Expect Blanka in FGO presently

In a sudden and frankly surprising turn of events, Yoshinori Ono has been officially appointed President and COO of Delightworks, the company behind mobile phenomenon Fate/Grand Order, upcoming fighter Melty Blood: Type Lumina, and recent disaster Sakura Wars: Hanasaki Maidens.

Yoshinori Ono previously worked with Capcom for almost three decades, before leaving the company in the summer of 2020. During his time with the developer/publisher, Ono worked on top brands including Resident Evil, Onimusha, and Dead Rising, but his greatest achievement remains his incredible resurrection of the Street Fighter franchise. At the center of 2008's Street Fighter IV — a title his bosses at Capcom had zero faith in — Ono almost single-handedly brought the legendary series back to the masses, a move which helped reignite the entire fighting game genre, particularly with mainstream audiences. As such, Ono is deservedly respecte??d by both players and those within the industry.

From there, things got a little shakier. Handed the lion's share of Capcom's fighting game division, Ono bounced between good and poor decision-making, while developing a reputation for trolling fans — some of whom found this an endearing character trait, while others felt it was a "cute" facade to mask poor community treatment. Darkstalkers fans grew frustrated with Ono's endless teasing of new games which never arrived, while Street Fighter V would launch in notoriously rough shape: bare-bones, packed wit??h monetization, and plagued with controversies.

In recent years, Ono has struggled with health issues due to his aggressive work ethic and non-stop, globe-trotting timetable. Reports suggest that Ono finally took his leave of Capcom after his design ideas for the upcoming Street Fighter VI were denied by the board.

Given this track record, Ono's new position at the top of Delightworks' ladder is already being treated with trepidation by the FGO community. In a brief message on Twitter, Ono openly stated that he plans to "look at development from a different perspective than in the past" — words that perhaps reflect on his twilight Capcom years. It's possible that being handed an entirely new project, a new team, and a new genre — away from the fighting games that dominated his days and nights — will allow Ono's magic to shine through once again, perhaps even leading to another "Street Fighter IV" moment.

Handing anyone the reins of your company is a risky play. We'll soon see if the Blanka-loving veteran is up to the task. If there's one thing Ono never lacked, it's ambition. Yoshinori Ono will assume his new duties on May 1, with Delightworks founder and current Preside??nt, Akihito Shouji, moving into a new role as Chairman and CEO.

Dear FGC, World Warriors.

On May 1st, I will be moving from Capcom to another company.
I'm going to be working at a studio that is a little different from the one I'm used to.
I'm also going to be looking at development from a different perspective than in the past. pic.twitter.com/Hch7kkGZA0

— Yoshinori Ono (@Yoshi_OnoChin) April 27, 2021

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Also: Everyone gets a free Servant

Fate/Grand Order may not be quite ready to debut its next big story expansion, but the time between now and Spring won't be empty, if the game's handlers at Aniplex have anything to say about it. Players are still trading in their currencies from last week's rerun event, but next week promises an entirely new (well, new to English-version players, anyway) test for veteran Masters: Setsubun: The Oni Pagoda Festival.

From January 27 through February 2, players will fight their way up a Oni-filled hundred-story challenge tower alongside various Japanese Servants (notably the Archer of Inferno, Tomoe Gozen) in search of good fights and fabulous prizes. Setsubun is also notable for debuting an exclusive new "fatigue" mechanic, wherein the Servants used clearing one floor go into "cooldown" to recuperate before they can be deployed again. This means players will be challenged to maintain a deep bench of Servants, XCOM-style, rather than relying on the same handful of superstars they likely have. I, for one, am already leveling up some of my? more neglected low-rarity? Servants in preparation.

Players can, though, benefit from some reinforcements, and FGO provides. As part of the ongoing promo campaign for the Fate/Grand Order: Babylonia anime, anyone (veteran or otherwise) logging onto the game between now and January 29 will get a ticket redeemable for any non-limited 4-Star SR Servant. Given that 4-Stars are quite cost-effective compared to the much hungrier 5-Stars, it's a good deal - one I'm planning to spend to acquire Parvati, the long-awaited expy for Fate/Stay Night's Sakura Matou.

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Chaldea on Lockdown

There are only five days left until the New Year, but Fate/Grand Order isn't about to give its players rest. Right on the heels of its grind-heavy Christmas lotto event, FGO's website and social media feeds went into a dramatic lockdown, restricting network access while "the inquiry" progressed, with restoration promi??sed by December 31.

Players logging into the game after a brief update also noticed a banner promoting a new main story chapter, titled "Part 2 Prelude: Prologue/December 26th, 2019." Access to the chapter is restricted to players who've completed the las??t portion of "Part 1," the "Final Singularity" chapter.

Presumably, the "Part 2" being referred to would be the next main campaign. This year's "Epic of Remnant" chapters were more of a 1.5, and based on the Japanese edition of the game (which is about 2 years ahead in terms of content), Part 2 will be titled Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt. ?Veterans who've played ahead ar??e promising a wild ride.

Incidentally, a news post from the website also promises a localized English-language release for the one-shot episode Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom, an animated prologue to ?Part 2 that originally aired at the beginning of 2018.

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Here comes the San(ta)

Oh sure, another month means yet another Fate/Grand Order event to grind, but this one's a biggie! Indeed, it's time for the third of FGO's Christmas special grindfests. This one is titled Merry Christmas in the Underworld, and sends Masters to the land down underground to see what, besides climate change, is making Chaldea's Christmas revelries scorching instead of snowy. To that end they'll farm, farm, farm, tons of tokens to trade for draws from a goody-filled Christmas lottery box. ?Lotto events like this are the most generous times of the year for FGO, so players with time to spare will want to partake as much as they can to build a supply of much-needed materials. 

