Category: Games

Fate/Grand Order: Tunguska Sanctuary Review

Fate/Grand Order: Tunguska Sanctuary Review

Anti-Primate Biosphere Tunguska Sanctuary from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Anti-Primate Biosphere Tunguska Sanctuary

Anti-Primate Biosphere

It’s time for a relatively short review of Fate/Grand Order: Tunguska Sanctuary. And by relatively short, I mean when compared to my other FGO story chapter reviews. Those tend to be very long because there’s a lot to cover. That’s not the case this time around, so it’s going to be a normal-length review.

Now, I wanted to start off by mentioning the length of the Tunguska Event to show that it’s not a main story chapter. It’s not even a main interlude like Heian-kyo was. It’s an event. But, that’s not entirely accurate, either.

Tunguska Sanctuary is a weird case of half-event, half-main interlude. It has to do with the main story of the Lostbelts. It’s not some separate thing. But, at the same time, it’s not considered important enough to be a true main interlude. And, that’s weird considering the content.

Dobrynya Nikitich from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Tunguska Sanctuary
Dobrynya Nikitich

This chapter is where Chaldea has its “final” showdown with Koyanskaya. Koyanskaya has been a major antagonist throughout the Lostbelts. So, shouldn’t she get her own main interlude? I mean, Douman got his own. And I’d argue that Koyanskaya is more important to the story than he ever was.

But, the key difference might be what this chapter is. It’s not a Singularity, Pseudo-Singularity, or Lostbelt. Instead, it takes place within Koyanskaya’s Reality Marble. A Reality Marble is someone’s inner world manifested. So, in Koyanskaya’s case, it’s located in the Tunguska region of Russia and is a place hostile to humanity.

That last point is important because it limits the servants Chaldea has access to. Well, at least in terms of NPC support. The only servant who could come with us was Ibuku-Douji. And within the Reality Marble, we met Dobrynya Nikitich and Taigong Wang. It’s just those three, Mash, and Koyanskaya here.

Evil of Humanity Reproduction

Alright, let’s talk about the boss fights in this chapter. From what I remember, there were only four major fights. First, we had a rematch against Ivan from Lostbelt 1. Next, we had a rematch against Surtr from Lostbelt 2.

Then, we had a rematch against immature Beast Koyanskaya from Lostbelt 5.2. And, finally, we had the big boss of the chapter, a fight against Evil of Humanity Reproduction. That’s Beast IV: L for you nerds out there who care about the specific Beasts.

Now, I feel like the rematches were harder in this chapter than they were originally. I don’t actually know for sure, though. But, if they were, that makes complete sense. After all, you should have more resources at your disposal by this point. Haven’t you summoned new servants (power creep) since then?

Tamamo no Mae soloing the Evil of Humanity Reproduction (Beast IV: L Koyanskaya) from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Tunguska Sanctuary
Tamamo no Mae soloing the Evil of Humanity Reproduction (Beast IV: L Koyanskaya)

But, if you need some help with these fights, I can give you at least some idea of what I did. For the Ivan fight, use Koyanskaya of Light. She has class advantage and buffs in this chapter and is a good servant anyway.

I have my exact team for the Surtr fight saved, so I can give you more info about that. I used Artoria Archer, Merlin, Artoria Caster, Euryale, Paris, and Heracles. Single-target Arts Archers are your friends.

For the immature Beast rematch, I just used the classic Himiko, Merlin, and Artoria Caster team.

And, now, for the big finale. Are you struggling to beat Evil of Humanity Reproduction? Well, I have a very simple solution for you. Solo it with Tamamo (as seen above). Tamamo has class advantage and the perfect kit to solo this fight. That’s what I ended up doing after trying a few other teams.

Koyanskaya and the Space Egg

If you haven’t made it to the Tunguska Sanctuary yet, you might be wondering if the story is any good. Did you miss out by not participating in this event? If that’s you, then I have two pieces of good news.

First, you didn’t miss out. The story isn’t very good. And second, even though it was an event, I believe you can still complete it. As far as I know, it should be available in the Rare Prism shop for anyone who missed it.

And, also as far as I know, you should be able to read the prologue and epilogue anyway. Those are the only parts that are important for the main story. I think they’re actually mandatory for progressing. It’s the rest of the event that should be in the shop.

Koyanskaya going into her egg capsule from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Tunguska Sanctuary
Koyanskaya going into her egg capsule

Why isn’t this chapter good, though? For starters, there’s the character writing. The dialogue is atrocious. For example, Nikitich’s dragon says some pretty cringe things directed toward women. I’m not really sure who the target audience of that was. It felt like a 14-year-old boy wrote it. So, I guess that’s who.

Taigong Wang’s character was alright. I liked it when his super special magic did nothing to Koyanskaya. That was pretty funny. But, we also had to sit through him referring to Koyanskaya as Daji a million times. This was despite being told that she’s not Daji. And then when he finds out she’s not Daji, we never hear the end of that, either.

Finally, there’s the egg. At the end of the chapter, Chaldea is at the end of its rope. But, in a last-ditch effort, we pull out the talk-no-jutsu. We convince Koyanskaya to get into an egg and get blasted into space. That’s the whole resolution.

Final Thoughts

As a whole, Tunguska Sanctuary was a very disappointing chapter. How could they do Koyanskaya dirty like this? After all the build-up over the previous six Lostbelts, this is what she gets in the end? At least we have a main interlude to look forward to next. I think it drops in June.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

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Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 – Avalon le Fae Review

Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 – Avalon le Fae Review

Fae Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae

The 6th Lostbelt of Fate/Grand Order is Avalon le Fae, in which we return to Britain. Of course, we’ve been to Camelot before, back in the 6th Singularity. But, the British Lostbelt and the Camelot Singularity are not the same place.

As the subtitle of this chapter implies, this is Fairy Britain. It’s Britain from a world in which humanity never became the dominant species. Instead, the Fairies, or Fae, are the ones who rule and humans are more like a livestock species. They’re raised on “farms” and used for various purposes.

But, why are we, Chaldea, entering the British Lostbelt? As we know from previous story chapters, this Lostbelt’s Tree of Emptiness is already dead. If left to its own devices, the Lostbelt will collapse. So, what’s the point of going there? Shouldn’t we be making our way to the South American Lostbelt?

Altria Caster from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Altria Caster

Well, there are two reasons for entering this Lostbelt. The first is that we want to get our hands on Rhongomyniad, a Noble Phantasm of Fairy Britain’s Lostbelt King. With the power of that Noble Phantasm, Chaldea might stand a chance against the Foreign God.

The second reason for going to Fairy Britain is that its collapse threatens the rest of the world. Something’s not quite right about the way it’s collapsing. And unless it’s stopped, it will engulf the rest of the bleached Earth. If that happens, there’s no more Earth left for us to save from the Lostbelts.

Now, Lostbelt 6 is the longest Lostbelt (so far). As such, it was released in three parts. But, unlike Lostbelt 5, the multiple parts of Lostbelt 6 take place on the same map and with the same characters. There’s no split like there was for Atlantis and Olympus.

The Six (Seven) Fae Clans

The fae of Fairy Britain aren’t all one, cohesive group. There are actually six clans that all used to be at war before High Queen Morgan took over. These are the Wing, Fang, Wind, Earth, Mirror, and King clans. Oh, and there’s also a secret seventh clan.

The Wing clan is pretty straightforward because there’s only one member of it, Murian. In the past, there were more Wing clan fairies. However, the Fang clan massacred them in the past.

Speaking of the Fang clan, they’re the warrior clan. They’re the strongest fighters and serve High Queen Morgan as her personal army. Woodwose is the leader of the Fang clan.

Wind fairies are relatively peaceful, as far as fairies go. They’re led by Aurora, the (second) most beautiful fairy of them all. There are six bells the Child of Prophecy (more on her later) has to ring. And the bell held by the Wind clan is the first to be rung.

Murian of the Wing Clan from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Murian of the Wing clan

Of the existing clans, the Earth clan is the second most peaceful, after the Wind clan. Members of this clan tend to be craftsmen. And, their leader is Spriggan, who isn’t a Spriggan.

The Mirror clan is an extinct clan of fairies. They were wiped out by Tam Lin Lancelot on orders from High Queen Morgan. What made this clan special was their ability to see the future. Ansel was the leader of this clan and the one to prophesize Morgan’s downfall.

