|OT| This is GachaCouncil - Playing with money

[Ascheroth]

Been playing Heaven Burns Red today

My thoughts after playing for a couple hours (am in the middle of Chapter 1 Day 7 right now):

• The music is great
• Game looks pretty good. The 2D art is gorgeous and while the 3D assets definitly are mostly low-poly and low-resolution textured, it looks good (the character models probably also do some heavy lifting).
• The atmosphere is pretty great. It's neat seeing all these other characters in the background while moving around the school
• The combat is kind of whatever. I mostly just put it on auto and let it do its thing.
• The story premise is not exactly novel, but the writing is entertaining enough so far even though it's clear it's still in the setup and buildup phase (very curious when the first big payoff will happen and how that will manifest). The comedy is kind of hit or miss with me so far. It's basically all a "1 or more characters say stupid stuff -> another character loudly reacts to it" or "let's repeat the same line again and again for comedic effect" routine. (The writing is pretty loud in general, lol). Some of it leaves me completely cold, some of it I actually find hilarious.

Overall I'm enjoying it well enough for now (or I wouldn't have played so much already ) and I'm looking forward to seeing where things go.

 

[Cacher]

• The story premise is not exactly novel, but the writing is entertaining enough so far even though it's clear it's still in the setup and buildup phase (very curious when the first big payoff will happen and how that will manifest). The comedy is kind of hit or miss with me so far. It's basically all a "1 or more characters say stupid stuff -> another character loudly reacts to it" or "let's repeat the same line again and again for comedic effect" routine. (The writing is pretty loud in general, lol). Some of it leaves me completely cold, some of it I actually find hilarious.

Yeah, I think this is the relatively controversial aspect of HBF. The comedies are hit-and-miss and some people may find them off-putting. Personally I really like them in prologue and chapter 1 because, well, honestly there are not many hilarious games in the market.

 

[Vantr]

Playing Heaven Burns Red as well. Enjoying it a lot.

Pretty much agree with Ascheroth on all their points. The main menu music and battle music are absolute bangers.

• The story premise is not exactly novel, but the writing is entertaining enough so far even though it's clear it's still in the setup and buildup phase (very curious when the first big payoff will happen and how that will manifest). The comedy is kind of hit or miss with me so far. It's basically all a "1 or more characters say stupid stuff -> another character loudly reacts to it" or "let's repeat the same line again and again for comedic effect" routine. (The writing is pretty loud in general, lol). Some of it leaves me completely cold, some of it I actually find hilarious.

This felt very Key to me. Early on is usually slice of life and really abusing idiot + straight man combo a lot for comedy to set up the lightheartedness tone and then they hit you with the emotional damage later on for that emotional whiplash. I always enjoyed this pacing set by Key VNs so I gotta pick the dumb choice for the comedy. It's also rather refreshing to experience in gachas because other gachas I've played the tone is usually very serious and one-track.

Also Cacher just trying out some of this arena stuff but isn't this powersaver auto-battle OP? Normally you have limited stamina to use on EXP or raising characters but in HBR you can just AFK all day or go play other gachas.

 

[Ascheroth]

Just finished Chapter 1 in HBR. Really liked the ending to that.
There's so much stuff opening up...
...including a rhythm game - hell yeah!
They also completely dump a crapton of money and upgrade mats on you after Day 11 :O
I wanna get a few more SSRs before really starting to spend a lot of resources though.

Story thoughts:

See more

I like how 31A has come together. They are a bunch of idiots sharing a single brain cell + Yukki, but when it matters they get work done.
I should have seen the 31C progression going from "haha, look at these dumb weirdos" to "...oh no. Oh no " coming, but it still got me.
The stage music on Day 12 was great and the concert was even better.
At first I rolled my eyes at Karirin having a split personality with a crazy serial killer that constantly yells and makes weird sounds cause it's just soooooo extra, while also being kinda generic, but having Karirin on clean vocals in the band with Karrie doing screamo is hilariously genius and I'm now completely on board with her character.

 

[Cacher]

Also Cacher just trying out some of this arena stuff but isn't this powersaver auto-battle OP? Normally you have limited stamina to use on EXP or raising characters but in HBR you can just AFK all day or go play other gachas.