To sweeten the pot, the game's also giving away a new free 4-star rarity Servant, "Attila the San(ta)". She's a sheep-riding, mustachioed, Christmas-themed incarnation of everyone's favorite civilization-wrecking ancient alien, Altera (aka the "Wriggle Wriggle" meme girl someone puts in every FGO post'?s comments).

Players with quartz up the wazoo can also roll the premium gacha for the divine favor of  Ereshkigal, the Mesopotamian goddess of death. She's a 5-star Lancer, and also happens to look almost exactly like another FGO Servant, Ishtar. As to why, the reasons would technically count as spoilers for ther currently airing Fate Grand Order: Babylonia ;anim??e series, so I'll refrain from divulging th??em here.

Merry Christmas in the Underworld kicked off at midnight today, and will run until midnight PST? on Christmas Day (D??ecember 25).

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Foreigners welcome

Fate/Grand Order players have been having a hectic quarter, with back-to-back events threatening their supply of stamina-refilling Golden Apples. First there was Shimousa, then this year's Halloween event, then a rerun of last year's Christmas event, and then a useful, English-exclusive Thanksgiving giveaway period, and now, the masters of Chaldea will be returning to the New World, in Pseudo-Singularity IV: Heretical Salem.

Apparently based on the famous Salem Witch Trials, a spate of colonial-era persecutions of people accused of witchcraft, Salem is the fourth and final chapter of FGO's Epic of Remnant story campaign. Salem will also see the addition of the twelfth (and so far last)of the game's playable Servant classes: Foreign??er. Defined as wielding powers "from beyond human comp?rehension", Foreigners are built to kill Berserkers, taking half damage from the class and dealing double damage to it. Interestingly, they're also infused with a dose of self-loathing, as they take double damage from other Foreigners, as well as from Alter Ego-class Servants like Mecha Eli-chan from the Halloween event.

The chapter should have gone live as of a few hours ago, but players eager to power through the missions or use their quartz on the banner are advised to think carefully. Delays ?in the content schedule compared to FGO's leading Japanese version allows rather detailed prediction of what's to come, and besides this year's Christmas event, other very desirable Servants are close to the horizon, including a second Foreigner-class character.

In any ca?se, masters still looking to be bewitched by FGO's wife casino can check out a trailer for the expansion below, or log in and feel the magic.

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Spooky Scary Credit Card Charges

We're not even a fortnight from the last significant Fate/Grand Order release, but time (and the event schedule) wait for no master. Plus, it's already late October, which means the yearly Halloween event wouldn't be timely if the game waited any? longer to debut it. 

Which brings us to Halloween Strike! Demonic C?limb ~Himeji Ca?stle War~, the new seasonal event for this year. As with the previous two years' Halloween bashes, players will be reunited with famed serial killer Elizabeth Bathory as yet another batch of interlopers disrupts her plans to have a fun ol' Halloween Trick-or-Treat parade. Players will complete objective-based missions to progress up a spectral recreation of Japan's famous Himeji castle in search of the perpetrator, and eventually unlock access to "Mecha Eli-chan", a robotic incarnation of everyone's favorite wannabe-idol-slash-prolific-murderer. Notably, Mecha Eli-chan is the first "Alter Ego"-class Servant to be made available for players not rolling on the game's premium summon banners. Alter Egos debuted in this year's Fate/Extra CCC crossover and do bonus damage against Cavalry-class enemies, making them versatile picks? for mixed-class battles.

Premium gacha rollers will also have a new 5-star Assassin-class Servant to target: Osakabehime. With a name that translates roughly to "The Princess Of The Walls", Osakabehime is based on a famous youkai sp?irit that allegedly haunts the corridors and crawlspaces of Himeji castle. Naturally, FGO por??trays her as a nerdy shut-in who prefers painting plastic models and playing video games to going out and being a productive member of heroic spirit society.

T??he event kicks off this week, on October 23rd, at 0100 PDT, and lasts through Novembe??r 7th. Check out previews of Osakabehime and Mecha Eli-chan's Noble Phantasm attacks below.

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Any service game that aims to keep the lights on needs a steady flow of new things to do to survive, but even by those standards English-language Fate/Grand Order? players have had a rather busy 2019, with content drops or events occurring almost weekly. Now a big new addition to the main story has just gone live.

Titled Pseudo-Singularity III: The Stage of Carnage, Shimousa ~Seven Duels of the Swordmasters~,  the new chapter is the third of four in FGO's Epic of Remnant main campaign.  The chapter is set in 17th-century Japan's Shimousa province, and will feature a plot inspired by the 1960s samurai fantasy novel Makai Tenshou,? with FGO's version of Miyamoto Musashi will star here, in place of the novel's Yagyu Jubei. 

Naturally, the new additions extend to the playable roster of "Servant" ??characters, with the latest wave being drawn from Japanese history and folklore. Aside from the new Servants, returning limited-edition characters are also on the banner this month, including Minamoto-no-Raikou, Shuten-douji, and Musashi herself making up

The chapter went live at midnight on October 10, and will be available to any player that's finished th?e first main story campaign. Check out a sweet anime commercial for the arc b??elow.

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Now this is podracing!

Australians and other residents of the deeper southern hemisphere may be midway through their winters right about now, but it's sunny and bright where it matters - inside mobile gacha games like Fate/Grand Order, whose Engli??sh edition just debuted its second annual summer event.

Titled Dead Heat Summer Race, the new event breaks from last year's tropical island colonization getaway by leaning into a desert rally race - the Ishtar Cup - hosted by none ot?her than everyone's ??favorite Mesopotamian-deity-slash-possessed-Fate-alumnus. 

Opened earlier today, the event will have players experiencin?g silly missions and grindy battles to "promote" their favorite pairs of servant?s in a race across the desert.

For their trouble, they'll receive g  various goodies lik??e Craft Essences, ascension materials, and an exclusive 4-Star Rider-class version of ??Ishtar herself.

