History YMMV / FateGrandOrder

** One thing worth noting is that the free 4* Servants attached to events have tended to be pretty good - which, as time has gone on, has generated significant goodwill toward [=DelightWorks=], especially after the game's rocky launch. Only Altria Lily, Assassin Scathach, Sieg, and Brave Liz are considered average, and that's just due to Lily's generally middling stats, Assassin Scathach having a weak kit for someone who's an Assassin with low HP (having a healing skill with a damage cut and a taunt, with her major redeeming value being, as a welfare that has an [=AoE=] Noble Phantasm, an incredibly rarity for an Assassin that allows her to clear waves of enemies [[note]]The only other Assassins in the game for budget players with [=AoE=] Noble Phantasm are Phantom of the Opera and Fuuma Kotarou, which the former is considered to have a kit ''far worse'' than Assassin Scathach, while the later is more known for critical star generation akin to Jack the Ripper[[/note]]), Sieg's own middling stats and anti-Dragon ability that only really exists for lore reasons (since Sieg is a Caster while most Dragons are ''Riders'', which puts him in an [[TacticalRockPaperScissors incredible disadvantage]] [[{{Irony}} against Dragons]], though he thankfully has a strong niche in NP spamming) and the unpredictable nature of Brave Liz's third skill - and even then, they're still perfectly ''usable'', just uninspired. Meanwhile, on the other end of the scale, Chloe von Einzbern from the ''[[Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya Prisma Illya]]'' crossover, Rider Kintoki from the Onigashima event, and Ryougi Shiki from the LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners event can only be described as ''ridiculous'' (which itself says it all, really).

*** Certain events act more as {{stealth sequel}}s to other installments, such as SE.RA.PH to ''[[VideoGame/FateExtra CCC]]'' and "Inheritance of Glory" to ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'', meaning the events can come across as confusing without prior knowledge.

** Whenever Kinoko Nasu is announced to be directly writing a story, the fans react with extreme joy that he'll make the story, be it a Singularity or other Nasuverse works, epic and awesome (as proven with [[GrowingTheBeard Camelot, Solomon]] and Avalon le Fae). Conversely, fans are more cautious whenever it's announced that the story will be written by either Yuuichiro Higashide (for the controversial state of ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'', and while Orleans and Okeanos were still considered an improvement, it's still considered mediocre and paled to Nasu's works) or Hikaru Sakurai (for the Septem singularity, [[CreatorBacklash which even she considered lacking]]), but Nasu still lets them write stories, avoiding [[OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight the more extreme version of the trope.]] Because of this, the only stories after Salomon that now officially disclose the writer are those written by guest writers like Keikenchi (who is easily distinguished with his ''Koha-ACE''/GUDAGUDA stories) and Creator/GenUrobuchi.

** During the "[[LightNovel/FateRequiem Board Games of the Apocalypse]]" event, Mozart makes mention of one of his compositions, ''The Queen of the Night Aria'', which causes Voyager to chime in to note that he recognizes the song. ''The Queen of the Night Aria'' (also known as ''Hell's Vengeance Boils in my Heart'') is a section of Mozart's famous opera, ''The Magic Flute'', and was the movement chosen to be included in ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record the Golden Record]]''.

** The game-original Foreigner class isn't the first time the Franchise/CthulhuMythos has appeared in this franchise. That honor goes to ''LightNovel/FateZero'' courtesy of Caster/Gilles de Rais and his TomeOfEldritchLore, The Text of the Sunken Spiraled City, otherwise known as the R'lyeh Text. Furthermore, the class itself was mentioned in VideoGame/FateExtellaLink on the third route of the game, with Archimedes referring to Altera as one and the Protagonist noting it wasn't a class they heard of before. VideoGame/FateExtellaLink had released a year before Salem, when the first Foreigner, Abigail Williams, was released.

