History YMMV / FateGrandOrder

** Secret Gems. Most items will at least show up every now and again in event shops. Skill gems, though, never show up inside the event shop. The only events where they can be relliably earned are lottery events, and even then you only get one of each class per box (compared to the lower rarity Shining and Magic Gems, which you get two of per class of each). Outside of events, the most reliable place to farm them is the daily Class Training Ground, where the drop rate is spotty (even at the highest difficulty, you're more likely to get Secret Gems, or worse, Pieces and Monuments). And the worst part is that nearly every Servant (all seven standard Classes, Rulers, Alter Egos and Moon Cancers) require them for their skills. Alter Egos and Moon Cancers require two different classes at once, while Rulers require ''all seven''.

** [[PlayerCharacter The main character]] themself. There are fans who like them as an [[TheEveryman everyman hero]] who overcomes the immense challenges of the game's story without breaking under strain and trauma, armed with nothing but tactical smarts, guts, and charisma, and there are fans who dislike them as a transparent WishFulfillment EscapistCharacter who gets all the credit and CharacterShilling despite almost always relying on partners to do the fighting for them and frequently relying on allies to do the thinking for them; the player-as-strategist element doesn't translate well for them. Their critics also describe them as a boring cypher without much personality, making the shilling all the more galling, while their fans argue that over time the protagonist has grown into more of a character in their own right, with a ([[DialogueTree potentially]]) wacky goofball side and a serious, perceptive side. Finally, there's the fact that [[ChickMagnet just about all of the lady servants]] [[DudeMagnet and a couple of the dudes]] are at the very least crushing on them. Fans see this as the logical culmination of an established character whose greatest talents are supposed to be charisma, perceptiveness, and open-mindedness naturally getting a fair bit of romantic attraction. Critics see this as the nadir of a boring, empty hole in the story for the player to self-insert onto being pandered to.

* CaptainObviousReveal: The traitor of Chaldea being [[spoiler:Holmes. The only other options besides minor side characters lacking narrative significance were Mash, who not only doesn't have the personality for it nor would it make sense with her backstory, Da Vinci, who was with the player since the very beginning and killed by one of the Disciples, Goredolf who was regarded as a disposable patsy by the Foreign God's forces and nearly killed by them a few times, and Sion, who has been nothing but helpful despite joining the latest and is an AlternateSelf of a pre-established heroine. Holmes on the other hand once infamously pointed fingers at the indisputably good Dr. Roman, has been walking around without a Master, isn't a free Servant, and wasn't summoned by Chaldea, and has had numerous hints that he's not what he seems dropped all over the place. The real twist though isn't that he's the traitor, but that he himself isn't aware of it.]]

** The reveal of the Count's identity, to the point where Id starts with Chaldea figuring it out with little fanfare. [[spoiler:There's only so many famous figures that can be refered to as "the Count", which narrows it down to Count Dracula, the Count of Monte Cristo and Count Cagliostro, and the first two have already been met and while another mole like Holmes isn't out of the picture, their personalities just don't fit with how The Count has been acting. Most damningly though, he referrences the Affair of the Diamond Necklace in his appearance in ''Waxing Moon Clashing Swords Chronicles'', and sure enough, Marie identifies the voice recordings of The Count as sounding like Alessandro di Cagliostro.]]

** Fujimaru Ritsuka him/herself. While some people view him/her as the greatest master of all time who suffered through intense mental trauma, others think he/she is an overrated piece of cardboard with the personality of a wet paper bag that never actually does anything important in the story yet is constantly praised by everyone around them.

** Fujimaru Ritsuka him/herself. Some views him/her as the greatest master of all time who suffered through intense mental trauma while others think he/she is an overrated piece of cardboard with the personality of a wet paper bag that never actually does anything important in the story yet is constantly praised by everyone around them.

*** This is also noticeable when comparing Valentine's Day events to their White Day counterparts: Valentines events usually have a campaign attached to the standard servant gacha and event [=CEs=], while White Day only has the latter two. 2018 saw a ''slight'' change, but only in that there was an additional week-long login bonus to obtain a new costume for Arthur. 2019, 2021, and 2022 on the other hand, had full events and made Moriarty's, Amakusa's, and Arjuna Alter's costumes part of them. It took until 2020, ''four'' whole years after starting the Valentines and White Day events, for the latter to have both a new event and a brand new non-costume Servant (Odysseus) attached to it like the former. At least the Valentine's Day event lets the player collect unique gifts and scenes for all servants, regardless of gender.

