To commemorate the fifth anniversary of Fate/Grand Order, Famitsu gathered questions for series creators Nasu Kinoko and Takeuchi Takashi and published their answers in the 8/13 2020 issue of the magazine.
Also see: Fate/Grand Order 5th Anniversary Player Survey Results
Q: Who did you choose for the 20 million download servant?
Nasu: Nicola Tesla
Takeuchi: Made Anastasia NP2
Famitsu has published a correction stating that Nasu’s answer to this question should be “Made Achilles NP2”
Q: Does Fate becoming such a huge series give you any trouble?
Nasu: “It’s like how my job used to be cleaning up an apartment, but that became a full house, and then an apartment complex, and now a military base.”
Takeuchi: “The costs for making new characters keep going up.”
Q: What’s your favourite craft essence?
Nasu: Last Resort of the Abyss
Takeuchi: First Sunrise
Q: Which Cryptor would you get along with the best?
Nasu: “Beryl. There’s no telling what would be wrong or right to do so it’s easy in some way. The secret would be to not be alone with him in a room.”
Takeuchi: “I want to befriend Pepe.”
Q: If you were participating in the Fuyuki grail war, who would you want to summon?
Nasu: “Calamity Jane. Fun, clever, and always smiling.”
Takeuchi: “I’m not sure which Artoria Pendragon I’d go with.”
Q: Who do you have set in your room?
Nasu: Chen Gong
Takeuchi: Random
Q: What would you say if you could speak to yourself from before the start of Fate/Grand Order?
Nasu: “Watch out, that path leads to hell.”
Takeuchi: “That path is the right one, but be prepared.”
Q: If you could live with a Type Moon character, who would you choose?
Nasu: “If I were male then Ereshkigal” “If I were female then Edmond Dantes”
Takeuchi: “Kohaku. I want to play mahjong with her.”
Q: Do Caster and Archer Gilgamesh speak to each other in Chaldea?
Nasu: “When they pass each other in the corridor they smirk at how foolish the other one is for their different priorities. Otherwise they avoid interacting with each other.”
Q: What are the conditions for existing grand classes?
Nasu: “A high standard in terms of both skill and stories, that makes them stand at the top of the class. There are multiple candidates for each class, and the final choice is determined by the target that the age has to overcome. Only in the case of Grand Assassin is the Old Man of the Mountain the only candidate, but that seat has become empty since Babylonia.”
Q: Which parts of the story gave you most trouble?
Nasu: “How to change each loop in Servant Fes, and the Cryptor parts in Olympus. Olympus is the turning point of part 2, so I made sure to make it fitting of the buildup.”
Q: Which servant or CE handled by you is your favourite?
Takeuchi: Maid Alter
Q: Have you given up on Eli-chan events?
Nasu: “Giving up on Eli-chan is synonymous with giving up on the planet Earth itself.”
Q: Which Fate/Grand Order character would you like to see in a maid costume?
Takeuchi: Caenis
Q: Who was the first Cryptor to be written?
Nasu: “Kirschtaria was the first. The rest were simultaneous. Kadoc, Ophelia and Akuta were created by their chapters’ writers, and then made part of the script. Pepe was made by me, but the India lostbelt writer is someone else.”
Q: Which characters first seen in Fate/Grand Order did you like most, looks-wise?
Takeuchi: Anastasia and Limbo
Q: Does Nasu have any tips or practice methods for writing?
Nasu: “I don’t know about practice, but no matter what the project is, you need to have something you’re confident in. If after you start writing you start questioning if it’s interesting, or you have trouble with it, most of the time there is a problem with the blueprint itself. Being brave and redoing the entire plot planning phase is actually the fastest path here.”
Q: When did you start practicing art?
Takeuchi: “I started drawing pictures and manga in middle school. What I saw and heard back then is what makes me as I am now.”
Q: What do you want to do after FGO?
Nasu: “A story about vampires.”
Q: Let us give chocolate to Goldorf.
Nasu: “We’ll try…?
Q: If Goldorf summoned a servant in a regular grail war with no catalyst, who would he get?
Nasu: “A western version of Ibaraki”
Q: Which servant do you use a lot in FGO?
Takeuchi: Kintoki
Q: Which servant, who is male in FGO, would you like to turn female?
Takeuchi: “The key is ‘gap moe’, so Kintoki”
Q: What are the servants doing in their free time?
Nasu: “Everyone taking form at the same time eats up Chaldea’s resources, so they have rotating shifts of those who are taking form and those who are standing by as spirit graphs. The ones who take form do whatever they want, like training, reading, gaming, studying, hanging out with the master, going to comic market in Hawaii, that sort of thing.”
Q: Which servant designed by someone else would you like to draw in a CE or anniversary artpiece?
Takeuchi: Mordred and Frankenstein
Q: There are multiple characters with Reality Marbles in FGO. What happens if they use them at the same time?
Nasu: “If the opponent’s output is higher, a Reality Marble can’t be used. If both are equal and use them at the same time, I think the two worlds would resist each other. As the RM does not move from the position it is used (does not move with the user), the users have to decide whether to draw the opponent in, step into the opponent’s world, or just wait until both RMs die out.”
Q: Is there any relation to rarity in the game and how easy it is the servant would be to summon in the lore?
Nasu: No
Q: How long does it take to get from a single character’s rough sketch to the lineart?
Takeuchi: Three days on average
Q: I was shocked to learn that Agravain is younger than Bedivere. What sort of stress made him age so fast?
Nasu: “He had an old-looking face to begin with, and the stress and his despise for the world made him end up like that. He looks younger if you smooth out his wrinkles.”
Q: Do you plan on playing Elden Ring?
Nasu: “Hahaha boy, don’t ask questions with such obvious answers!”
Q: How much time do you spend working and resting each day?
Nasu: “I go to meetings or supervise recordings once a day. Writing takes up 4-6 hours while supervising is up to 2 hours. I’ve been wanting to spend Saturdays playing video games with nothing to get in my way for a long time.”
Q: Which characters in the Fate series do you find easiest to use?
Nasu: Rin and Cu Chulainn
Q: What musicians have you been listening to lately?
Nasu: ZAQ and Kegani
Q: You wrote on your blog that you like the manga Undead Unluck, which characters are your favourite?
Nasu: Andy and Fuuko
Q: What software do you use for illustrations?
Takeuchi: SAI for lineart, Photoshop for everything else
Q: I have never played any Type Moon work outside of Fate, what would you recommend?
Nasu: “Mahoutsukai no Yoru is a great introductory title.”
Q: Is Kirchstaria bad with machines? His password was simple and Kadoc complained about his files being disorganised.
Nasu: “He’s not good with machines, but uses things that are useful. It’s just that Kadoc is a bit of a geek.”
Q: What’s the secret behind Tamamo Cat’s dialogue?
Nasu: “Cute, fun, smart, always thinking of the future sometimes three seconds and sometimes three years away, always speaks the truth, and lives for the master.”
Q: We’ve gotten a lot of Artoria Pendragons. Are there more?
Takeuchi: “Look forward to it”
