Type-Moon recently spoke about Fate/Grand Order’s heroine, who was originally going to appear in the Fate/stay Night anime. In another interview with Famitsu, Type-Moon co-founders Kinoko Nasu and Takeshi Takeuchi talked about Fate/Grand Order, and what elements of the company’s cancelled “Fate Online Project” it has retained.
When Fate/Grand Order was revealed, Type-Moon announced it as a “reboot of the Fate Online Project”. Famitsu asks the developers to share more about the reboot and what one can expect from it.
“At the time, we had plans for a PvP-style online game that would be played on PC,” Nasu says, adding that it would have been set in the Fate world. “Then, after a certain opportunity and discussions about using the same setting to create a game with ‘online’ as its theme took place, the reboot came about from the desire to create an online game suited for the year 2015.”
“The beginning of the plan originally started with Aniplex producer [Atsuhiro Iwakami] wanting to make a social game, and since the Fate anime was starting, he suggested if he could take on the challenge using the franchise,” Takeuchi adds. “As for us, on top of making a Fate game, we wanted it to be done properly, and as we considered different ideas we also thought about the challenge of a a new mode of expression on a new device.”
He continues, “As for the Fate Online Project that was cancelled at the time, its setting was put to use in the form of [Fate/Apocrypha], which has its own story.”
Nasu explains that the original PC game had 15 Servants, but he felt that it was a waste to just let it go to nothing after it was cancelled. Since it was no longer an online game, they couldn’t use the story they had come up with for it, but they were able to use the 15 Servants in light novel form in Fate/Apocryopha.
“We originally had plans for the Fate Online Project where all the Servants would be considered characters that are unparalleled existences for the players,” says Takeuchi. “Rather than have them just be characters that appear in one big story, they were to be characters that were your very own partner. This original concept is something we’d like to achieve in Fate/Grand Order.”
“The theme and direction has changed, but the concept of fundamentally using online features to play Fate is still the same,” adds Nasu.
Finally, Famitsu mentions that the previous project was set to be a PvP title, and whether Fate/Grand Order is going a different route.
“Back then, when we thought about the Internet, it was all about you versus whoever was on the other side of the net,” responds Nasu. “Nowadays, everyone has smartphones and there aren’t as many arguments among the core fans like in the past.”
“Instead of war, we’ll have many players advance through [the game] towards one objective. The players might not be friends, but they will be allies. I feel that such a ‘live’ feeling should be the theme.” [Note: We aren’t entirely certain what Nasu means by “live feeling”.]
Fate/Grand Order will release in Japan in Spring 2015 for iOS and Android.
Published: Feb 17, 2015 01:02 pm