* BadassDecay: The Beast Class as a whole has become perceived as this, after a while, which is ironic considering that [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil they're supposed to be more impressive over time.]] With Beast I and II effectively being full-on apocalypses personified and taking some of Fate's heaviest hitters to be put down while Beast III/R is noticeable for [[spoiler:killing the protagonist and requiring Meltryllis to travel back in time to form an appropriate counter as otherwise, she was unbeatable.]] However, by the time that Cosmos in the Lostbelt started the Beasts that appear ended up being less impressive with Beast III/L taking far less effort to beat and being outplayed far more often, albeit being one of the closest to having a NearVillainVictory. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:Beast IV:L Koyanskaya]] spends most of the story getting their ass beat by any named opposition and by the end of it, gets outplayed and permanently crippled before [[spoiler:getting talked down by Chaldea]] and [[spoiler:while Beast VII U-Olga Marie is absurdly powerful, she winds up being woefully ineffective when trying to deal with Chaldea.]] Thankfully by the end of the Lostbelts things have begun turning around with [[spoiler: Beast I:L Camazotz, who was capable of beating [[WorldsStrongestMan ORT]] in a straight up fight and the strong implication that, not only is U-Olga Marie a vessel for the true Beast VII, but she never had the chance to reach her true potential, which is why the Count rebuilds her as a far more serious and dangerous threat who, albeit still nowhere near her true power, will steadily grow until she becomes completely unbeatable as her fragments are tested and overcome]].

** The basis of Ordeal Call has Chaldea being unable to [[spoiler:return to Antarctica to confront CHALDEAS]] because of a barrier blocking them with the explanation being that [[spoiler:as, with the Lostbelts gone, CHALDEAS is the new cornerstone of humanity causing the Human Order to reject Chaldea from approaching it,]] due to their Humanity Foundation Value being at E rank from using things not from Proper Human History with the focus being put on the extra classes Rulers, Avengers, and Alter Egos. Nothing but a throwaway line from Lostbelt 7 has indicated that there was anything unusual with using the Extra Classes and none of the classes listed debuted in anything that could be considered outside of Proper Human History, there's also the fact [[spoiler:CHALDEAS itself]] has made liberal use of the Ruler and Alter Ego classes with no issue.

** In the ''Apocrypha'' event, Spartacus tells everyone not to worry about transporting him to Semiramis' Flying Gradens because he will fly like a bird to reach it. Come the third Lostbelt, and [[spoiler:Spartacus performs a HeroicSacrifice by flying into Emperor Qin's Malignant Star]].

** The later half of the Lostbelt arc has gotten complaints for cranking the difficulty too high in an attempt to encourage rolling for rare units as opposed to being perfectly manageable with low rarity Servants. The Demeter fight in particular became so infamous that many free-to-play guides simple ''gave up'' and told people they can't win without high-rarity units.

** Pseudo-Servants -- a summoned Servant manifesting in the form, and sometimes [[GrandTheftMe the actual body]], of a living human -- may have been given a RetCanon by this game, but they're not new to the franchise. The first case of it was seen in ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' courtesy of Jeanne d'Arc being summoned into the human with the closest resemblance to her, a young French student named Laeticia. The possession was consensual on both sides, and measures were taken to ensure that Laeticia would be unharmed if Jeanne were struck down.

** Pseudo-Servants -- a summoned Servant manifesting in the form, and sometimes [[GrandTheftMe the actual body]], of a living human -- may have been given a RetCanon by this game, but they're not new to the franchise. The first case of it was seen in ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' courtesy of Jeanne d'Arc, who was summoned into the body of a young french student named Laeticia, who was the current best match of Jeanne's appearance. The possession was consensual on both sides, and measures were taken to ensure that Laeticia would be unharmed if Jeanne died.

** Heian-kyō is the shortest of the Lostbelt main stories, only having 15 missions, and unlike Lostbelt 3, it doesn't have a prologue chapter to setup the story, meaning the chapter doesn't have enough time to properly address many of the plotlines it establishes, and rushes through them without much fanfare, such as the Holy Grail War, and the Oni plots. This wouldn't be a major problem if it was just a normal story chapter, but it being the last chapter to feature Ashiya Douman, a recurring antagonist that people had been excited to finally defeat, caused it to feel like a let down that his dedicated chapter and send-off ends up so short and not very focused, especially when it is sandwhiched between Lostbelt 5 and 6, which were both longer and gave more time for the story to move through the plot points it brought up.

** Heian-kyō is the shortest of the Lostbelt main stories, only having 15 missions, and unlike Lostbelt 3, it doesn't have a prologue chapter to setup the story, meaning the chapter doesn't have enough time to properly address many of the plotlines it establishes, and rushes through them without much fanfare, such as the Holy Grail War, and the Oni plots. This wouldn't be a major problem if it was just a normal story chapter, but it being the last chapter to feature Ashiya Douman, a recurring antagonist that people had been excited to finally defeat, caused it to feel like a let down that his dedicated chapter and send-off ends up so short and not very focused, especially when it is sandwhiched between Lostbelt 5 and 6, which were both long and deep stories.

*** Avalon le Fae casts a gigantic shadow over the remaining Lostbelt chapters being one of the most beloved stories in FGO. It’s also introduced some of the most popular characters in the entire game like Morgan and Oberon and was able to tell a story that despite its [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants turbulent development]] had most people believe it lived up to the buildup it received throughout the Lostbelt storyline. Tellingly, the story chapters released between it and Lostbelt 7 were noted by some to be a step down in quality, even when accounting for the difference in length. Ironically, the next story chapter Tunguska Sanctuary is despised by the fanbase and ranks up there with Septem and Agartha as the worst story chapter in its eyes for many reasons, but "it isn't as good as Avalon le Fae" isn't one of them.