** Broadly speaking, most banner event Craft Essences from year one of the game are considered some of the worst ones in the game. All of them have weirdly specific abilities, such as [[https://fategrandorder.fandom.com/wiki/GO_WEST!! "GO WEST!!"]] from the Journey to the West event having a very tiny amount of crit star generation and NP damage up, while some like [[https://fategrandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Mystic_Eyes_of_Distortion Mystic Eyes of Distortion]] from the ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' event have demerits that make them not useful. While some of them like [[https://fategrandorder.fandom.com/wiki/GUDAGUDA_Poster_Girl GUDAGUDA Poster Girl]] and [[https://fategrandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Azure_Magical_Girl Magical Girl of Sapphire]] still rank highly even five years after their release, you'll find that almost all the banner event Craft Essences are overshadowed by other, easier to obtain ones from events. Furthermore, a large amount of them focus around buffing healing, or providing healing effects that are not helpful with the current meta of the game, meaning even ones you get that seem helpful lack a concrete idea of what they were made for. No doubt because of the developers still experimenting with ideas, but just about all of them, save specific few of these Craft Essences have aged poorly.

** The localization team also does a fairly good job of accounting for the time differences between the JP and NA servers by altering dialogue to account for various elements that may have been new in JP, but are already out by that point in time. For example, during the "All The Statesmen" event, Siegfried shamelessly plugs the ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'' anime adaptation by mentioning where it can watched, since the event came out in JP during the shows run time. For NA however, the show had already been fully released and thus was available for viewing, so his dialogue was altered to allude to Creator/{{Netflix}} instead.

** When discussion about who's the strongest Lostbelt King gets brought up expect people to bring up Morgan due to a comment from Beryl where he says that Morgan is the strongest Lostbelt King. The thing is Beryl never said that, it was a mistranslation done by fan translations. What he actually said was that with [[spoiler:the death of Zeus]] he believed Morgan was the strongest force around.

** A number of people claim that the Lostbelt Morgan is the strongest of the Lostbelt Kings, using statements in the story that discuss her power and skills to claim she could beat all the other Lostbelt Kings in a fight. Although the story does make it clear that Lostbelt Morgan is insanely strong, it is never outright confirmed if she truly the strongest of the Lostbelt Kings, as various statements relating to her more discuss her magical prowess and how insane it is that she did some of the most notable feats of magic in the series over how outright powerful she is. On a comparison level, it would be valid to say she is a contender due to all the insane feats she is revealed to have performed in Lostbelt 6, but the story uses many similar comments about her strength for all the other Lostbelt Kings, so the story itself doesn't really outright state she is.