Yep. Just idle the game to grind. Since there is no player agency, I just completely forgot opening the game before working on other things lol. The gameplay is simply not good enough for me to care.

 

[Ascheroth]

Did the "3 Tickets for 1 SSR" in Heaven Burns Red today and I... got a Bun-chan dupe. This game has a billion SSRs and I get a freaking dupe for the one whose design I like the least. Incredibly demotivating, even if I don't even care about the gameplay. The next guaranteed SSR is at the end of Chapter 3, which is still gonna take forever.
Ngl my first gut reaction is "fuck this shit, I'm out" and maybe I'll just focus on reading through the GFL story in preparation for GFL2 potentially releasing in 2 weeks...
Especially since new Genshin areas are tomorrow and Infinity Nikki is also in 2 weeks, this is an easy excuse to make room for the other stuff, even if it's an irrational one.
I'm probably still gonna continue playing through the story though, lol.

 

[Cacher]

Did the "3 Tickets for 1 SSR" in Heaven Burns Red today and I... got a Bun-chan dupe. This game has a billion SSRs and I get a freaking dupe for the one whose design I like the least. Incredibly demotivating, even if I don't even care about the gameplay. The next guaranteed SSR is at the end of Chapter 3, which is still gonna take forever.
Ngl my first gut reaction is "fuck this shit, I'm out" and maybe I'll just focus on reading through the GFL story in preparation for GFL2 potentially releasing in 2 weeks...
Especially since new Genshin areas are tomorrow and Infinity Nikki is also in 2 weeks, this is an easy excuse to make room for the other stuff, even if it's an irrational one.
I'm probably still gonna continue playing through the story though, lol.

I honestly haven't touched HBF since gotten into GFL2 beta lmao. Very sorry to hear the Bunchan dupe...

Btw, do you have Aoi SS? She will make your life a lot easier during chapter 3 boss fight.

 

[Ascheroth]

Btw, do you have Aoi SS? She will make your life a lot easier during chapter 3 boss fight.

I haven't rerolled, so my SS situation is: Tama, free Rika, Bun-chan x2, Miya and Monaka.

 

[Cacher]

I haven't rerolled, so my SS situation is: Tama, free Rika, Bun-chan x2, Miya and Monaka.

I don't have the habit of rerolling, too. Not sure if EN has the feature, but in JP server there's a SS exchange shop by spending tokens earned from story event completion. The shop has Aoi SS and I got her from there. Her skill can nullify two attacks (even group attack).

 

[Ascheroth]

Infinity Nikki has a pre-release Special Program tomorrow




On the one hand I'm really curious what they have in store, but on the other hand I haven't looked a ton into the game and going into it blind should also be fun. I'll think about it.

 

[Ascheroth]

Ended up watching the stream and thought it looked really good.
They mainly showed new stuff for the launch, so as someone who hasn't really payed attention to the closed beta stuff, I guess I still know nothing about the beginning and premise of the game, only some later stuff, lol.

The concept of non-combat focused open-world game really interests me. The game seems to be mainly focused around platforming, mini-games, collection and exploration.
They showed a new area that looked pretty good and varied, a new ability for exploration/platforming and some early look at Housing which will still in-dev.
And tons of dresses.

 

[Dandy]

I definitely plan to try Nikki. No idea what to expect tbh

 

[Ascheroth]

I definitely plan to try Nikki. No idea what to expect tbh

Same, but that's what makes it more exciting for me, lol.
There's a few reasons I wanna check it out:
Part of it is academical, because I'm kinda interested in the industry trends and expect this to be big, so I'm curious to see how a female-targeted big AAA release lands and what ripple effects this could have. And also how the gameplay, design philosophy and story compares to male-targeted gachas.
Another part is just curiosity to see how it feels playing a game you very clearly are not the target audience but presumably like some stuff.
And then pretty things are pretty, I see not much difference between pulling pretty outfits in a game like this vs. pulling pretty characters in a male-targeted game tbh.

