Mobile Games, Gacha, Android/IOS games

[Val the Moofia Boss]

As the Western games industry implodes, the Chinese continue to rise.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Genshin Impact

More footage of Snezhnaya was shown off. Tsarista reveal soon.

► Late Genshin/Nod Krai expac plot spoilers

Also, the space elevator and the Traveller's spaceship.

[Valter]

Genshoot Impact

[Val the Moofia Boss]

A few Arknights Endfield machinimas:

Genshoot Impact

Genshin Elemental Warfare is becoming canon.

Wrong Team - Genshin Elemental Warfare

[Finarfin]

Just a shame about the voice actors and animators of that elemental warfare thing. Woke as ****

[Lhynn]

Wuthering waves Cyberpunk: edgerunners collab was masterfully done, really recommend playing through it.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Wuthering waves Cyberpunk: edgerunners collab was masterfully done, really recommend playing through it.

It sucks that it is going to be yet another limited time gacha collab. People who weren't playing at the time and do the story and like the characters will have no hope of getting them. It especially sucks in the Genshin era where the weekly refreshing endgame has HP inflation to erode your favorite characters. It's not enough to just get your favorite character, but if you want to keep using them in the endgame then you have to be vertically investing and get their eidolons/sequences to. Normally you have months to save jades/astrites for their rerun to vertically invest and have them keep up. But if your favorite character was from a collab, then you have just one month to pull all of that vertical investment that would keep them relevant for a couple years.

Should have been permanent like with the Fate collab in HSR (which in three weeks is about to Rin and Gilgamesh, a year after Saber and Archer came out). Though Fate is just owned by two decision makers, Nasu and Takeuchi, which greatly simplifies things. Most other collab IPs are owned by publicly traded corporations with shareholder boards and production committees.

[Lhynn]

Yeah, probably, but the story is genuinely good. Like honestly better than it has ANY right to be. Its a fitting and respectful continuation to the anime that doesnt really change anything, just gives you some insights into the characters. The voice acting was superb, you could tell the voice actors were thrilled to get the chance to do those characters again, and their voice was intact.

Rebecca stole the collab though, shes so well done, easily the best cutscene animations Ive seen in gacha. She is just so **** expressive, its almost like you are watching the anime rendition instead of a rendered cutscene. ******* hilarious too at times.

Wuwa has a few really **** good stories, they have been polishing their storytelling, improving by leaps and bounds with every patch in the cinematography department, and this is a new peak.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Genshin Impact

The Tsarista has been revealed. First Genshin character to be married and have children? (depending on what Mihoyo does with Alice).





Transcendence Trailer - "Sudden Snow" | Genshin Impact #GenshinImpact #GenshinSnezhnaya



Wuthering Waves

Coming to Xbox with the 3.5 patch on July 10th.

Wuthering Waves Version 3.5 Geographic Preview


The original Jinzhou 5 star characters (Jiyan, Xiangli Yao, Jinshi, etc) from when WuWa launched - who have stopped getting reruns a year ago - will get a temporary separate banner with a light discount. No announcement yet that they will get HSR-esque Novaflare reworks or buffs. You can pick which character you want to pull for. Discount: first 10 pulls are free like on Endfield banners, after that for each 10 pulls you get 3 rebate until 80 pulls. So if you do 80 pulls you get 21 back on top of 10 free pulls. You can still lose the 50/50 to standard banner characters like Calcharo, so it's not like Genshin's Chronicled Banner where you can lose to other old non standard 5 stars.

[mynameismortis]

are there any gachas that are actually decent?

[Trickster]

are there any gachas that are actually decent?

No. It's all devil's toy.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

are there any gachas that are actually decent?

Yes, though no game is perfect and they all have caveats. No game is perfect.