Finally, there’s the King clan, which, like the Wing clan, technically only has one member. That member is Cnoc na Riabh, the self-proclaimed true ruler of Fairy Britain.

However, I mentioned a secret seventh clan. That’s the Rain clan, which is also extinct. The King clan took the Rain clan’s place.

Oberon, King of the Fairies

Okay, it’s time to start actually talking about the characters. If you’ve read my review of Atlantis, you’ll know I hated the characters in it. Well, other than Mandricardo, of course. However, the opposite is true when it comes to Avalon le Fae.

The characters in this chapter are great. And the best of them all is Oberon. He’s one of the best characters in the entire story, so far. Though, I will say I’m not the biggest fan of the conclusion to his story. But, we’ll get to that later.

So, here’s the thing about Oberon. I didn’t think I would like him this much. I knew people were obsessed with him. But, there are people obsessed with every Fate character. And, even though he’s meta-defining, I wasn’t all that interested in rolling for him. But, I did (and got him), because I’m now fully on the Oberon bandwagon.

Fairy King Oberon from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Fairy King Oberon

It’s kind of hard to explain what I like about Oberon. There are the things you can see, like his chibi form, which is awesome. And, you know, his character design comes from Chica Umino, mangaka of March comes in like a lion. (which you should watch).

But, what drew me to Oberon the most was his personality. And that’s what’s hard for me to explain. He’s like a best friend. He’s not always around to help. But, no matter how far away he is, we know he’s got our back. He’s always in our corner.

On top of that, I enjoyed his dynamic with Altria Caster. And, he’s a total bro for saying that Coral is more his type than Aurora. Coral’s my woman, but I’d share her with my best friend Oberon. Anyway, he’s a character you have to experience to understand the hype.

Tam Lin of Fairy Britain

Let’s move on to some of the antagonists from this story chapter. Obviously, at the top, there’s High Queen Morgan, the Lostbelt King. And, right up there with her is the Crypter Beryl Gut. I’ll get to them in time. But first, I want to cover the antagonists who serve under them.

The strongest fairies in all of Fairy Britain are known as the Tam Lin. There are originally three Tam Lin, though a fourth appears partway through the story. In this section, I want to focus on the original three, Tam Lin Gawain, Tam Lin Lancelot, and Tam Lin Tristan.

As you likely noticed, these Tam Lin share names with some of the Knights of the Round Table. But, they’re not the same characters. Morgan bestowed these names upon the Tam Lin. Their true names are Barghest, Melusine, and Baobhan Sith.

Tam Lin Gawain from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Tam Lin Gawain

Barghest is the first of the Tam Lin we come into contact with. And, she’s also the one who gets the most character development. I almost want to say that she’s a more complex character than Morgan. Her storyline is all about trying to become a knight the true Gawain could be proud of, despite her nature.

Melusine is the strongest of the Tam Lin. But, she doesn’t play as big of a role in the story as Barghest does. We frequently come into contact with Barghest and fight her multiple times. Melusine is more of a background threat — she could always swoop in at any moment.

Baobhan Sith is Morgan’s favorite Tam Lin. Morgan adopted Baobhan Sith as her child and heir to the throne (as if Morgan would ever die). However, she’s also the cruelest of the Tam Lin and enjoys torturing and killing fairies. Because of this, the fairies hate her.

The Moment a Planet Is Born

Morgan is one of the more interesting Lostbelt Kings we’ve gotten. Some of the things she does are reminiscent of what we’ve seen other Lostbelt Kings do. But, her motives are completely unique. And, there’s a twist, which I’ll get to, that really lifts up her character.

So, what does Morgan want? Most of the other Lostbelt Kings were content with preserving their Lostbelts. They didn’t want proper human history coming in and destroying their world. Morgan, however, is a bit different. She wants to take the fight directly to proper human history.

Morgan’s motive isn’t to keep her Lostbelt alive; it’s to destroy the rest of the world. Despite the British Lostbelt collapsing on its own, Chaldea had to intervene. As I mentioned earlier, the collapse of this Lostbelt threatens the world. And, that’s not by coincidence or accident. It’s intentional on Morgan’s part.

The Child of Prophecy from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
The Child of Prophecy

If a Lostbelt survives long enough, it will take over as the new proper human history. But, Morgan realizes that there’s an alternative path. If she destroys proper human history and the other Lostbelts, she wins. That’s what makes Morgan so dangerous. She’s thinking like Chaldea.

But, there’s also something else about Morgan I need to mention, which is a major spoiler. It turns out that Morgan was the original Child of Prophecy before the Altria Caster we know. She was supposed to save Fairy Britain — and, to an extent, she did.

However, she grew to hate the fairies who inhabit Fairy Britain. And so, she decided that she was only going to save the land she loved, not the fairies. At her core, Morgan is a corrupted version of Altria Caster. She’s the Altria Caster who fell into despair and failed to bring salvation to the fairies.

To You, 2,419 Years From Now

Before I started playing through Lostbelt 6, I knew it was the longest chapter to date. I’m pretty sure Lostbelt 7 is longer. But, if we’re only counting the chapters released internationally, this is the longest.

I bring that up because it’s backed up by something I noticed early on. Avalon le Fae has its own timeline of Fairy Britain’s history that you can check between nodes. If a story chapter has to have a timeline for you to keep track of everything, you know it’s going to be long.

But, the timeline also doesn’t begin in 2019, when Chaldea enters the Lostbelt. It begins way back in 10,000 BC, or something like that. That’s the very beginning of Fairy Britain’s history. And boy, do we get a history lesson. This chapter doesn’t skimp out on the Lostbelt’s lore.

Mash breaking free from a crystal coffin from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Mash breaking free from a crystal coffin

One of the more interesting things about this chapter, though, is that we get to experience some of the history firsthand. There are two timelines we jump between for a good chunk of the chapter. The present timeline is where we, the players, are. And the past timeline is where Mash was sent by Morgan.

Now, why this is cool is that it allows us to make connections between the timelines on our own. We’re not being told a story of the past and how it relates to the present. We’re experiencing both the past and present and can see the connections.

There are a lot of weird things about Fairy Britain, such as the giant pit in its center. And it’s cool that we can find the answers to a lot of the Lostbelt’s mysteries in the past. This is just something I liked about this chapter’s storytelling.

A Land of Two Queens

The giant pit is far from the only weird thing about the British Lostbelt. There’s also the fact that there’s not one, but two Lostbelt Kings (Queens). Of course, Morgan is one. Though, how she’s one is actually weird in its own right. And the other is Cnoc na Riabh.

Let’s start with Morgan. She’s the Lostbelt King, as you might expect. But, she’s also Beryl’s servant. How does that work? That’s one of the big questions for most of the chapter. And, the answer is something I wasn’t expecting.

Beryl summoned Morgan as a servant. Then, the servant Morgan used up her own spirit origin to recreate the Lostbelt from scratch. This new Lostbelt came with its own Morgan who’s the Lostbelt King. And yes, when Morgan recreated the Lostbelt, she recreated everything in it — even Beryl.

Cnoc na Riabh of the King Clan from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Cnoc na Riabh of the King Clan

Where does Cnoc na Riabh come in, then? Well, she’s originally from a separate island off the northeastern coast. After the Rain clan was wiped out, Cnoc na Riabh took over their domain in the north of Fairy Britain. Like Morgan, Cnoc na Riabh claims to be the true ruler of the continent.

But, what claim does she have? I don’t remember all the details. But, she’s the reincarnation of a previous claimant to the throne, or something. Anyway, she’s also the only member of the King clan, which I mentioned earlier in this review.

The King clan is unique in that it only ever had a single member. But, fairies from other clans can swear allegiance to Cnoc na Riabh and become her clan members. The more followers Cnoc na Riabh gains in this way, the stronger she becomes. So, her goal is to amass a large army and march south toward Morgan.

Pepe and Beryl

At the start of Lostbelt 6, could anyone have predicted we’d lost two Crypters in this chapter? I certainly wasn’t expecting it. Beryl dying makes sense. He’s the main Crypter of the chapter and is a bad guy. But Pepe?

Scandinavia “Pepe” Peperoncino dying in this chapter is a huge loss for FGO. He was by far the best character among the Crypters. And, in case you’re wondering why I’m using male pronouns for Pepe, it’s because I’m guessing. I don’t remember what pronouns he uses. But, I feel like he used male pronouns. If he didn’t, sorry.

