F2P’s Take on Nier Reincarnation at Launch
If you need a quick one liner to make or break the game for you, here it is: “Its basically a PS2 turn based RPG produced by Yoko Taro with all the normal gacha features.”
If you need some explanation on what that means, I’ll do my best to explain my thoughts and feelings on the game as it stands:
ITS A YOKO TARO RPG:
Its a very story based RPG in the manner of classic JRPGs from the PS2 era. You basically take control of an avatar who relives people’s memories. And since its Yoko Taro producing the game, all of these memories are sad or tragic. But some of these memories are also beautiful to watch. Its hard to appreciate though, as I don’t read Japanese. If you want happy stories where the heroes go on hilarious adventures or beat the big bad to save the world, you probably won’t like this game.
ITS A JRPG:
It basically has a tradtional active time battle (ATB) system where each of your characters gets two (or three?) abilities and then a “limit break” style special attack. Unlike other gacha RPGs, there are no flashy cutscenes or animations to really make the special attacks pop out. This may make watching battles pretty boring over time – especially since some character models share the same stances and attack moves.
ITS A PS2 QUALITY GAME:
I’m playing the game on a Samsung Galaxy S10 and the graphics are outstanding for a 3D mobile game. It feels like I’m playing ICO on my phone. If your phone is a lot weaker, cheaper, or older, then your 3D battles will probably be very laggy. There are currently performance issues with auto-battle where it will lag terribly. (edit: You can battery save in auto-battle mode, but it results in extreme choppiness.)
ITS A GACHA:
I rolled 4* 2B in my second 10-roll. Ever since then, I have not seen another 4* character. The rate for pulling a 4* weapon that is tied to a 4* character feels terrible. There is no pity roll mechanic. As far as I can tell, I don’t even think there is a practical benefit to using 10 rolls over 1 roll. YMMV, obviously.
IT HAS ALL THE NORMAL GACHA FEATURES (like PVP ARENA):
If you were wondering if there are whales out there who have the entire Nier 4* roster and maxed their characters and weapons to LV70+, the answer is yes they exist. And they live in the pvp arena. Its similar to Epic Seven in that you’re presented with three choices for who to fight. The gulf between F2P and whales is as wide as the ocean, since whales can spend $$$ to burn energy on leveling up their teams and F2Ps can’t really do that.
I put that statement in italics because technically I could. Technically I could try to cruise by on my 4* 2B and just use all my gacha chips to farm the event missions for the free Nier characters and weapons. But it feels like the gulf between 4* and everyone else is so wide that I have to roll and try to get more 4* characters. Its different from other new gachas like Blue Archive where a 3* super rare doesn’t necessarily mean that character is top tier and where your success relies on good team building. Anyone who pulls the entire 4* Nier roster > everyone else, and anyone who isn’t a 4* feels like they won’t ever perform near the level of a 4*.
SHOULD YOU PLAY?
I basically decided to commit to a brief write up of the game as it stands right now because it looks like the subreddit is going to stay small and maybe there will be other stray gacha gamers who will come here looking for information on the game. If you aren’t used to exploring gacha game UIs in a language you can’t read, I would tell you to wait for a global release. If you are but you are also bothered by not being able to read the story, then you will be missing a lot of story. If you are willing to skip all the story scenes, you will still have to live with the gacha’s currently terrible pull rates for a 4*.
And then there is account backup. Despite my best efforts, I could not locate the option to bind my account or to back up the account anywhere. This will probably be my biggest reason for dropping the game to wait for a global release.
There are plenty of other choices for gacha RPGs – some old, some very new. If you think you’re going to be bothered by any of the flaws I laid out, then you should probably steer clear of this game until a global release becomes available for you to try.
TL;DR – Despite being a beautiful mobile gacha JRPG, in my opinion you should probably wait a year for a global release.
Author: Katejina_FGO
Source: Reddit
