As the smartphone RPG Fate/Grand Order celebrated its 7th anniversary this year and continues to gain momentum. Fate/Grand Order Fes, an annual summer event was held at Makuhari Mess, Japan on July 30 and July 31 welcoming fans for the first time in three years.
The first day of the event was filled with arrays of showcases, attractions, and stage events allowing visitors to experience the splendid world of FGO. A live reading performance by the cast members was also held on the first day of the event!
*This is a translated article by QooApp under the permission of SPICE. Reproduction in any form without permission is prohibited.
▍Back After World Events, And Meeting All Sorts of Cool Servants
Fate/Grand Order Fes had been an annual summer event that invites players to experience various FGO programs personally, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it was canceled in 2020 and held online in 2021. Fortunately, to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the game, Fate/Grand Order Fes comes back this year with various social distancing guidelines in place!
The event fully occupied Halls 4-6 of the Makuhari Messe, with a variety of attractions and exhibits for visitors to immerse in the unique world of FGO. The stage events also feature talks by the voice actors and new information presented by the game’s staff. The venue was filled with excitement throughout the day.
If you entered the venue from the regular entrance, a large welcome vision screen and a giant 8-meter-high statue of Cernunnos (an FGO character) will warmly greet you! Fans gathered around it to take commemorative photos, and the whole venue was crowded (while still following the guidelines) from start to finish.
▍World Tour with Servants Exhibition -Re:Collection-
Now we’re entering the second session of Fate/Grand Order Fes, which is an exhibition featuring the Servants in special attires of the world. The life-size panels also come with new voices that have been newly recorded.
The display is a perfect photo spot, where fans can listen to the amusing banter between the Servants while enjoying the sights of the world. And fans definitely won’t miss this chance to take pictures alongside their favorite characters!
▍Heroic Spirit Summon Photo Stand
The photo service, which was popular back in spring when AnimeJapan 2022 was live, returns to Fate/Grand Order Fes with a powered-up version for you to choose your favorite Servant and take a two-shot photo together. The one-and-only pictures can also be downloaded to your smartphone, making them perfect to be shown off on social media networks!
▍Servant’s Weapons Exhibition
Now we’re entering the Servant Weapons Exhibition in Fate/Grand Order Fes, which showcases the iconic weapons from the Servants sculpted in a life-size statue. The exhibition also showcases the Innocence Arondite, the weapon of Mélusine, which makes its first appearance in the event. The statue is approximately 1,54 meters (approximately 60 inches) tall.
▍Servants Display Alpha
Moving on to the Servants Display Alpha section, we have all 347 characters, including all the Servants who have appeared in the past seven years, displayed as acrylic stands throughout the exhibition hall.
The special Fate/Grand Order Fes 2022 stands are arranged according to the scenarios and events in which they appeared, and their sizes are based on their set heights, so it was easy to see the differences in physique between the characters at a glance.
▍Official Cosplays
Nine official cosplayers, who portrayed the popular Servants, also appeared on the Open STAGE and the photo spot in Fate/Grand Order Fes 2022! You could take pictures from new cosplays featuring Artoria Caster, Morgan, and Senji Muramasa, attracting many fans who had their smartphones and portable cameras taking photos nonstop!
▍Nuigurumi Greeting
Six characters from the popular “Manga de Tsukuru!” FGO manga series made their way around the venue in Fate/Grand Order Fes 2022. The female lead character, in particular, played around with the fans with her rather unpredictable movements, helping enliven the overall atmosphere of the festival.
▍Collaboration Food Menu
A wide variety of food items were prepared based on the concept of the FGO characters and drinks with specially designed images. Despite the scorching sun, the food was so popular that there was a long queue of people waiting in line!
▍Fate/Grand Order Chaldea Radio Plus
On the Fate/Grand Order Chaldea Radio Plus popular radio program, voice actress Marika Takano, who plays Mélusine and Azumi Waki, who plays Bervency in Part 2, Chapter 6 made appearances. (Note: The event was also livestreamed on YouTube.)
The talk begins with MC Kiyo Takahashi and the guests sharing their feelings toward their respective roles and their favorite servants and also expressing their enthusiasm for their performance in the reading play that was the highlight of the first day of the festival.