Of cour?se, it's not a summer gacha game event without some swimsuit-clad microtransaction bait, so the event also has no less than seven limited summer servants available from the premium summoning banner. Headliners include a Caster-class version of Fate/Extra heroine Nero, and Saber Alter in a motorcycle-riding, gun-toting maid getup.

Dead Heat Summer Raceruns?? through late Aug??ust and is open to any FGO player that's completed the tutorial chapter.

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Big (girl) in Japan

Fate/Grand Order fans might still be recovering from the arrival of Women of Agartha, but Aniplex aren't about to let 2019's packed content schedule up, what with both the 4th of July and the English edition's 2nd Anniversary ?hitting this month. 

That in mind, FGO is set to open its All The Statesmen ~Learning with ?Manga: The History of the American Frontier~ event to commemorate the event. Spinning off of the game's popular Learning with Manga webcomic - a humorous strip illustrated by artist Riyo that pokes fun at both the game and its playerbase - All the Statesmen is smaller in scale than the typical seasonal event, and will debut a series of quick quests over the next week, completion of which will award players a free Servant. That Servant, designed by Riyo, is none other than  American f??olkloric hero Paul Bunyan. Though a mere one-star rarity, Bunyan is by far the largest Servant in the game to date, and on the Japanese server is known as a low-cost superstar for farming regular daily quests.

Coinciding with the event (which kicks off at 2100 PST on July 3rd) is a series of giveaways and special unlocks leading up to FGO's 2nd Anniversary. Players can tackle high-difficulty challenge quests based on the main campaign's toughest fights for rewards, and expect more freebies ?as the celebration builds up. 

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Thunder Down Under (the Earth)

Get ready to Rayshift, masters, because after a long round of event reruns, Fate/Grand Order is back with another main story chapter. FGO's Epic of Remnant campaign continues with the second "Pseudo-Singularity" chapter, titled Subterranean World of Folklore ~Women of Agartha~, which is set in the esoteric realm of Agarth??a, a legendary kingdom said to be situated deep beneath the Earth's surface. In keeping with the title, female servants (plus Astolfo, Enkidu, and le Chevalier d'Eon) gain double the "bond point" rewards from completing missions within the chapter.

Women of Agartha also adds four new servants to the pool, including the 5-Star Caster of the Nightless City, 4-Star Assassin of the Nightless City and Berserker of El Dorado, and the 3-Star Rider of Resistance. As with previous Epic of Remnant entries, the new Servants' true names are hidden?? until revealed in the story prop??er.

Unfortunately for would-be new masters, access to Agartha does come with some prerequisites. Like Shinjuku Phantom Incident before it, Women of Agartha requires completion of the eight main story chapters before it (up to Solomon: The Grand Temple of Time). That said, it may still be a good time to join if you're considering it,? as the game's 2nd an?niversary is coming up next week, which will guarantee a number of useful giveaways, including one based on what story progress you've made to date.

Check out a subtitled trailer for Women of Agartha below.

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But is the world ready?

The material-hungry Masters of Fate/Grand Order may still be days away from finishing off the ongoing "Gudaguda Meiji Restoration" spring event, but the cruel intelligences at Aniplex have opted to announce none other than the next event coming to the game: a collaboration with Fate/Extra CCC, titled BB Strikes Back: Let's Meet In the Digital Sea!. 

Fate/Extra CCC is based on Fate/Extra, the 2010 JRPG that also serves as the setting for Fate/Extella, Extella Link, and the Fate/Extra: Last Encore anime series. Though characters from Extra and CCC, such as Nero Claudius and Tamamo-no-Mae, have been present in Fate/Grand Order's roster since launch, BB Strikes Back is the first full FGO event based on the Extra setting. That's interesting because CCC itself was never actually picked up for localization by anyone, not even XSEED, which released Fate/Extra, Extella, and Extella Link. The reason why not could have to do with the dire state of the PSP market in 2014, or even the dire state of Extra's developer Imageepoch, which declared bankruptcy in 2015. It could also be because CCC is completely bonkers, even by Fate standards.

Starring a quartet of characters who all look uncannily similar to Fate/Stay Night alum Sakura Matou, CCC is a surrealist fever-dream of a JRPG with themes focusing on love and sexuality, and all its associated psychodrama. It's the sort of title that proves that even in this day and age, it's entirely possible for?? a non-pornographic game to be Too Horny For Consumption. Such is its reputation that many FGO fans speculated the ev??ent would be skipped entirely in the English version. Luckily, they were wrong.

In any case, as of press time, there's no explicit schedule for the event's release, but Aniplex have already kicked off a pre-release promotion campaign, along with the teaser trailer below. Smart quartz is on it coming out in a week or two. With it will come several new servants, including two entirely new playable classes: The Alterego, represented by CCC&nbs??p;characters Meltryliss, Passionlip and the infamous Sessyoin Kiara, and the MoonCancer, a class of one represented solely by the titular BB.

Masters who aren't still busy farming out the remainder of the current event can prep for their first date with CCC by improving their Fate/Extra-related Servants, such as Nero Claudius, Hans Christian A?ndersen, Elizabeth Bathory??, and Tamamo-no-Mae. 

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2/25 Shinjuku Scramble

It hasn't been too long since the Masters of Chaldea finished off Fate/Grand Order's main story quest by blowing up a ton of weird tentacles and putting human history on the correct path, but the fight isn't over yet. Detailed at this weekend's Fate/Grand Order USA Tour event, the game's next major storyline, titled Epic of Remnant has just gone live ??after an impromptu maintenance break on Sunday evening.

More specifically, Epic of Remnant is an umbrella title for four new chapters in the story to be released over the next year. Called "Pseudo-Singularities", the first is called Shinjuku Phantom Incident, and takes place in Shinjuku, Japan, in the year 1999, making it the first major FGO plotline set in a contemporary location (not counting the prologue, where the city of Fuyuki is mostly a smoking ruin). Epic of Remnant also brings back an old staple of Fate/Stay Night, which is the hiding of its Servants' identities until they're revealed in the storyline. Back in the day, it was a big deal to learn a Servant's true identity, as knowing who they were in life could give a big advantage in anticipating their abilities. Until Epic of Remnant, FGO tended to play fast and loose with t??he true na?mes.

