Having discussed Fate/Grand Order’s story in broad strokes during the review proper, it feels only appropriate to give some more specific critiques of its many individual episodes. My birds-eye view of the experience as a whole still remains the same (namely that the good parts are not worth trudging through all the bad), but given the length and variety of stories on offer it would be a shame not to get into the details of them. If nothing else it took me five months to play through them all, so I might as well get my writings’ worth out of it!
Just as the game itself gave each Singularity and Lostbelt a grade to represent the urgency of correcting them with the Humanity Foundation Value and Lostbelt Depth scales respectively, so too will this tier list work on a similarly pretentious measure: the Literary Edification scale! Its tiers will use the same values as those other scales, and be interpreted as the following:
EX: Reserved for the singular best story in the game. In theory the gap between it and the next tier need not actually be that wide, but in practice it completely wound up being the best by a lot.
A: An actually good story that made me reflect on something interesting or moving.
B: Dumb fun stories. They probably have clear issues, but at some point I was able to let go and enjoy it.
C: Highly flawed stories with issues that make it hard to enjoy, though there was at least something good enough to keep it out of the next tier.
D: Just plain bad stories, for one reason or another.
ERROR: Stories which made me too angry to judge impartially, mostly because they strongly offended my Catholic sensibilities. I will not deny that someone with a clearer head might rank them in any number of other tiers, and they would because some beloved chapters are on here, but in my heart of hearts they are among D-tier with extreme prejudice. I repeat for any non-Catholics who stumble in here: ERROR is not objectively below D-rank. It is an admission that my convictions make it too difficult for me to judge these chapters impartially.
And without further ado, the full list looks something like… this!
For the rest of the article I’m going to provide some explanations of the more noteworthy rankings, either for touching on Catholic history/themes in a significant way, or for diverging from the Fate/ fandom’s consensus in a significant way. I tested this list in an online forum and it turns out almost everything here could be considered a hot take, but I’ll be narrowing things down because the original article was over 8,500 words long! I won’t be discussing Shimousa or Solomon though, as I already more or less went over their key frustrations in the main review. With that established, the last disclaimer I want to offer is that the earlier chapters are nowhere near as fresh in my mind, and as such the earlier in the article a chapter appears the more you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. With that out of the way, let’s settle the true quality of gacha gaming’s most hyped-up story once and for all. Spoilers ahead. I apologize for nothing, because Fate/ sure doesn’t.
First Singularity: Hundred Years’ War of the Evil Dragons – ORLEANS
Literary Edification: B
The Orleans Singularity takes place in France during the Hundred Years’ War shortly after the death of St. Joan of Arc. In this timeline Marshal Gilles de Rais, who in Fate/ lore was obsessed with the Maid of Orleans, uses the power of a Holy Grail (which is not in reference to the Cup of Christ) to create a counterfeit Jeanne d’Arc as a manifestation of his grief and hatred towards the world. This faker starts summoning dragons and berserk Servants to destroy France, and Chaldea has to team up with the ‘real’ Jeanne to stop the imposter and fix the timeline. Orleans is the player’s first taste of what a Singularity truly is, and because the conflict is so straightforward it made the story fairly easy to follow and gave its cast of characters plenty of room to breathe. Said cast that Chaldea and Jeanne team up with are varied and mostly likeable, from the delightful and brave Marie Antionette to the noble St. George and more, it was a fun ride in spite of the tale’s simplicity.
The chapter even comes really close to having a theme worth bringing up the story to A-tier, as the conflict between Jeanne and Gilles through the imposter as a proxy presents a fairly compelling idea for a story about the importance of not putting words into the mouths of the dead, especially while still in a bereaved state of mind. What ultimately holds the chapter down in B-tier, is that if there’s any group of people who need to learn not to put words into the dead’s mouths, it’s Fate/Grand Order’s writers. This criticism can apply to a number of the characters and situations within the game, but there are several major instances of this issue within Orleans. The big one is Jeanne d’Arc herself, who downplays her own virtues and life achievements to the point of doubting her status as a Saint simply because she led armies into battle, when in reality St. Joan and all other Saints would know that what makes a Saint is not how pacifistic one is but how perfectly one follows the will of God. Tolstoy strikes again it seems. Even the protagonists themselves put words in the mouths of others, commenting in the aftermath of their battle with Saint Martha how they got the feeling she probably tamed the tarrasque by beating it up rather than by prayer as the legend states. All this detracts from Orleans’ quality far too noticeably for it to be any higher, but overall if I had to read it again I would.