Granblue Fantasy: produced by ex Square talent Akhiko Yoshida (FFT), Hideo Minaba (FF9), Nobuo Uematsu and Tsutomu Narita (FF musicians), etc. Is a fully voiced (in Japanese only) visual novel with SNES Final Fantasy combat and FF11 gameplay systems. Has great art and music and the professional voice acting elevates the experience. The VN scenes become better in execution after the first few years, with there being multiple different poses and facial portraits, character portraits being jostled around to simulate movement, etc. Probably the best 2D gacha VN visually. Writing has its ups and downs. Main story starts off meh, but by around chapter 40 at Amalthea Island, I began to become really invested, and the first Erste Empire arc wound up having a more satisfactory story than many box purchase JRPGs and VNs I have bought, including mainline Final Fantasy games. In addition to the main storyline, there are also many side storylines, many of which I have found to be enjoyable, particularly the Dragon Knights storyline, the anniversary event storylines, and the collab events. I have been playing this for the story and the audiovisuals since 2017, and still play this when new main story chapters come out, or when new side stories that I am interested in come out. Has a built in English translation. Recently got a Steam port, but I would advise just playing via the web browser.

The endgame is purportedly legendarily grindy, but I have never bothered with the endgame stuff, and I have never paid. I only play for the art, characters, and story.

There is a lot more variety in characters than the Chinese games. Here you don't just have beautiful slim young people, but also some middle aged characters, broad shouldered men, a few robots, a talking cat with wings, etc.

Three times per year (Christmas/New Year's, anniversary event in March, Summer event in August), there is a free draw event where each day you can log in and spin a wheel to get hundreds of free draws. I have over 500 characters (out of I think a total of 1,000+) just from logging in during these free draw events. If you save your crystals for these events, you can massively discount the cost of sparking a character you want by spinning for free draws, and then right before the banner is up you then use crystals to get the rest of the way to 300 pulls to spark. Though, again, I don't do endgame, and for most stories you use preset characters, so my team doesn't actually do much for me.

Cygames used their GBF revenue to fund Granblue Fantasy Relink, a traditional box purchase action game if you are interested. It was great and my favorite game of 2024 and I had 300 hours of fun going through it. Though the story was nothing to write home about Is getting an expansion in a couple weeks.

Granblue Fantasy Relink was my favorite 2024 Q1 release. I had been looking forward to it for years and it did not disappoint. Tight story, fun setpieces and boss fights, 20 different characters with different playstyles to pick from, fantastic soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and Tsutomu Narita, excellent visuals, and the gameplay has longevity with the journey to defeating the postgame superboss. Really hope a sequel is made soon and it doesn't take 8 years to release this time.









If I had to nitpick, it's that the new Zegragande Skydom in which Relink is set in feels like a rehash of Phantagarde, the first skydom from the gacha game and the most overexposed one. I was excited to explore GBF's fourth skydom, but I feel like I've seen all of this stuff before, not just in the gacha but in the fighting game and in the anime. It would have been nice if it had been something more exotic and unique, like Nalhegrande with its unique fusion of palacious medieval European castles and East Asian architecture.

Honkai Star Rail

: Mihoyo's next game after Genshin. It is very similar to GBF, being a turn based "4 guys in a row" story heavy game set in a cool space fantasy setting that is unlike I have ever seen. It is nothing like Star Wars or Star Trek. Unlike Genshin, Wuthering Waves, and Arknights Endfield, there is no open world you have to hike across to reach your daily quests or to open a chest that gives you 10 primogems/astrites (1/16th of a pull). Of the 3D Chinese gachas, this one does not have characters visibly share weapons. Each character has their own unique fighting style. You ofcourse have people with swords and spears, but also have people who use laser drones, witches who use magical mirrors, people who throw stelle and drop pillars onto their enemies, people who use dice or tarot cards, etc. (The only other 3D Chinese gacha that also does this is Zenless Zone Zero). You also get to see the most amount of crazy ability animations (not just the ultimate but also in the skill and the talent), whereas in the action games they are usually just 2 seconds max and restricted to just an ultimate.






Story experience is overall not great. The writing has improved somewhat in the current 4.X Planarcadia arc in that character dialogue is now sane (prior to this, there was an awful habit of everyone talking in riddles like a poet), but there is still a lot of bloat, and it has the worst average cutscene presentation of any of the 3D gachas. The main character is a non-character. However, you don't have an annoying fairy thing, and there is actually a main party of characters called the Astral Express crew, and a few mainliner groups that keep popping up (the Stellaron Hunters, the Arbiter Generals, Herta's clique, and the Ten Stonehearts). The other 3D Chinese gachas have a tendency for your (usually non character) MC travelling around by himself to different regions, he meets people for a while, and then moves on and they don't show up again outside of events.

