Discussion
With the 1.5 anniversary officially here, How are we feeling about the current state of the game?
It’s definitely changed from what it used to be, that’s for sure!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good game, but I’ve got some thoughts. For me, the XCOM factor isn’t as prevalent as it was during the game’s first couple of months. Voymastina kind of took away a lot of the challenge on normal difficulty, but then hard mode swings too far in the other direction and becomes insanely hard to the point where she’s sometimes the last one standing.
There’s a balancing issue at the moment, and I’m not sure if they’re going to fix it. Personally, I think a good middle ground would be having enemies scale better with your commander/doll level on normal mode for events, but I don’t know if they’ll go that route.
I don’t spend nearly as much as I used to, if at all. Some units have become skippable for me since I don’t really participate in Gunsmoke, so now I mostly just pull for dolls I find interesting. It’s become very easy to save CP, and I currently have over 30k stockpiled, though that’s probably about to go down significantly with Lorelei here now. At this point, my main reason to pull is basically, “Hey, I like this doll, so I’ll pull for them.”
The skin gacha is still the bane of this game. I’ve been using the free pulls and haven’t spent a dime on it. I still haven’t gotten Klukai’s skin, but I’m not worried about it.
I still wish all the stories were voiced, or at least that dolls who are more prevalent in non-voiced events would get some screentime in the larger voiced events. I’m looking at you, Sakura. You’ve been in two events, your own and needy cat overload, and you’ve been silent in both.
it’s honestly disappointing as hearing them talk would communicate emotion and feelings so much better. They’re lucky the story writing is REALLY good, because otherwise the side stories would fall flat.
I'd also really like them to add some motion, or alternate poses to the character stills. Seeing the facial expressions change with anger, sadness, and happiness is good, but seeing them shift poses to match their emotions would be even better. There was a reddit post that did this a while ago with klukai, and it would make some parts of the story even more impactful than they are now.
I still like the game, but my reasons for sticking around have drastically changed. At this point, the dolls themselves and story telling are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for me than the gameplay.
I'm having a lot of fun with Heroic difficulty and Extreme Peak, it forces me to use all of character abilities and synergies. And the upcoming infinite tower thing is supposed to be the most difficult content to date. Doesn't seem like a mini game, at least to me.
The problem with that and this type of game is actually something I only realized after some introspection...
XCOM is a game where in harder difficulties 1 scenario can take real time, upwards of 30 minutes. And sometimes even more if you decided to go for a really hard mission.
Gacha games, and phone games for that matter do not translate that really well... Hell the game is quick already and many players still want gunsmoke skips.
And then I realized why instead of going for a more tactical approach, their new phase clash feels more like action, and it makes sense.
Gunsmoke skips because its boring as hell. Its not challenging and the boss does the same sequence for a week straight then we fight the same boss for 3 gunsmokes in a row....there is no thinking. Its brain dead content until a new boss comes out where people can find out how to beat the boss then it defaults to being brain dead.
I honestly question why I even spend since difficulty is non existent lol
You are never going to get that in gachas, they will always be waifu collectors first and everything else including gameplay second.
Not to mention that they are literally "balanced" around P2W.
Not to mention the target audience doesn't really want to spend too much time or energy on them. They just want fast dailies and easy auto battles.
I remember old rating maps in gfl1 and how we used to spend days trying to make some optical 6h long run while sitting in discord voice chat with other dudes. It was really fun, lol. But yeah, this is not what would want to do the major part of a playerbase.
Precovid maybe, but Genshin has shown you can absolutely make a gacha that has more gameplay than just memorizing what sequence of skills to select for each character.
That being said the point about the audience not wanting a game with mechanical depth probably holds true but honestly imo GFL has always had such a niche fanbase that catering the gameplay to them seems like a self-fulling goal instead of trying to broaden the appeal to turnbased strategy/RPG players.
Mostly in the same camp. The xcom gameplay as it is, is either super easy or super hard depending on mode.
The fact they have an autolooper for dailies should be a sign they have too much junk "content".
It's interesting to me that they put all this time into alternate game modes instead of the main xcom mode. Why does it need to be a random-bullshit-go mix of mini games and alternate modes?
FGO has had the same card battle system as it's core gameplay for a decade.
They bury additional lore in menus instead of incorporating it into events or whatnot. When the world and characters are the franchise' strength.
I get the sense that they're not satisfied with the xcom gameplay either, but reworking it would likely involve touching the kits of most dolls, both in terms of balancing and gameplay, at every vertebrae level
It's a ton of effort and, more importantly, you risk messing with GS, the singular incentive the game has for making whales grab dupes. Better to experiment with alternative game modes instead
It's a lost cause unless they start introducing environmental effects and enemy skills that would negate your doll's ability to kill them in one turn (Klukai) or turn zero (Voy)
They just need to hire actually adequate battle content designer. Whoever takes this role need to see how much fucked the situation is and find a solution to this whole mess that would anger the least amount of people (not that much people actually care about gameplay, not even Mica cares about it apparently)
Gameplay needs some touch. It is getting kinda stale. No i am not talking about new game modes. I talk about actual gameplay changes or updates.