Anyway, Pepe gave his life to both save us and weaken Beryl before our final fight with him. Pepe took on a bunch of curses and then passed those curses onto Beryl. And even though he passed the curses to Beryl, the damage to Pepe’s body was already done.

Scandinavia "Pepe" Peperoncino afflicted with curses from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Scandinavia “Pepe” Peperoncino afflicted with curses

Beryl, while not being as good as Pepe, was still an interesting character. Technically speaking this was the third time Beryl died. First, he died during the Foreign God’s attack. Second, he died when Morgan rewrote the Lostbelt to make herself queen. And third, he died when we had Mash bash his face in with her shield.

The number of times Beryl died isn’t what made him interesting, though. What made him interesting was how broken he was and how that made him different from the other Crypters. The others all have some redeemable qualities. Beryl doesn’t.

He doesn’t care about anyone. To an extent, he doesn’t even care about himself. Dying isn’t something he fears. Though, he doesn’t want to die because then he can’t continue to torture others for fun. That’s who Beryl is. So, of all the Crypters, defeating him is the most satisfying.

End of the Era of the High Queen

I was going to include a section of this review on the fall of Londinium. But, this review has been in progress for so long that I don’t remember what I was going to write about that. So, let’s jump into the good stuff, the boss battles.

It probably doesn’t surprise you that there was one boss battle in this chapter I had a bit of trouble with. But, what might surprise you is that it wasn’t Cernunnos. No, the hardest boss battle for me was against High Queen Morgan.

You can see my starting party composition in the image below. But, the full team was Enkidu, Koyanskaya of Light, Caster Altria (NPC), Himiko, Jack the Ripper, and Merlin. And even with this team of SSR servants, it took me three attempts to take down Morgan.

Battle against High Queen Morgan from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Battle against High Queen Morgan

For the majority of boss battles in FGO, there’s usually an optimal servant or composition to use. I don’t know what that was for this fight against Morgan. I thought I had a pretty good game plan going into the fight. And yet, I needed RNG to go my way to win the fight.

I’m sure with enough time, I could have planned out a better team to use. After all, I haven’t heard others say this fight was overly hard. So, it must be a me issue and not an issue with the difficulty of the fight itself.

But, if you’ve completed Lostbelt 6, let me know if this fight gave you trouble. It could be that this fight does give a lot of people trouble, but that it gets overshadowed by Cernunnos. But, as you’ll see soon enough, I had a pretty solid team going into that high-difficulty battle.

Calamity of the Flame, Albion

The most unique boss battle in the chapter was against Calamity of the Flame, Albion. Unfortunately, this was also the easiest boss battle. And, as you’ll see in the image below, I used my tried and true invincible team of Himiko, Merlin, and Altria Caster.

So, what makes this boss battle unique? Well, it’s the only boss battle with a unique mechanic built in. The fight takes place on top of Chaldea’s ship (I forget the name), and you have to protect it from Albion’s NP attacks.

If the ship’s HP bar drops to 0, you lose. And the only way to protect the ship from taking damage is by using Altria Caster’s NP on the same turn Albion does. No using Merlin’s invincibility to save the ship. It has to be Altria Caster’s NP.

Battle against the Calamity of the Flame: Albion from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Battle against the Calamity of the Flame: Albion

What if you don’t have Altria Caster? Well, you’re forced to use the NPC version of her for this fight. So, not having her isn’t an issue. The only issue you could run into is not having her NP available on the right turn. But, with the team I used, that’s never a problem.

If you use Himiko, Merlin, and Altria Caster, you’ll always have Altria Caster’s NP available when you need it. And, thanks to Himiko’s NP, Altria Caster’s NP will continue to protect the rest of your party. By the time her defenses go away, it’s time to fire off the next round of NPs.

Oh, and I guess I should briefly explain how this team works. Basically, every time you use your party’s NPs, you do so all together. Use Himiko’s, Merlin’s, and then Altria Caster’s. This will help you make the most of each of their NP effects.

Calamity of the Beast, Barghest

The fight against the Calamity of the Beast, Barghest, was a bit better than the Albion fight. It wasn’t as easy, which is good. But, it also severely limits your party formation. You have to bring an NPC Lancelot, NPC Gawain, and NPC Mash. Oh, and you only get 5 slots total.

I don’t remember if Mash has to be in your starting lineup (she was in mine). But, either way, you only get two other slots to work with. So, my lineup had Mash, Lancelot, and Altria Caster in the front and (Summer) Altria Archer and Gawain in the back.

If you have (Summer) Altria Archer, she makes this fight pretty simple. Chloe von Eisbern probably works well too since she fills the same niche. But, (Summer) Altria Archer has higher stats and some healing, which helps in longer fights.

Calamity of the Beast: Barghest from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Calamity of the Beast: Barghest

I’m a fan of harder fights. So, the Barghest fight being harder than the Albion fight is good. But, there are good ways of making fights hard and there are bad ways. Restricting party formation with forced NPCs is a bad way of making fights hard.

That’s not to say that party restrictions are always bad, though. One of the Halloween events had a fun party-restriction formation mechanic. In some fights, you could only bring male, female, or servants with some other trait. That kind of restriction forces players to utilize servants they may typically neglect. It makes things more interesting.

Another way of making boss fights hard is to give them powerful buffs and debuffs. For example, the team I used against Albion hates frequent, party-wide buff removal. That team also can’t beat the Morgan fight (I tried). But, that’s good. A single team shouldn’t be able to win in every situation.

Calamity of the Curse, Cernunnos

Most players seem to agree that the hardest boss fight in the game (up to this point) is against Cernunnos. But, as I’ve already gone over, I don’t agree with that. Cernunnos wasn’t really that bad.

I beat Cernunnos on my first try and even had a turn or two to spare. But, I also had a bit of an advantage. You see, because Cernunnos was such a hard fight, it was popular for Japanese server players to make videos of it. And because of that, I already knew the gimmick of the fight before going into it.

Other than the Cernunnos fight, I only knew a few other story spoilers. That was the only battle I had prior knowledge of in this chapter. So, it’s no surprise that it was also a battle I was prepared for.

Battle against the Calamity of the Curse: Cernunnos from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Battle against the Calamity of the Curse: Cernunnos

My party composition was Yang Guifei, Altria Caster (x2), Merlin, Mash, and Enkidu. That’s a pretty powerful team. But, it doesn’t stop there. There were other preparations I made for this fight.

One preparation was that all of Yang Guifei’s cards have burn or burn damage CCs attached. That lets me hit for special damage more consistently with her NP. Another was that I equipped her with a max-limit broken copy of Honey Lake. That increases her damage against burned enemies by an additional 40%.

My Altria Caster (NP3) had a max-limit broken (level 100) copy of Prisma Cosmos, which is standard for me. Merlin had a max-limit broken (level 100) copy of Kaleidoscope. And, Enkidu (NP2) had a max-limit broken (level 100) version of Aerial Drive.

Merlin also has debuff cleansing CCs on all of his cards, given to him as a joke for a previous CQ. But, they come in handy often.

Abyssal Worm, Oberon

One of the plot points I already knew going into this chapter was that Oberon was the true villain. But, I didn’t know how exactly that reveal would happen. Normally, I don’t care much about story chapter spoilers. But, in this case, I think it made a difference.

Because I knew Oberon would be revealed to be the bad guy, I was anticipating it happening for the whole chapter. I kept wondering, “When is the reveal going to happen?” And, all the while, the end of the chapter was getting closer and closer.

There are hints along the way, to be sure. But, the actual reveal doesn’t come until the final section of the story. So, if you didn’t know it was coming, I’m sure it would be a fun twist. Unfortunately, for someone like me who did know it was coming, the last-minute reveal felt rushed.

The Abyssal Worm from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
The Abyssal Worm

Not very much about Oberon being the bad guy was explained within the chapter. We know he’s the “Abyssal Worm” and his goal is to destroy everything. He hates Fairy Britain and wants to see it come to an end. And he hates the rest of the world, too.

But, from what I remember, it was never explained that Oberon is also Vortigern. Oberon mentioned Vortigern as an evil king pretty early on in the story. But, it’s not brought up again during his big reveal at the end. His true identity isn’t revealed unless you summon him (and level him up).

Anyway, what about the fight against Oberon? It wasn’t anything special. You’re forced to use NPC Altria Caster and NPC Mash. So, I brought along Merlin, as well, and didn’t have any trouble. Altria Caster and Mash are both great servants. Bring whoever else you want.

