The Modern Magus Magazine
Well I’m glad my confidence at the start of the Summer Event that we’d get a Kishinami Hakuno welfare was correct, since boy that’d be embarrassing otherwise.
…It was one hell of a wait, though. OC3 has made the last 2 months a very abnormal content cycle.
At any rate, it leaves one (technically two) Servant to evaluate before the Summer + OC3 bundle is done, so let us begin.
Residing in the depths of the FP gacha after OC3 is completed, Hakuno inhabits a similar position to Habetrot, being an always-available story locked welfare (once the Ordeal Call 3 Main Interlude is implemented).
While convenient, the one annoyance is that both Hakunos, despite in all technicality being the same person and unit in gameplay, are separate Servants. So if you want to use either interchangeably you would have to raise both to max, and likewise rolling the FP gacha for them means you can get spooked by the gender you don’t want.
Their profiles are also slightly different to reflect their minor differences in personality, but that still feels weird to say when they’re still a player insert protagonist at their core. Truly, the FGO protagonist can experience weird quantum self-cest once the doujins come rolling in.
Base Atk | 1,417 | Base HP | 2,079 |
---|---|---|---|
Max Atk | 8,502 | Max HP | 12,993 |
Grail Atk | Grail HP |
Increase your Critical Strength by 12%.
Increase own Arts Card effectiveness by 5%.
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness by 5%.
Increase own Critical Strength by 5%.
Increase own ATK by 10% against all non-Foreigner Classes and some other exceptional Classes.
Includes: Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker, Ruler, Avenger, Alter Ego, Moon Cancer, Pretender, Shielder, Beast (Playable).
DO NOT DELETE OR EDIT! This contains formatting CSS.
Being the 3rd and 4th additions to the SR Mooncancer roster, poor BB finally isn’t just stuck playing cards with Summer Tlaloc all day. By comparison to them, Hakuno hits the middle ground, having notably better attack than BB, but worse durability.
On the whole Hakuno is a bit underpowered compared to Tlaloc’s base stat total, and doubled by their more defensive spread, they meet an awkward middle ground between two Servants that aren’t that powerful offensively to begin with. But hey, Hakuno has good bulk, so it’s worth that much.
Thankfully our two protagonists have a pretty good passive lineup. With high-ranking Independent Action they get a good boost to their Critical Damage at all times, but they also pack two unique passives. Code Cast provides even more passive Critical Damage and a small boost to their primary card types, while Moon’s Regalia furthers those offensive buffs, providing an omnipresent 10% Attack Up buff versus every class that isn’t Foreigner and non-playable Beast classes.
While part of me is irked a perk like the Moon Cell Regalia, canonically the key that basically lets Hakuno use Moon Cell’s absurd computational power, capable of creating large-scale Grail Wars, managing the Nasuverse’s timeline and granting wishes just like that, is limited to a small attack boost, but I suppose Hakuno wouldn’t be worthy of being a Servant of their own without it.
That near-omnipresent attack buff is notable, since it really makes Hakuno’s “true” attack stat significantly higher than it seems, in turn making them the strongest 4* Mooncancer offensively as a baseline.
So how is Hakuno on the whole? Well on the one hand, they’re a modern-day heart-throb, their dull, expressionless face just speaks peak sigma energy, the originator of unspoken rizz:
However, they’re also…huh? You’re calling Nero your own flower bride? But she’s MY flower bride, they can’t love you! Eh? You’re calling every single Tamamo your foxy wife? ONOREEEEEEEEE, THROW THEM OUT OF CHALDEA!
Kishinami Hakuno, regardless of the gender you go for, or both if that’s your desire, is a very dependable inclusion to anyone’s Chaldea. Having an answer to Anti-Enforcement Defence is probably a good idea no matter who you are, but even without that on the table, they’re genuinely solid Mooncancers, packing high enough damage to manage universal farming outside of the most difficult farming nodes, packing some vicious critical damage output for high-difficulty content, and generally being a pretty good AOE match to BB for Mooncancer purposes.
It’s honestly a shame they did the Avenger Ordeal Call before the Mooncancer one, since having all these interesting Mooncancer Servants to play with for that chapter’s difficult fights would’ve been very cool.
So on the whole Hakuno is a straightforward welfare, and they do their job well - break through a specific kind of protection, stun lock enemies if you’re lucky, and abuse their card shuffling capabilities to loop powerful on-hit buffs over and over. With a pair of Koyanskayas playing into this hyper-offensive playstyle, it’s easy to see why I think they’re both fun and effective, even if they’re not going to do anything exceptional in damage output when they don’t have class advantage.
With the potential for annoying high-difficulty quest gimmicks in the future with the knowledge of Hakuno’s existence, I’d recommend considering raising them in case, even if you’re like me and have all of the Mooncancers in the game’s history raised and levelled, much to my own despair. This class is hungry for gold skill gems, let me tell you. But enough of my laments, Rath™ Seal of Approval, with a Recommendation.
Outro
Boy, with that out the way we’ve truly wrapped all of this Summer disaster up. A very memorable and unique event to be sure, but I’ll never really get used to being cockteased by a 3-parter story chapter, even if it means there’s no content drought following Summer.
…at least, I hope that’s what it means.
Ah, and I almost forgot, Passionlip got a new spiritron dress after this chapter. Naturally, I can’t wait to see her in that cute swimsuit outfit she had during the event, though I imagine they had to work around Lasengle’s fears of censorship if she was too exposed.
Hm? What’s that? I can’t hear you, there’s definitely a Swimsuit Passionlip awaiting me, nothing you say can change that. After all, she’s Nasu’s favourite, they’d definitely not do her dirty, right?
Right?