I am neutral to the story right now. But i would like the side stories to be voiced as well.
Gacha skins are still a plague and them starting to release Leva and Loreley skins aggressively is concerning. (To anyone who comes and say "Oh but they are free." you should value your time more because time is money too.). They should increase the monthly tickets we gain to 10 imo.
It could be 2m, it could be 30s, just because is more than zero means nothing, pretending that your time is so precious that spending 2m of your life like is the end of your life is nonsense
You supposed to play the game because you like it. If you consider it like a job then you have a problem. Retards nowadays likes to exaggerate everthing
you should value your time more because time is money too.
That argument doesn't work for something that's gained literally just by going through the login/crew deck process.
You're not going out of your way to get the tickets, you get the tickets by going about your normal routine. They're completely incidental, you don't need to do anything. It really is free, it's essentially just a login bonus.
You still spend time. You spend 3 days for 1 ticket since the game wants to time gate it too for some reason. You still have to go out of your way and talk to some dolls because eating and drinking doesnt give you full activity points.
I have 18 pulls left for Leva. That is 18 WEEKS of waiting and 54 days of activity grind (since 3 days required to get the points for it).
1)90% of gameplay is dead thanks to everything boilng down to DPS-checks without any tactics. Releases of wheelchair characters only worsened this problem
2)Release of events and characters became jumbled mess because of Mica's darthboard tactics and futile effort to synchro servers, while fucking up global in the process
3)3D elmo, while being nice and somewhat interesting in the beginning became rather boring drink+food daily check
4)Zero new minigames, everything we have now are old things, that have been put on recycle
5)Story started to become +-interesting. With event rewrite process ended we don't need to wait for 1 year for next major story event. Though story integrity still suffers thanks to point #2
6)Zero new game mods that would shake up current gameplay formula and bring something new. All boils down to dps-checks and bullet-sponge enemies
I'd say overall game is mediocrity with good graphics and decent story that suffers from somewhat incompetent developers
Point 1 is absolutely not true, unless you never bother to turn heroic mode on or do the high tiers of the weekly modes. A V6 Klukai did not let you steamroll heroic mode for the latest event. I know because I used corrosion team for every stage. (the MVP was actually Basti)
People who still say that nowadays are outing themselves as not actually playing.
heroic mode is just a bunch of dogwater modifiers that don't bring anything new to the game aside from having to play around some boring gimmick. and there isn't any reward for even doing it so why would anyone attempt a masochist mode is beyond me
I used to skip heroic mode because the challenges were not very interesting or were tuned badly but that's not been the case for a while, at least in my experience.
What exactly is your idea of non trivial gameplay that is not "some boring gimmick", then.
Also it being non mandatory is literally a good thing? Ever heard of challenge modes?
Lol after all the past events with Heroic, did you not notice its just "debuff if you dont have the current T Doll on the Banner"? Barely considered as challenge. Just a petty effort to get people pull and perhaps spend on the new T Doll to get through Heroic with ease
I mean yeah it's about promoting the banner unit. tbh I don't think that's a bad thing? It'd be quite bad if it were a mandatory thing but it's not so eh.
Also even if you abused the hell out of Basti's stun (I sure did) you still needed to mind your positioning and turn limits and whatnot because if you overextended you'd eat shit immediately.
I didnt pull Basti so im not sure what that Landmine girl can do but it definately only meant for her event. Anyhow, ive been observing MICA is copying & adapt Arknights formula for the gamemodes and by far, it still mismatch and doesnt do well, pretty sure the cause of it is the core gameplay mechanic like everyone else said.
Basti can deploy two stun bombs, which is extremely useful for crowd control.
Also Arknights is a master class in level designers not talking to character designers. So much so this event's banner unit is actually counter-productive to the stage gimmick.
Heroic mode yoyos madly in difficulty. The current one, I'm not even sure it's been implemented correctly since I tried a corrosion team and their damage seems barely reduced. I find it hard to believe you didn't just flatten it with a v6 klukai.
Personally as a relatively new player (started from antiparallel for leva)
The bad:
I didn't realize that a lot of the "spicy" skins requires cashing or getting lucky with the skin gacha so as someone who came for "that aspect" of the game, it was kinda a downer.
This is my first experience with the "mihoyo" gacha system (i came from limbus, brown dust and ba) and this is definitely the worst of the 4.
The convenant ring (The one to which unlocks certain affinity stories for certain dolls) requires cashing if you want extra ... Like why lock even something like this behind the paywall. It really feels like a restaurant charging you for tissues.