Sixth Singularity: Divine Realm of the Round Table – CAMELOT
Literary Edification: ERROR
Hoo boy, time to make the fans mad… The Camelot Singularity takes place in Jerusalem after failure of the Ninth Crusade, where after the Crusaders use a Holy Grail to ravage the Holy Land, the Knights of the Round Table pop out of the Grail, take it for themselves, and hatch a plan to escape human history itself before the Incineration takes place in the present day, which Chaldea needs to put a stop to. From an overall writing perspective this is the first chapter with any real amount of effort put into it by the developers and is generally well regarded by most players, but I couldn’t take it seriously or even respect it given how much safe-edgy junk permeates the chapter both conceptually and in practice. Making the Knights of the Round Table into the villains is the kind of ‘ooh what if the heroes were actually the bad guys’ sort of concept that only middle schoolers find interesting and it’s very lazy, but the depths of this ill-conceived conflict only gets worse from here. The Singularity seems very confused on what it wants its core themes to be, as the emotional heart of the story seemed to be contained in a flashback in which King Altria and Sir Bedivere discuss the nature of how every side in a war has their own reasons for fighting and that both sides should follow their convictions to the end, but it chickens out of actually delving into the idea and just has the Round Table just act like maniacal cartoon villains the entire time to make the player feel better about fighting them. And nowhere is this confusion more obvious than the chapter’s depiction of the Crusaders.
In the year of Our Lord 2025 I suspect I don’t need to go into too much detail as to why the Crusades were a net positive institution for this site’s target demographic, as most of us have realized that they were launched for the purposes of bringing peace and stability to the Holy Land and as a show of solidarity for the eastern Christians who faced relentless attacks from Saracen forces. It is for that reason that the story’s insistence on constantly referring to them as barbarians is decidedly unfair, and especially cowardly seeing as they were all killed off before the beginning of Chaldea’s involvement, leaving them no screen time to actually be developed or defend themselves. The Crusaders definitely would not have gone scorched earth on the Holy Land following a decisive rout like this story tries to pretend, that’s for sure. Even if I were to grant the Sixth Singularity the right to explore a more negative side to the Crusaders though, is their somewhat checkered track record not the perfect historical backdrop to make into central, nuanced characters in a story about recognizing the valid convictions of your foes even as you must wage war on them?! I could go on and explore other problems like how the core Arthurian Cycle is so fundamentally Christian that their role makes even less sense than it already does, or the lionization of the Order of Assassins, but I think the point is made by now. The Camelot Singularity from a less invested standpoint has some decent moments of pathos that are surely the reason why it is remembered fondly, but I care about logos quite strongly in subjects like the High Middle Ages and as such I just can’t even with this chapter.
Seventh Singularity: Absolute Demonic Front – BABYLONIA
Literary Edification: C
The Babylonia Singularity takes place at the twilight of Gilgamesh’s kingdom long since prophesied to fall into ruin, with Chaldea ultimately tasked with figuring out why the fall of Uruk will threaten all of history and subsequently contain the damage. Undoubtedly I have to give this chapter some flowers for the character writing, because it has some very well developed and likeable characters to fight and watch interact like Gilgamesh, Ereshkigel, Benkei, and many more. Beyond just having good characters though, I’m sad to say that the hype surrounding Babylonia’s quality in the community really set me up for disappointment. Putting the likeable cast aside, the plot and themes of this story are about as bog standard JRPG as it gets, even going so far as to put mortals and gods as rivals that need to go their separate ways. In spite of the parts I liked there’s really nothing to remember Babylonia as a whole by, which is a shame because if they had simply done something more creative it could have easily been one of the best. It’s very close to being in B-tier, but ultimately I couldn’t justify it.
