Meanie’s Rolling Admissions is a series of reviews of gacha games – games with a loot-crate or random draw mechanic. The gacha games I’m interested leverage a wide cast of characters as a primary driver of player interest. I will be reviewing them in chronological order of when I started playing. Up second is Arknights.
The Best Thing Since Bloons
I have many a fond childhood memory of sitting at the local library, or the school computer lab, faffing about on Armor Games, Addicting Games, Kongregate, Newgrounds, and the other usual suspects in the mid-aughts flash game industry(? Was it an industry? A scene?). Anyone who has been to any of those sites has likely played a tower defense game. This is a very long-winded way to say I was pleasantly surprised when I found out Arknights is in a gameplay genre that hits a nice little pocket of nostalgia chemicals in my brain. That’s not the only thing it has going for it.
So, I Heard You Like Catgirls
Arknights delivers a thorough science fiction/fantasy story while paying tactful attention to geopolitics, biopolitics, and an unexpected approach to apocalyptic weather that immediately gripped my imagination. The menus and UI are clean and satisfying to interact with. There’s a sense of detail in the characters, sound design, and the game as a whole that is not often found in mobile phone games. It’s clear there’s passion behind this concept.
Unfortunately, this level of detail can lead to *Ken Jeong staring at a tiny piece of paper* moments, such as during the loading screens. Since I’m playing on an iPhone X some of the text can be restrictively small. Larger displays won’t have this issue.
Art Knights
This review is being posted a month after I intended to, largely because I was too busy playing Arknights to be bothered to finish writing it. I was staring at the art. Yes, for the full month. Considering the game’s utilitarian feel they sure manage to jam a wide variety of aesthetics into the cast.
Highlights include health goth (Exusiai), mall goth (Lava), opposite of goth (Platinum), college slob era (Siege), busi-nun casual (Specter), belt maximalism (Angelina’s Bloodline of Combat outfit), Little Women x Uniqlo collection (Perfumer), literally just a dude in a grocery store (Jaye), JRPG kuudere antagonist-turned-love-interest (Reed), Devil May Cry cosplayer (Midnight), bowling alley chic (Cliffheart), and leather daddy (Matterhorn).
Even with the jokes, I genuinely love this game’s look. It doesn’t excessively sexualize its characters, especially compared to its contemporaries in the gacha market- just you wait, Blue Archive, I’ll get to you. While the geographic/political origins of a character within the canon might not be obvious upon first glance, it’s also nice to see a character and not immediately feel like you have them figured out.
There Is No “I” in Ursus
The gameplay is intricate. Easy to understand but also strategically challenging. It took me a while to get used to it, and even now I have difficulty. However, the game encourages generous use of the practice mode. You get 30 uses per day as a flat rate, which frames things as an encouraging puzzle rather than a frustrating roadblock.
Even though the core is essentially tower defense, clever mission structure and design means there are multiple methods of engagement. There’s the main story mode, periodic limited-time side story missions, unlockable side stories, a rogue-like mode, Annihilation missions where you have to outlast 400 enemies in a map that is often stacked heavily against you. I’m aware of even more that I haven’t come across yet. The content runs deep – not to mention that all of the story modes include extensive VN sequences and lore.
The side elements such as the home base management, where you assign operators to work in different rooms with different functions, having to manage their fatigue and their job bonuses, make it enjoyable to open the app for a few minutes when you’re not planning to run any missions. The recruitment system means you can occasionally gain new characters without using any gacha resources. Narrowing down the recruitment tags makes it even more strategic. The last thing I’ll mention here is the trust feature. Using an operator in a mission, or having them work at the base, builds their trust. The higher their trust, the more of their file you unlock, learning about their backstory and circumstances. It’s a concrete payoff for the investment you naturally feel by using a character often.
If it’s not clear, I like Arknights a lot.
Big Farma
It wouldn’t be a fair review if I didn’t include some gripes. I have two main complaints from my earliest hours in the game. Firstly, I wish it was easier to get the resource required to spin the gacha wheel after the initial new player bonus, and before you hit mid-game. I understand why Originium is a bit sparse – the nature of tower defense means having overpowered operators early trivializes much of the content. At the same time there was a dry spell between the beginning, where I didn’t know what I was doing, and the middle, where I am now, caring a lot about the game. Having a smooth transition between the two would have hooked me post-haste.
Secondly, the game should have an in-depth tutorial for the plentiful materials and currencies, along with their respective tiers and rarities. I couldn’t figure out the difference between the character upgrade materials, base upgrade materials, the certificates, etc. Being able to sort by consumable, basic items, and growth materials in the depot isn’t enough when you’re new. For once I wish a game element was explained to me like I’m five years old.
The game addressed my concerns pretty quickly. At this point I just want a notification setting for base functions. I want to know when the operators are fatigued, or the factory is full, without having to check every time. Please.
Auto-running stages via replay is done in real time, which I know many people have issues with, but I won’t go into the debate here. Overall it doesn’t bother me much, since I end up farming for materials while doing other things, like dishes, or my job.
Pros
- Clean design;
- Fun and engaging RTS tower defense gameplay with plenty of alternative modes to keep you from getting bored;
- Deep setting and story;
- Plenty of side features that all fit cohesively into the larger whole;
- Interesting interplay between resources (especially once you begin to accrue different kinds of certificates from recruitment);
- The base building is very, very fun.
Cons
- Bit of a steep learning curve both within and without missions for those with a casual approach to their mobile games;
- Not designed for free instant gratification – this game makes you work for your gacha rolls (unless you pay, obviously) which is not strictly a con;
- Since it’s only 3 years old at this point some of the features, like the base, are in beta and will likely change a lot moving forward. Again, not strictly a con.
Arknights’ Initial Impression:
A+
For each of these games my primary criteria for judgement are: the visuals, the gameplay (what kind of game it is and whether it is even fun), the viability of free-to-play approaches, whether the range of items and resources makes my brain short circuit or not, and the quality and smoothness of the user interface. You’re gonna spend a long time navigating menus. They might as well feel good to use.
Are you also a Pramanix stan or do you have bad taste? Confess your Karlan heresy in the booth, or comment below to nail it to the church door.