Of course, given that FGO's English release lags a year or more behind Japan, that information is already all out there in the wild, so it's not as if it's a huge surprise if you're the type of player to do research, but spoiler-averse may find plenty to like as they contemplate rolling f??or Shinjuku's banner Servants, which include a new 5-Star Archer, 4-Star Assassin, and 4-Star Avenger. 

Even players not inclined to roll will be taken care of, as the update also debuts new game mechanics, like "Break Bars" designed to make powerful bosses a little less simple to defeat, and UI updates (like a music player in the "My Room" section), as well?? as an increase to the player's Master level, allowing an increase in the friends list limit as well as extra Cost to allow equipping ??more high-rarity Servants and Craft Essences.

You check out trailers for both Epic of Remnant and Shinjuku Phantom Incident below. Who do you plan to roll for?

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Come get some quartz

It will never not be a little weird to me to realize how popular the Fate franchise ?is, but the truth can't be denied: It's up there. Practically a household name among the nerdy and loaded enough to buy building-sized ads to put up outside E3, Type-MOON's baby has gone places, and continues to rise.

Most pertinently, it's also rising up the charts, as Fate/Grand Order is ready to celebrate hitting a whole five million downloads since the English version's launch in mid-2017. That's ?enough Masters to permanently kill a Demon God Pillar at least twice over! To commemorate the milestone, they're kicking off a special login promo for the next eight days, starting tonight at 20:00 PT. Players who show up each day can nab freebies, including enhancement fodder and five free summons on the premium gacha. A special summoning banner will also go live, putting the limited 5-Star Caster-class servant Leonardo da Vinci up for grabs.

Fate fans that aren't about to get excited by a mere banner promo aren't left out in the cold, though, because Aniplex is getting ready to kick off a fan event called Fate/Grand Order U.S.A. Tour 2019. Featuring photo ops, activities, special guests and merch, the event takes place over the weekend of February 24th. Further visits to U.S. anime conventions are also planned for later in the year. Incidentally, an English release was also announced for Fate/Grand Order VR feat. Mash Kyrielight, a free PSVR experience allowing players to ogle FGO? heroine Mash (and later, Altria Pendragon) from the comfort of their head??sets.

And there's more. The Fate franchise as a wh??ole celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, so Ja??pan-local fans can soon visit Aniplex's planned celebratory events, including an exhibit in Roppongi and more to come. 

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Finish Babylonia already

Fate/Grand Order's big Christmas event was a silly, generous diversion from the game's usua??lly serious story about restoring human history with the help of the ghosts of heroes from across time and space, but now this train? ain't stopping until the end.

And though Aniplex debuted the main campaign's seventh "Singularity" chapter, Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia, barely ten days ago the Masters of Chaldea have just under a week left before the next Singularity, The Grand Temple of Time: Solomon opens on December 20th. 

The pace is definitely a change from the old pattern, where months would pass between new story additions, so why the sudden rush? The issue is that Solomon, as the final chapter of the current narrative, is a bit ??different from the regular campaign chapters. This time it's a hybrid of campaign and limited-time event, featuring a number of high-end raid-class battles that give generous rewards but only appear for a short period. It even features a mechanic to empower players that have spent a lot of time leveling friendship bonds with their favorite characters. 

To encourage Masters to goose their story progress, Aniplex is also offering plenty of AP-restoring Golden Fruit to let players temporarily ignore the game's "stamina" system, as well as promising a reward of 30 Saint Quartz (enough for 10 rolls on the premium summon) to anyone who finishes Babylonia before the Solomon update d?rops on December 20th, 20:00 PST. Considering that that much Quartz would cost at least $25 to buy from the store outright, it's a good deal if you can make it. 

In any case, the end is in sight for (this part of) Fate/Grand Order, and it looks like they want to make sure as many people as possible are ready to meet it. In the meantime, check out a quickie trailer for Babylonia below, featuring banner Servants King Gilgamesh (a Caster this time), his best bud Enkidu, Ishtar (who debuted at Christmas), Quetzalcoatl (my new favorite Rider), two new versions of Medusa, one short and one even taller than she already is (like, way taller), and finally, Merlin, the Arthurian wizard ?that prac?tically redefines the FGO meta upon his arrival with the New Year's banner.

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Not like it needed the help, honestly

On the off chance you needed more evidence that Fate/Grand Order is somehow the most profitable in-joke in all of anime, the free-to-play mobile wife casino has just kicked off its latest holiday-themed event, The Little Santa Alter. In it, players will complete missions and farm resources to trade for much-needed goodies, including ??a free four-star rarity Lancer-class Servant, Jeanne d'Arc Alter Santa Lily. 

If you're curious about FGO, now might be ?a good time to start, as this is when the game is at its most generous in terms of free rolls, resources, and Servants. 

Veteran players can look forward to the current paid summoning promotion for the 5-Star Archer Ishtar, a Mesopotamian goddess who miraculously looks the spitting image of Fate heroine Rin Tohsaka.

But back to Jeanne d'Arc Alter Santa Lily! That mouthful of a name alone is emblematic of the endearingly stupid parts of  Fate lore that I love, and FGO in particular, so let's u??npack that a bit bel??ow.

Jeanne d'Arc - Simple enough, it's the French saint that you have to have a version of in every medieval anime ever (because it's the law or something). She's in FGO, and also stars in the Fate/Apocrypha anime.

"Alter" - a classic Fate term depicting a heroic Servant in a sort of corrupted state first shown in Fate/Stay Night's "Heaven's Feel" story route. Stylistically, it's shorthand for a dark, evil(-ish) rendition of an existing, otherwise heroic character. Several Alters are ??in FGO, including one of Jeanne her?self.