Then, the MC moved to the SpotLight Event History segment, which looked back on the many limited-time events that took place in FGO, featuring the Japanese voice actors for Mash, Nobunaga and Van Gogh, who talked about their characters and the memorable events they experienced.
Lastly, there was the staff talk segment, featuring the FGO development and operation staff, where they talked about various behind-the-scenes stories of the game’s development and looked back on fans’ memories.
Various updates on FGO and Fate/Grand Order Arcade, which is about to celebrate its 7th anniversary, were also presented, drawing cheers from the audience as well as from the fans watching the livestream live on YouTube.
Some of the announcements are listed below:
■ Fate/Grand Order Arcade Announcements
The limited-time event Chaldean Summer Garden: Visitors from Beyond will start on August 2, and the ★5 (SSR) Merlin will be implemented as a limited-time Servant to coincide with the event. The event will go from August 2 to September 29.
In addition, three new color variations of the ★5(SSR) BB were added to the Color Variation lineup, which allows users to change the overall color pallette of the Servant, along with a demonstration movie of the Servants in use.
Other additional information was also announced after the event, including a pickup summon for the limited-time ★5 Servant Musashi Miyamoto (Berserker) and the ★4 Mysterious Heroine XX for the event period, alongside a limited-time 4th Anniversary Color Variation & Rei-Ri Campaign to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the launch, where some of the color variations that have appeared so far will be re-released.
■ Fate/Grand Order Announcements
FGO will once again hold its annual summer limited-time swimsuit event! In addition to the new spiritual garb of male Servants dressed in summer attire, the ★4 Servant Gareth and the ★5 Lady Avalon were announced as new swimsuit Servants.
In addition to the new pattern of Lady Avalon suddenly appearing in a swimsuit for the first time, the identity of Lady Avalon was also announced as Merlin (Prototype), a unit previously exclusive to Fate/Grand Order Arcade. This instantly caused an immediate river of comments and posts on Twitter, with the hashtag quickly trending.
More details about the swimsuit event will be revealed at a later date.
Arcueid, one of the heroines of Tsukihime, a game by TYPE-MOON, was unexpectedly announced to be coming in FGO, with the pickup summon starting immediately after the festival concluded, and that ended sending fans into a frenzy with an even greater impact as compared to the first day.
▍FGO THE DRAMALOGUE – Avalon le Fée
In the first day of the event, after the various attractions and announcements containing the latest information, the Fate/Grand Order Fes 2022 closed the curtain with the FGO THE DRAMALOGUE – Avalon le Fée, a reading performance that reconstructed the story of Part 2, Chapter 6 of the main game, focusing mainly on character-centered dialogue.
The participating voice actors and actresses, such as Ayako Kawasumi, Yui Ishikawa, Noriaki Sugiyama, Marika Kouno, Azumi Waki and Haruki Ishiya, marvelously performed the story that intertwined the feelings of many characters in a powerful and impressive reading on stage.
The 3-hour-long reading performance ended on a high note, and the whole venue was filled with applause, as if the performance would last forever.
Overall, the Fate/Grand Order Fes.2022 was a lively event, with both fans and the event organizers truly enjoying themselves, after a three-year absence due to the pandemic.
It was as if they had received the enthusiasm and joy that only a gathering of everyone can bring. Everyone hoped that the game will continue to gain momentum and that everyone will be able to get together again next summer.
▍Fate/Grand Order Fes 2022 Event Details
Venue: Makuhari Messe, Hall 4-6, International Exhibition Hall
Date and Time Schedule:
Fes Area
July 30 (Sat) 9:00-18:30 (Entrance limited to until 18:00)
*After 18:30, only the Grand STAGE will continue to be broadcasted, and services for other attractions will officially close for the day.
July 31 (Sun) 9:00-18:30 (Entrance limited to until 18:00)
Grand STAGE
July 30 (Sat): Doors open 15:30 | Concert Start 16:30 | Concert Ends 19:00
July 31 (Sun): Doors open 15:30 | Concert Start 16:30 | Concert Ends 18:30
Organizer: FGO PROJECT
Supported by Bunka Housou Broadcasting Co.
The original article was written by Naoki Saito (斉藤直樹) and published by SPICE, which can be found here: https://spice.eplus.jp/articles/306133