
Famitsu’s 8/22-29 2019 includes a special interview with Fate series creator and Fate/Grand Order main writer Nasu Kinoko to commemorate FGO’s fourth anniversary.

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The interviewer asks if Nasu went on a research trip to Las Vegas for the 2019 summer event like the one to Hawaii for 2018, and he says that while he did go, he went alone instead of with the entire team like last year. He says that he tried his best to convey what the place is like to the team, but feels that they do not understand as well as they might have if they had gone as well.

Nasu is next asked about how they choose servants for the summer event swimsuits, and he says that they avoid picking servants that had the spotlight in the main story right away, and have a rule that more than a year has to have passed since a servant has first appeared before they can get a swimsuit version. They also prioritise servants that have not been in the spotlight lately, and servants that it is difficult to make Alter versions of.

They next discuss how events in FGO frequently try new things. Nasu says that he thinks that with smartphone games, the gameplay consisting of the same things all the time makes players quit. They cannot remove the foundation on which the game is based, though, and so continuously try to improve the quality of the game and outdo what came previously, which becomes harder as time goes on, and Nasu mentions how he is impressed with how Granblue Fantasy, which is on its fifth year, is still going strong. Nasu says that FGO is not at all adventurous compared to Granblue Fantasy, and says that though they may be of different genres, they have a lot to learn from Granblue.

The interviewer points out how one the reasons for Granblue Fantasy’s popularity is its wide array of collaborations, and asks if they have considered FGO having collaborations with titles not owned by Type-Moon. According to Nasu, collaborations are difficult due to FGO’s focus on story, as he does not want players thinking that this is a world that characters from other works can come to.

Nasu says he would personally like to have collaborations with From Software’s Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Sekiro, that he would like to have a five star Bloodborne hunter as a servant, and that he can even think of the storyboard for the noble phantasm, but reiterates that it would be difficult to have collaborations at least until the story of part 2 of FGO is completed. He does say, however, that if “a new world” is laid out after the story is completed, they might consider loosening up.

The possibility of collaborations with other Type-Moon works is brought up next, with the interviewer pointing out how Sion was originally a Melty Blood character. Nasu says that in the setting of part 2 none of the characters but Sion are still around, and that even if Tsukihime characters were to exist in Fate’s world, more than half of them would be completely different, and that while Arcueid might be the same, Akiha and Shiki would probably never come to Chaldea.

Nasu says that characters like Arcueid and Ciel would still be able to fight even if their settings changed and thus might be easier to handle in a story, but stresses that he thinks that even then the worlds of Fate and Tsukihime entwining would be a very rare occurence. The interviewer asks when the next special crossover event with a Type-Moon work can be expected, and Nasu says that Golden Week (end April to early May) has collaborations every year, and asks players to look forward to that period.

The interviewer next goes on to discuss the involvement of the illustrators and other writers in FGO. The interviewer points out how some servants change drastically with their ascension levels, and asks who thinks up these variations, and Nasu says that it depends: While there are cases where the writer in charge of the servant makes a request, there are also cases where the illustrator proposes what to do. Nasu says that the process is fluid, and they simply choose whichever is the best.

Nasu is asked if he was ever surprised by a proposal from a writer or illustrator, and he says that they originally had no plans for Oda Nobukatsu to appear in FGO, but the illustrator pako came up with a design and sent it over, and they added him to the story because they liked it. Nasu notes that most of the artists frequently do similar things, saying that they want to change the pose or expression of a character, and he says that he finds this encouraging and does his best to make it so that they can do what they want.

Nasu says that while Type-Moon’s Takeuchi is in charge of designs and visuals, as Takeuchi is an illustrator himself, he prioritises good illustrations over scheduling. With conventional video games, the schedule and budget would mean that most of the time, something that was not planned for, no matter how good something is, would be left out. In FGO’s case however, they can add additional parts on later.

The interviewer points out how there are characters like Artoria Lily who are completely different from previous appearances, and asks the reason for this, and Nasu says that Artoria Lily, Santa Alter, and Emiya Alter were entirely Takeuchi’s doing. Nasu says that these characters are excess fat from the point of view of the story, and would never have been born from a writer.

Nasu says that an evil Emiya would not be Emiya, and a writer would never have come up with such an idea, and Emiya Alter was created when Takeuchi said he wanted to do it and they came up with a setting to fit the idea. In the end Emiya Alter was popular with players and added flavour to the story, which made Nasu realise that he needed to loosen up for such things. While FGO is mainly lead by the writers, having the writers decide on everything would mean things like this not happening, and Nasu says that they have a good balance of writers and illustrators. That being said, Nasu says that he turns down most of Takeuchi’s requests, but Takeuchi does not always listen to him.

Part 4 of this article is available here

