A short, personal, and wordy essay about gachas
I'm over 30, and as I get older™ and real life® start to creep up on my free time, I'm starting to value mobile games more and more. I always liked handhelds (I'm salty to this day about how Sony treated the PS Vita), but never really gave too much attention to the mobile market because I always had shitty cellphones that could barely run Pokemon GO.
This year I got a "top of the line" phone and, since I don't have the energy anymore to prepare for my "gaming time" (i.e. having non-stop hours exclusively dedicated to gaming on PC or consoles), I downloaded a few mobile games that people seem to like. I ended up deleting most of them except, and I kid you not, the gachas.
Was I hooked on the gacha mechanic? Nope. Was I hooked on their gameplay? Absolutely. It's weird how the best playing experience, at least for my tastes, came from games created to suck up your money. Also, the fact they are made for quick gaming sessions, instead of dragging you for hours against your will when it's already 3AM and you want to go to sleep but the cutscene just doesn't end and there's no way of saving yet (I'm looking at you, Persona 5), is very positive.
Bear in mind this isn't my first rodeo around these kinds of games: I've played Path of Exile and Warframe for years (they aren't gachas, I know, but the f2p aspect works similarly), dropping money on them just because I thought the devs deserved it, usually like 20 or 30 bucks each year. I also played Another Eden occasionally on Steam, and this is the game that showed me how gacha games can be great when the gacha mechanic works as a complement, not the main focus.
Well, I installed Another Eden on the cellphone and made more progress in the last few months than in the last couple of years. The gachas are very fair, and even tho the story isn't always the best, the side content is usually great, but it was the combat that hooked me, as it's different than the usual JRPG because there are no items to use: you have to strategize and combo things together, and the gacha and free events give you great characters to do it without spending a dime. As soon as I have some money laying around, I'll give it to this game, because after more than 200 hours playing it for free (holy shit, that's a lot), I think the devs deserve something.
Suffice to say Another Eden was my gateway drug.
The next game I installed was Blue Archive, and despite really liking the game, it seems all the characters are underage, which would be fine except the game is extremely lewd. I don't mind lewdness, but c'mon, not with 16-year-olds, so I noped out of it. It's sad, because the gacha was extremely friendly to my f2p playing, and the combat was very fun.
Then, I installed Arknights. I don't really like tower defense games, and this one was no different. Loved the character designs and the world in general, hated the gameplay, until I stopped playing it like tower defense and started treating it like a strategy game (akin to Into the Breach and the likes of it), then it got fun. Really friendly gacha rolls for f2p too, I'm still playing it occasionally.
A friend also recommended Granblue Fantasy, and while it's fun, I didn't really get hooked. The interface also has a very Japanese design, with icons floating everywhere and tons of menus and submenus and loading screens. I always get lost trying to navigate through it. Not really interested in the story either, but combat is cool.
The last ones I installed were Romancing SaGa Re: Universe and Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent (these are very long names, wtf). I've never played a SaGa game before, but really liked how the stats develop. However, the interface has the same problem as Granblue Fantasy: tons of colors and icons and stuff and little explaining about what everything does. The combat is great tho, and the concept art for the characters is awesome. Now, Octopath Traveler is a dangerous one: it has the potential to hook me up just like Another Eden did. It has interesting story, cool combat, and the opening screen warning (the image for this post) are all signs of a great game.
With all of these, I'll be busy for a long time I guess, but the only one I'm really devoted is Another Eden. I want to see how the story ends while also leveling up my characters from Persona, Chrono Cross, and Tales of series (I love that the crossover events are permanent). Whenever people say they want to play a low-stakes game that doesn't drain too much of their mental or emotional energy, I always recommend it because, well, it's free.
The thing that really took me by surprise, tho, is that they are all great games that stand on their own, and the gacha part (and consequently, spending your real life® monies part) is second to the story and gameplay. I'm just hoping the convenience of having great "free" JRPGs on my phone won't bring my own downfall someday. After all, I just need to tap and wait a few seconds to start playing while lying down on the couch, no planning needed.
Now I can only imagine what sorts of mobile games there are in Japan that never make it into Western stores...