Pseudo-Singularity I: Quarantined Territory of Malice – SHINJUKU
Literary Edification: A
The short Epic of Remnant arc detailing Chaldea’s quest to take out the stragglers who got away from the Temple of Time kicks off with the best, and really the only good, chapter of the bunch. Taking place in a twisted version of Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward where the evil in the hearts of men reigns supreme, Fujimaru must ally himself with a small band of miscreant Servants in order to take down a coalition of villains intent on destroying the planet. This chapter does quite a lot of things right: the world is dark and hostile, the villains are threatening and disgusting, and the concept of Phantom Spirits is a pretty interesting way to include lesser legends into Fate/ going forward even if a little bit presumptuous about whose legends are only ‘Phantom-tier’. The main supporting cast is great too. Altria Alter is pretty memorable as someone who presents as a tough, ‘molded by my world’ type but can’t hide her love for her dog, and the imposter Jeanne returns to flesh out the concept of an Avenger-class Servant and grows beyond her odd origins into a pretty enjoyable character.
The true triumph of Shinjuku however, is without a doubt James Moriarty and his relationship with Fujimaru. The protagonist of F/GO is very much a character written to connect with others to the point of naïveté in order to explain why anti-heroes and otherwise incompatible Servants can all have contracts at Chaldea, but this Pseudo-Singularity does something really cool with that fact. Moriarty might have befriended Fujimaru with the intention of betraying him eventually, but the unexpected happens: Fujimaru reciprocated Moriarty’s ‘kindness’ in spite of everyone warning him not to. That had a real effect on The Napoleon of Crime, and is ultimately the reason he failed to carry out his plan in the end. While naïveté is not a virtue, in practical terms Shinjuku is a story about how choosing to be good to others can affect change needed for the righteous to triumph even if the recipient of the kindness fails to be saved themselves. Fate/ telling a good rendition of a Frodo and Gollum type story was not what I expected going into this chapter, but I’m happy it did.
Pseudo Singularity IV: The Forbidden Advent Garden – SALEM
Literary Edification: ERROR
In the final Pseudo-Singularity, Chaldea sets out to solve an anomaly in Puritan Salem so exceptional that the whole of the magecraft world’s eyes are on it, and find themselves navigating the infamous witch trials while Lovecraftian forces seep into the people’s minds and heighten the paranoia far beyond historical levels. The main issue that I and many other people take with this story is that it simply is not compatible with F/GO as a game. In order to justify breaking up the visual novel with combat encounters, they have Chaldea put on plays as a part of their cover story for the townspeople, and these are about as much a tedious pace-breaker as you probably imagine. Beyond simply having some of the worst pacing in the game however, the whole concept of the chapter is just so mean-spirited. I get how one might look at Salem’s delirium and get the idea to infuse it with eldritch horror elements to up the ante, and there is a lesson to be learned from the historical Salem that if we see the devil in everything we necessarily see God in nothing. Within the context of F/GO however, this Pseudo-Singularity being the third straight garbage chapter in a row and the SECOND in a row where they make horrors out of Christians made me completely unreceptive to almost anything of what the chapter otherwise offered. The only part that I found even remotely tolerable was Charles-Henri Sanson since the chapter took this rather minor villain from the Orleans story and gave him a new and sympathetic character journey to go on, but that is nowhere near enough to excuse the total exhaustion this chapter left me with. Others without my biases might be able to forgive the pacing issues, but all the pacing fixes in the world couldn’t save it for me. What a fittingly terrible end to such an awful filler arc.
Lostbelt No. 2: The Eternal Icy Fire Century – GOTTERDAMMERUNG
Literary Edification: A
(As a quick note going forward, compared to a Singularity which is a historical event being derailed by magic shenanigans, a Lostbelt is a full-on alternate timeline where something has already been derailed for hundreds or thousands of years. I have not yet needed to explain this difference, so I’m doing it now.)