** The identity of the [[EnigmaticMinion Foreign Priestess]] is largely an unknown, leaving her rife for guesswork as to who or what she is. One notable theory running around is that she is [[spoiler:Olga Marie Animusphere, BackFromTheDead thanks to the Foreign God. Evidence used for this idea is that she is depicted as reaching out to Mash in the opening for ''Cosmos in the Lostbelt'', and that Riyo's Webcomic/LearningWithMangaFGO has a similar scene when Mash suggests a storyline involving her and Olga Marie, with Olga Marie mirroring the same pose. Lostbelt 5.2 Olympus revealed that the Foreign God is actually Beast VII, and apparently Olga is its current vessel, making this idea potentially wrong. "Potentially" since it's still unclear what Olga's relationship to the Foreign God is and still speculated on in-universe by Chaldea themselves]].
** The Foreign God itself has been subject to numerous speculations as to just how alien it actually is, with people wondering how literal the [[spoiler:Lucifer/Satan comparisons by Amakusa in Shimousa]] should be taken, especially since [[spoiler:Ashiya Douman flat-out states he only used Satan's name as a joke and indulged in it purely for Amakusa's theatrics]]. Another popular theory is that it possibly hails from the Solar System as some kind of Greco-Roman related entity, with supporters pointing towards that it's intentionally rigged the game entirely in favor of Wodime's Atlantis Lostbelt where the Greek Gods have reigned supreme for millennia and originally only wanted to bring that Lostbelt back with no competition whatsoever. [[spoiler:Lostbelt 5.2 seems to discredit the idea of it being a Greco-Roman being however, as the Foreign God is actually Beast VII, but the mystery of who they are remains unknown.]]
** After his trial quest had him repeatedly refuse to answer whether he was a fictional character or the genuine article, many have begun suspecting that Sherlock Holmes is ''not'' who he claims to be.[[note]]He tries to deceive the player by claiming there is little evidence ''any'' of the Heroic Spirits are people from history and not just fictional representations, only for the Archer of Shinjuku/[[spoiler:James Moriarty]] to call him out on this later, saying the Magus Society has numerous artifacts proving the existences of Heroic Spirits, leading him to question Holmes on why he wouldn't give a straight answer. When Holmes tries to pass it off as his job as a Ruler making it so that he doesn't spoil all the mysteries in the world, Archer likewise calls bull saying Holmes had numerous ways to get around that. Holmes quickly changes the subject, however. He even explicitly tells Mash when they meet in Camelot that his true identity and essence is slightly different than what she believes.[[/note]] People have pointed out that his circumstances as a Ruler are rather suspect.[[note]]Rulers are typically Catholic Saints, but the Chaldea Summoning System allows others to take the class, and the vast majority of non-Saint Ruler servants are either deities or leaders. Holmes meanwhile is not a deity, and was never a leader. Even in life, his official designation was as a ''consulting'' detective.[[/note]] Holmes says the Grail made him a Ruler rather than his standard Caster, since as a Ruler, he is forced to maintain the mysteries of the world and can't go around solving everything, but said claim comes across as odd. Add on his unexplained ability to travel through Singularities on his own, Bedivere's comment that he feels similar to Merlin, Holmes' lack of confirmation for his identity in the ''Epic of Remnant'' trailer[[note]]While not confirmed, his voice and general demeanor have fans agree that he's the narrator, and the lack of identity is a striking contrast to Jeanne explicitly stating her name for ''Observer on Timeless Temple'' and Goetia stubbornly clinging to "Solomon" for ''Cosmos in the Lostbelt''.[[/note]], his artist[[note]]Kotetsu Yamanaka was contracted at the beginning of game development to design Goetia and was later asked to do Tiamat because of how good his monster designs were. The only characters Yamanaka has illustrated since then are Holmes and the Alien Priestess.[[/note]] and that Surtr says he is not a "pure" Heroic Spirit,[[note]]He says this while possessing Sigurd and address both Mash and Sherlock. Mash is a Demi-servant bearing the Heroic Spirit of [[spoiler:Galahad]], albeit limited at the time due to their refusal to aid Chaldea requiring Mash be powered by the Orthenus armor and a command seal be used.[[/note]] and people are convinced Sherlock Holmes is either a Foreigner Servant in disguise[[note]]Primarily because his coat heavily resembles the standard Foreigner card.[[/note]], or something else entirely, with Olympus's release having people point to him [[spoiler: potentially being one of the Beasts [[note]] When Tamamo-Vitch's nature as a premature Beast is revealed Holmes declares her to be his greatest enemy and conversations with Moriarity have him bringing up Holmes's willingness to go to extremes out of his love for humanity (echoing how most of the Beasts have a warped love for humanity) and that he hopes that Holmes will never stop seeing him as his arch enemy for that reason.[[/note]]]] After the conclusion of the Sixth Lostbelt, a lot of fans came to believe that Holmes [[spoiler:is part of the Pretender class due to his change in class as well as having a lot of similarities to Oberon Vortigern[[note]]They both have an antagonistic relationship with Tamamo Vitch Koyanskaya as Holmes declares her to be his greatest enemy while Oberon outright calls her disgusting, both are significant fictional characters from European literature, and they both have some relation to the Ruler class as Oberon's class was initially displayed with the Ruler card before being corrupted to a Pretender card.[[/note]]]]. His Bond 10 line in ''Fate/Grand Order Arcade'' has him outright ''apologizing'' for coming off suspicious and challenging you to solve the mystery surrounding him. Lostbelt Chapter 6.5 eventually reveals that he was actually [[spoiler:an amnesiac Disciple of the Foreign God who was tasked to take care of Goetia.]]

