/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Sources:
https://oneofepisodes.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/fgo-tm-ace-042016/
frontlinejp.net/2018/08/15/fate-grand-order-3rd-anniversary-developer-interview-1-2/
https://ff.reddit.com/r/FGOGuide/comments/cni2il/fgo_4th_anniversary_famitsu_interview_notes/
https://oneofepisodes.wordpress.com/2017/03/22/translation-4gamer-interview-with-kinoko-nasu-and-yosuke-shiokawa-on-fgo-march-2017-part-1/
https://oneofepisodes.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/translation-4gamer-round-table-discussion-part-1-mafia-kajita-x-kinoko-nasu/

Statement1: Before the game was launched, the scenario up to Chapter 7 had already been completed, but at that point, none of us knew what kind of game FGO was going to be. For mobile games, it’s common sense to think, “No one would read a scenario this huge,” and there were people in the staff who thought that.

Statement2: For a mobile game, we were expecting that players would be skipping the story, and that there’s nothing we could do about that.(...) Actually, up until Chapter 4 I had been supervising the scenario, but I was planning to leave the scenario from Chapter 5 onward to the writers(...). To be honest, from there, I was thinking, “this is a new Fate/ story, so it’s okay even if it no longer feels very ‘Fate/’, right?”

Statement3: Interviewer: So, for the sake of the players who read the entire story up to Chapter 4, you wanted to put in more effort from Chapter 5 onwards?
Nasu: Yes.(..)

Statemant4: At the time FGO was suggested, Nasu actually disliked smartphone games as a genre. He thought it’d be entirely not fun at all if they made one.

Statement5: To be honest, among us in TYPE-MOON, we had a phase where we expected that only 100 thousand core fans would keep playing, and that things would be okay as long as we kept those 100 thousand happy. If I had to put it into words, it was like: “Let us tell the story of some nerds. We’ll be making something fun, and we’ll die together with these 100 thousand people in the TYPE-MOON colony! Garden of Avalon!”

Statemant from Takeuchi: Takeuchi says that FGO was the first game they worked on with no goal, that they work on continuously like a serialisation, and that while the first year was fun, after three years, it is like Nasu said, tiring.

Statement6: First of all, it’s simply a lot of fun. At the same time, I would think, “hey, this would be better if it were done this way” at several places.

Statement7: I saw FGO after its launch as something like a highway left abandoned for ten years. The road is there, but it’s all covered in weeds and the asphalt and tiles are all chipped and cracked. The only reason why the players were still driving cars on it is because of the trust and investment that Fate/ had behind its name. The players put up with it because of the Fate/name.

Statement8: Nasu: Jeanne’s “True Name Discernment” is supposed to be her strongest appeal as a character, so we can’t exactly make it too powerful or completely overhaul it. So within the year, I’d like to see an event where we can go “It’s Jeanne’s turn now! Her ‘True Name Discernment’ is super strong this time!” at least once.

Statement9: With regards to Artoria Lily, Santa Alter, and Emiya Alter, it was Takeuchi’s fault. They were extraneous from a scenario perspective so it wasn’t a writer’s idea. Just Takeuchi going “I want a cute character” and “I want an Alter for Emiya”. For example, the writer’s side wouldn’t suggest an Emiya Alter since an Emiya fallen to evil couldn’t be said to be Emiya. But since Takeuchi wanted it, they rethought the matter and came up with a special case where it could be possible.