Last year, Type-Moon announced a new project, which was revealed as Fate/Grand Order for smartphone. While details on the game still remain light, key developers shared more information in a recent interview with 4Gamer.
Fate/Grand Order is for smartphones, but prior to its development, Fate/Stay Night co-creator Kinoko Nasu, who is the scenario writer for the upcoming game, explains that he never owned a smartphone up until that point. In fact, it was his personal goal not to get one in order to keep him from being a complete “slacker”.
“However, one day when I showed up at work, there was a smartphone on my desk, and there was a note that said ‘present for you’ on it,” says Nasu with a laugh. “That was around the time discussions on Fate/Grand Order began, and they even made preparations by telling me ‘it already has games for reference installed on it’.”
In the end, Nasu says that he gave in and basically told himself “oh well, I might as well start it to try it out”. At the time, he recalls, he didn’t really understand what was fun about smartphone games.
4Gamer asks what his initial thoughts upon playing a smartphone game for the very first time were.
“It was a lot more fun than I expected,” responds Nasu. “And honestly, I didn’t have a good impression of smartphone games up until then. It’s definitely something that has evolved completely differently compared to console games. The root of how to make something pleasurable for players is different.”
Next, 4Gamer asks if he could share some of the titles that were used as reference material.
“Chain Chronicle, Brave Frontier, and others,” answers Nasu. “I learned a lot from Chain Chronicle about things like ‘if we do this, then players can have something to look forward to each week’ and such.” He continues, “Instead of making something for core players, I thought about how we could make a Fate [game] that reaches a million people, and the moment I thought about that, it brought me a sense of feeling fired up.”
Nasu also explains how he sees the development of smartphone games as a revolution in its own way. For example, core players can enjoy the luxury of high graphics on home consoles, while smartphone games can be used to reach out to the mass audience.
“The entertainment that comes from being able to relax and play on your lap, and also the entertainment that comes from being able to play lightheartedly on a daily basis,” according to Nasu, is where the convenience of smartphones helps in being able to reach a large audience.
Furthermore, the part about being able to play lightheartedly on a daily basis is something Nasu believes they should place a lot of importance into.