** Needless to say [[EnigmaticMinion Daybit Sem Void]] brings a lot of theories. From exactly what his motivations are, especially since he's commonly assumed to be the one who [[spoiler: threatened Marisbury to try to end Chaldea in ''Anime/FateGrandOrderAbsoluteDemonicFrontBabylonia'']] to the exact relationship between him, his Servant (who's confirmed to be a Grand Servant), and ORT, who's implied to be in his Lostbelt. The fact that his name is a SignificantAnagram of David Symbiot has also made people wonder if he's David Bluebook, and if so how he ended up seemingly time-traveled to the past to get recruited into Team A [[spoiler:after seemingly being killed.]] The release of Nahui Mictlan has largely answered these questions by confirming [[spoiler:that he indeed was the person to threaten Marisbury to shut off Chaldeas, his ultimate goal is to stop Marisbury's goals on a cosmic scale, and he knew about ORT and purposely placed his Lostbelt in South America with the express purpose of provoking it into eating Chaldeas]]. The name anagram is ultimately irrelevant as fan speculation goes because [[spoiler:his name actually refers to his memory issues]]. However, Daybit being David Bluebook is ultimately left inconclusive with no decisive evidence for or against.

%%** Among the Saberfaces are Saber Altria (Alter), Jeanne (Alter), and Morgan le Fay.

*** During Scathach's trial quest, Mash comments on her body tights and describes her figure as "objectively perfect".

** Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The two are always together, their NP subtitle is ''Bond of Lovebirds'', and their final art shows them in a very intimate position. Finally, Mary spends "Chaldea Summer" full of jealousy because Anne attracts the MaleGaze from everyone.
*** When you build the showers for Chaldea Summer Part 1, Anne and Mary want to see if they work. Under the excuse of "having as much eyes as possible to check around", not only they do decide to go in together, but also drag the MC along with them. The thing is, the showers don't have that much space available. So when the 3 go in together, and if you're playing as the female protagonist, she finds herself caught in a flesh sandwich between the two pirates.

** Hassan of Serenity's NP animation is her seducing and kissing a target to death. Using it against a female enemy plays out the exact same way it does for male enemies.
*** A very HoYay bug happened when Serenity uses her NP on Swimsuit Altria. Instead of kissing her lips, she kissed Altria's ''thigh'' instead. It was patched out though.

** In Medb's interlude, Mash seems a bit too interested in learning about how Medb's [[CoitusEnsues Noble Phantasm]] works - and is also the first to suggest fighting her, because she wants to see it in action. So much for her only being interested in the player character...

** The ''LightNovel/FateRequiem'' crossover event ("Board Games of the Apocalypse") is widely viewed as one of the worst events in the games history, owing to the annoying progression system tied to rolling a dice to progress the event. The dice rolling means the player is forced to dedicate a lot of time and resources to getting to the tiles they want, but each tile has multiple events that require landing on it several times, meaning the player spends most of the event trying to roll the amount of dice needed to land on the final few spots to finish it. The story for the event isn't considered strong enough to at least offset the frustration either, resulting in many players outright hating the event.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Many people were quite annoyed of the amount of servants that were released in 2022 with [=AOE=] Noble Phantasms. Out of the 34 servants that were released that year, ''21'' of them had [=AOE NPs=] in contrast to the eight servants with single target [=NPs=] and the five with support [=NPs=]. Early 2023 seems to continue this tradition as the first six servants released that year all have [=AOE NPs=].