Cosmos Denial

In the end, Chaldea denies the British Lostbelt just like any other. Even the appearance of the Abyssal Worm doesn’t change that. Yes, it meant we had to jump through an extra hoop. But, the same could be said about Lostbelt 5 when Chaos showed up at the end.

At least this time around we weren’t denied any major boss fights. We actually got to fight all three Tam Lin, Morgan, Cernunnos, and Oberon. In Atlantis, we never got to fight Odysseus. And in Olympus, we never got to fight Chaos.

Anyway, after defeating Oberon we’re one step closer to saving proper human history. And, of everyone we’ve fought so far, Oberon was the most dangerous to humanity. All the Lostbelt kings wanted their own realities to take over. But, at least they wanted some version of human history to exist.

Oberon Vortigern after being defeated by Chaldea from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 6 - Avalon le Fae
Oberon Vortigern after being defeated by Chaldea

Oberon is different. He didn’t want Fairy Britain to take over as the new proper history. He wanted history as we know it to cease. In that sense, he’s even more dangerous to humanity than a force like Chaos is. At least humanity can technically exist alongside Chaos.

And, what about Koyanskaya and the Foreign God? Well, we’ll learn more about Koyanskaya’s motivations in the next story chapter. But, she doesn’t want the complete collapse of the world. She just hates humans in particular. And the Foreign God is still a bit of an unknown. However, the implication is that it needs humanity on some level to exist.

I wanted to mention all of this to lead into my main point, though. It’s weird that Oberon joins Chaldea. Like, some version of Oberon joining Chaldea via the Throne of Heroes makes sense. But, the version we get is Oberon Vortigern, the villain.

Conclusion

Everyone said that Lostbelt 6 – Avalon le Fae was the best story chapter up to this point. And, I’m going to have to agree with that sentiment. It really did everything right. It had the best story of the Lostbelts and also had some great (high-difficulty) battles.

Olympus had some better fights that required a bit more ingenuity to beat. But, at the same time, the servant pool was shallower back then. It’s not like we had a servant as broken as Altria Caster to bring to every fight, let alone being forced on us every fight.

Looking forward, I know very little about the next few story chapters. I haven’t been keeping up with things recently. So, hopefully, that will make reading and playing through the stories more fun. What I do know is that the next chapter is another .5 chapter, like Heian-kyo, that focuses on Koyanskaya.

And, my plan is to review that chapter much sooner after I complete it than I did for this one.

Anyway, if you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Tunguska Sanctuary is available now.

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Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 5.5 – Heian-kyo

Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 5.5 – Heian-kyo

Naraka Mandala Heian-kyo

Naraka Mandala Heian-kyo is the story chapter after Olympus in Fate/Grand Order. So, does that make it the 6th Lostbelt? Well, no. It is a Lostbelt. But, it’s also a Singularity. And it’s a Pseudo-Singularity. Basically, it’s complicated.

The chapter starts off as a Singularity, which is weird. There haven’t been any Singularities since Part 2 began. But, whatever. Even though the world as we knew it no longer exists, we have to shut down this Singularity before it gets worse. So, we suit up to rayshift.

Lostbelt No 5.5 - Naraka Mandala Heian-kyo from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Lostbelt No 5.5 – Naraka Mandala Heian-kyo

Immediately, we run into trouble. Mash and Fuuma don’t make the jump, leaving us with Danzou as our only servant. That’s right, this is the first story chapter of the game without Mash. I assume you can still bring her into battle, though. I didn’t actually test that out.

Oh, and why didn’t Mash make it into the Singularity? Because this is actually a Pseudo-Singularity created by Caster of Limbo, of course. As Admiral Ackbar would say, “it’s a trap!”

Heian warrior Sakata Kintoki from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Heian warrior Sakata Kintoki

But, here’s the thing. I don’t think Heian-kyo was a very good chapter. The story wasn’t that good. And I didn’t think we got enough fights against each of the enemies. A powerful enemy would be introduced, we’d fight them once, and then we’d move on.

While that did lead to a variety of fights in the chapter, it left the antagonists feeling lackluster. The story wasn’t set up to be a boss rush like Olympus. So, without building up the enemies, the chapter felt like it was missing something.

With that said, I did like the overall cast of this chapter. Kintoki’s a fun character and I love Shuten and Ibaraki (both Bond 10). Also, Watanabe-no-Tsuna is pretty cool.

Shimousa Part 2

If you’re a newer player, you may have skipped Part 1.5 of the game. That includes the 4 Pseudo-Singularities: Shinjuku, Agartha, Shimousa, and Salem. Well, if you did, you should probably go back and play those before playing Heian-kyo.

Actually, you should have played them before playing Olympus. Musashi was one of the main characters in that chapter. And her storyline was set up back in Shimousa. But, completing Shimousa is even more important for Heian-kyo.

I’m pretty sure that was the first time we met Caster of Limbo, the main antagonist of this chapter. And, in a lot of ways, Heian-kyo is like Shimousa Part 2.

Watanabe-no-Tsuna vs. Sakata Kintoki from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Watanabe-no-Tsuna vs. Sakata Kintoki

One way Heian-kyo is like Shimousa is in how boss battles are done. They take place in the same realm as the boss battles from Shimousa. But, this time around, you aren’t stuck with an NPC Musashi as your supporter.

To make up for that, though, I decided to give myself a challenge. I brought the Kintoki NPC (or another NPC if he wasn’t available) to every single battle of the chapter. No double Castoria for me.

Fight against Watanabe-no-Tsuna and Medea Lily from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Fight against Watanabe-no-Tsuna and Medea Lily

The team you see pictured here is the team I used for the majority of the chapter. Its premise is simple: keep Kintoki alive so he can decimate everything in his path. And the reason why this strategy works so well is because of Kintoki’s NPC CE. He starts with 50% NP charge and has +50% NP gain.

In almost every scenario, you can either take out the biggest enemy or break their first bar on turn 1 with Kintoki. He has a 50% NP battery skill. So, you can fire off his NP on turn 1 of every battle. No enemy stands a chance.

Douman’s Eight General Gods

Okay, so I know I said that this chapter wasn’t a boss rush. But, that’s only partly true. It actually sets itself up to be a boss rush like Olympus. In Olympus, we fought the Mechanical Gods and Heian-kyo, it was the Eight General Gods.

However, the Eight General Gods differ from the Mechanical Gods in 2 major ways. The first of these is their appearance. Despite what you’ll see in the picture below, the Eight General Gods aren’t unique boss enemies. They were summoned using servants as vessels.

That means we don’t get to fight giant monsters with unique attack patterns and skills. We fight servants like Suzuka Gozen and Tawara Touta. That makes these fights way less interesting. Sure, they’re stronger than usual. But, they’re not on the same level as the Mechanical Gods.

Ashiya Douman and the Eight General Gods from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Ashiya Douman and the Eight General Gods

The second issue with the Eight General Gods is that some of them are real characters. What do I mean by that? Well, while some of them take the form of servants we already know, others are entirely new servants. I’ll talk about them more later, but these are Taira-no-Kagekiyo and Ibuki-Douji.

Since these new servants were introduced in this story chapter, they’re actual characters. They don’t just show up and get defeated like Suzuka and Tawara. There’s some build-up for them before the fights. We learn about their backstories and what makes them such formidable opponents.

That’s good, though, right? Well, it could have been. The issue is still that we only got one “difficult” fight against each of them. So, there’s all this build-up, and then Kintoki smacks them with his NP and it’s over. At least, that’s how I beat Kagekiyo. I would have liked to see more from these characters.

The Genji Killer

Taira-no-Kagekiyo, also known as the Genji Killer, is the first of the new enemy servants. She’s an older version of Ushiwakamaru who appears as an Avenger. What is she taking vengeance against? The Genji clan, including our allies Kintoki, Tsuna, and Raikou.

I have some mixed feelings about her backstory. On one hand, she’s a cool character and I liked how she came into the story as the natural enemy of the Genji clan. But, her backstory also included a lot of Japanese historical figures.

I guess if you’re Japanese, you know who all these people are. But, there were a bunch of old guys with really long, similar names that kept being mentioned. I couldn’t keep track of it all. So, a lot of the stuff with her went right over my head.