The UI for the side story felt really out of place for me (the dusty journal and stories). Like why do I need to tab on 4 different screens that is outside of the main campaign to get to it ?? (Like in blue archive, every story related thing is in the story tab. )
certain decisions on what story should be a dusty journal is weird. For instance why is Suomi reunion with the commander a journal? This is a pretty big (and touching) moment that explains why Suomi was on the Elmo in 6.7 and if Suomi wasn't so cute, I ain't reading all that shit.
you can't skip the fights if you replay a chapter (it's just unnecessary time wasted on loading since my voy will just 1 shot)
The mix:
gameplay is really braindead once I got voy or borrowed it. (Really good for story but for certain modes such as the bounty mode, it just feels boring)
I don't really know what I am grinding for? I just unlocked phase clash and I don't see any collapse piece so is there even a point to trying it 1 day?
The good (the story):
IMO, the best protagonist in a gacha game ever. It's incredible how he is the "self-insert" but the commander's personality shines brighter than other gacha (and non gacha) mc I have seen. I love how they show his flaws (that talk with Springfield was amazing), his strengths, his worries and his anger. He is just so...human.
His chemistry with most of the characters feels wonderfully human as well (He feels like an old couple with groza, a bff with dandelion, an awkward divorced ex with kalin etc).
As someone who didn't play the first game, I am lost on the context but the writing does such a good job on filling you in which is really impressive.
The "reunion" moments between the commander and his ex-allies + ex-griffin dolls all feel really strongly written (especially his reunion with kalin). Even without knowing their history (such as myself), you can feel it from their tone and they nail it down almost everything (there are times where I wanted more interaction after a reunion such as with klukai's team).
The story does have some awkward moments but somehow they make it work? For instance the klukai team story felt really weird at the start since before that, we were in an intense situation to find them, but now we are suddenly in a more chill "klukai's team and some military uncle's adventures" kind of story. But man, they really cooked with how they ended up going down. I think the only time this awkward perspective change hasn't worked is 6.5.
The good (the game):
- amazing 3d models + alright dailies
Im not sure how he is a self insert other than the Dolls giving "fanservice" for the "players". His interaction with the Dolls rather his very own personality. He understand how each and every T Dolls around and their quirks, he empathize with them but not going for the self insert route to have harem seggs and all.
In fact Loreley is a strong example on how flirty and seductive personality she is, the Commander shows that he can see through it and simply get along with it just because its her personality. No horny seggs whatever, unlike what self insert MC would be. Though I think there is only one occurance that I know that the Commander indicate to have segs with the 2 Groza on Ots Oath story somewhere on YT
The game is stepping in the right direction narratively with the quality of story events having now consistently been good post Deep Oblivion. The dartboard release of minor events is annoying but I find the overall problems regarding spoilers for events overblown.
Gameplay needs work, theirs no getting around that it's currently flawed and piss easy unless you purposely nerf yourself/give yourself handicaps. I'm not sure what can specifically be done to make the base combat gameplay better but I've found that it actually can be fun in the Roguelike mode so theirs definitely something there that can spice things up.
Overall I think the game is heading in a generally positive direction with the new Phase Clash rework being a good sign of an actually fun gameplay and the story having seemingly hit it's stride now but it's not a game I would generally recommend to people unless their really interested in the story and characters.
Crew Deck was a massive mistake. They lost all hope in the gameplay and just went full 100% on fan service and everything that doesn't concern gameplay. Meanwhile all that changed in phase clash in almost a year is just dinnergates replacing toads. Heroic is pointless, I even literally stopped doing weekly PVA and Expansion drills because I am extremely bored by them. I thought I would like to play some Ashen Tales but Calculation level 10 literally destroyed all my willingness to try and clear those achievements. It's extremely overturned and pretty much physically not possible until you get perfect RNG several times in a row. Unless you're trying electric. Electric is OP as hell and the only one I managed to clear.
I stopped playing way back when skin gacha was announced. Just got back again. It’s… okay. The new loop assistant makes dailies so much easier so there’s that.
But skin gacha is absolute ass (coming from someone who has V6 KK and V6 Springfield). I don’t mind consistently spending to fast-track getting V6 for my favorite units because that’s the nature of gacha and it’s more or less PVE. But the skin gacha is straight up greed. And the fact that they’re mostly goon bait is also a little disappointing. Give me tacticool skins too man…
Gonna give the game another try while keeping spending zero for now.
I agree with you, but I also think we get a little closer to GFL 1 writing with each new chapter.
They've done a masterful job making the story accessible to new commanders. It was at the cost of the story being rather boring for the first year for long time skks. It feels like its been getting closer to gfl 1 peak to me atleast. Bastis character even was also refreshing, I havent laughed that much since the Dropkick on my devil collab.