** The ''LightNovel/FateRequiem'' crossover event ("Board Games of the Apocalypse") is widely viewed as one of the worst events in the games history, owing to the annoying progression system tied to rolling a dice to progress the event. The dice rolling means the player is forced to dedicate a lot of time and resources to getting to the tiles they want, but each time has multiple events that require landing on it several times, meaning the player spends most of the event trying to roll the amount of dice needed to land on the final few spots to finish it. The story for the event isn't considered strong enough to at least offset the frustration either, resulting in many players outright hating the event.

** Scáthach-Skadi. Shown ''very'' prominently in her Bond 4 and 5 quotes, with the former quote having her turn incredibly {{tsundere}} after the protagonist notices her feeling hot, and the latter quote having her talk about being a ChristmasCake in a hilarious manner. Her battle lines are also rather lacking in the dignity you'd expect of a goddess and help make her more likable to the audience.

** Noah’s long white hair and complexion are derived from ''Fragment of the Book of Noah'' chapter of the pseudepigraphal ''Book of Enoch''.[[labelnote: The exact passage]]Enoch 106: 2 — And his body was white as snow and red as the blooming of a rose, and the hair of his head and his long locks were white as wool, and his eyes beautiful.

** Some fans tend to value Columbus for this trope, mainly because of being a rare case of a Servant [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade being held more accountable than many people even hold the real-life Columbus.]], This made him surprisingly refreshing compared to other Servants, especially since [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade it’s not uncommon for historical figures who committed heinous crimes in life to have those actions downplayed in their Servant versions.]] Yes, [[HateSink Columbus is meant to be hated and is shown to be a disgusting person]], but you can't help but love hating him and consider him a solid villainous character. And if it helps, beyond his two-faced personality, he's also quite smart. For his 'fans', Columbus equates to "The one guy you can always trust to be an evil asshole."

** Quetzalcoatl is largely forgotten in Japan in favor of Ereshkigal and Ishtar. But in the West? She's ''very'' highly regarded and makes up for her personality both [[ValuesResonance due to cultural differences of beauty genuinely appreciating]] her gorgeous StatuesqueStunner looks, her FunnyForeigner status being played positively, and while not as good as Ozymandias, is still a very solid 5-Star Rider and ''lore-wise'' one of the most busted characters in the setting. This is ''especially'' true in Latin American countries, who unilaterally adore Quetz even harder than most Westerners do, [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales despite being a distillation of many Latino stereotypes in general]].

* CaptainObviousReveal: The traitor of Chaldea being [[spoiler:Holmes. The only other options besides minor side characters lacking narrative significance were 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 Sion who has been nothing but helpful despite joining the latest and is 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 or being summoned by Chaldea despite that being impossible, 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.]]

** Some fans tend to value Columbus for this trope, mainly because of being a case of a Servant not [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade getting whitewashed]] but instead [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade being painted black even more than his historical version]], which made him surprisingly refreshing compared to other Servants. Yes, [[HateSink he's meant to be hated and shown as a disgusting person]], but you can't help but love hating him and consider him a solid villainous character. And if it helps, beyond his two-faced personality, he's also quite smart. For his 'fans', Columbus equates to "The one guy you can always trust to be an evil asshole."

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Quetzalcoatl is [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff a lot more popular in the West than Japan in general]], but in Central American and South American servers, her popularity is ''insane,'' for [[StatuesqueStunner much of]] the [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} same kinds]] of [[PhysicalGoddess reasons]] as [[MsFanservice listed above]], only cranked up to eleven due to finding her an excellent Latino representative. This becomes amusing, especially when Quetz is a total distillation of many stereotypes with {{Mayincatec}} tropes, with her sole Christmas alt being with her [[ArtisticLicenseGeography having a form of dance that's not even native to Mexico but Brazil]], but that hasn't stopped anyone there from widely considering her a fan favorite in the region.

** Quetzalcoatl is largely forgotten in Japan in favor of Ereshkigal and Ishtar. But in the West? She's ''very'' highly regarded and makes up for her personality both [[ValuesDissonance due to cultural differences of beauty]] genuinely appreciating her gorgeous StatuesqueStunner looks, her FunnyForeigner status being played positively, and while not as good as Ozymandias, is still a very solid 5-Star Rider and ''lore-wise'' one of the most busted characters in the setting. This is ''especially'' true in Latin American countries, who unilaterally adore Quetz even harder than most Westerners do, [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales despite being a distillation of many Latino stereotypes in general]].