Fight against Taira-no-Kagekiyo from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Fight against Taira-no-Kagekiyo

The fight against Kagekiyo wasn’t very interesting. Because of her backstory, I figured we’d have to fight her a bunch of times over the course of the chapter. And I thought she’d be stronger each time to give us a new challenge. That’s not the case.

You can easily defeat her using the same team I used for the first half or two-thirds of the chapter. As long as you keep Kintoki alive, you’ll have no trouble taking down Kagekiyo.

Taira-no-Kagekiyo defeated from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Taira-no-Kagekiyo defeated

Oh, and speaking of Kintoki being able to destroy almost every boss in the game, I need to mention something I hate. Heian-kyo wasn’t the first chapter to do this. But, I hate when I decisively defeat an enemy, and then my allies are talking about how they lost the fight.

There were so many times I destroyed an enemy on turn 1 with Kintoki’s NP. And then, after the fight, Kintoki comments on how he was the one defeated.

Ibuki-Douji Descends From the Mountain

Ibuki-Douji is the overwhelmingly powerful enemy of Lostbelt 5.5. And when I say that, I mean based on her lore. She’s supposed to be a combination of Shuten-Douji and a god of nature. She’s a divine servant — and not one who’s only a little divine.

I guess you could compare her appearance to when Surtr appeared in Lostbelt 2. They’re both ancient, powerful beings that we should stand no chance against. I’d also put Atlas from Olympus in the same category, even though we didn’t get to fight him.

Ibuki-Douji appears from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Ibuki-Douji appears

Unfortunately, Ibuki-Douji has less build-up than Kagekiyo. But, at the same time, I can kind of understand it. It’s not like Surtr had any build-up, either. Still, I would have liked her to be a bit more involved in the story before her defeat. She’s connected to Shuten, one of the main characters of the chapter, after all.

Anyway, it was the Ibuki-Douji fight where I finally switched up my team composition. I still brought the NPC Kintoki to every fight. But, starting here, I moved him to the backline. Why try to keep Kintoki alive when I could use a team that just doesn’t take any damage?

Fight against Ibuki-Douji from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Fight against Ibuki-Douji

I’m pretty sure Ibuki-Douji was supposed to be the hardest boss fight in the chapter. But, even she can’t do anything against the combined power of Himiko, Castoria, and Merlin. If the enemy doesn’t have a way to consistently remove buffs, they can’t get through this team.

The strategy is simple. You use Himiko’s NP, Merlin’s NP, and Castoria’s NP in that order whenever possible. This protects your servants, cleanses their debuffs, generates stars, and buffs their attack. Then, while you’re taking no damage, Himiko destroys the enemy with her Buster crits.

It’s broken.

From Singularity to Lostbelt

Now seems like a good time to dive a bit more into the whole Singularity to Lostbelt thing. So, from the Pseudo-Singularities, we know that Limbo can create Singularities. Well, we know he can create Pseudo-Singularities. So, that’s what he did here.

And why did he choose for this Pseudo-Singularity to take place in Heian-kyo? Because that’s where Ashiya Douman, Limbo’s vessel, is from. I’m pretty sure servants get power boosts when within their original time-space. So, Limbo is stronger than normal here. Also, he already has political power in Heian-kyo.

The Heian-kyo Tree of Emptiness blooming from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
The Heian-kyo Tree of Emptiness blooming

So, what about turning this singularity into a Lostbelt? As a disciple of the Foreign God, Limbo knows all about Trees of Emptiness. And with that knowledge, he was able to create his own Pseudo-Tree of Emptiness. However, Limbo’s Tree of Emptiness isn’t connected to the Foreign God.

Instead, he plans to use the Tree’s power to turn himself into another Foreign God. Why serve the Foreign God when he could become a Foreign God and serve himself? This means two of the three Foreign God disciples have betrayed the Foreign God at this point.

Raikou, Ibaraki, Danzou, Shuten, and Tsuna from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Raikou, Ibaraki, Danzou, Shuten, and Tsuna

Overall, Limbo had a good plan. And he almost succeeded in it. But, he made one vital mistake. He invited us into his Pseudo-Lostbelt. Without us there, he likely would have won. But, he wanted revenge on Chaldea for ruining his plans in Shimousa.

Oh, and I guess I should mention the whole Casters-only Holy Grail War he set up in his Lostbelt. Do you know why he did that? It’s so the other masters would think we were a Caster servant (which they did) and kill us. Honestly, that was kind of genius even though it didn’t work out as intended.

Cutting Down the Caster of Limbo

The final fight against Limbo has a gimmick that could definitely make it difficult. During the fight, Limbo will apply a delayed debuff to all your servants. I believe it causes your servants to die after 3 turns.

Golden Huge Bear from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Golden Huge Bear

But, we also have Golden Huge Bear on our side in this fight. Its skills replace your normal Mystic Code skills. And one of its skills, which have reduced cooldowns, cleanses the party’s debuffs. Still, you probably want another debuff cleanser for this fight.

Of course, as you can see from the image below, I didn’t have any trouble with this fight. Castoria has a party-wide debuff cleanse on her NP. So, keeping my servants safe from Limbo’s curse wasn’t hard. This screenshot was also taken moments before Himiko finished Limbo off.

Fight against the Caster of Limbo from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Fight against the Caster of Limbo

If you read my review of the Atlantis chapter, you may recall I complained about the difficulty. That chapter came out pre-Castoria and I was still able to beat every fight thanks to Jeanne. I think only 1 enemy in the whole chapter had pierce invulnerability or buff removal.

The same problem exists for Heian-kyo. But, it’s not quite as pronounced. There are enemies who can pierce invulnerability or remove buffs. But, these effects aren’t prominent enough to be able to stop Castoria. Thanks to her, there needs to be a lot more NP/skill seal, buff removal, and nullify buff effects for content to be hard.

Caster of Limbo's final attack from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Caster of Limbo’s final attack

Challenge Quests and NeroFest/BiNY Exhibition Quests force you to build unique teams. Sometimes this is due to mechanics you have to build a team to fight against. Other times it’s due to limitations on the servants you can bring. Either way, more story content should do this.

Malice Severed — Golden Finish

I’m not going to say that Heian-kyo was the worst Lostbelt chapter. And that’s not because it technically isn’t a Lostbelt chapter — it counts as a Main Interlude. It’s because it’s still better than Atlantis. But, I’m going to say it’s my second least favorite chapter in Part 2.

Heian-kyo had better characters than Atlantis. It had a better story. And it had better boss fights, even if you can still beat them without taking any damage. However, compared to the other Lostbelt chapters, Heian-kyo was disappointing.

It also didn’t really feel like a main story chapter. There could be a few reasons for this. For example, the fact that Mash wasn’t there. Instead, we had Danzou as our Chaldean companion. And, unlike the other Lostbelt chapters, this one came out of nowhere. It wasn’t a pre-established part of the Cosmos in the Lostbelt story.

Malice Severed ending screen from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order
Malice Severed

Building on the fact that it didn’t feel like a main story chapter, that also means Limbo’s defeat felt a bit hollow. I liked how we defeated Limbo. It was cool, especially when he got cut down while attempting to bring us down one last time.

But, it felt like a villain got killed off in the straight-to-VHS sequel of a blockbuster film. Maybe that’s how it had to happen, though. There are only 2 Lostbelts left and a lot of loose ends to tie up. And considering how long I know Lostbelts 6 and 7 are, there likely wasn’t room for Limbo’s story.

What could this mean for the Foreign God and her other disciples, though? Are they all going to get satisfying endings by the time Lostbelt 7 is over? I have a feeling there’s going to be another chapter after that, similar to how Solomon was.

Conclusion

Have you finished the Heian-kyo Lostbelt? How did you feel about it? Do you agree with my assessment of the chapter, or do you think it was better than I claim? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on your social media of choice — links are in the footer. And, come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi for supporting this blog at the Heika and Senpai tiers this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Lostbelt 6 – Avalon le Fae is available now.

Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 5 – Olympus

Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 5 – Olympus

Interstellar Mountainous City, Olympus

As you’re most likely aware, Olympus is the second chapter of the Fifth Lostbelt from Fate/Grand Order Part 2. The first chapter of this Lostbelt was Atlantis. And, that makes Lostbelt No. 5 the first Lostbelt to have more than one chapter.

If you read my review of the Atlantis chapter, you’ll be well aware that I thought it was the worst Lostbelt chapter. Luckily, Olympus completely redeems Lostbelt No. 5. It wasn’t the best chapter in every aspect. But, I’m pretty confident in saying it’s the best chapter as a whole (so far).

