I played since the first event on the JP server and fell out after the ending of NA's first arc. It's absolutely the granddad of modern mobage, and I'm shocked it's still running with so much competition. Fate as a franchise is eternal, I guess.

The writing is... passable filler, up until Babylonia. Perhaps even Camelot, if you want to be generous. But there are moments when Nasu hits his stride and it hits it so well that you forget about the mid shonen anime you've chewed through until that point to get there. Go watch arcs on YouTube, if you'd like to enjoy them. It's not worth going through the game to get to them.

The gameplay systems have aged like milk. Buffing old characters that have been outpaced is a great thing! I think putting those buffs behind numerous challenge quests is lame as hell and very obvious padding at this late stage.

Grinding for materials, EXP, and QP is tedious and absurd, especially with the bloat of servant variety. After years, you'd figure they'd give new grinding maps with better drop rates, or better classes of EXP. There's no auto mode, either. You have to grind manually. And still no NP or animation skips. You'll have to watch these long NP animations multiple times in a single round of combat. Every single engagement is a slog.

If I have to sum it up, I'd say FGO is a mobile game that is disrespectful of your time. It wore on me after loving it for years, and I have to say, it's not worth it.