"Santa" - Needs little explanation. A Christmas ver??sion of an existing character. First pioneered by Altria Pendragon donning St. Nick's floppy hat and sack of toys in last year's Christmas event "Almost Weekly Santa Alter".

"Lily" - A slightly more obscure title given to younger or child-like versions of existing adult characters. For example, "Sa?ber Lily" is a version of Altria Pendragon from her days bef??ore becoming King Arthur.

So yeah, this Christmas, FGO's gift to its players is a baby edgelord version of Joan of Arc...in a Santa outfit. Whethe??r it's because we were naughty or nice is anyone's guess. 

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In the summer time, when the grinding is hot

The headline is actually rhetorical because as of a few hours ago, we know the answer: All of them, and then some. Fate/Grand Order's first summertime special event has gone live in the English version of the game, and brings with it a storyline that's basically Cast Away, except you're?? To??m Hanks and the volleyball is all the cutest figures from history and legend.

In the event, players must slaughter local wildlife to gather up materials to make the island they're stranded on more liveable, and in doing so?? hoover up tons of much-needed ascension materials and other goodies. They'll also gain a new free 4-Star Servant, an Assassin-class version of everyone's favorite Spear Mom, Scathach. Why Assassin? Because now that she's traded her tights for a swimsuit, she's dressed to slay!

Of course, a summer event wouldn't be complete without an incentive to gamble on wives, so FGO's tossed in a handful of swimwear-clad servants to tempt away your Saint Quartz with. The long-awaited 5-Star Archer version of Altria Pendragon (complete with super soaker) and a 5-Star Lancer version of Fox Wife Tamamo no Mae (the lance is a parasol) are joined by a whole squad of 4-Stars, including Rider Mordred (surfing edition), Archer Anne Bonny & Mary Read (now Anne's mus??ket means something), Caster Marie Antoinette (finally in line with what she actually does in battle),&nbs?p; the game's third Ruler-class Servant, Martha (who rules with her iron fists), and a Lancer version of arsonist stalker Kiyohime (otherwise unchanged, she just has a spear now). 

So if you're feeling the heat, join the game! Or maybe just check out the trailer below, then play the pool episode of Today's Menu for the Emiya Family on loop instead.

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Shhh!

Knights, I bid you welcome to your new Fate/Grand Order update! Aniplex will now let us play the sixth chapter in its ongoing time-travelling, history-correcting saga, Camelot: Divine Realm of the Round Table.

As might be implied by the? title, the next story event is based on Arthurian legend, and stars a handful of new Servants based on King Arthur's finest, including Lancelot (this time not crazy), Gawain, Tristan, Bedivere, and another Lancer-class version of Arthur herself (though she's pretty much the same as her Lancer Alter ?from a few months ago, bar a 5-Star stat boost). There are also a bunch of decidedly non-Arthurian Servants joining the fray, too, with Ozymandias, Nitocris, and yet another version of Hassan-i-Sabbah.

Aniplex also has some goodies for lapsed players,? offerin??g free rolls at the gacha to accounts that haven't logged in since mid-March.

Eh, but on second thought, maybe let's not go back to Fate/Grand Order. It is a silly game...

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Raids, Riders, and Raikou

Are your nerves frayed from absorbing all this E3 news? Why not unwind with a spot of gambling on your phone? That's at least one way to spin the prospects for Fate/Grand Order's latest event.

Titled "The Great Tale of Demons: Onigashima", the event continues FGO's recent wave of content based on Chinese and Japanese myths by adding a series ??of story missions and raid encounters patterned after Onigashima, the legendary island of demons in Japanese folklore. 

More notable is the fact that unlike the last couple of events, this one comes with a free new Servant: a 4-Star Rider-class version of Sakata ?Kintoki. The famous "golden" berserker's gone with a biker motif this time, and he's actually one of the best in ??his class, so he's worth picking up.

Premium rollers might have to fear for their wallets, though, as the paid gacha summons are adding Ibaraki-Douji (the raid boss from last month's Rashomon event), and Minamoto-no-Yorimitsu. The legends of Yorimitsu (aka Raikou) are the inspiration for many Japanese tropes, including anything you've ever heard in anime or games about an "Elite Four" or "Four Heavenly Kings". In FGO she's been reimagined by Valkyria Chronicles' character designer as...the world's strongest mommy GF. What a g??ame of cul?ture, indeed.

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Rootin' Tootin' Shuten-Douji

Events are the lifeblood of mobile gacha games, since they provide a steady stream of opportunities for players to keep engaged with the game, increasing the chances they may opt to spend some money at some point. That said, for newbies, and folks committed to playing gratis, they're also a good opportunity to gather up useful freebies. That's especially the case for Fate/Grand Order, which is notoriously stin?gy outside its event ??cycle.

That said, their newest run at the pinata might be a touch tough for the uncommitted. Titled "The Demonic Capital: Rashomon", the two-week "challenge event" starts tomorrow, and will be arguably the most difficult content yet added to the English version of Fate/Grand Order. It's the first "raid" style play type to be added to the game, and will harness the power of the playerbase to chip away at a boss encounter's total HP, which runs into the trillions. The boss is the ogre demon Ibaraki-Douji (nicknamed the "Bananazerker" due to her class and yellow color scheme), who terrorized old Kyoto's Rashomon district (named for th?e gate that stood at the city's south portal) until her arm was cut off by the samurai Watanabe no Tsuna.  

Of course, it wouldn't be a gacha game event if it was all freebies, so the game's premium summoning roster is getting a new addition: Ibaraki-Douji's boss, the 5-Star Assassin Shuten-Douji. As ogre lord of Oe mountain, Shuten is actually the more famous of the two, and was killed by the hero Minamoto no Raikou after drinking poisoned sake. Fun fact: Shuten-Douji's name translates roughly to "Small Drunkard", and has been redesigned by Valkyria Chronicles character designer Raita Honjou t??o keep with the theme. She appears in-game as a tiny girl with?? horns that loves to get plastered.