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Quetzalcoatl is [[GermansLoveDavidHasslehoff a lot more popular in the West than Japan in general]], but in Central American and South American servers, her popularity is ''insane,'' for [[StatuesqueStunner much of]] the [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} same kinds]] of [[PhysicalGoddess reasons]] as [[MsFanservice listed above]], only cranked up to eleven due to finding her an excellent Latino representative. This becomes amusing, especially when Quetz is a total distillation of many stereotypes with {{Mayincatec}} tropes, with her sole Christmas alt being with her [[ArtisticLicenseGeography having a form of dance that's not even native to Mexico but Brazil]], but that hasn't stopped anyone there from widely considering her a fan favorite in the region.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While in Japan she's overshadowed by the other Fairy Knights Barghest's fanbase in North America is quite strong thanks to her Amazonian Beauty aesthetic being heavily appreciated over there as well as them finding the contrast with her imposing looks and her dorkier moments to be very endearing.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Many people were quite annoyed of the amount of servants that were released in 2022 with [=AOE=] Noble Phantasms. Out of the 34 servants that were released that year, ''21'' of them had [=AOE NPs=] in contrast to the eight servants with single target [=NPs=] and the five with support [=NPs=]. Early 2023 seems to continue this tradition as the first six servants released that year all have [=AOE NPs=] (though whether or not this type of complaint will be for 2023 as a whole is something only time will tell).

** After TheReveal regarding Dr. Roman, all of the Craft Essence artwork of him enjoying fireworks with Fou, engaging in Halloween silliness by dressing as a vampire and bantering with da Vinci, eating oranges and interacting with his favorite idol is a lot more heartwarming as [[spoiler:this is the life that Solomon chose as a normal human of his own volition, enjoying it to the fullest. [[note]] When he came to the end of his original life as King Solomon, as shown in [[Literature/TheBible the Book of Ecclesiastes]], despite all his accomplishments he '''hated life'''.[[/note]]]]

** In the Memorial Chapter Prologue, [[spoiler:the revelation that the Storm Border cannot bypass CHALDEAS' barrier due using the forbidden Extra Classes. While there are at least some reasonable explanations regarding [[AxCrazy Avengers]], [[TheCracker Moon Cancers]], [[LoopholeAbuse Alter Egos]], [[EldritchAbomination Foreigners]] and [[ConsummateLiar Pretenders]], the fact that Rulers (supposed to make sure that Holy Grail Wars go fairly) and Shielders are considered one of the taboo classes have rubbed some people the wrong way due to aside from certain exceptions, most of them are at least heroic]].

** David Bluebook's storyline is actually inside [[spoiler:Chaldeas. This was coined after players noted that his explanation of events did not line up with the explanation of events as explained by Sion, Kadoc, and Chaldea because neither side agrees on which order the Trees descending and the planet being bleached occurred in.]] This was given further thought after [[spoiler:Ruler Moriarty reveals in Traum that Subject E is real and been around for 100 years, which does not seem reconcilable with the current assumed order of events. The main question is when Bluebook's story happens. The guesses are exactly 100 years in the future, which hinges on Subject E was being experimented on ever since it was found in 2016, sometime in the future, which hinges on Area 51 being founded in 1955 and Subject E was not actually found in 2016, or it is still in the present, which hinges on the land that makes up Area 51 halting all activity around 1918 and directly corresponds its 100 year figure with the current day time that ''Cosmos in the Lostbelt'' takes place in. Further complicating things are the possibility of there being two Subject Es, one for Earth and one for Chaldeas, therefore making at least two of these three scenarios for when the alien was found true.]] This was mostly confirmed as of the Final Memorial Prologue.