I would've loved if this was a permanent Mini-story. Especially as it is supposed to be part of the story. The fact that this was a temporary event is an injustice to this awesome mini-story. I'm also lucky that for my 2nd account, I managed to get to the final fight in the last 3 minutes while with my first, I had 2 hours left when I beat it. Either way, I'm going to talk about the main focused characters after I'm done talking about the missions.
-Dark Haired Demon - Envy: A basic start to the story. Just learning about Avenger and trying to question how you got there. Also, the bit with Phantom of the Opera after beating him was a bit interesting, as it showed Phantom rather intact than insane. And we see Avenger's signature line, "Wait and hope."
In terms of battling, Phantom was decent to battle. He had the weakest sin skill, due to me using mostly Arts teams and whatnot. Medea was an MVP here. Either way, a decent start.
-Devil of Purgatory - Lust: Our introduction to "Mercedes", although some will know ahead of time it was Florence Nightingale, due to her appearing in E Pluribus Unum. We see her as another prisoner and we choose to help her. Avenger is moody, but allows it, giving her the name since she can't remember her own. Anyway, she's used for the 2nd bit due to "Lust" being the 2nd floor.
And "Fergus" was funny, even if we learn that the Fergus in the Chateau is an imagery of a Irish Soldier's views on him rather than the real Fergus. Also, quotes of the day: "AND I MOSTLY LOVE WOMEN!" "Mostly?" And no, you're not mishearing. While he acknowledges you more as a comrade than a lover in his bond 5 Dialogue, if you get Fergus to Bond 10, his Craft Essence is a key/invitation to his bedroom, regardless on whether you are a boy or girl.
Anyway, as beating the "image" of Fergus showed, we get a glimpse of Chaldea again with the real Fergus talking with Mash, and he sees what is happening with the player, but knows he can't really do anything to help other than wait.
As for the Battle, it wasn't too bad. For my Phone account, it was easier as I had Heaven's Feel CE and gave it to Euryale, who one-shotted Fergus. For my iOS account, it was tougher due to not having Heaven's Feel, but I still managed to do it without losing too many Servants. George was also an MVP for helping take out the Demon.
-Monster of R'lyeh - Sloth: Here we get some conversation with "Mercedes" and learn a bit more of Avenger. We then witness Caster Gilles as the Embodiment of Sloth, most likely from going from a stalwart warrior to a man who mocks God. After beating him, we get a glimpse of Caster Gilles from Chaldea actually being all considerate and stuff.
Once again, just showing how different the forms from Chaldea and the ones from the Chateau are different. But at the same time, seeing these insane people act relatively sane is actually a nice treat and a nice turn from their insanity moments. Always nice to see when Servants aren't just being one tricks.
-He wasn't too bad for battling either. I actually used Avenger for this fight and he worked well with Mash and Tamamo/Hans. Vlad took him out once he came out to the field, especially with his boosted NP from his London Interlude.
-God Doesn't Speak - Wrath: Jeanne, who appears to know what we are going through, tries to tell us the story of the Count of Monte Cristo, which is pretty much getting at the identity of Avenger. Once again, Avenger tries to talk about the different sin that we are facing, specifically Wrath. We then get to the Embodiment where we find Saber Gilles and Jeanne. Avenger pretty much is pricked at Jeanne, due to her trying to help him. He tries to display her as the Avatar of Wrath, although the battle seems to point that Gilles might be the embodiment, due to him actually having the skill and it making sense why he would have Wrath due to losing Jeanne.
At the same time, it's possible that Avanger ended up mistaking her due to Jeanne Alter and that he thought he was getting Jeanne Alter rather than good Jeanne. Either way, we beat her, we learn more about the Count of Monte Cristo, and Jeanne vows to return and help Avenger, much to his chagrin. Our character tries to speak with him about his past, but Avenger simply tries to be edgy.
-As for the Battle, I swear you could never do this without Avenger, cause good lord, it was taking forever to defeat Jeanne. Nobunaga was the MVP in taking out the majority of the cast, including Gilles and the other Soldier with Jeanne and George was also an MVP. Either way, once Jeanne was the last one, I had George willingly die so Avenger could come in and actually speed things up.
-Heartless Moonlight: Gluttony: This was an amazing chapter just for the main focused character, Caligula. For one of the only times, we actually see Caligula at his most sane. And wow, it was amazing. His dialogue was easily some of the best and just the fact that he was nothing like his Septem form while talking was a huge bonus. This Chapter really made me like Caligula, much like how the Kara no Kyoukai event helped me like Mephistopheles and see him less of a nuisance/complete monster.
Anyway, we talk with Mercedes, talk with Avenger some more, we cut to Caligula being insane in the Chateau and being the Lord of Gluttony, we beat him, we see good Caligula some more being awesomely sane. Pretty good chapter.
-For the battle, Medea and Caster Elizabeth helped with this. However, I did lose one Servant to battling Caligula, allowing me to bring out Saber Bride/Saber Alter, allowing me to take him and the Homuncules out. It was tougher than the first 3, but still didn't take Jeanne long.