That said I'm, kinda going into this with the expectation that this won't be another game I will play all the time, more something where I play the launch content to satisfy my curiosity and maybe a few updates to see what kind of content pipeline they have and then fall off. But I'm open to being proven wong, lol.

 

[spindoctor]

Necrobumping this thread after over a year because someone explain the Arknight Endfield gacha system to me

I did two 10-pulls on the rate up banner and got Laevatain and now the gacha screen doesn't make any sense to me anymore



So according to this, I can only guarantee the character again after 219 pulls??? Does the 50-50 not reset after successfully pulling the target character? It also says above that a 6-star is guaranteed after 76 pulls. If I lose the 50-50, will it guarantee her again in the next 80?

Also, how exactly are you meant to get gacha weapons when the character banner pity doesn't carry over? In my case, I've pulled about 65 times on the beginner, standard and limited banners so far. That gave me enough currency to do four 10-pulls on the weapon banner and I didn't get it. It says that I can guarantee the weapon after four more 10-pulls. But to get that currency again, I'd have to do another 65ish pulls on the character banners? But that pity won't carry over to the next one... so, do they expect us to burn character pulls if we want to get weapons? How is this thing designed?

 

[Ascheroth]

Necrobumping this thread after over a year because someone explain the Arknight Endfield gacha system to me

It's by far the most convoluted shit I've come across in any of these games. "Basically":

- You get a 6* every 80 pulls at most, with soft pity starting at 65. This is ALWAYS a 50/50, no matter how many times you lose it. The loss pool includes all the standard 6* characters as well as the 2 last Limited 6*. For launch this includes the upcoming Limiteds because there is no past history, so you could theoretically "lose" to Gilberta or Yvonne. The pity counter carries over to the next banner.

- To guarantee the Limited character you need 120 pulls. This DOES NOT carry over to the next banner! You ALWAYS start at 0 every banner! When getting the Limited character this way, it also sets the 80 pity to 0. This is ONCE PER BANNER.

- Duplicates are guaranteed every 240 pulls independent of the other counters. For example, if you get Laevatein on your first pull, you are guaranteed the first dupe after 239 pulls (every 6* between are subject to the 50/50). Or if you got her at pull 120, you are guaranteed the first dupe after another 120.

- Weapon banner currency is basically tied to character pulls. Every character pull (limited or standard) you get some of it. You can only do pulls in sets of 10 and to guarantee the weapon you want it takes 80 pulls, but you are guaranteed the first 6* weapon at 40 pulls. This is a 25/75 chance against you though, but has a higher rate up than other games (4% instead of 1% or less), so it kinda is the same. A weapon banner lasts for 3 character banners.
Still, if you get a character early you'd have to waste character pulls to get more weapon pulls or buy them directly with purchased currency.
The game has custom made freemium weapon alternatives in the Battle Pass however. The freemium tier gives selection boxes for that.

- Additionally there are lots of stupid FOMO incentives like the pulls Limited to specific banners, an extra 10 pull when you reach 30 pulls on a banner (which does not increase any counters, it's just gamba), or getting 10 pulls for the NEXT banner ONLY when spending 60 pulls. The monthly shop also seems to only contain Banner-specific pulls instead of universal ones like in other games.

I think the system is terrible and designed specifically to make it as confusing as possible and letting them give out a decent number of "worthless" pulls that make them appear more generous without actually helping you get what you want (because the 120 expires).

 

[spindoctor]

It's by far the most convoluted shit I've come across in any of these games. "Basically":

- You get a 6* every 80 pulls at most, with soft pity starting at 65. This is ALWAYS a 50/50, no matter how many times you lose it. The loss pool includes all the standard 6* characters as well as the 2 last Limited 6*. For launch this includes the upcoming Limiteds because there is no past history, so you could theoretically "lose" to Gilberta or Yvonne. The pity counter carries over to the next banner.

- To guarantee the Limited character you need 120 pulls. This DOES NOT carry over to the next banner! You ALWAYS start at 0 every banner! When getting the Limited character this way, it also sets the 80 pity to 0. This is ONCE PER BANNER.

