also did another 10 pull and obtained the 4-star Berserker servant Ibaraki Douji. I found this Berserker to be incredibly useful, and to this day she is still in the back row of my party.
My party for the rest of London
After grinding I cleared the London Singularity just in time for my first event in Fate/Grand Order. Valentines 2019. To give an overview of the event, playing through stages gives you chocolate and other materials, which you can use these materials to give you a multiplier to get you more chocolate. The more chocolate you get, the more rewards you get. This event started well for me. I quickly got the maximum multiplier of chocolate and made my way down the points ladder of rewards, Even getting Medusa Lily’s valentine’s chocolate.
Unfortunately, this is where real life interfered with my Fate playing. During February my depression made even playing games next to impossible for me, I was desperate for anything that could make me happy. So I decided to try pulling for a servant I found attractive, Berserker Mysterious Heroine X Alter. In my depression I spent every single Saints Quartz I had trying to get her, and in the end I got…..Archer Tomoe Gozen. I was devastated to say the least.
Once Valentine’s was over I continued playing through the story singularities until I reached….Camelot. Camelot is a difficulty spike – one of gigantic proportions – and I could hardly win any fight. I needed to become stronger.
However, getting stronger could wait, for there was another event directly after Valentine’s Day. Fate/Grand Order’s collaboration with another Type Moon work: Kara No Kyoukai. This event would give 4-star assassin servant Shiki to anyone who cleared it. Here’s how this event worked. You would be given missions like “Kill this many of [X] enemy” on the various battle nodes of the event, clearing missions would unlock more nodes which could also be used to clear these missions. I got Assassin Shiki very easily. Luck was also on my side as I got the Saber version of Shiki from summon tickets during the event.
The next event I took part in was honestly a bit disappointing: Saber Wars. It worked similar to Valentine’s Day, but without interesting aspects like the multipliers. However, during the summon banner of the event I was able to get multiple servants like Bedivere (3-Star Limited Saber), Suzuka Gozen (4-Star Saber), and Yagyu Munenori (4-Star Saber). Keep these names in mind for later.
My Fate GO progress slowed down from here on. Progress in Camelot was stalled, with fights like Gawain taking me days to complete. It was a struggle. On March 23rd tragedy struck as I got drunk while playing Fate/Grand Order. I used all my Saints Quartz at once again, not even for a good reason liking wanting a particular character; I was just acting dumb. However, it appears luck was more on my side this time as I pulled the 5-star Caster servant, Anastasia
The next event was one I didn’t fully participate in though, the Fate/Apocrypha event, as I was not very interested in getting 4 star Caster servant Sieg. However, I should explain how the event worked. The event had raids where you would fight servants with incredibly large health bars, the entire server of players would fight these servants and once they were killed a couple million times by all Fate/Grand Order players, the raids would switch out.
I had around 7 summon tickets around this time and was attempting to get the Rider class servant Astolfo, and while I didn’t get Astolfo my luck was by no means bad. Not only did I get Assassin class servant EMIYA, but I also got what may have been one of my best pulls to date, Assassin Jack the Ripper.
Love her. Stabby stabby.
While, up until this point, my feelings in Fate/Grand Order were “It’s eh” once I got Jack and began blasting through the Rider and Berserker raids in the Apocrypha event, I began to love Fate/Grand Order. Jack’s critical hits brought me through the hard parts of Camelot until the final boss of that Singularity. Artoria Pendragon Lancer. I brought my team of Sabers. Shiki, Suzuka Gozen, Yagyu, and a lvl. 1 Bedivere. Against all odds Bedivere was the one to defeat her in the first phase. During the second phase however, Yagyu pulled his weight and earned his newfound place as one of my favorite servants
Yagyu Munenori: Savior of Camelot
After the Camelot Singularity came Babylonia which has been a complete joy so far. Not only has the story of Babylonia had many great moments of Medusa Lily so far, but many fights have been against Rider class enemies, meaning Jack has had the advantage nearly every fight. I’m not done with Babylonia yet, but unlike Camelot which was just hard, I’m only taking a break to deal with the current event, which is another one that I’m loving: Guda Guda 2.
It’s no secret that I adore Sengoku Period Japan. So having an event dealing with Oda Nobunaga, Chacha, and having EMIYA be a stand-in for Yukimura Sanada has been a pure joy so far. Not only was I able to get the free 4 Star Berserker servant of the event Chacha, but I was also lucky and pulled the 5-star Berserker servant Hijikata of the Shinsengumi.
And that brings us to the present. I shall continue playing Fate/Grand Order until February where I will hopefully get Miyu. Miyu is the goal of my playthrough but there is probably one question on your mind; Can anything get me to stay after I get Miyu? Well the answer is yes, I’m a simple man, all Grand Order would really have to do is introduce another servant who I want, that would probably make me stay for another 2 years.
That’s the end of this journal, when will I write another one? Well this has been a sorta impromptu writing, however you might be able to expect one in either another 5 months or when I get Miyu in February.
Part 2 now exists faster thab 5 months later, I lied, here it is
If you would like to hear me talk about something else Fate related, here’s my comparison of the Fate/Extella games
If you would like to read something completely unrelated, here’s Victiny’s analysis of Tetsuya Nomura’s writing
Be sure to check out the Story Arc Discord server as well https://discord.gg/rQ92aKJ