This is probably the hottest non-ERROR take in the entire article, but I’m of the opinion that the Gotterdammerung Lostbelt is an almost perfect Fate/ story. This alternate timeline centers around Scandinavia, where in 1000 BC the giants and a singular Nordic goddess survived Ragnarök, and the goddess strikes a grim arrangement with the giants in order to keep humanity from totally going extinct. I’ll be the first to admit that this chapter is quite the slow burn, and Sitonai was a pretty lazy excuse for a Illya-face that probably could have been cut, but other than those two issues I thought this was a really well done chapter. It’s quite impressive that it took F/GO this long to do a dedicated Norse mythology chapter, and it was quite cool to watch how they managed to weave those legends together in interesting new ways. Scathach-Skadi in particular was the most unique villain in the whole game, with her attitude towards the party being as magnanimous as it was tragically doomed. And of course like all the other Lostbelts there was enough wrong in this world to make it necessary to destroy, but especially thanks to Gerda and the villagers this was the alternate timeline I felt the most pain at consigning to oblivion.
The one thing that truly causes Gotterdammerung to rise above almost all of its contemporaries is its Crypter (enemy mage allied with the Lostbelts), Ophelia Phamrsolone. Her character journey is everything the Fate/ series should strive to be: the story of how a modern-day person comes into miraculous contact with legends of the past, those legends forcing them to confront their deepest fears and insecurities, and ultimately is inspired by a hero to make a change and do the right thing. The internal anguish inside Ophelia, the ways Surtr and Napoleon impacted her heart, and that final, beautiful choice she makes is the sort of potential I wish the writers of this series would realize more often. I will die on this hill: Lostbelt Two is the gold standard. This of course made it all the more shocking that we later struck diamond, but I’ll get to that…
Lostbelt No. 4: Samsara of Genesis and Terminus – YUGAKSHETRA
Literary Edification: D
The Yugakshetra Lostbelt is the first chapter of this arc whose timeline deviation starts so many thousands of years ago that they honestly cease to feel like anything less than full-on isekais. In any case, the premise here is that all of the Hindu deities are dead and have their power converge on the Mahabharata’s protagonist Arjuna, who becomes a god himself and starts accelerating the Yuga Cycle’s system of destruction and creation in order to forge a perfect world by purifying it of all evil. The big problem with this chapter is that it felt like watching two theologically illiterate children making up nonsense about what it means to be a god until they run out of ideas and just have the mortals win for some random reason. It’s not even E-rank levels of offensive or anything, it’s just dumb and boring. The chapter’s Crypter was also a pretty big miss for me, as Scandinavia Peperoncino (Yes that is an alias. His parents weren’t that cruel, just almost that cruel) is decidedly kind of a creep despite how hard the game wants you to find him likeable. The absolute best thing I can say about this chapter is that I liked William Tell well enough, but he is not even close to raising this chapter up to C-tier. Making things up as the plot goes along is nothing new for this series, but it is no less a flaw, and the improv is especially egregious here.
Lostbelt No. 6: Fae Round Table Domain – AVALON LE FAE
Literary Edification: EX
“… Your anger may be justified, but this still isn’t the way. If you’ve decided that Britain is a land of sinners… that not a single one is untainted… then you should have made a system to forgive their sins, not just punish them. You should have chosen a sentence and given them a chance to serve it.”
The Avalon le Fae Lostbelt takes place in an alternate world where Britain is the last piece of land, and is inhabited primarily by various clans of faeries. To make a long story short, the land is currently oppressed by the high queen Morgan le Fay, but many fairies silently hope in the fulfillment of a prophecy which states that a special child will ring the Bells of Pilgrimage and see the rightful ruler of Britain ascend. This is the last of the game’s three mega-chapters (the others being Atlantis and Olympus), and easily the longest one by far. Bloat was my foremost fear going into this chapter, but this turned out to be completely worth the huge word count. Avalon le Fae uses its long runtime to flesh out one of the most well-developed fantasy worlds I’ve seen in quite some time. Its depictions of the faeries is legendary among its fans for capturing something much closer to the historical legends than our modern conceptions of faeries, while still portraying their darker aspects in a new way suited to its audience. The history and factions of Faerie Britain is thick and engaging, with every new side of this island bringing you just a little bit closer to understanding why this Lostbelt wound up the way it did, and the core tale deepens your emotional connection to the land and its people just time time to punch you in the gut repeatedly until you’re breathless. And do I even need to get into the characters? Altria, Oberon, Percival, Gareth, Tristan, Tam Lin Gawain, Aurora, Murian, Boggart, Aesc, the sheer number of compelling figures in this story almost makes it hard to know where to look for the tale’s foremost player. From front to back this is a thrilling, heartwarming, and tragic chapter all at once. The true pinnacle of Cosmos in the Lostbelt.
