HEADS UP: Initium Iter and, to a lesser extent, Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia are made specifically for people who have completed the first story arc of Fate/Grand Order. If you don't want to play the gacha game (which I 100% understand, save yourself while you can), do understand that you are not getting the full picture of what is going on, neither will some scenes have the same impact on you without any preexisting knowledge. It is a nice watch either way.
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"Oh nothing good will come out of this", I told myself jokingly as I booted up Fate/Grand Order for the first time on my phone. I was well familiarized with Type Moon media before making this. I started a journey a year ago, challenging myself to go through most of Kinoko Nasu and his entourage's work, reading both Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Hollow Ataraxia visual novels (which i love to death and you would do yourself a disservice not trying them out), watching the Kara no Kyōkai film series and a bunch of other Fate shows. Needless to say, I really digged the man's work and more specifically, his ability to create some really compelling world building that intertwines with the narratives of his series quite well. There remained one big Fate universe that I did not tackled and it loomed over me for a while and that was Grand Order, with its big waifu collections, awful rate ups and its insanely expensive currency. Why I delved into that hole of no escaping ( which i am still in at the moment of writing), is for it's story. I'll be honest with you, I didn't expect much going in, and I was caught by surprise by some of the later story content, and this OVA is no exception.

Initium Iter offers a glimpse into the past, providing background information on two of the most important characters in the Grand Order universe, Mash Kyrielight and Romani Archaman, showcasing their lives before the start of the gacha game's story line. Their gacha counterparts start off very basic personality wise, especially Mash (who I was set on roasting the hell out of her when first starting F/GO as she gave me the impression she will remain an inoffensive cardboard cutout for the entire duration of the story). However as the story progressed, they started showcasing more and more personality, with little nuggets of flaws and hope dropped here and there, becoming endearing characters. This OVA adds some of their most meaningful characterization, while also providing a new perspective for events that take place later down the line.

If you know Fate, you know that while it presents itself as a rather action packed series, in reality it is a relatively slow burner, with a big emphasis on lore dumping and dialogue, and Initium Iter follows this formula. While the introductory scene presents itself as intense, the rest of the episode is rather subdued, quiet and surprisingly introspective. This single episode of mainly just people talking is however some of the best Grand Order content you can find out there.

Production wise, CloverWorks does a really good job (which thankfully continues more strongly than ever in Babylonia), with some solid looking art and animation, with a nice soundtrack to accompany both the hard hitting action scene and the more dialogue heavy scenes and with great VA performances from the cast.

It is in no way a perfect product, being attached to one of the biggest gacha games out there that had a lot of ups and downs, that it is out first and foremost for your money more than anything else. It also sets a pretty high entrance barrier, that requires you to play through many hours of a gacha game to make the most out of it. In spite of all this, I can't help but notice how human this OVA is, how it turned my "let's get this over with" into a nice surprise that actually touched me. If you are a fan of the gacha game, do yourself a favor and give this a shot.