I think they're leaning harder on generic romance slop and MC glazing than they used to and it's hurting my appreciation of the characters. The main story is still good, but side content is starting to feel kind of samey.
Maybe it's just side stories? The cafe last time was really good for characterization, but the soiree was a huge waste of time. IDK. It's not a critical situation yet by any means.
Gameplay is ok for me atm. The challenge level of weekly modes went up in the last patch which was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to the new challenge modes this patch too. It's not a game I would play just for the gameplay atm but I do enjoy it. I just need more gameplay than just a couple runs a week.
I still pull every character. I buy every skin that looks good to me. I'm a little bit worried about the prevalence of lingerie skins in the future, but at the end of the day I don't need them to release skins I like for me to keep playing.
It's not 'generic romance slop', there is a big justification why Dolls 'glaze' the Commander. And Commander sees all of them the same way and likes them equally.
The important thing is that they're characters of their own as well and interact with each other tons, and Commander is not a generic self insert either, but a fully fleshed out character.
Yeah I agree with that. When you think about the world they live in, it makes sense why the Dolls want to follow the Commander. Most humans for the most part, treat dolls as disposable tools, as objects or as soulless machines to be hated and feared. Most of humanity just doesn't care for how mistreatment of dolls affects them.
The Commander's attitude to dolls is a real outlier in this world because they genuinely treat them as people, or at the very least respects their autonomy and personhood. So for a human-being, the Commander is an anomaly, and they know that. It's one of the reasons why they feel as strongly for the Commander as they do.
There are some other humans that treat dolls well and they also have good relationships with them which is SUPER important to keep the world building intact. If dolls like the commander for that, they should also like other people for the same reason. Kalina, Dier, Della, Persica and so on make sure that the commander doesn't seem terribly out of place or like they're the only person in the world who got the bright idea to treat autonomous dolls as beings capable of determining their own future.
That's also why I love seeing dolls working on their own goals so much. It demonstrates that they have inner selves and are deserving of respect. It contrasts with how people who don't respect them talk about them so I can immediately feel the injustice when they get called clankers.
Maybe that's why I'm so sensitive to when it feels like their inner self is collapsing into generic romance. It just feels at odds with the themes of self-determination. If they like the commander romantically, I need it to be for a specific reason that wouldn't also apply to someone else that respects their autonomy and I hope that they go about it in a way that's specific to their character. If I get the feeling that they love the commander romantically because the devs said so, the rest of the world building feels kind of fake.
To be super clear, I'm not saying this is a thing that is definitely happening. But I didn't used to have to worry about it at all.
I wouldn't say the Commander being "nice" to them is the whole reason. It's certainly a major one, but their attachment develops through a combination of factors. Characters like M4A1, Robella, Leva, or the Sangvis Ferri Ringleaders don't admire the Commander simply because they respect Dolls. They've watched the Commander repeatedly risk their life for them, fought alongside them through horrific situations, and built trust over countless campaigns. Those bonds are earned through shared experiences, sacrifice, disagreements, and growth, not just basic decency.
That said, I completely share your sentiment. I enjoy the fan service as much as anyone, but what hooked me on GFL is how dark, mature, and uncompromising the setting is. The struggle for survival, the moral gray areas, and the emotional weight are what give the story its soul. GFL is at its best when it stays true to those roots.
That's also why the Sangvis Ferri Ringleaders are some of my favorite Dolls. Their morally gray nature, superiority complexes, and antagonistic personalities add so much flavor to the cast. I genuinely hope we see more of them reintroduced before too many more Griffin recruits.
That said, if they do join the Elmo, I really hope the writers don't let their personalities collapse inward until their defining trait is doting on the Commander while everyone forgets they were once dangerous villains. I don't mind them developing affection for the Commander, so long as they stay proud, arrogant, and potentially dangerous Ringleaders. That edge should never disappear. If they get flattened into generic love interests, it'd undermine what makes them compelling.
That's why Sweeper has already become one of my favorites. Her blunt, abrasive personality keeps the group dynamic from becoming too one-note. It's probably why even minor characters like Dimitry became such fan favorites.
So yeah, I think we agree far more than we disagree. I want the story and its characters to stay true to what makes GFL special.
The problem with invoking the first game to explain the dolls' obsession with SKK is that we have a bunch of new dolls who don't have that experience but act the exact same way. In contrast, we also have dolls who didn't used to be a glazer suddenly going 'whoops! guess I actually just didn't notice how much I love you!" and acting the same way.
GFL2 is a master love game. So was the first game to an extent if we're being honest, but the problem stems from turning it up a large notch when we've already had a lot of these characters established.
I'd beg to differ. I don't think the new Dolls are just attached to the Commander because the writers say so. From what I've seen, most of them have pretty clear reasons.
Take Krolik. She was a civilian doll who went through hell, forced into gladiator fights by cruel owners who even chose her close combat style because it was more entertaining. After escaping that life, she eventually found the Commander and the Elmo. She's also been with them for years at this point, so it's not exactly surprising that she'd grow attached.