Lostbelt No. 5 - Interstellar Mountainous City, Olympus from the anime game Fate/Grand Order
Lostbelt No. 5 – Interstellar Mountainous City, Olympus

When compared to Atlantis, Olympus is better in every single way. The characters are better, the story is better, the fights are better, and even the music is better.

And, what seals Atlantis’ fate is that wouldn’t say it adds to Olympus in any meaningful way. Sure, we take down Artemis and Poseidon in Atlantis. But, if you move those fights into Olympus, you can cut out Atlantis without hurting Olympus.

In case you forgot, none of our ally servants from Atlantis survived into Olympus. So cutting their stories out completely doesn’t matter for Olympus’ plot. And even the setting of this chapter is different too.

The Servants We Never Got

If there’s one thing I hate about Olympus, it’s that the character designs were too good. There were some characters with amazing designs that aren’t summonable as servants. I’m talking, of course, about the Machine Gods in humanoid form.

First up, we have Zeus, the Lostbelt king. Lostbelt No. 5 is the first Lostbelt in which the Lostbelt king isn’t a summonable servant. We got Ivan the Terrible, Scathach-Skadi, Qin Shi Huang, and Arjuna Alter. But we don’t get Zeus because he’s a god.

Zeus in humanoid form from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt

The next character we didn’t get as a servant is Aphrodite. This is for the same reason we didn’t get Zeus; she’s a god. As much as I would like to have Aphrodite as a summonable servant, I’m least upset about her. Why? Because her design is Circe x Suzuka Gozen, and I already have both of them.

Aphrodite in humanoid form from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt

Finally, we have the character I’m most upset we didn’t get, Demeter. Believe me when I say I would have whaled for Demeter. I can’t think of another character whose design I like more than hers. And on top of that, she’s a Caster, which is my favorite Class.

Demeter in humanoid form from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt

If you’re wondering why we can’t summon these gods as servants but can summon others, there’s a lore reason. Pseudo-servants like Europa are fair game. Divine servants like Dioscuri are fair game. But literal gods are not. And that’s why we can’t summon the Machine Gods of Zeus, Aphrodite, and Demeter.

But, of course, we could summon them by using a simple loophole. We could say that their humanoid and Machine God versions are distinct. That would solve the lore issue.

Evil of Humanity Hoard

I’m going a little out of chronological order here, but I want to discuss Tamamo Vitch Koyanskaya now. Koyanskaya has been one of the main antagonists throughout Part 2. And, 6 chapters into the part, we finally get to fight her.

We don’t defeat Koyanskaya once and for all here. But, she does serve as a boss of Olympus. And considering how important she is to the story, I figured I should dedicate a section of the review to her.

So, we learn that Koyanskaya isn’t one of the Foreign God’s disciples. Up until this point, we’d assumed that to be the case. But, it turns out that Foreign God’s 3 disciples (servants) are Rasputin, Limbo, and Muramasa.

Koyanskaya is something different. All we know right now is that rather than serving under the Foreign God, she’s a business partner of the Foreign God. And on top of that, she doesn’t care what happens to the Lostbelts.

Mash, Tamamo, and Jeanne vs. Beast of Taming from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Mash, Tamamo, and Jeanne vs. Beast of Taming

As for the fight against Koyanskaya, called the “Beast of Taming,” it’s pretty simple. I used my classic Mash/Tamamo/Jeanne team, as you can see from the screenshot above. By the end of the fight, all 3 of those servants were still standing.

If you’re having trouble with this fight, there’s an easy way to beat it. All you have to do is bring Casters and have some way to clear her debuffs. Koyanskaya does almost no damage to Casters. I’m pretty sure I could have soloed this fight with my Merlin that has Code: Cure command codes on all his face cards.

And in case you’re wondering, I put those on him as a joke for the Yang Guifei Challenge Quest. But, it turned out to be very effective.

The Day to Bring Down Gods

This next part of the review is going to be all about the 3 boss battles against the Machine Gods. But, before I get into those fights, I’d like to brag for a moment.

Olympus is often said to have the hardest boss fights of any chapter up to this point. And yet, including in the Koyanskaya fight, I didn’t use any command seals. That’s right, even for the infamous Demeter fight.

While I am bringing that up to brag, I’m also bringing it up to say that you can do it too. These fights are going to seem tough at first. But, if you plan for them, they’re not that bad.

Also, I’m not including the various Dioscuri fights or the Europa fight in this review. Those are more like mini-bosses and you should be able to figure out how to beat them.

Demeter (ΔΗΜΗΤΗΡ)

Demeter is the hardest boss in Olympus. I’ll admit that. And, I’ll even admit that I had to retry this fight a few times before beating it. But, it was also the only boss fight of the chapter that took me more than one attempt.

If you’ve been playing FGO for at least a year, you likely have everything you need to beat Demeter as I did. I didn’t use any SSR servants. And the only SR servants I used were the forced support Caenis and 2 free servants from events.

Paracelsus, Ryouma, and Caenis made up my front line (shown below). In the back, I had Hans, Asclepius, and Santa Nightingale. I also used the Chaldea Combat Uniform as my Mystic Code.

Paracelsus, Ryouma, and Caenis vs. Demeter from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Paracelsus, Ryouma, and Caenis vs. Demeter

This team didn’t work as intended for me (because my teams generally don’t). But, despite that, I still managed to win. So, let’s look at the basic idea behind this team. That way, you’ll be able to make a similar one with your resources.

I chose Ryouma as my primary damage dealer for a very simple reason. All my SSR Riders either have AoE or support Noble Phantasms. Ryouma is my best single-target Rider. If you have him, he should be at NP5.

Paracelsus and Hans were there to help Ryouma loop his NP, which he did very well. Asclepius keeps Ryouma alive. And Santa Nightingale didn’t do her job. I intended for her to prevent Ryouma’s buffs from getting removed. But, at level 8, her buff removal resist skill failed during my successful run.

Aphrodite (ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗ)

After I beat Demeter with relative ease, the Aphrodite battle worried me. Everyone said the Demeter fight was the hardest. But, Aphrodite seemed like she would be more of a challenge for me. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a screenshot of my team before this battle. So, I don’t remember who my support servant was. If this was another forced support battle, then you know who I used. If not, I doubt they mattered too much.

Sitonai, Tamamo, and Asclepius vs. Aphrodite from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Sitonai, Tamamo, and Asclepius vs. Aphrodite

The servants I brought to the fight were Sitonai, Tamamo, Asclepius, Hans, and Enkidu. The basic idea of this team was to use Sitonai as my primary damage dealer, with most of the team supporting her. Enkidu was in the final slot to clean up at the end.

If you’re wondering why I chose Sitonai and Enkidu as my damage dealers, allow me to explain. Casters have a low attack multiplier. Also, there aren’t many single-target Casters. And, as far as I remember, every single-target Caster is a buster servant.

So, I opted for Sitonai instead because she still has some class advantage over Assassins. And on top of that, as an arts servant, I could support her very well with Tamamo.

Enkidu is a great backline servant. But, what makes him good for this fight, in particular, is that his NP has anti-divine damage. Aphrodite is a god, so she has the divine trait.

Zeus (ΖΕΥΣ)

For the Zeus fight, I also don’t remember the full team I used. But, I do know 4 of the 6 servants. They were Space Ishtar, Mash, and Tamamo in the front, and the forced support Romulus=Quirinus in the back.

By the end of the fight, I had Space Ishtar, Mash, and Romulus=Quirinus in the front. So, I’m guessing I lost Tamamo and whoever the other two backline servants were. That’s not too bad, though, considering this is one of the major boss fights.

But, I don’t want to discuss the actual fight against Zeus here. It wasn’t a very eventful battle, as you can tell from my remaining servants. What’s more interesting is everything surrounding this battle.

Machine God Zeus from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Machine God Zeus

Zeus is an intimidating opponent, and I liked that about him. Sure, he made the classic mistake of sending the other gods to fight us one by one. They could have wiped us out if they came all at once. But, he’s still a cool Lostbelt king, so I’ll forgive him for that.

Something I haven’t seen other people bring up about this fight is that we summoned 2 Grand servants for it. Everyone remembers Romulus=Quirinus as the Grand Lancer. But we summoned Ares too. And from what I remember, it said he was the Grand Saber.