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'I think it's fine as long as I'm having fun'

Sometimes, when I'm out and about, insanely bored, and don't have the dexterity to play a normal game, I'll start up Crazy Taxi Tycoon on my phone. It's a simple game, for a simple man like myself who just wants to tap at my screen until I earn a crazy boost and can hear "All I Want" from The Offspring.

Thankfully, it's also something I've maybe only ever played for a few minutes at a time and I've never even spent a single cent on it. However, for 31-year-old Daigo, Fate/Grand Order seems to ??take up every sp?are moment -- and potentially -- every spare dollar he has.

In this video from The Wall Street Journal, they take a brief look into Daigo's day-to-day, which can pretty much be summarized as playing and streaming Fate/Grand Order all day, w?ith the occasional bit of cleaning and doing the dishes for his parents. Which mind you, also don't a??pparently realize he's spent that amount of money on the game.

Many of the game's harsher critics have stated the game turns obsessive fans into gamblers -- which isn't hard to imagine -- especially when you begin looking at the game's drop rates. An example of this being the five star servants having only a 1% chance of being summon?ed:

"Limited summoning campaigns usually offer a "rate up" for a specified number of Servants; this does not change the summoning probabilities in the table above!!! The chance of summoning a 5★ Servant is still 1%, but, if you were to summon a 5★, there is a higher chance it will be a rate-up Servant."

Where as other games, such as Fire Emblem Heroes for example, at least increase the chance of earning a five star hero the longer you go without getting one. When th??e game's publisher, Aniplex, was asked for a comment on all this from The Wall Street Journal, they declined.

Some people l?ove these games, others despise them. On the plus side, at least Daigo seems happy and thankfully doesn't appear? to be in debt, with my favorite quote from the video being: "Some people spend $18 on a movie and feel moved. I've spent $70,000 on Fate/Grand Order. But it moves me."

Meet the Man Who’s Spent $70,00??0 ??Playing a Mobile Game [The Wall Street Journal]

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From Many Saint Quartz, One Craft Essence

Fate/Grand Order continues to trundle along, feeding the cash of whales and the salty tears of unlucky would-be Masters slaving away in the gacha mines. That said, now it does have something for people who want more to do than farm evil hands and doors to improve their Servants. That something - which is live now - is the next chapter of the ga?me's main story, and this time we're headed to the good ol' U.S. of A. 

The fifth chapter of the story, formally titled Fifth Singularity: North American Myth War ~ E Pluribus Unum, sends players to 1783, which in real life wouldn't be too long after the United States was officially recognized via the Treaty of Paris, but in Fate/Grand Order's screwed-up timeline means that the Union's been split between its Eastern and Western halves and made to fight in a bitter civil war augment??ed by magic robo-soldiers and mythic cre??atures. 

The story will feature a number of All-American Servants...like British nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale (for some reason a Berserker-class?), Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky, Indian demigods Rama, Karna and Arjuna, the fourth version of Fate alumnus Cu Chul?hainn (his long-awaited Berserker edition),?? and Queen Medb, a Celtic goddess who can best be described as "History's Strongest Thot". 

There are, of course, some actual American Servants in there somewhere. A Caster version of Native American hero Geronimo will be given free to people who finish the story, and players can roll for Billy the Kid, a gunslinging Archer with an emphasis on critical hits. Story completion will also add none other than Thomas Edison to the summoning pool. Folks expecting an old white guy with a lightbulb fetish, though, should be warned: FGO's Edison appears to have had his powers enhanced by the American presidency itself to become a sort of avatar of American exceptionalism. Maybe this explains why in-game Edison looks like All Might's fursona.

Check out a short trailer fo?r all thi?s nonsense below.

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You can't have hope without despair

You know a gacha game wants you to feel despair when it throws an event at you after the previous one ended. As we hit the final days of February, Fate/Grand Order's next festivity will throw us into a difficult ordeal called "Vengeful Demon's Wail at Prison Tower." Of course, it starts after the Chaldea Boys Event so I hope you have some Saint Quartz left after your attempts to obtain Astolfo/the ?cutest Rider and Amakusa Shirou. It's a good thing that the former is a part of the non-event Servant pool.

Luckily, the event's glimmer o?f hope is that ??we'll get the chance to roll for North America's first Avenger-class Servant, Edmond Dantes/The Count of Monte Cristo. To top things off, he's a five-star character so he might be useful. If you manage to get him, you'll have a second way to do more damage to Rulers like Jeanne and Shirou.

At first, you might think that he's Nagito from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, but it seems like Rui Komatsuzaki designed the character while going through a case of Akira Toriyama syndrome. Nonetheless, I'm a fan of his art so I don't mind the Fate version of the Count of Monte Cristo having a similar design to t??h??e Ultimate Lucky Student.

If you cleared the ?London Singularity, then you can tackle the event on Marc??h 1. Hopefully, your favorite Servants are good enough to clear it. Otherwise, you might have to embrace despair.

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Mystic Eyes of Debt Perception

Another month, another mobile game event designed to try to get people to roll for sweet, sweet JPEGs. It's just your luck that I happen to be playing a lot of Fate/Grand Order, and so you get to find out what's go??ing on there. Luckily, the new event is also good for ?fans of Type-MOON's other work as well.

The event in question is called The Garden of Sinners: The Garden of Order, and features FGO's first-ever crossover storyline, involving the characters of The Garden of Sinners. For the uninitiated, The Garden of Sinners was a novel series and one of the foundational texts of Type-MOON's various releases, including Fate, Tsukihime, and others. It was adapted into a seven-part feature film series by Ufotable, which remains arguably the b?est thing they've done to date.