In order to stand on top of its competition though, Avalon le Fae still needed to do something truly special, and by golly did they manage something incredible. As I mentioned the chapter takes great pleasure in tearing down our kitschy notions of faeries, but it cannot be understated just how mortifying some of the sins the faeries commit over the course of the story are. Much of it is just so bewildering and pointless, and it makes the reader all the more determined to see this twisted world change. The main hope for that change in Altria is positively dripping in Christ-like imagery, being a ‘faerie of paradise’ born as the ‘Child of Prophecy’ who goes to ring the Bells of ‘Pilgrimage’ and overthrow the ruler of a fallen world all for the forgiveness of the faeries’ sins. One might get a little cynical at how self-aggrandizing it is for a doppelganger of Fate/’s poster girl to be put into the role of a Christ-figure, but in many ways I felt this messianic quality was the game paying honor to the deeply Christian tradition of the Arthurian legends in its own way (especially after the disaster that was the Camelot Singularity) and really connected me with her journey. Bringing the depravity of the faeries and Altria’s messianic role together over such a long chapter marinates the two in your mind, until it finally clicks that Avalon le Fae is a story about forcing the player to see humanity from God’s perspective leading up to the crucifixion. The disgust you feel towards the inhabitants of Faerie Britain is exactly how God had every right to feel about humanity for all of our countless sins, which makes His resolution to send His Son to suffer and die for our salvation all the more incredible. Doubly so even, as unlike the imperfect Altria who quietly wrestles with her resentment for the duplicitousness of faeriekind (something I shamefully relate to with humans if I’m honest), Our Lord never falters in His Love for us despite how twisted we can be. In the end Lostbelt Six was an unlikely place for me to discover a sublime reminder not to take the Mercy of God or my own failings for granted, but I am so thankful that even amongst Fate/Grand Order’s many layers of coal there was a true gem to be found in there. A gem that, I hope, will help the players who encounter this story to later embrace the True Faith one day.
The only major downside of Avalon le Fae? You have to play a ludicrous amount of Fate/Grand Order just to read it.
Intermission Singularity: Realm of the Thanatos Impulse – TRAUM
Literary Edification: A
The Traum Singularity is the last optional chapter, and takes our protagonists into an inscrutable land where three realms composed entirely of Servants wage war amongst themselves, and against Proper Human History. On some level I think I’m painfully aware just how weird and filler-y this chapter is in terms of its place in the story as 99% of it is irrelevant to the overarching plot. On the other hand… man this chapter feels like it was made specifically to appeal to me. The main reason for this is all the European historical and legendary figures running around in this plot, and the person who wrote this chapter clearly loves these heroes as much as I do. The Paladins of Charlemagne? Written to be a little goofy to stick out next to the Round Table Knights, but to a surprisingly tasteful degree. Vlad III? Takes on a tactician role and is given the chance to show off the brilliant defender side of him that is often overshadowed by the vampire legends. Even Pope Johanna could have been an opportunity for the story to delve into that legend’s anti-Catholic connotations, only for her to be one of the best characters in the whole chapter and if anything the story attributes her strength to the Chair of St. Peter rather than the woman herself. This also confirms that, considering Johanna’s strength is considered below average due to her status as a mere legend, if a real Pope were ever summoned as a Servant in the Fate/ universe, that Holy Grail War would be over before it started. I for one find that hilarious.