Of course, there’s not only one Grand servant in each class. Even though we summoned Ares as the Grand Saber here doesn’t mean we won’t see a different Grand Saber later. The Grand designation means that they’re the “perfect” servant for the particular situation.

Oh, and we summoned a literal Machine God here. So why can’t we get my beloved Demeter as a servant?

We’re Here to Kill Chaos

Memes about killing Chaos aside, I was very concerned when Chaos appeared. I wasn’t concerned about there being a difficult boss battle against Chaos. I knew I could kill Chaos if it came down to it. No, what concerned me was this “ancient enemy” appearing out of nowhere at the end.

That’s a trope I’ve never liked.

But, despite that, I did think the appearance of Chaos was pretty cool. I mean, it’s a giant, fiery eye staring down at us from a tear in space-time. That’s crazier than when Sutr crawled out of the Sun in Lostbelt No. 2.

Of course, I wish I could have had the chance to fight against Chaos. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that chance. And I doubt I’ll ever get that chance because of what happened to it.

Miyamoto Musashi sending Chaos into the void from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Miyamoto Musashi sending Chaos into the void

Musashi pulled a Charlotte Corday and stole an epic boss battle from us. But, I’ll forgive her because Musashi’s sacrifice was the coolest part of the chapter. If that didn’t get you hyped, nothing will. I kind of want to go back and rewatch it now.

Also, a neat fact you may not know is that after this point, Musashi is “erased” from the game. When playing FGO, navigate to My Room, then Material, and then Spirit Origin List. Here, you’ll see a database of all the servants you’ve come across.

After Musashi sacrifices herself, you’ll notice that entries 153 and 261 now say “Data Lost.” Those IDs correspond to Musashi and Summer Musashi.

A Battle Among Equals

After we defeat Zeus and Musashi sends Chaos to the Shadow Realm, Kirschtaria Wodime shows up. It turns out that he’s been using everyone else this entire time. He’s no friend of Zeus and also isn’t working on behalf of the Foreign God.

Instead, Wodime tricked both of them so that he could use Olympus’ Tree of Emptiness to summon a servant. That servant is the titan Atlas. Wodime’s summoning of Atlas was kind of thwarted, though. So, he then chooses to have a friendly bout of fisticuffs with us.

At this point in the chapter, I decided I was going to have fun with the final battles. In the first fight against Wodime and Caenis, I used a team built around Elizabeth Bathory (Brave). I did the same for the final Caenis fight. Why? Because Brave Eli-chan is fun.

Euryale and Mash after defeating Kirschtaria Wodime from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Euryale and Mash after defeating Kirschtaria Wodime

Now, you may have some questions after looking at the above image. That’s the result of the fight that’s against Wodime himself. And yes, I 3-turned the fight.

So, you may be familiar with the fact that you can solo this Wodime fight with Mash. I considered doing that because it seemed kind of fun. But, then I saw someone else do something that seemed like more fun. I saw someone 3-turn Wodime with Euryale.

In case you don’t know, Euryale is one of my all-time favorite servants. So, I didn’t have any choice in the matter. I had to do it too.

This isn’t a team I made myself, but I don’t care. I used a team that looked fun, and it was. The team was Euryale, Mash, Santa Nightingale, Reines (I may have added her), and double Tamamo.

The Foreign God Descends

I’m pretty confident in saying that nobody predicted Chaos would show up. But, I also didn’t predict that the Foreign God was going to descend at the end of Olympus either. Yes, that was the whole point of the Olympus Lostbelt. But, I didn’t think it would happen.

I figured we wouldn’t learn anything about the Foreign God until Lostbelt 7. But, no. The Foreign God is here in the flesh. And by “the flesh,” I mean Olga Marie Animusphere’s flesh. Even if you predicted the Foreign God would descend, you couldn’t have predicted that.

And the weirdest part is that the Foreign God calls themself Olga Marie. It’s not that they look like Olga Marie. They are Olga Marie. So, what’s going on here?

The Foreign God (Olga Marie Animusphere) from the anime game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
The Foreign God (Olga Marie Animusphere)

Okay, so saying the Foreign God is Olga Marie may be a little inaccurate. I mean, they are Olga Marie. But, they don’t seem to be the same Olga Marie we knew from Chaldea. There’s some connection between the two, though.

At first, I thought that Olga Marie could have been setting this all up from the start. What if the whole purpose of Chaldea was to summon the Foreign God to Earth? What if Olga Marie knew about all the Singularities, Pseudo-Singularities, and Lostbelts?

This could have all been part of her plan to summon the Foreign God in her own body.

That theory still seems possible. But, then I also thought what if the opposite was true? What if the Foreign God was the one controlling Olga Marie and setting this all up? That kind of makes more sense.

Cosmos Denial

In the end, I enjoyed Lostbelt No. 5 – Olympus a lot. As I already mentioned, everything about it was better than Atlantis. Sure, the part where we have a meal with Europa and the two “kids” was unnecessary. But other than that I liked it.

I know a lot of people say that Lostbelt No. 6 is even better than 5. I hope that’s true. And I hope its chapters are more like Olympus than Atlantis.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime (and FGO) with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting this blog at the Heika and Senpai tiers this month. To learn how you too can become a supporter of DoubleSama.com, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the Heian-kyo chapter is available now.

Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 5 – Atlantis

Fate/Grand Order: Lostbelt No. 5 – Atlantis

Ancient Ocean of the Dreadnought Gods

I hope you’re ready for a long review because I have a lot to say about Lostbelt No. 5 – Atlantis. I also hope you’ve already played through Atlantis, because I’m going to be spoiling just about everything in it.

Now, I want to get something controversial out of the way right here at the start of the review. I think Atlantis was the worst Lostbelt chapter in Fate/Grand Order so far. It’s also not even a close competition for that title. This is definitively the worst chapter.

Lostbelt No. 5 - Ancient Ocean of the Dreadnought Gods, Atlantis from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Lostbelt No. 5 – Ancient Ocean of the Dreadnought Gods, Atlantis

However, I do realize that Lostbelt 5 isn’t finished yet. Atlantis is only the first half. The second half, Olympus, is going to release some time in April or May if I’m not mistaken. And, yes, I’m expecting Olympus to actually be good based on what I know of it so far.

It’s kind of disappointing that I feel this way about Atlantis, though. I really enjoy ancient Greece. In university, I studied ancient Mediterranean history (Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East). And if you’re wondering, my area of focus was on how these cultures influenced each other’s art with their own.

But, anyway, I had high hopes for Atlantis based on the subject matter. And, unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations for a number of reasons. I think the characters, plot, and gameplay of this story chapter were all sub-par.

Servants of Proper Human History

I can’t think of all the friendly servants we’ve partied up with throughout the Lostbelts so far. But, I don’t think any previous Lostbelt had characters I disliked as much as Atlantis did. I don’t think every character in Atlantis is bad, though.

Off the top of my head, the friendly servants from Proper Human History in this chapter were Super Orion, Charlotte Corday, Jason, Mandricardo, Achilles, Kiyome Mochizuki, Bartholomew Roberts, Paris, and Francis Drake (sort of).

Starting with Drake because she didn’t actually join our party, I think her character itself is fine. But the fact that she just happened to “find” one of Poseidon’s cores made no sense.

Mandricardo from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Mandricardo

Next, let’s go over the good characters. There are two of these, and their names are Mandricardo and Jason. Look, everyone loves Mandricardo; he’s basically Ishigami from Kaguya-sama. But, I also really liked Jason because I felt that he had a good mix of comedic relief and serious character moments.

The characters I’m neutral on are Achilles and Kiyome. They both played their roles and didn’t do much more than that. I have no issues with them, but they didn’t stand out either.

The rest, I disliked. Orion, Bartholomew, and Paris were annoying. Orion and Bartholomew are just womanizers (and not in a charming way like Napoleon was). And Paris is a literal child who whines all the time.

I wasn’t a fan of how Corday was just constantly talking about how useless she was, either. But, the real reason I don’t like Corday is something I’ll get to later on.

Plot of Atlantis

At this stage in the review, I want to point out three issues I had with the plot of Atlantis. These are that Odysseus was a shounen antagonist trope, Caenis didn’t get a real story, and I didn’t care about the people of this Lostbelt.

Starting with Odysseus, he pulled the classic shounen battle series antagonist trope of constantly underestimating us while we made progress through the Lostbelt. Odysseus never really tried to defeat us at any point in the chapter.