- Duplicates are guaranteed every 240 pulls independent of the other counters. For example, if you get Laevatein on your first pull, you are guaranteed the first dupe after 239 pulls (every 6* between are subject to the 50/50). Or if you got her at pull 120, you are guaranteed the first dupe after another 120.

Okay this is terrible... but I'm thinking this is mostly a problem for whales who want dupes of characters. For regular F2P/low spenders, the take away from this nonsense system is that 80 pulls gives you 50-50, 120 guarantees and pity doesn't carry over between banners. If you're like me and you get a limited character early then you just stop pulling any more. And forget about the rest of the calculations to get more copies.

Still, if you get a character early you'd have to waste character pulls to get more weapon pulls or buy them directly with purchased currency.

This is horrible.

The game has custom made freemium weapon alternatives in the Battle Pass however. The freemium tier gives selection boxes for that.

What will be the best weapon for Laevatain from the battle pass? And also, which of the 3 battle passes does it come from?

I made a mistake with the battle pass and purchased the middle tier one. The one that costs 29 of that currency and gives back 32. As a rule I always complete a battle pass before buying it so that there's no pressure to complete something you've already paid for. Not sure what I was thinking when I bought this. I'm still kind of 50-50 on whether I want to continue playing the game.

I think the system is terrible and designed specifically to make it as confusing as possible and letting them give out a decent number of "worthless" pulls that make them appear more generous without actually helping you get what you want (because the 120 expires).

It really is convoluted for no reason. The only conclusion one can draw is that they are going the extra mile to obfuscate pull currencies and costs so that people don't properly understand how expensive it's actually going to be. I'm already seeing reports on reddit from people who somehow reached level 35 or more that the pull currency basically dries up by then.

 

[Ascheroth]

What will be the best weapon for Laevatain from the battle pass? And also, which of the 3 battle passes does it come from?

I made a mistake with the battle pass and purchased the middle tier one. The one that costs 29 of that currency and gives back 32. As a rule I always complete a battle pass before buying it so that there's no pressure to complete something you've already paid for. Not sure what I was thinking when I bought this. I'm still kind of 50-50 on whether I want to continue playing the game.

The sword (Umbral Torch) from the middle tier. It takes until level 40 though.

 

[Li Kao]

So what does Endfield plays like ? I didn't really follow, is it another Genshin with some added base mechanics ?

 

[spindoctor]

So what does Endfield plays like ? I didn't really follow, is it another Genshin with some added base mechanics ?

Yeah it plays a lot like a sci-fi Genshin. Combat is a little flashier than Genshin while exploration and account/character/gear progression are basically copy pasted from it. The big differentiating factor is the factory automation gameplay which isn't just a side activity (like base building in Fallout). It's central to the main game and required for progression. There are aspects of the exploration for example that require the factory systems to complete.

The PC port is excellent. It looks really good and runs extremely well. Has features like DLAA, frame generation and all. You can tell at times that it's made for mobiles but they've put a lot of work into the PC version for sure.

The gacha system as discussed above is kind of ridiculous. Much more obscure than other games so as of now we can't properly tell if it's less rewarding than those other games.

It's worth trying out IMO. The intro is a bit slow and then you get info dumped with a lot of tutorials, especially when you start the factory automation gameplay, but by then you'll be out in the open world and you can see for yourself how the game looks and plays.

EDIT : I will say that at one point I was thinking that if I want to play a Genshin clone I might as well play Genshin and if I want to play a factory game then I might as well play Factorio or something like that. Why do I need to play this gacha game for that gameplay? I actually decided to just burn all my tickets and currency and then maybe give up on the game but then I pulled the limited banner character in the last few pulls I had... so I guess I'm playing it for a bit longer lol

And one last feature I forgot to mention... it has a bit of the Dark Souls type gameplay where messages from other players can appear in your world (to help or troll you). Also, things like ziplines and other utility machines from other players' worlds can show up in yours to make life a little easier for you. You can also share blueprints of factory setups for various things using codes. So, for example, if you don't want to figure out how to automate the process of creating healing items, someone will have figured out an optimized healing item generation facility and shared the blueprint code on Twitter or something.