Let's Talk Gacha Games (X% IS A LIE)

[Natirasha]

I play FGO-JP, Another Eden, and Arknights.

I've spent more money than I probably should have on all three of them.

[Natirasha]

Also I've tried more or less every english-language gacha that exists on android, so ama. I dunno why but I gel pretty well with the whole gacha genre thing and its kind of my main way of playing games nowadays.

[Natirasha]

"Active" is a bit of a misnomer. I've reached nirvana in FGO and Arknights for lack of a better word where I have an abundance of resources, almost all my units maxed out, and just go on to do my dailies and bounce. Hell, in FGO I literally don't play unless there's an event or new chapter release going on because I have no reason to besides login rewards. Before I reached that point though, I was consistently playing two games at once--the two games always changed, although FGO has always been one. The second game has been at times Girls Frontline, Epic 7, Dragalia Lost, Aurora Legends, Destiny Child, Granblue Fantasy, Another Eden, Last Cloudia, Magia Record, Symphogear XDU and probably more I'm forgetting. Once Arknights came out though it sort of supplanted everything else and is in my stable roster.

Another Eden I gave another shot at the beginning of last month because they had a big new account campaign with 30 free rolls to start and a selector ticket so I decided to dive back in because I'm on furlough until movie theaters open up and had nothing better to do. It ended up being a good decision and it's definitely staying in my long-term pile once this ends. I'll cross time management once I have a job again, my work was pretty chill in the sense that I played mobile games on the job anyways but we'll see.

As a consequence with the games I've played, I've missed out on all the funny collab stuff. FGO doesn't do collabs with non-type-moon properties, Arknights is still too new, and Another Eden has done a Persona 5 collab and that's in. By and large I'm skeptical of games that lean too hard on collabs though, it speaks to me of a lack of confidence in the source material or a lack of ideas. One of the things that makes FGO cool is that the collabs are all canon in-universe because they are just other type-moon properties, which obviously can't happen with the bulk of collab events in these games(the only one I can think of is the FFXIV x Nier Automata one?). I heard the Final Fantasy gachas have fun collabs though, I think there was a like Taylor Swift one in DFFOO?

Oh yeah I also have bandori installed but I rarely play it and I don't roll the gacha(I think I have something like 30k stars?), I just treat the game as anime guitar hero when I want to do something mindless.

[Natirasha]

tbh I think people shit on classic jrpg gameplay far too much. It's timeless even if it isn't as flashy or super complicated. In fact I'd say its ubiquity is one of its strengths at this point. I'm a big fan of elegance in game design and one of the reasons I think I trended towards mobile rpgs over big budget ones nowadays is because they are largely more simple and elegant in design. Depth isn't always a good thing, especially in the phone format where you're going to be playing the games while at work or on your commute or whatever where you can't give it 100% attention all the time.

[Natirasha]

Is that something gachas broadly do though? I mean, buying new characters obviously gives you more options but broadly speaking most games don't go for the pure "buy power" style because its really chintzy. You could say its similar to like buying new champions in League of Legends or something and I'd agree that having more options leads to more powerful plays and whatnot but its a different type of power than straight stat boosts.

[Natirasha]

FEH is well-known to be powercreep central.

[Natirasha]

I mean it all depends on what you're looking for. I tend to prefer games with worse gacha rates, less customizability, less horny, and more streamlined systems. I also dislike pvp as a concept and trend towards the more story-based games.

[Natirasha]

I think the main problem with gacha games is their predatory business model, preying on those who have gambling problems/dont understand statistics/etc

it's an industry I don't feel comfortable supporting

Oh yeah I agree with this, it's incredibly scummy and terrible consumer-wise. The sad thing is that most AAA games do gacha stuff too nowadays, outside of the very specific indie and AA spaces the entire gaming industry is just glorified gambling. And like yeah, that sucks and is indicative of late-stage capitalism. But at the same time, I do enjoy them even outside of the gacha component although I will admit that the nice little dopamine hit you get when you get an SSR is great. So in the end I just shrug and say "no ethical consumption..." and move on. I've never said I'm a saint.