Kama looks like she could easily wield the Witchblade and not suffer any effects.
Note: this is an edited repost from the event’s original run last spring so some details in this post may reflect the information available at the time.
Warning: what follows below are merely the author’s opinions. Don’t be a sponge and let this affect your own opinion of the story and game-play.
I have the intention to skip the rerun due to being really busy, but I’m pretty capricious as it is. I may play just to get the gold prisms for the command codes I acquired from the last run.
Story Thoughts
If I could sum up the story in one word, it would be “Meh.” Why “meh” you might ask. When compared to the plot of the Fate EXTRA/CCC Collab event, the plot for this event was very lacking. It wasn’t quite as boring as Lostbelt 3—which got so annoying that I started brute-forcing my way through quests just to finish it.
“Meh” Characters
While I liked Kasuga as a character (Kasuga Lancer when?!), I found it very hard to actually care about her. What I liked about her character is that she reminded me of a crusty, stern, yet kind old lady. Seriously, she reminded me of “awake” Need from Mercedes Lackey’s Mage Winds and Mage Storms novels. I find that characterization rather funny because Kasuga is basically Sakura. However, she didn’t have the character development that Meltryllis and Passionlip had that actually made you care about them. It’s an apples-to-oranges comparison because Melt and Passion were already developed characters from Fate EXTRA/CCC. Kasuga was a one-off Sakuraface character for this particular event.
Scheherazade’s Character Growth
Scheherazade improved as a character, so my opinion of her has warmed. She was able to overcome the fear of death that made for a bad plot point in the Agartha Singularity. The way she was able to overcome that fear was wanting to protect the protagonist and her companions.
Scheherazade still bugs me, though. Something about her overall costume design—which is weird because it’s very similar to Caster of Midrash, and I actually love her design!
It won’t stop me from not burning her for gold prisms. Now it’s because I already have enough Casters to take care of.
The anti-King trait in my opinion is very gimmicky since there’s usually other traits that can be targeted. They’re traits that I already have Servants for. Add in that the Caster class itself isn’t great for damage unless you’re hitting Assassins. I have Sanzang as a single-target, and now Kingprotea as an AoE damage dealer against Assassins. Since I have Merlin, CasGil, and Caster Midrash as supports, there’s no room for Scheherazade in my roster.
Mata Hari was herself. When you think about it, she actually got more character development in the Salem Singularity. Yagyu was still the standard solemn samurai warrior. Maybe he got some development in Shimousa. Sadly, I can’t remember off-hand since so much has happened since then (2020, amiright?)
As a villain, Kama was lacking. She came off as a snotty, horny, spoiled teenager rather than a Beast. It definitely warrants a snark about how Kama should just shut up, grab a cucumber and go to her room already. Ahem, anyway…
Hormonal Teenager versus Experienced Older Woman
Comparing Kama to Kiara (as Beast III/R), Kiara possessed a sinister aura that Kama was just completely lacking. Heck, Kiara as a human was able to completely dominate a Demon God Pillar and take its power for her own. Granted, Zepar screwed up and basically gave Kiara the means to do so. What was Kama’s claim to being able to become a Beast? Other than Shiva incinerating her, which allowed her become Ananga, and thus allowing her to taken on aspects of Mara. Oy, that made my head hurt, anyway. Kama wouldn’t have been able to become a Beast of Calamity if it hadn’t been for the bleached earth and whatever is up with the Indian Lostbelt.
Since I’m about to mention foreshadowing, BB briefly mentions that she couldn’t see a future for humanity beyond 2019 in the original run of the CCC event. That was basically a warning for what was going to happen later. At the end of Shimousa, the Lostbelts were heavily foreshadowed.
Lostbelt 4 Foreshadowing
Note to self: brush up on Hindu mythology before Lostbelt 4 gets here.
The confrontation between Kama and our plucky gang of heroes was a way to foreshadow what’s to come in Lostbelt 4. We’ve temporarily lost Parvati since she used up most of her power to defeat Kama. However, someone is going to be joining us for that Lostbelt. (Spoiler: it’s Ganesha)
For shits and giggles here, in Indian mythology Ganesha is Parvati’s son—the very son that Shiva beheaded and then out of contrition to Parvati, replaced his head with that of an elephant. In FGO’s case, Ganesha is a Moon Cancer Pseudo-Servant possessing the body of Jinako Carigiri, who was Karna’s master in Fate Extra/CCC
Final Thoughts on Story
As much as I just ripped on Kama, there are some notes to be made about her (lack of—LOL!) costume. Little things like the diamond lotus at her throat. The first thing that it brought to mind was the plot device used towards the end of Naamah’s Curse. In that story, Kamadeva’s Diamond (the aforementioned plot device) was said to be the remains of Kama after he was incinerated by Shiva, and in mortal hands could bring great good but eventually cause great pain. Like the Holy Grail in the Fate universe, Kamadeva’s Diamond was basically a Monkey’s Paw.
