Parents' Guide to Fate/Grand Order

This intricate role-playing game (RPG) is full of great content: beautiful graphics, kooky characters, piles of upgradeable skills, and a complex storyline. Of course, Fate/Grand Order also suffers the same issues as most games in the genre -- a steep learning curve, complicated interface, and laborious collection system. On the surface, Fate/Grand Order is easy to play. The first few hours lure you in with an interesting, apocalyptic storyline, fast rewards, and easy-to-win battles. After that, battles get tougher. Wins demand stronger Servants, intelligent crafting and equipment use, and savvier team-building. From then on, success depends on lots of reading (Servant stat cards and Essence/Skill percentages) and the patience to navigate the complicated interface. The latter's arguably the hardest, thanks to a crazy level of screen clutter. With every inch packed with sexy characters, flashing effects, and billboard-like text, the app's menus scream at you like nighttime on the Las Vegas strip.

Each menu confronts you with countless mysterious activities—Crafting, Ascension, Noble Phantasm, Palingenesis—and the app's not quick to explain what they're for. In fact, it shares information slowly, in drips and drabs, trusting that its beauty, humor, absorbing storyline, and dynamic combat system are enough to keep you playing. Fortunately, they are. More than that; they inspire you gain the skills you need to save the world. Of course good as it is, Fate/Grand Order does have a few things parents might not like younger kids exposed to. Dialog can be saucy at times, with mention of characters' bodies and occasional mild profanity, and some female characters appear scantily-clad and ... overdeveloped. These things, in concert with the large quantity of reading and complex gameplay make the app more appropriate for kids over thirteen. Still, for the right age group, there's tons of quality free play here, and you can play for hours without spending a dime.