I thought Yoohee's event was just okay. It was clearly a Christmas even that they delivered in June, perfect timing. I don't know... how much I like this game varies from patch to patch depending on how much I enjoyed the storytelling of that patch.
Years ago I had heard of GFL1. The first impression you get for these games when you look into them is that they're just sexy anime girl games... but the people who played it insisted it had this really dark, desperate, devastating sort of writing. I never tried it because it was mobile only but that was the expectation from this sequel. And so far, can anyone say that they have delivered that? There have only been hints of it throughout the last 6-7 months. I think one reason is that the main story has just been fridged because they are still doing rewrites of their content. Honestly, at this point it's just mismanagement. Changing around the order of doll releases in the global version, coming up with things like Chapter 8.5, 9.75 and so on is just comically silly. And so without consistently good writing, this game really is just a sexy anime girl game (which I have no issues with whatsoever). A look at reddit or Twitter just reinforces this. All the screenshots, all the fanart, all the memes, it's always the same. Although I will say that this community has nothing on the First Descendant community. That community hit an all time high (or low) a few weeks ago when they managed to embarrass the developers during a live interview. I've never seen anything like it.
Anyway I had about 365 tickets at the start of this patch. Was also on 60 pity in the banner. Used up half my tickets and got 1 copy of Tololo and 3 copies of Klukai. Hopefully I'll reach around 240-250 by the time the next patch comes. People are getting hyped up for something big in their half anniversary event so hopefully that turns out good.
Having just finished Zhao Yui's event, I feel it highlights most of the issues the game has with the writing (although I don't think it's a bad event on its own)
Regardless of its quality, this event really shows the real problem with the story, and why they're rewriting older events: they just don't know what they're doing. Zhao Yui is a baffling character, or maybe she is a relic of a long lost time when the devs hoped the end gameplay would have been different. Congratulations, you made a unit that can basically move anywhere on a map while sacrificing damage, in a game where 90% of the maps have a kill all/boss win condition. Now now, everyone is free to like her or roll her, but her kit is so poorly thought I really can't think of a reason to ever deploy her in any stage. Vanguard as a class has been in a weird position since the game's launch but at least units like Ullrid or Daiyan have ways to cause damage (even if less than sentinels), but Zhao doesn't even have that, her damage output is Krolik level terrible. She is unsalvageble
And her event, I'll say there is an interesting setup in the whole
new Varjager "Boss" that suddenly turned them into a real organized group instead of the random fodder they were (although it's still another setup for the future among many setups), and the story is "fine" as far as side stories go, but this event is supposed to "sell" Zhao to the players? Because the only thing I wanted after the event is for the rest of Moonson squad to be fast tracked to global instead. I won't go into detail because otherwise I'll post the entire event here but man what a poor showing she has. And that's without talking about how obviously the event feels like something the devs scraped together with what they had (what the hell was with that pathetic excuse to justify Aida's portrait lmao)
In the end, with the event and the character kit it's time to talk about the real issue with the game: the Exilium originals just don't bring the money
Yeah well I guess making most of the originals bad on purpose didn't help, but it's undeniable all the rewrites but even all the upcoming dolls are there so they can push fan favorites to make more money. There have been serious mistakes made with the gameplay since launch the devs still didn't manage to fix, like how MGs have no role at all (there have been zero new MGs added to the game since launch, Littara and Peritya are the only ones even in CN), how Vanguards have poor stat spread (high movement but limited damage, and this is also why BLDs are in the same situation as MGs, although 1 was added post launch), and how the early story chapters were so devoid of events which probably soured most players over the (mostly original) Elmo team, which then caused those same players to be soured on the few original dolls too
And so the devs didn't just press that emergency button, they smashed the entire set up with a hammer: no more original dolls (Andoris is the only one still missing from global, and honestly her design, character and voice is so similar to a Neural Cloud original doll I'm not even sure she is really "fully original" despite having a different name), full pivot to returning GF1 dolls, especially the most popular ones (so many dolls that have been hinted are still missing, hell one that was in the dusty journals since launch (
Lind) and had a model ready since at least 6 months ago just recently got added to CN). rewriting the story to make the commander more present but also to have his most trusted dolls rejoin him (suddenly the "agreement" is void because... and I say this as someone who though the agreement was a complete copout), no more vanguards because players don't roll them, sentinels and supports only because they are the only classes worth using in the game (and even with supports most new ones have ways to cause high amounts of damage too, because damage is the only stat that matter in the current game modes). Boy look at all these dolls that cried in desperation after they could join you for 10 years. Feeling guilt yet? Good think you can now roll for them! Krolik? Nemesis? Never heard of them. We even got rid of Helena just to get a "better Helena" with Melanie despite Helena being the entire main focus point of the first 6 chapters (and, again, I say this as someone who is basically only using his old favorites and prefers the "new" story because of how boring the early chapters were). Even when looking at costumes the vast majority of the paid ones are for the popular dolls, while units like Ullrid still have no costume even after more than a year
Unfoprtunately money is king with gachas, and if paid users want only nostalgia then the devs will eventually comply