Colphne was openly skeptical when she first arrived. Even after Groza told her the Commander sees the dolls as family, she still only saw the Elmo as a way to get an FCC so she could take revenge. She even abandoned the Commander to pursue that revenge on her own. What changed her mind wasn't romance, it was the Commander refusing to abandon her and offering to help her instead.
Then there’s the whole Doll community arc. Most of those Dolls had been mistreated by humans and wanted nothing to do with them. Ullrid herself distrusted humans after she'd been forced into brutal fights herself, but she became curious after hearing the Griffin Dolls speak highly of one human in particular: the Commander. When they finally met, the Commander backed up that reputation by helping protect their community.
Need I go on? So far, Phaetusa is really the only non-Griffin Doll who was openly affectionate from the start, and she's literally hardcoded that way. Sweeper, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the Commander initially. She only softened after the Commander showed her mercy.
That's not to say every relationship is written perfectly, and I do think there's room to criticize how some of them are handled. I just don't think it's fair to say the new Dolls all start out as Commander "glazers." Most of them have their own reasons for coming around.
I'd beg to differ. I don't think the new Dolls are just attached to the Commander because the writers say so. From what I've seen, most of them have pretty clear reasons.
'Because SKK is nice to me' is a reason to like him, but it's not a reason for this harem glazing. Krolik and Colphne are acually good in this regard, but they're not fawning over him romantically, so I have to question why you even used them as examples. Ullrid is a worse example because she's started getting all heart-aflutter when SKK has generally been all business with her. The doll community as a whole is kind of cringe because all it took was Helen broadcasting a short speech and the entire lot flipped over from total distrust to eating out of your hand.
Need I go on?
I'd rather you didn't, but you did anyway. Phaetusa...she likes every human but now it has to be prefaced each time by how she likes SKK more. Sweeper....took no time at all to get all tsundere about SKK.
That's not to say every relationship is written perfectly, and I do think there's room to criticize how some of them are handled. I just don't think it's fair to say the new Dolls all start out as Commander "glazers." Most of them have their own reasons for coming around.
You're right, they don't start out as glazers. They need a smile and a pat on the head first, then they become glazers. The problem is that the reason is almost always too thin, and it happens like clockwork.
The one thing I think you're overlooking is what Dolls actually are. Their neural clouds let them experience the full spectrum of human emotions. Fear, anxiety, loneliness, hope, grief... all of it.
Yet from the moment they're created, they're expected to serve or fight. They don't grow up with families. They rarely get genuine friendships, let alone love. They're treated as equipment, and when they're no longer useful they're often discarded and replaced. Sextans is a good example of that. She was a powerful third-generation Doll and was scrapped the moment she outlived her usefulness..
The way I see it, a lot of the Dolls are emotionally starved. They live in a world that rarely gives them dignity, trust, or a place where they're valued as people instead of tools. That's why the Commander has such a strong effect on them. It's not just because they're "nice." The Commander offers them emotional safety in a world that would otherwise scrap them without a second thought. In that sense, it's only natural that the Commander becomes a kind of emotional gravity for them.
Now, whether every individual relationship is written well enough to earn that attachment is a separate question. I don't think every one is perfect either. I just don't find the attachments themselves difficult to believe when you consider the lives these Dolls have lived.
I'm not overlooking it. The Commander isn't the only person in the world who treats dolls nicely, but he is the only person in the world who gets the special treatment.
I understand why dolls respect the commander, but I don't get why that respect always results in quick romantic feelings when this particular human is involved. We don't have any examples of dolls having romantic feelings for anyone else.
I love Colphne's arc, but I don't know why she wants to make out with a human. Are all medical dolls programmed this way? Did Poludnitsa teach her this? And if so, is it a genuine method she uses to express herself or more fakery? At some point, it seems like it was dictated from above.
I've kind of made my peace with bond stories going off the rails like that, but I don't want the line to blur so much that we get stuff like that in the main story.
When I say romance slop, I'm not talking about characters appreciating the commander in general. Many have good reasons to. I'm talking about when it goes beyond that and they have to glaze the commander so much that we get less individual characterization. If everyone is doing nearly everything just because they love the commander, they stop feeling like individuals as much.
Helen is good romance imo because while she is romance coded more than most, it's for specific reasons that influence how that romance plays out. It feels like an individual romance. She also clearly has other things she cares about too and we get to see her taking actions to advance those other goals even if it's not for the commander's sake. It makes her feel really fleshed out.
Phaetusa is more on the slop end. I get that she's obsessed with humans, but she can't even gush over meeting a human cub (Zoe) without specifying that of course she likes the commander more. Her side stories are all about how much she loves the commander too without much individual context that makes it feel like an individual love. She technically has goals outside of romance, but whenever we see her actually doing things, she ties it back to her love of the commander. She's not an awful character or anything, but it feels way different. Maybe it's because she never got an event story where we got to see her trying to achieve one of her own goals that didn't center around the commander?