He’d send some troops or a Cerberus our way. We’d defeat them. Then he’d say something like, “Well, there’s no way they’ll win in the end so we can just let them keep struggling on their way.” And this happened multiple times. Every time we won a battle, he just acted like it was no big deal.

Caenis, wounded and defeated from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Caenis, wounded and defeated

Now, Caenis was the opposite of Odysseus personality-wise. She (he?) wanted to destroy us as soon as possible and actually attempted to do so. I like that. But, she’s defeated like halfway through the chapter and never gets a good character arc.

Caenis’s whole story was that she hates Wodime for forcing her to fight on the side of the gods. And Wodime views her as disposable in return. That’s it. Nothing more happens with her character. I would have loved it if we somehow recruited her to our side.

Lastly, there are the Atlanteans. The previous Lostbelts, I think, did a good job of making us empathize with the people who lived there. I really didn’t care at all about the Atlanteans. They played such a minor role that they don’t matter.

Gameplay of Atlantis

In this first of multiple gameplay sections of the review, I want to focus primarily on the difficulty of the chapter. Atlantis was the easiest Lostbelt chapter so far. And I can tell you right now, the same isn’t going to be true for Olympus.

But, just because there are going to be harder fights in the Olympus chapter doesn’t mean the Atlantis chapter should have been as easy as it was. In fact, one of the hardest battles of the chapter comes right near the start: the (first) Cerberus fight.

The first Cerberus fight isn’t the hardest. But Cerberus was kind of the hardest “real” enemy of the chapter until the Poseidon cores in the very last section. And, while I’ll discuss Poseidon more, later on, I don’t particularly think the Poseidon cores were hard either.

Battle vs. the Cerberus from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Battle vs. the Cerberus

Cerberus (and most bosses, to be fair) couldn’t touch the team pictured above. Of course, you could argue that using Qin Shi Huang, Tamamo, and Jeanne is unfair in general. But, I think it’s on the game to pit me against opponents that make team compositions like that not effective.

For example, that team composition would never work against Xiang Yu and Yu Mei-ren. SIN had some challenging content that forced me to use a variety of different teams to clear the chapter. Atlantis didn’t really do that.

If Cerberus was a Berserker without the Berserker weaknesses, that would have been better. Or, it would have been cool if each Cerberus head was a separate enemy and they all had to be killed in the same turn. Those are just some of my ideas for how to make it a bit harder.

Forced Setup Battles

The true hardest battle of Atlantis is one I haven’t mentioned yet. But before I get to that, allow me to explain the way Atlantis adds difficulty. It’s not by putting your team up against challenging opponents. It’s by restricting your team formation.

Team formation restrictions aren’t inherently bad. In one of the Halloween events, formation restrictions added a lot of fun. For example, some battles had to be completed with an all-male or all-female team composition. It made players use servants they normally didn’t in order to build a full team.

Unfortunately, Atlantis’s restrictions aren’t like this. They do things like forcing you to use specific, NPC servants or removing your ability to use Mystic Code skills. Not being able to use Mystic Code skills isn’t really a problem, though, considering how easy the battles are. The battle pictured below is one such example.

Battle vs. Chiron from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Battle vs. Chiron

With that in mind, what was the most challenging fight of the chapter? It was the one where you were forced to solo a fight against Chiron and two mobs with Achilles. Believe me when I say that was literally the only battle I wiped against.

You may have beaten that fight on your first try. That’s fine. However, that fight is entirely up to RNG. I think I did it four times before winning. There’s no strategy, though. You click the same cards every time and just hope to get lucky with the enemy attacks while saving Achilles’s Invulnerability skill for the mob NP before Chiron’s.

That fight illustrates the biggest problem with Atlantis’s gameplay. It’s extremely easy except for the one fight that’s completely reliant on RNG. That’s not fun.

Corday Ruined the Chapter

Moving away from the gameplay aspect of the chapter for a moment, let’s get into the fourth major issue with Atlantis as well as why I didn’t like Corday’s character. Corday makes up her own Deus ex machina to deny us a fight against Odysseus.

Throughout the entire chapter, I was waiting for the fight that would finally be against Odysseus. There was even one time that he said he was going to fight us, the enemy class showed as Rider (which he is), and then it turned out to be another Cerberus fight instead.

A fight against Odysseus could have actually been good and difficult. But, even if we ignore that part of it, don’t you think we should have gotten to fight against the main antagonist of the chapter? Just as I’ll never forgive FGO Arcade for all the servants they get that we don’t, I’ll never forgive Corday for killing Odysseus before me.

Charlotte Corday after assassinating Odysseus from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Charlotte Corday after assassinating Odysseus

On top of everything Corday denied us, I also just wasn’t a fan of how she killed Odysseus. She uses her NP on him once, and he defends against it because he suspected that she might pull something like that. Fair enough, Odysseus.

But then Corday just uses her NP again and there’s nothing Odysseus can do to stop it. That’s so dumb. Okay, Achilles fighting Chiron while being literally dead but not feeling like dying was also dumb. But Corday’s double NP was probably the worst. At least we fought Chiron.

Oh, and I almost forgot, Corday also suddenly got amnesia at the end before disappearing. I really don’t understand why that was included. I guess to give her some sort of emotional goodbye? At that point, I just wanted her gone faster.

Orion Somehow Redeemed Himself

As I mentioned earlier, I really didn’t like Orion’s character. He was introduced with a pee joke, and he wasn’t much better than that for the vast majority of the chapter. Of course, I did like using him in battle thanks to his insane crits. But character-wise, he’s terrible.

I also didn’t really care all that much about his storyline involving the Artemis of the Lostbelt. At least, not until the end. Orion shooting down the Lostbelt Artemis was actually a good scene for a few reasons, and I do think it redeemed him in the end.

He didn’t shoot her down because that’s what needed to be done for Proper Human History. He did it for her. After recognizing that the Artemis he knew wouldn’t want to be up there all alone (and fighting against him), he basically put her out of her misery.

Orion firing an arrow at Artemis from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Orion firing an arrow at Artemis

But, I think what really made this scene impactful, for me, was the narration. The narration during this scene was some of the best in all of FGO so far. That, combined with the final scenes we got of Orion and Artemis together really sold me on Orion in the end.

I still count him among the characters I dislike, though. That one scene isn’t enough to erase everything else he did throughout the chapter.

Also, I already knew that Orion was the Grand Archer going into this story chapter. But I thought it was odd that the first we actually heard of this was when he gave up his Grand status to shoot down Artemis. That seemed like a big deal and he just casually dropped that on us — and then it was never mentioned again.

Poseidon and Olympus

Finally, we get to Poseidon. Although I don’t think the Poseidon core fights were that hard (my Qin Shi Huang, Tamamo, and Jeanne team dealt with them easily), I do think these were the most enjoyable fights of the chapter.

I can definitely see these fights being difficult if you don’t have many servants leveled and skilled up. That would restrict your formation and you might not have the right servants leveled up to easily deal with the cores.

But, anyone can use a Support Jeanne. And Jeanne basically makes these core fights a joke. They have AoE NPs, but neither the cores themselves nor the mobs with them have any way of piercing or removing her party-wide invulnerability. As long as you use Jeanne’s NP whenever the core is about to NP, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Poseidon boss battle plaque from the mobile game Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
Poseidon boss battle plaque

Now, I think in one of the fights there was a mob that applied NP seal to your entire party. That can be an issue, for sure. But even with that AoE NP seal, I didn’t have any trouble. I think my team just tanked the core’s NP even without invulnerability. So maybe that was an Assassin-class core.

Anyway, the Poseidon core fights were a nice way to end the chapter, even if I wish there were harder fights. But, that’s where Olympus comes in. Poseidon and Artemis are destroyed now, however, there are other gods to be defeated.

I don’t remember what other gods there are left, though. I know there’s at least Zeus. And we also never fought against Dioscuri, who I’m assuming we’re going to face eventually. Also, Wodime has to be beaten after he styled on us by summoning meteors.

Basically, there should be a lot of big fights in Olympus and I’m looking forward to them. I can’t say I’m expecting much from the story after Atlantis, though. My prediction is that the fights are going to carry the chapter.

Conclusion

What did you think of Lostbelt No. 5 – Atlantis? Which characters were your favorites and least favorites? Did you find any of the fights to be hard? And, are you as disappointed as I am about not getting to fight Odysseus? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Senpai tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the Olympus chapter is available now.