Learning Through Play

Van Ly Vu would like to share a game that will help you learn through playing.

Learning Through Play

The game I would like to recommend to you is Fate/Grand Order or FGO for short. It is a Japanese free-to-play mobile game. FGO is a role-playing game in which you play the role of a “master” who summons and commands powerful characters known as “servant”.

The game requires the players to actively gather as many “servants” as possible and "feed" them to put them in battles. “Servants” can be summoned randomly with "Saint Quartz" - an in-game currency. The way to receive “servants” like this is called gacha and FGO is famous for its extremely low chance of having your favorite or rare “servants”. Moreover, FGO is a turn-based tactical game. Turn-based games are not rare, but the special feature of FGO is that the skill mechanism of each “servant” is different, along with the use of each “craft essence” - a card that gives extra health, attack, or both, as well as a special effect. All of these allow players to freely create their strategies with different types of “servants”. Furthermore, FGO plot is very special from both the idea and the way the producers make it. The players and "servants" have the task of saving human history by going back in time and eliminating unreasonable changes in that place at that time. The plot is divided into several main chapters, corresponding to locations like Orleans, Okeanos or Babylonia. Each chapter gives the players different emotions, and to the last chapter - where every knot is opened, the players’ emotions explode.

I think we are enough with the introduction to the game, now let's talk about what we can learn from FGO. 

Foreign language skill

FGO has four language versions for Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English speakers. The game has a story throughout, and it appears in the form of monologues or dialogues between the characters. Sometimes they appear on the game screen and the players have to read it themselves, but sometimes the "servants” raise their voices and tell it to us. Thanks to that we can improve our skills of listening and reading. In addition, because the story is built in the form of dialogues, we can learn different speaking styles, jokes or even slang.

Cultural knowledge

Another special thing about FGO is that "servants" are famous historical figures like Napoleon, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; characters form literature like Sherlock Holmes, James Moriarty, Frankenstein or mythological figures like Gilgamesh, Arjuna, Medusa. All these “servants” are from various cultures who are summoned to repair the past that has been changed by a mysterious force. By leveling up the "servants" and increasing their interaction points with the players, stories about these characters unfold. The more you know about your characters, the more cultural knowledge you will gain. So far, FGO has 280 "servants" from nearly 30 countries and territories. You may not know it yet, but FGO has two “servants” from Russia that are Ivan the Terrible and Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. One interesting thing in this game is that Anastasia has a contract with a monster called “Viy” which is a made-up monster in Gogol’s short horror novel. As an international student in Russia, I am delighted to know that there are characters inspired by real Russian historical figures. Thanks to that, I know more about Russian history and culture.

Soft skills

FGO is a tactical game in which characters with distinct skills that require players to obtain creative thinking, assertiveness, and reflexes. FGO is not an easy game and therefore players do not want to lose, so they are forced to find out how to play and thereby improve the skills that are mentioned above.

FGO is now available on iOS and Android. That’s why try out this game if you want to immerse yourself in a fantasy world to get rid of the pressure of deadlines or assignments but at the same time to learn more new things that can help you in the real world.

Sources:

Text by

Van Ly Vu