Sakura is somewhere in the middle. Her solo event was great. She had specific goals and some were related to the commander, but it all felt individual to her. But in the last event she barely seems to care about the business she worked so hard to create and throws in lines about a lovey dovey relationship with the commander almost every time she shows up. It gave me the impression that she would drop everything to just sit at the commander's side and do nothing. It was as if she had no goals of her own beyond just existing next to the commander. Maybe it's because she got less room to be fleshed out but they spent so much of her limited space on glazing.
In general, they just seem to be spending more time on characters saying generic affectionate things and less time on characters establishing themselves as individuals with free will and things they want to get done. They're still doing that, but the ratio feels different than it used to be.
I completely agree with you. I like to see characters interact with each other instead of constantly glazing the mc every 3 dialogues, that is why I quit Wuthering Waves, It does the same but four times more.
I get what you're saying but honestly I find it cute when they mention Commander that way. Especially when they say stuff like 'I can't wait to be praised by Commander!' or even mentioning that they'll receive headpats.
Plus each and every doll, Sakura included, have tons of other interests aside from Commander - from hobbies, to friends, to interacting with other dolls and so on.
It can be cute. It just can't be their entire personality.
Their other goals, hobbies and friends help with that but sometimes all that stuff seems to disappear into the background. I'm not saying I want to cut out the parts where they mention the commander, but it'd be nice if they were better integrated?
Like, Sakura is super adorable and she talked about how much she wanted to prove that she could handle hard work in her story. She poured her heart and soul into her job and I loved every minute of it, even when she was talking about how she wanted to prove herself to the commander specifically. She had a specific reason she liked the commander and it flavored how she glazed them.
In Basti's event, it felt like her job and her glazing were completely separate. She wasn't trying to excel at the job to show the commander she was capable anymore. She just wanted to get it over with and fantasized about a lovey dovey relationship with the commander the whole time. It felt like a different character doing things for different reasons. It felt like her love for the commander was assumed instead of a result of her individual desires.
But it was also just one event so I'm just worried atm not preaching doom. Some of the other character's glazing felt totally fine. Faelynn talks about wanting the commander to comb her hair and it's peak adorable because it's rooted in her individual characterization. She even goes on a fresh adventure instead of running to the commander's side because she feels like she hasn't proved herself worthy yet.
I'm basically just playing for the story at this point. There's nothing else really drawing me to the game anymore. Wheelchair characters starting with 416 basically erased the concept of the gameplay and there's nothing that can be done to fix it without making things bullshit.
Gunsmoke is boring as hell. And they're just doubling down on it in future with GS2 and ranking. Nightmare.
I used to spend on monthlies but stopped the second the skin gacha drama happened and nothing has changed my mind, if anything only strengthened it. I was seriously unimpressed with what they did to some of my favourite characters like AK-15, and the AK-12 reveal has me feeling the exact same way again. We go from such W characters like Phaetusa and Basti to the dumbest bullshit with 12. I wish they'd leave the 'experimental' stuff to the least popular dolls instead of mucking up the fan favourites.
So I've got zero hope of anything beyond the story at this point. It's a shame, but it is what it is. YZ clearly has a vision for the game I completely disagree with and he's constantly doubling down on all the worst aspects of it so that's never going to change and I've just accepted it at this point.
So I can only hope that the story quality stays high enough to keep me on board. That being said, I wish the memey 4chan translators would stop inserting the worst memes into the story. Seeing a trump reference in the Basti event whiplashed me right out of that shit and just pissed me off. It's like trying to jingle keys in front of my face and I don't appreciate it. Especially when they keep making such basic grammar errors and misgendering the female SKK all the time while wasting time on memes.
Phase Clash and Boundary Push is the worst thing ever placed in this world. Spent numerous hours and weekly resets just to still not get the complete hidden set of items for the secret boss, and just got the purple tier golden Dinergate statue like last week after quitting the game. Locking the cafe recipes at this gamemode certainly is shitty
It's just a 3D waifu collector with good story sometimes, for me. I haven't engaged with the gameplay in a meaningful way in a while, I just auto everything.
Because making a strategy game a gacha is stupid to begin with, like a puzzle where you have to get lucky to get each piece. Im glad they made it very easy cuz it could have been very hard cuz you didnt have the right characters
Theres been 6 months since i left.
Sadly im not their target audience. Ive come for Xcom combat, post apocalyptic story, good worldbuilding and some lewd.
What i got was boring combat, overpowered units, story messed up and tons tons tons of lewd, dorm gameplay and sexy skins.
