The Fate series is the debut work of TYPE-MOON.
The original author is Kinoko Nasu. When he was a college student, he was asked by his friends to “give it a shape” and that’s how it was made.
It’s been a long time since then, and now it has gained a lot of fans all over the world and became a huge hit.
Why FGO became such a big a hit?
Starting from the PC game software “Fate / stay night” released by TYPE-MOON in 2004,
the “Fate” series has continued to increase the number of fans due to the excitement of its magnificent scale world view and profound story.
In 2015 the developer DELiGHTWORKS was born and under it through the publisher Aniplex’s app “Fate / Grand Order”, commonly known as FGO, was released and became a huge hit game with over 59 million downloads worldwide.
This is an article in which I will explain my point of view regarding why it became so popular.
Three major reasons why FGO became a hit
The following three points can be considered as the reasons for that
- The story and characters which are attractive to the fans
- The gacha(lottery), which is the center of revenue and it matches the world view of the game
- Innovative music of the world of FGO
Let’s check the reasons one by one
The story and characters are attractive to the fans
FGO has a game system that is easy to play for anyone and a profound story that even fans of the original Fate are interested in.
Also, one of the main features of the Fate series is the fact that the characters are real historical heroes and mythical creatures, which makes the game more interesting in my opinion.
The game has a lot of familiar faces so you often will say “Oh, I know this person!”
For example, there are Jeanne d’Arc, Mozart, King Arthur, etc., and in FGO you summon them and they fight with you as a “servant (spirit)”.
In addition, the more you play FGO the more you become naturally interested in the history and historical facts of the servants and you want to learn more about them by yourself. This fact makes FGO more interesting in my opinion.
In fact, among novels, anime, dramas, and movies, anime gives you the deep feeling which allows you to replace yourself with the main character. The higher is the imagination of replacing yourself as a character in the story, the deeper you understand the whole work itself.
The gacha(lottery), which is the center of revenue, matches the world view of the game
FGO’s profit model is that players are charged to summon their favorite spirits (servants) with gacha.
Regarding this billing system, Delightworks President Akihito Shoji, who is in charge of planning, development and operation of “Fate / Grand Order” said:
“The key setting of the Fate series is the fateful encounter between the master and the servant who is played by the player.
The story and the gacha happened to be a good match, so I adopted it, but if you ask if I thought about making money with the gacha from the beginning, I will say no.
After all, I think in-app purchase games are the games where the user itself decides the value of the game. If you think it’s not worth the money, you can play it for free, and if you think it’s worth 10,000 yen, you can pay for it. That’s it. “
Innovative music of FGO
- The theme song of FGO
- FGO series music and Sound Effects
The theme song of FGO
Maaya Sakamoto, a very talented singer and voice actor, is in charge of the theme song for FGO.
There are three theme songs. It depends on the progress of the game.
In particular, the theme song for Part 2 “Backlight,” is a very delightful song.
From the intro, the violin invites you to the world of music, and the sounds overlap like an orchestra and it makes the sound deeper, and then only lyrics begin.
The lyrics strongly reflect the feelings of the hero in the second part. It talks about great confusion and a strong sense of impatience. However, the world surrounding the hero sadly does not wait for the answer to his own conflict.
“But don’t give up, you’re not alone, because you have friends to fight with.”
That is the message in this song.
FGO series music and Sound Effects
TYPE-MOON’s sound creator Keita Haga mainly produces the music and sound effects for the FGO series.
Kegani is in charge of anime songs. He used to produce songs for Vocaloid, but now is making BGM’s for FGO.
All the songs are produced based on the outline of the story, as they want to express the heart of the story.
Also, in TYPE-MOON’s music, it seems that something like “extreme thinness” is required, usually in the song part where usually other musicians would add 1 or 2 instruments, TYPE-MOON knowing that you are expecting it, purposely do not add extra instruments.
It was made this way, so that it could become an interesting trademark for their songs.
Usually, game sound effects (SE) are often produced by DTM, etc., but DELiGHTWORKS pursues realistic sounds that enhance the immersive feeling by using the original Foley sound.
Postscript
What do you think about this article?
The movie version of FGO is shown in the cinema at the moment, So whether you are an FGO fan or not, I would recommend you to take a look at it!!
See you in the next article!
Video editor, column writer, event planner. Active as a freelancer.
I produce corporate commercials and Promotional Videos by editing them. As well I undertake shooting portraits and flyer making.
I am active in different fields, such as managing live performances and events, and being in charge of staff for corporate and coterie events.
My hobbies are traveling by railroad.
Currently I am in charge of real-time video of M3 (music event), video creation of Youtube, creative work such as Vtuber live stream. I have made an appearance in the drama “DEATH NOTE”, in the recitation drama “Re: Miserable” and live concert “HEARTFUL CONCERT”
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