The core plot itself is mostly just the three sides of the war between the Servant-nations trying to out maneuver each other, but the overarching themes the characters explore in between and through those battles are actually quite good. Most of the Servants summoned to Traum have been imbued with the urge to rebel against Proper Human History, and the story does a great job presenting different compelling arcs that play with such an idea. From the main villain Kreimhild and her desire to take revenge on the History that broke her heart, to Pope Johanna’s resentment of being a mere story (and how Charlemagne and Konstantinos XI help her make peace with that reality), there’s a really decent lesson here about not letting one’s desire to change the past get in the way of doing right by the world. It kinda gets a little bit muddied by Don Quixote’s final speech including that yucky blind existentialist optimism characteristic of modern writers, but if I compartmentalize that then the rest of the chapter holds pretty strong. Couple all this with some more screentime to develop Kadoc Zemplus and a final heroic push that did what Atlantis did but more satisfyingly, and I can’t help rating the Traum Singularity this high. Mentally bump this chapter down to B-tier if it pleases you to silence my biases, but I know what I like!
Lostbelt No. 7: Golden Sea of Trees – NAHUI MICTLAN
Literary Edification: C
We’ve arrived at the final chapter of all of Fate/Grand Order’s complete arcs, and this last one is a bit of an off-key note to end on. The Nahui Mictlan Lostbelt takes place in an alternate world where the dinosaurs take shelter in an underworld based on the one of Mesoamerican mythology after the surface is rendered unlivable, and go on to develop into the planet’s dominant species. To start by giving the chapter some of its deserved flowers, I do appreciate the overall handling of its depiction of Mesoamerican cultures insofar as it doesn’t try to completely whitewash them as noble savages like so many do these days. Don’t get me wrong it’s still a little overly idealistic, but the fact that they even acknowledge that the thirst for blood in empires like that of the Aztecs was a major reason why smaller tribes joined the Spanish in conquering the continent displays historical literacy miles ahead of the story’s peers. This simple concession made it a lot easier to engage with the setting as a piece of art. The other really good part of Nahui Mictlan is the development it gave for U-Olga Marie, this arc’s overarching main villain also known as the Foreign God. I could see why someone might call the time you spend with her a little forced considering she has to be stricken with amnesia in order for this plotline to work, but it was genuinely fascinating to watch Fujimaru and Mash attempt to give this imposing villain grace in the hopes that a little of the deceased Director Marie is still in there.
The main issue that plagues most of the chapter is that the exposition dumping is off the charts, to the point where the story pulls out literal blackboards to get the player informed. Where this chapter plummets right down into C-tier however is in the figure the entire last leg of this journey is ultimately based around: ORT. I know this arc is called Cosmos in the Lostbelt and it makes a little sense for a space alien to be the final boss with a name like that, but this is Fate/ we’re talking about. The vast majority of major characters and antagonists at least have some strong connection to human history, and exceptions like Olga Marie at least had some amount of set-up in the lore of the fiction itself. ORT, however, is first mentioned in this very chapter with no prior setup, and having a name derived from a celestial body (the Oort Cloud) is waaaay too tenuous for me to buy into a historical connection. Yes, more original aspects of the Type-Moon settings are usually what I like the most, but here it just felt like a last minute creation to give the last chapter an imposing final boss. It really doesn’t help that ORT revives itself after you defeat it, twice, and by the second revival it just felt like they were dragging the fight out for longer than it needed to. The last blow of the second phase was perfect, why’d they have to ruin it like that?! On the whole Nahui Mictlan was far from this game’s worst chapter, but if I wanted a story about a bunch of flashy Shonen battles fought by underdressed freaks getting derailed by random space aliens, I’d just watch a Studio Trigger movie or something.
That just about covers the highlights of the chapters in Fate/Grand Order. Overall I am definitely glad I got to experience some of the game’s better chapters, and I hope this article serves as a critical resource covering a story whose core fanbase all too often confuses hype moments and overcomplicated lore for good writing. I don’t particularly recommend putting yourself through all the same drudgery I did just to read the good parts, but at least someone has done it now. In the future if this article does well and I’m still around/alive, I’ll be sure to grade the Ordeal Call chapters once that arc is complete. For now though, I think it’s time to put this massive undertaking to rest. Thank you for reading!