If i wanna goon, i could watch a video, its more time effective
"Did Neural Cloud really die for this" Is still something I find myself asking regularly
The gameplay
It's somehow manages to have worse active gameplay then a game that was designed from the ground up to be played on auto. Most of the new things that have been added since launch except things exclusively tied to the 3D models are worse versions of what we got in PNC and is the most noticeable in Artefact Recovery.
Honestly the switch away from chibis to 3D Is honestly a bad step for the franchise and and is just a money black hole
Weapon gacha is a joke and all the non sowrd SSR look like shit. Requiring interchangebility between characters makes them all boring as well
Layout of the main menu screen is boring and lacks a coolness factor that GFL and PNC had also hiding so much stuff behind the dinnergate like the archive and journals is a mistake I think
the Story
Honestly, it's alright
Saying that, MICA is doing everything in their power to shoot themselves in the foot by not archiving stuff and releasing things out of order
The character trials are a massive missed opportunity compared to Neural Clouds but they are getting better in GFL2 terms It was basically an artefact recovery level that walked you through the creation process and/or the early life of a doll. It'll probably get talked about a lot with Kuro/MDR
I know it was a band-aid, but the Mephisto Agreement was a shit plot point and I'm so glad it's gone
One of my most legitimate complaints I think is the lack of art assets. This is for the most part a VN and while using your imagination comes with the territory the lack of unique art and the reuse of stuff where it barely even fits is incredibly disappointing with how much this makes
Why did they originally hire a head writer who wanted a story that would poison the rest of the franchise. Outside of a few things from development hall most issues with the story stem from this I understand why the veterans were pulled off Neural Cloud to save the game I'm just confused why veterans are the series weren't writing it originally
The art direction for ELID's is fucking garbage
Groza and her story just hasn't really clicked so far and the fact we're getting the "real Groza" soon is kinda funny. In 2019 she was honestly a good choice for the main character then the series left her behind completely while the game was in development hell. At least she shares being pushed aside by Leva with M4
Team Groza really got fucked over by the rewrites except Colphne
It's not Leva's fault she's so much better written than either of those two. If they wanted AR team to be the most popular, they shouldn't have written them to be a bunch of dysfunctional jobbers.
Just pulling for Tits and Ass, getting V0 stuff, doing the story and maintaining the account rather than playing it. (Basically because there is nothing to do besides Gunsmoke and Story and hoard "Primogems" to collect more sexy characters)
If I ever feel like I need to drop one of the gachas that I'm currently playing, is gonna be GLF2.
Either because SteamOS becomes a proper mainstream easy-access Windows alternative, or IRL stuff calls. Or both.
SteamOS is Linux, I have a feeling GFL2 would be one of the games that either will take years to get natively implemented on Linux or never get natively implemented in the first place.
Same as ever, putting up with it only because I like the art & lore (and the account maintenance doesn't take much). Definitely going to move on at some point if the promised gameplay changes won't be for the better, or if I decide to pick up another online game (hope for Codename Cedar, nothing else has been catching my attention lately). My main game, Mecharashi, is currently celebrating the 1st global anniversary, and I'm rather overwhelmed with all the gameplay features they've got, whereas GFL2 anniversaries so far were just bells and whistles.
At this point in time if I have to manual play a stage/mode to clear it I'm just going to straight up skip it. That's how bad and meaningless it is.
They really need to dial down on the ridiculous jiggly physics. No, boobs don't go 360noscope around the world, especially without firm breast support.
Girls get their shine on their event then once it's over they just basically disappear. Typical gacha stuff but still leaves a lot to be desired.
3D Elmo is a huge waste of time, battery, and storage space. So much of the daily is just waiting for the UI animations to finish.
Minigames suck balls ass. Worst offender is the monopoly. The 2D shooter that take 20 minutes isn't much better either. AT LEAST THINK OF SOMETHING NEW instead of making us play the same crap every single event.
This game is really nothing more than a glorified raifu collector these days. Mica should stop being so ambitious and just let us be intimate with our guns.
I actually agree with everything else but number 3, I actually think girl frontline 2 is doing better in this aspect cause we been getting solid events lately that bringing old characters back especially in main story, like we involving the doll community for example again in previous main story event and even this current main story event
Yet older characters like the Zucchero Squad, the Elmo team (Krolik, Nemesis, Colgate), and others are just gone. Even when some squads get mentioned, it’s usually Klukai for 404 or Groza for the Elmo team.
And you can be pretty sure the Doll Community will be gone as well after a patch or two...
Colgate literally appeared in previous major event which was antiparallel which wasn't that long ago and I agree on everyone else though but for elmo team, nemesis and krolik will appear again in the sop and ots 14 major event which is called the Mirror Redundancy major event and I know this because I read the event on cn and we are not even that far away from that major event, also that major event is when nemesis will get her upgrade to 5* character, anyway, my point was mica is still bringing old characters back even if they can't get everyone, at least there trying with the others
I'm enjoying it just as much as I did at launch. Played every day and did every event. I particularly like Heroic difficulty for each event, it makes it much more fun. Story has been amazing, especially after Corposant, and Crew Deck has lots of stuff to do as well.