Players who participate in the event will be rewarded with the 4-Star Assassin-class Servant Shiki Ryogi, who is also the lead character in The Garden of Sinners. Shiki's "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception" allow her to p??erceive invisible seams in all of creation that, if traced by her knife, allow her to instantly kill pretty much anything, including ghosts, inanimate objects, and gods. Folks willing to take their chances on the premium gacha machine could also win a 5-Star, Saber-class version of Shiki, in thi??s incarnation wearing an excellent selection of kimonos. 

The event kicks off ??on Thursday, for those poor souls who are interested.

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Romance is in the air

It's not even February yet, but as a game with a story about securing humanity's future through time travel, Fate/Grand Order isn't about to let a little thing like time stand in the way of celebr??ating some sweet affectopm. Indeed, the game has kicked off its Valentine's event two ??weeks early, letting players still sleeping off New Year's fatten up on some chocolate.

In keeping with Japan's peculiar interpretation of the Feast of Saint Valentine, Valentine's Day is typically treated as a day when women gift the objects of their affection (or just their friends) some chocolate??, ideally hand-made. Men get their own version of the practice in "White Day", set a m??onth later. 

Three weeks early (and already 2 days in from its January 25th start), FGO's take on Valentine's Day is titled "Chocolate Lady's Commotion", and features story missions alongside ?The Bard himself, William Shakespeare. The event's various battles against rogue chocolate enemies allows players to gather up chocolate coins to trade for special Craft Essences from any of the fem??ale Servants they've summoned.

The craft essences are awarded via special Valentine's day cut-scenes showing the servant saying something cute and presenting their gift. More practically useful items such as leveling fodder and ascension materials are also available for trade. For the well-heeled, the premium summoning has added the limited 5-Star Saber servant Bride Nero. She's basically an upgrade, wedding-themed version of the 4-Star Saber Nero Claudius, and appears as she did in Fate/Extra CCC, a sequel to Fate/Extra that was never released in English.

While this is an event, more or less like any other in your average mobile Gacha game, I find it somewhat amusing that the grind is actually harder fo?r this event if you've been lucky (or rich) enough to roll all the game's best girls. Players with fewer servants have far less grinding to do if they want to get everything in the time allotted.

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Saint Quartz be with you

Fate/Grand Order might be one of the crueler varieties of mobile gacha game, but that hasn't stopped it from achieving some measure of popularity, if the game's latest announcement is to be believed. The FGO website has announced that the English version of Fate/Grand Order has been downloaded 2 million times since its release last year, and they're celebrating the milestone by making it a good time for folks to actually start playing. Starting tomorrow and running through the 25th, players that just log in to the game each day will receive 25 units of Saint Quartz premium currency, as well as a handful of summoning tickets and other goodies. Further, a special Craft Essence accessory featuring unique art of the characters featured in the game's intro movie will be made available alongside a character outfit based on Saber's casual wear from Fate/Stay Night.

Everyone gets that stuff, but it's new players that get the most, as the game is re-running its "Start Dash" int?rod?uctory campaign. Newly created accounts that clear the introductory chapter of the story and log in daily for a week will net up to 40 more Saint Quartz (in addition to the celebratory campaign rewards) and various other rewards.

Naturally, Aniplex have provided a place to spend all that newly-acquired Saint Quartz, as they'll be running a special summoning banner featuring the limited 5-Star Lancer-class Servant Brynhild. A war goddess, Valkyrie, daughter of Odin, Wagnerian archetype, and hair-alike to Pokemon's Lusamine, Bryn is a top-tier La?ncer that does extra damage to characters that remin?d her of her heroic ex Sigurd. Other characters like Irish fella Fionn mac Cumhaill and Beowulf, hero of the Geats, will be available from the same banner, but unlike Brynhild, will remain summonable after the celebration's over.

While I couldn't in good conscience recommend playing FGO, folks with an appreciation for Type-MOON and? strong ??willpower would be well-served by starting this week.

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Hope your purse is stuffed

If you're one of the poor bastards still playing Fate/Grand Order (Hi there!), you may know that one of the odder things about the game's launch was the decision to duplicate the original Japanese content rollout, putting the NA game years behind the original in terms of new additions. While odd, one beneficial side effect has been that players know pretty much everything that's going to happen long in advanc??e. That kind of forward planning helps when dealing with microtransactions and FGO's notoriously stingy random draw system.

That period just got disrupted, though, because FGO's English version has just gone off-script. A special, North America-only Thanksgiving promotion officially kicks off on November 22nd, running through December 1st. Unlike the current "Guda Guda Honnoji" event, this one's mainly focused on giveaways and a new premium summon promo, but it'll be a doozy for folks aiming to get their hands on some rare Servants, o?r maybe just display some Irish pride.

The Thanksgiving special will add several Servants from Ireland's Ulster cycle. Leading the pack is Scáthach, the game's first 5-Star Lancer, teacher of Fate/Stay Night's original Lancer, Cú Chulainn, and wearer of history's tightest leotard. Also repping the Emerald Isle 3-Star Lancer Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (aka the Fate/Zero Lancer) and 3-Star Saber Fergus mac Róich (who was ni??cknamed "Brock" ??after his resemblance to the eponymous Pokemon trainer).

The real money shot, though, is for folks willing to shoot some money Aniplex's way. A one-time, paid premium summon promises a guaranteed 5-Star Servant from a pre-selected pool. The pool includes some classic characters like Fate/Stay night's original Saber, but also a number of best-in-class units like Francis Drake and Zhuge Liang, and even Okita?? "Sakura Saber" Souji, an otherwise limited-run character. For players deep into the game (read: beyond saving), it's a good deal, considering that the standard drop rate for a 5-Star Servant is 1% (going even lower if you're targeting a specific 5-Star. Whatever the case, it looks like FGO is looking to get its gravy train sauced. 

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Ready to roll?

