So, apparently this is a thing. One part Breath of the Wild style open world, one part party based combat, one part Anime aesthetics, and one part F2P with Gacha monetisation.
The reviews seem surprisingly positive, and apparently it broke the $100M threshold two weeks after release. The IGN review seems pretty representative:
Windows, PS4, Android and iOS.
Anyone played it?
Yeah. The core ARPG and exploration mechanics are top notch. The ability to switch characters between your team during combat and the really fluid movement makes combat feel very good.
It’s pretty generous with currency from the get-go so it’s eminently F2P able, but there is a strong element of P2W and the odds of getting the 5* characters and weapons, which are universally cooler and more powerful, is excruciatingly low. For example, I have made 110 rolls and recieved no 5 stars, and I think 13 4 stars (the minimum guaranteed would be 11).
I was led to it from a Penny Arcade mention to a very positive Forbes article, and, yeah, I guess it’s a thing!
The aesthetic is not my bag, but it’s a slick product and easy to get into. I may or may not give it some more time. The F2P excrescences are visible but not immediately obtrusive, though I really only put a bit of time into it.
Enjoying it so far. Fortunately, while the rarest characters and weapons are in fact the most powerful, the power curve isn’t very steep so you can see all the sights with the “terrible” free characters.
No Invert mouse is killing it for me, having to use a gamepad. It’s pretty good for a f2p with the same issues all f2p games have re getting the best characters
I put about 15 hours into it and sort of drifted away. It’s not a bad game by any means, and is certainly entertaining enough as a F2P game, I just ended up not really liking the character progression much.
It’s mechanically sound, and well produced though, worth a look if the setting is something you like.
Also keep in mind that while there’s a good amount of content for the low/zero price, like all gacha games 1.0 doesn’t mean “complete experience” it means “complete monetization”. The quests unceremoniously cut off with not even a “coming soon” halfway through the second region.
Pretty fun game up front. I don’t expect it’ll last real long, but I’ve been having fun with it the past week.
Whenever I am tempted to try this I look at it and the heavy anime focus completely turns me off. Glad to hear the game is reasonably fun though.
This has been an absolute blast to explore the open world with, there’s goodies hidden in all kinds of fun and interesting places. Combined with the ability to basically climb everything, I’m in a constant state of “I wonder if there’s anything at the top of this mountain?”. The open areas are really big but they’re also densely packed with things to find, which sets it above a lot of open world games, in my opinion. Liyue in particular, so many mountains to climb.
Just don’t get caught up in the gacha. There’s no PVP so no need to get hyper competitive. The resin (stamina) system is overly limiting once you’re done with the currently available main quests and such but I got in a ton of hours of enjoyment before I hit that point and now I’m enjoying it as a game I pop into for 30-60 minutes a night. Will be perfect to play alongside other games.
In terms of more content, they’re on a 6-week release cycle so the first major update will be November 11th.
For me the problem is that even if you don’t have to pay at all you get a lot of mechanics of bad f2p design. Like you get timers on crafting. I don’t see any way to speed up those timers even for real world money so I don’t get why do they exist except f2p title needs irritating timers.
Character progression is deliberately obscure. You get XP and levelup but really you’re supposed to use XP items to levelup. And then levelup itself is of little importance, you have to ascend. And to ascend you need special items that you can buy. Also there are 10 types of currencies connected to each other just to obfuscate the path from your wallet to the lootbox dispencer machine.
This is a game I wish I could just buy to make it all straightforward. Cause I know that even paying a lot of money would result in some sort of pass that will give me most “value” if I login every day.
Also the “technically it’s ephepophilia” aesthetics take a toll on my sanity.
I think this is more to feed a constant supply of “things to do” rather than to feed the monetization engine. Although a few character advancement resources are bottlenecked behind the resin mechanic, you get more than enough free extra resin to get everything you need for advancement, at least until really high levels.
Similarly I think the crafting timers are to give you that job “time to go back and pick up my crafting” - and the timers for actual items as opposed to advancement material are very short (indeed, the weaponcrafting seems pretty vestigial).
I agree it is super complicated,
Yeah, you put it better than I do. Like the gameplay is exactly the chill adventure I’d want to play on the phone or on PC to wind off some stress. But then it throws a dozen of mechanics at me so I have to think about this game as a job. And it feels like paying money doesn’t turn it into a fun adventure but rather into a job with a higher pay grade.
There is a real tediousness to this game, which usually strikes me pretty quickly at my age. I don’t have much tolerance anymore for thinly veiled treadmills or timesinks, which this game certainly has both of.
That being said, for a F2P game, it’s better than most.
Quick question. What level do I have to be to kill and eat Paimon?
Some of us are maintaining boycotts of mainland China stuff.
Which world, though.
That also really bothers me with games that share this art style or presentation. I installed it after hearing Waypoint gush about it, but haven’t built up the interest to run it, and will likely just uninstall since I have so much else to play and the aesthetic here just isn’t appetizing.
Er, love of clouds?
Oh, you got me there.
But there’s a lot of love for clouds here too.