There are a lot of minigame events and some of them I had a lot of fun with (the Aurum Valley shipping event, bartending, Seal Slammers, and the recent co-op card/dice game). Most of them are permanent (unlike the others where many - if not most - of the events are temporary). I think only a few like the Mario Kart one are currently inaccessible.

Of the 3D Chinese gachas, HSR has far and away the most amount of male characters. So if you want to assemble a team of cool men then this is the one you want. The others unfortunately mostly release girls.

I have been subscribed to HSR like a MMO for a year now ($5 monthly supply pass + $10 battle pass). Subscribing definitely made the game more enjoyable for me by allowing me to pull more characters I wanted, and to get some stand-in light cones for them.

Here is my review from last year.



Other gachas worth mentioning:

Arknights (2019): VN + tower defense game. Has the most engaging gameplay because it's not just "kill the enemy" to win, and positioning matters, etc. However, the story is unvoiced. Early story chapters have less than stellar writing. Does not have a web browser version like GBF, so you have to play it on your phone (or if you want on PC, on an emulator). Unfortunately (like with most Chinese gachas), most of the characters are just girls.

Fate/Grand Order. Basically a Type-Moon visual novel with a gacha attached. If you enjoyed Fate/Stay Night, Witch on the Holy Night, Tsukihime, etc, and want more VN, here you go. Unvoiced. FGO along with GBF hired award winning writers and published novelists to write for the game, so the writing quality is overall higher than the 3D Chinese games which usually have amateur game devs assigned to do the writing. Though a lot of people don't enjoy the story until Camelot or LB6. Has even more character variety than GBF, with there being a few beasts as playable characters, be it Charles Babbage as a steampunk cyborg, the headless horseman riding a wolf, a centaur, a T-rex shrine priestess (actually the spirit of a miko who thinks she found and possessed a dragon skull), etc. The main story recently just concluded.




Genshin Impact: open world, action combat. As the defining 3D Chinese gacha that released 6 years ago, it has been outclassed in a lot of ways by newer releases. Newer games have better combat, traversal, animations, more player friendly monetization, etc. Fully orchestrated soundtrack. The original storyline laid out 6 years ago will conclude soon, either this year or possibly next year if it continues to a possible Celestia or Khaenri'ah expansion.





Zenless Zone Zero: the other major gacha made by Mihoyo. Like HSR, characters do not visibly share weapon classes and instead everyone has a unique fighting style. Has the highest fidelity character models and animations of the Mihoyo gachas. Unfortunately, after launch the game became a parade of girls and there is a dearth of cool dudes. Unlike all of the other 3D gachas, at least here there are a couple robots and bears you can play as. Has had the least amount of powercreep, and 1.0 characters are still useable in endgame. I was not a fan of the soundtrack. Blocking heavy attacks feels visceral as your character slides way far back, and then you dash back in and the camera zooms in. More games should copy that.





Wuthering Waves: for a lot of people, it feels like Genshin but overall better. Everyone can get a motorbike mount in this one via story progression (instead of having to pull Mavuika on a limited time banner). Combat is better. Higher fidelity models. Characters look overall older than Genshin. Launch story is really rough. Has the best average cutscene presentation of the 3D gachas (after the launch story). However, it has photorealistic environments, most of the characters are girls, and your mileage may vary on the character designs (a lot of the mare busy and/or monochromatic).