One of mobile grindfest Fate/Grand Order's big selling points is its lengthy visual novel-style story and deep connections to Fate franchise lore. That much is on the figurative box, but a somewhat unexpected facet of that appeal is just how weird the game can get at times. The main story is a fairly se??lf-serious tale of time travel and world-saving heroics, but the game is also known for capitalizing on a self-aware sense of humor and going in hard on obscure in-jokes that only genuine Type-MOON fans (or dedi?cated wiki readers) might get. Folks are about to get their first major serving of that with the English version's new event.

Titled "Guda Guda Honnoji", the event centers entirely on characters from Koha-ACE, a parody spin-off manga targeted at Type-MOON fans that was never released overseas. It was obscure enough that some fans speculated that Aniplex (managers of Fate/Grand Order's English edition) would delay or cancel the event entirely out of concern that players wouldn't be able to connect with it. Thankfully, that's not happening, because Guda Guda Honnoji is the only chance people will have of netting two cool new Servants from that manga. Folks who do want to know more can check out the newly translated Guda Guda Order webcomic, a promo Koha-ACE series draw??n ?just before FGO opened in Japan.

The first, which will be given away free, is a 4-Star Archer based on legendary samurai warlord Oda Nobunaga, rendered here as a narcissistic edgelord with a thing for guns and western clothing. The second, 5-Star Servant, is a limited summon, and was first conceived as a crack on how Type-MOON artist Takeshi Takeuchi can't stop drawing same-faced variations of the original Fate/stay night's Saber. Though based on none other than Okita Souji - a famed swordsman of Japan's Meiji Restoration - she joins FGO as a short blonde cutie with a katana...and character art that is straight-up bait for Sakura Wars fans and foot fetishists. As a Sakura Wars fan, I plan t?o roll for her, t??hough, so I guess it worked.

Guda Guda Honnoji kicks off on November 8th and continues until November 24th. Folks who want more Guda Guda madness can also check out an animated promo from Fate/Grand Order Japan's New Year festivities.

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Rolling with the waves

Hoist ye mizzenmasts, Masters, for every Type-Lunatic's favorite mobile grindfest is getting an update! Aniplex have officially announced the release date of Fate/Grand Order's next big s?tory expansion, and it's hitting next week, on September 28th, 2017. 

The next expansion, titled "The Third Singularity: Sealed? Ends of the Four Seas - Okeanos", will see players traveling back in time to the age of sail to chase down a spacetime-warping Holy Grail, and fighting alongside the likes of English explorer Francis Drake, reincarnated as a lady, and Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, reincarnated as a huge internet otaku (no, really!). Drake will be the game's first 5-star Rider-class Servant. Other additions to the game ??roster include Drake's fellow seamen Anne Bonny and Mary Read, the Gorgon sister Euryale, Hector of Troy, and even the biblical stone-chucker David.

Aniplex is promoting the update on social media, and promising a giveaway of Saint Quartz premium currency if enough people like the trailer post (apparently written by Blackbeard himself). Fate/Grand Order is the kind of game that rewards folks who start early, so if you're still on the fence about trying it, now is a good time to decide to give it a sh?ot. 

[Fate/Grand Order Official Site. Header image courtesy DarkDuck]

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That, plus more Heaven's Feel

Anime streaming service Crunchyroll held its annual Crunchyroll Expo this year, and there was a fair bit of news released for otaku to chew on, particularly ones that are fans of Type-MOON and the Fate franchise. One such announcement was of an impending update to the North American version of Fate/Grand Order, Aniplex and DelightWorks' mobile RPG.

For those unfamiliar, Fate/Grand Order puts players in charge of saving the future of humanity by time traveling to various periods of history and doing battle using Servants, superpowered reincarnations of history's greatest heroes and villains. Though the game debuted in 2015 in ?Japan, Aniplex has opted to more or less replicate the original pace of updates to the 2017-dated English version. That means that, as then, only now is FGO set to receive the third chapter to its story. Previous chapters had players slaying dragons in Joan of Arc's France and defending N?ero's Rome from an invasion by resurrected, previous emperors.

Chapter 3, titled "A.D. 1573 - Sealed Ends of the Fours Seas, Okeanos" ("Okeanos" for short) promises a high seas adventure during the Age of Exploration, and will feature new Servants to gamble for, including Sir Francis Drake (as seen in Fate/Extra, meaning she's a sexy anime pirate lady) and Sak??ata Kintoki, the alleged real person the Japanese folk hero Kintarou is based on. The update didn't get a firm release date, but players familiar with the Japanese version's timeline suggest that it may drop sometime in September, with ?other events timed for Halloween and the holidays.

As for non-game Fate news, the event also included a window for Netflix's release of the Fate/Apocrypha anime series (October), as well as a trailer for Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] I. presage flower, the first in a planned trilogy of feature films adapting the last and most grim route of the original Fate/stay night game. Check out trailers for both Okeanos and Heaven's Feel below.

_{Also, if you're playing Grand Order and need a few decent Servants to call into a mission or two, my friend code is 228,273,423.}

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Gudaguda news, everyone!

Have you ever wished your free-to-play mobile diversions committed more historical heresies in pursuit of the almighty cute? Well, too bad, because now Fate/Grand Order is coming to English-language phones an?d pads near you.

In an announcement at Sakuracon event in Seattle, Aniplex of America revealed that they'd be helping port the game to English, and release it on iOS and Android this summer. The game itself takes place in the Fate universe, where omnipotent magical forces trawl time and space for the heroes and villains of the past and future, only to redesign them as pretty girls and boys because of reasons. I don't know. I watched an anime episode they put out to promote the story, but it wasn't very good. 

But hey, where else can you participate in a brawl between King Arthur, Emperor Nero, or Sir Francis Drake, all redrawn as cute anime girls? Also, apparently in this game Thomas Ediso??n is a spandex-clad, lion-headed superhero, and Charles Babbage is a steampunk?? mecha, so there's that.

Edit: Stop blasting, bros, I like Fate! It's also really silly.

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