dianxia
2023
Kusoge in its most elusive form.
Despite taking clear inspiration from multiple other successful and well-made JRPGs, it manages to completely miss the point of what makes a turn-based combat interesting as a result its incredibly rigid action value system. Mundane tasks like leveling traces and rolling gear pieces to meet specific stat checks, just to make a character usable at the highest levels of play, invoke a false sense of progression, "grind", and build variety when really you're just at the whim of RNG. Even at endgame, the game continues require less and less agency out of the player as the game pushes the same 2-3 core styles of play, while also continuing to release units that homogenize the values of previous ones. Not to say that you can't experiment and have fun with it, but it really feels incredibly limited relative to many of its competitors.
The story is a juvenile mess which current public success hinges entirely on its witty writing and meaty exposition chapters, but it really excels in character interactions and has great confidence in how its lore is written, so little can be said negatively on it as a package. Unfortunately, like most gacha games, none of the story fights feel particularly challenging on first encounter and their more challenging iterations in other pieces of content are devoid of any immersion.
Most disappointing gacha game I've played in recent memory but clearly a very polished one, it just fills me with dread that this could be anyone's gateway into turn-based combat. The game is very low-maintenance so it's nice for those who don't want to commit to a game, but for anyone seeking a genuinely engaging RPG experience that doesn't just prod at your gambling addiction should look elsewhere. If all you want is a game that encourages optimizing how fast you can kill enemies rather than fight bosses that will actually challenge your sense of resource management and lucrative decision-making, then look no further.
Despite taking clear inspiration from multiple other successful and well-made JRPGs, it manages to completely miss the point of what makes a turn-based combat interesting as a result its incredibly rigid action value system. Mundane tasks like leveling traces and rolling gear pieces to meet specific stat checks, just to make a character usable at the highest levels of play, invoke a false sense of progression, "grind", and build variety when really you're just at the whim of RNG. Even at endgame, the game continues require less and less agency out of the player as the game pushes the same 2-3 core styles of play, while also continuing to release units that homogenize the values of previous ones. Not to say that you can't experiment and have fun with it, but it really feels incredibly limited relative to many of its competitors.
The story is a juvenile mess which current public success hinges entirely on its witty writing and meaty exposition chapters, but it really excels in character interactions and has great confidence in how its lore is written, so little can be said negatively on it as a package. Unfortunately, like most gacha games, none of the story fights feel particularly challenging on first encounter and their more challenging iterations in other pieces of content are devoid of any immersion.
Most disappointing gacha game I've played in recent memory but clearly a very polished one, it just fills me with dread that this could be anyone's gateway into turn-based combat. The game is very low-maintenance so it's nice for those who don't want to commit to a game, but for anyone seeking a genuinely engaging RPG experience that doesn't just prod at your gambling addiction should look elsewhere. If all you want is a game that encourages optimizing how fast you can kill enemies rather than fight bosses that will actually challenge your sense of resource management and lucrative decision-making, then look no further.