-Vengeance is Mine - Greed: We start to reach the end and we find Mercedes missing. Because we can't find her, we simply go with Avenger to the Lord of Greed. We find Jeanne, much to Avenger's displeasure and we also find Amakusa Shirou, who is titled the Embodiment of Greed. Like Jeanne, Shirou wants to help Avenger, which ticks off Avenger even more. We also see them regard Avenger as Edmond Dantes. Avenger denies it however, saying that he is not Dantes, the man who found happiness, but simply the Count of Monte Cristo.
Both Jeanne and Shirou team up to fight, despite them remembering Apocrypha. We beat them, actually sending them away for good, much to Avenger's pleasure and him trying to be all edgy. We ask him if fighting them was really needed. Avenger doesn't get angry, but does bring up the point that if they lost, they may not have been able to escape. We also get some more dialogue from Jeanne in Chaldea, who continues her story on Edmond Dantes. Either way, we're almost at the end.
The Battle took much shorter than Jeanne in the last one. George, Avenger and Shiki helped with this one, as well as Vlad. George and Avenger took out the first 3 dragons, Shiki helped take out the dragon in the 2nd battle, than Avenger, with help from the Chaldea Battlesuit's stun skill, took out Shirou very fast while Vlad managed to finish off Jeanne. Like I said, shorter than Jeanne's previous battle thankfully.
-The Count of Monte Cristo: We come to the final Chapter, where we find Mercedes. While she confirms that she still hasn't gotten her memories back, we see that much like Jeanne and Shirou, she wants to help Avenger as well, much to his displeasure. She is aided by all of the spirits who she supposedly helped, which becomes very notable when you remember she is Florence Nightingale. We manage to beat the spirits, causing Mercedes to disappear, but not without some hope for Avenger.
Avenger tries to be all edgy about her death, despite it looking painfully obvious that he didn't exactly enjoy it. Regardless, he than confirms his identity as the Count and that Chateau D'if is the place where he met his mentor, Abbe Faria, who died and with his death, allowed Dantes to escape. Much like what happened, basically, someone has to die for the other to escape so naturally, we end up fighting against Avenger, the Count of Monte Cristo.
We beat him, and to our surprise, he's actually happy that he is able to help us escape, thankful that he was able to help somebody escape. We learn that the whole reason why we are in the Chateau is because we were cursed to go there by "Solomon" simply looking at us and deeming us dead already. Avenger takes the opportunity to mock "Solomon" for choosing him as the one to try and kill our character. We ask him about the possibility of us seeing him on different terms, where he replies with his signature quote, "Wait and hope." We then come back to Chaldea to a very happy Mash and Roman.
The first battle was tough, especially with the AoE Boss. Medea was my main damage dealer, but Avenger and Vlad also helped. For my iOS account, once Vlad came out, he easily defeated the boss. On the other hand, on my Phone account, I almost lost, except Tamamo managed to survive the last attack from him and took out the boss. Tamamo MVP.
For the 2nd battle against Avenger, it's the opposite. This time, my iOS account had me surviving with just Shiki as the last Servant standing, who managed to use her NP and finish him off. Meanwhile, my Phone account absolutely destroyed him.
For my phone team, I used Tamamo, Euryale and Waver to fight him. While he got to use his NP twice on the iOS account, he couldn't even use his NP once on my phone. He was too busy getting Stunned, Charmed and his NP Gauge taken away to even use it. Seriously Euryale is the MVP of my phone account against him, as she was seriously useful. Getting successful charms off him with her skill And with her NP. Also the fact that I had Tamamo, Euryale and Waver taking away his NP Gauges with Witchcraft, Vampirism and Waver's NP.
Like, this is one of those moments where I wished I could've recorded it. Like, this was an awesome feeling of being able to destroy him without him ever getting his NP out once.
Okay, the Chapters out of the way:
-The main story: I liked this alot. It felt alot like a Prison Escape episode while also feeling like a Gauntlet. Also, learning about Chateau D'If and Avenger made it feel like a mystery as well. Combined with some great writing from the characters, like I said, it's an injustice that this was only a Temporary story rather than a permanent Mini-story.
-The Side-cast: I also liked the side-cast. "Mercedes", Jeanne and Shirou worked as the somewhat hope inspiring people. Mercedes was also nice for her dialogue and dialogue choices, and learning with her about Avenger was also nice. And witnessing some notably insane characters actually being sane was a huge treat. Like I said, Caligula was one of the biggest highlights and had some of the best writing, a major contrast to his role in Septem. Like, even if it was one scene, he had enough dialogue to make me really like him. Also, once again: "I MOSTLY LOVE WOMEN!"
-The main character, Avenger - Edmond Dantes, the Count of Monte Cristo: I really enjoyed him. He had some nice dialogue, he was cheesingly edgy, but the last moment where he is fading and he is happy for helping you escape actually felt like a real tearjerker. It actually makes me sad that I didn't get him as a Servant. Also, I also like his acknowledgement's reasoning. He doesn't accept himself as Edmond Dantes, but as the Count of Monte Cristo, as Dantes got his happy ending, while Avenger is himself just an Avatar of Vengeance and a representation of the people's views on his story and wanting him to succeed at getting vengeance, which isn't exactly a happy ending for him. Or something like that.
Either way, I really enjoyed Avenger. He was hilariously edgy, he had good somber, yet hope-inspiring moments and his ending moment was both heartwarming and tearjerking. And now I feel tempted to get him the next time he appears on the Gacha.