Kama’s Design
Check out her final Ascension art on Fate/Grand Order wiki. The only thing I can say is “woof woof! hot damn!” 🤣 But seriously, one thing that did stand out is that each Ascension level, that crystal lotus (it’s not a diamond anymore) is not present at her 1st Ascension, but is present at the 2nd, and continues to grow from there. Another note is that the jewel at her throat is a diamond in her Beast form, and some kind of amethyst or rose-quartz in her Servant form.
Another thing I noticed is that Servant Kama has Sakura’s signature hair ribbon, while Beast Kama did not. Overall, I love the design aesthetics and attention to detail that went into designing another Sakura-face. That ribbon (or lack of) was a good way to indicate that Beast Kama didn’t possess any of Sakura’s kindness, while the ribbon being present for Servant Kama would indicate that despite taking on Sakura’s corrupted form, she still possesses some of Sakura’s goodness.
I still haven’t seen Heaven’s Feel yet 😒
Basically, there’s so much lore to be picked apart here, that it would take more than one post to really go into the amount of detail that’s required. Yes, I got into Fate because of the lore—because I’m kind of a history/mythology nerd.
Naamah’s Curse is the middle book of Moirin’s Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. They’re pretty decent books, but they really don’t hold up well when compared to her first trilogy in the world of Terre d’Ange—Phedre’s Trilogy. Honestly, those first three were the best of the nine total books she has published in that world setting.
Gameplay
So. Much. Grinding!
Seriously, this event was actually more grindy than the Summer 2020 event. So grindy in fact that I don’t even want to spend time farming event currency. I’m not sure what could have been done better with the dungeon-crawling aspect, except maybe throw in more random Easter Eggs than just the Kushiel’s Dart reference that I happened to trip across. Honestly, I’m pretty sure that there were more Easter Eggs than just that one, but because of the duration of the event, there wasn’t enough time to actually enjoy the game-play. I just wanted to get the crawling done, collect those damned Hanafuda cards and finish the story.
On the note about farming—if you’re looking for gold saber gems, this event isn’t the place to look for them. It may be different since this a rerun, so take that information with a grain of salt.
Fate/Grand Order materials Books
Finally, wrapping up this post with a few Fate Grand Order acquisitions. Ironically enough, this one aligns with my 3D modeling skills. I have since acquired the most recent two (Materials VIII and IX) but I had to go to eBay for those. Hopefully, a Materials X sometime later this summer?
Found the 4 most recent releases of the Fate/Grand Order material books on Amazon. Material VIII should have shown up in the States some time last year, but I’m guessing that the pandemic likely messed that up. I might have to go to eBay to get it. I’m betting that Material VIII should have the events and Servants introduced in 2019, so it would be interesting to see Kama’s character sheet.
I’m in the process of tracking down the first 3 books—I think I found Material III but Amazon’s description is CD-ROM, which I really don’t want.
Amazon Links
No, I don’t earn a commission from purchases on Amazon. That could change in the near future, though.
Fate/Grand Order material VII
Lostbelts 1, 2, Fate/Apocrypha, Legend of the Imperial Capital Grail, ServantFes 2020 (2018), Halloween 2020
Fate/Grand Order material VI
Shimousa, Salem, Halloween 2019, Christmas 2019, Valentines 2020
Fate/Grand Order material V
Musashi’s trial quest, First Hassan, Shinjuku, SE.RA.PH, Summer 2019, All the Statesmen, Agartha, Holmes’ trial quest, and Parvati’s trial quest
Fate/Grand Order material IV
Sanzang Coming to the West, Shuten, Onigashima (damn, that was a fun event), Summer 2018, Prisma Causeway, Halloween 2018, Christmas 2018, Babylonia, and Solomon.
The Materials books have the character sheets for the Servants involved in each Lostbelt, event, or Singularity. In some cases, if the Servant is prior art (like Meltryllis, Passionlip, or Kuro), the character sheet won’t be a complete one. I do have a goal in mind: improve my 3D modeling skills by creating fanart of my favorite Fate/Grand Order characters!
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