Arknights Endfield: pseudo open world action gacha. The world is not as expansive and as open as Genshin or WuWa, is more like a series of large levels/corridors. Higher fidelity character models like WuWa. Unlike Genshin/WuWa/ZZZ, your other party members are always on the field fighting with you in this one, though combat is not as visceral as in WuWa or ZZZ. Unlike all of the other 3D Chinese gachas, here you do not have futile RNG relic substat farms. Instead you just craft gear that has set stats and you're good to go. Has factory building. Unfortunately, the character designs are quite busy, and it looks like it's going to become yet another girl fest. You get weapon banner currency when pulling on the character banner, but not enough to guarantee the weapon if you go to hard pity. The way that the weapon banner works (it lasts for 3 banners, no pity rollover between banners) means that you are punished if you are conservative and do not pull for every other or 3rd character. (As in if you wait 6 months for a character you like to come out, you likely will not be able to get their weapon). Has some neat tracks. Story has been pretty mediocre thus far.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

In general:

They have superb audiovisuals. Animations, environment art, character designs, music, sound effects, Japanese VO, etc. Only some games come close in individual departments (Trails for animations and character designs and music, WoW for environment art, FF14 for designs and magic VFX and music, DMC for VFX, etc), but I am hard pressed to think of any that tick all of those boxes.

For the 3D Chinese games, their writing is usually a mixed bag and not that great.

The monetization model of selling individual character fantasies means that it is not in the financial interests of the company to significantly change a character after selling them. Ie they won't die, get dismembered or crippled, get married and retire from adventuring, dramatically change their behavior or lifestyle, etc. For the 3D Chinese gachas, towns in the open world are unlikely to actually get destroyed (devs don't want you to lose access to sidequests you haven't done yet, don't want to have to move service NPCs to another location, etc). So that sucks a lot of tension out of the story knowing that there is little chance of there being meaningful changes or stakes to the playable characters and countries involved.

If you are a new player, then there is an overwhelming amount of menus and tutorials thrown at you, and there are a lot of different currencies. It can be disorienting at first. But these 3D Chinese gacha games function almost identically in terms of menus, features, systems, and currencies. So once you grasp one it then becomes very easy to pick up the others since it's just almost exactly the same stuff.

Aside from Genshin*, if you are completely F2P then you get about 100 pulls per patch. If you are subbed ($5 monthly premium currency stipend + $10 patchly battle pass) then you get about 140ish pulls per patch. You can pull a premium character once per patch (not necessarily the one you want because of the 50/50 chance), and get 2 characters you wanted across 3 patches. (The way the pity system works is that if you lose the 50/50, then the next premium character you pull will be the featured rate up banner character that you wanted).

*Genshin was the first and set the price ceiling. To compete, all of the gachas afterwards had to increase the amount of pulls that players get in order to attract them over going to Genshin. Genshin has made getting pull currency more difficult by putting more of the patchly pulls into playing Miliastra Wonderland.

There is a paradox where a major part of the appeal is the characters, and the reward system (the premium currency) is for pulling characters. But when you get a character and add them to your party, they are not acknowledged in the story, when running around the game world, etc. Your party is non-canon and separated from the story (story missions often give you the canon party members for those segments).

If you want to do endgame, then it becomes harder to break into the later you join. These gachas all started with easy endgames with you only needing one or two teams of characters, which could be made up of easily acquired 4 star characters. But as the game goes on and stat inflation happens, you start needing to running with teams of more powerful premium characters. Then you need to start vertically investing in those characters (aka get dupes to unlock their talents/extra mechanics, and pull for their signature weapons that also add more mechanics). And then they add endgame modes like Imaginarium Theater, Anomaly Arbitration, or Starward difficulty that require 3 teams ie 12 premium characters. If you are new then you will have missed a lot of pull currency needed to get that many premium characters, dupes, and weapons.

There is usually not much customization, especially if you are strictly F2P and can't afford to buy dupes or signature weapons to unlock more mechanics for your characters, and don't have a lot of invested characters to mix and match. You cannot teach characters new abilities or spells. You usually just get their basic attack, skill, ultimate, and talent, and then that's pretty much it. There is usually always a mathematically superior relic set you should equip and team comp to use for that character. WuWa however lets you kill monsters and bosses out in the world and obtain them as Echoes (summons) which you can equip, and there is some variety in what Echoes can do and their effect, like summoning a dragon to attack for a few seconds, or turning into a turtle that dances while healing.

[Manny V]

any flappy birds enjoyers