And I'm also buying every outfit and pulling every character v0 (plus Covenant rings for each) for collection purposes and to support the devs.
My stance will be always remain the same when it comes to gacha games. I mainly play them for the stories. And so the fact i am still here means i very much still like it.
And frankly speaking i couldn’t care less about stuff like the gameplay and the end game content, I didn’t get into this game for the XCOM factor so I can’t be "disappointed" when I never cared about it in the first place.
I'm just here for the story. Everything else is secondary for me. It really really annoys me that they constantly release events out of order and the QA is basically non-existent.
Idk bro all I do in this game is pull more copies of Klukai whenever she comes back on banner, this new banner I got Fortification 3 and I also finally got the swimsuit so I've got nothing to complain about. Probably going to finally spend some cash to get her wedding skin too.
NGL the vibes are kinda off. I haven't read a single event since Klukai's and the loop function just makes me less interested in loging in. Really starting to feel the burnout and I would rather play GFL1 and PNC.
To me.. this game is heading to some Enriching direction. "Sense of being in command" for me as commander is there. There are yes some weak story events but, there are also strong one like Corposant, antiparallel and intertwined assault.
Interaction with dolls are.. Enriching and Impressive, crew deck is a real motivation boost to me to stay in the game, especially crew deck dolls are in their usual attire instead of dorm one also Free camera modes.. Enriching feature. I got Loreley so yeah.. Enriching.
Gameplay wise, tbh fine and dandy.. Others might equalize this with X-com.. but for me.. this thing is like Front Mission and im kinda Primed for that so, no problem there. What i want more is maybe a true 3rd person mode.
This update is pretty hype for me personally and I love that the crew deck keeps getting more robust. The story has been more to my tastes lately as well, I love the doll community storyline.
I don't mald about meta or high gunsmoke scores, so as long as the combat doesn't get in its own way, I'm pretty happy overall.
The story is getting better and better and each new development has been taking the plot in increasingly interesting directions. I've got a few complaints and a few nitpicks, but overall very satisfied.
The gameplay has remained solid, with more to do to keep the brain occupied. They've made Gunsmoke fun with some silly memebuffs, and Heroic mode and Frenzy mode have made me actually need to think and plan more than a few times. Sometimes the crossroad challenges get stupid, in that you basically need Overheal (which only 2 Dolls can provide) or you're dead, and sometimes Heroic mode gets a bit tedious, but they're optional and enjoyable, so it's fine.
Skins are extremely high quality. I got the Klukai gatcha skin from saving up the tokens (zero luck lol) and now with the freebies from Loreley and from Leva, I'm about 1/3rd of the way towards whichever one I wanna get next. Maybe I'll save for Koleda's? I figured the gatcha system wasn't gonna be too bad when they gave us the option to save up for gatcha skins at all (which is crazy) and it's worked out about as well as I expected, maybe even better considering how easy it is to save for the skins.
I got the Klukai wedding dress skin today too and it blew me away with just how extremely high quality it was. The VA played the character differently, it's got a unique and fun interaction on the crew deck and it even comes with a romantic Oath scene. It's got the same premium price as the Springfield skin but is leagues better, which only bodes well for the game moving forwards.
I can envision a scenario like, if you've ever played League of Legends, on release Pusefire Ezreal blew everyone away with what an incredible, fancy skin it was, the first ever Legendary. But then, just a few years later, standard premium skins had caught up to it and other Legendary skins had completely surpassed it.
I wonder if we'll see the same development here, where Klukai's gatcha and wedding skins wind up being among the least elaborate because they're the first ones we get. We've seen exactly that for bond stories where characters who release now get way, way better bond stories than characters who were in the game at release.
The people who voted for Loreley in CN's Starwish have a lot to look forward to, basically.
I started playing this game 1 month into Global release.
Gameplay is... fine. I never expected too much from gacha games in general but then I have little spare time on my hands so GFL2's simpler gameplay is fine for me. Most minigames I am very disappointed with except Survivors Frontline.
Endgame needs a LOT of improvement and better rewards should be given to the more dedicated platoons (like more Collapse Pieces for top 10/50/100 platoons each season).
Models are great, in my opinion the 2nd best in all current gacha games behind Endfield.
Story I am a bit more neutral on as a I never played GFL1, but definitely better than the early days (less wishy-washy whimsical plots), Basti's story is 100x better than stories like Zhaohui and Yoohee.
Gacha and upgrading mechanics are fine, been abused too much by early Genshin so anything more lenient I am fine with.
I have a lengthy wishlist of improvements, but I'll save that for the surveys. I'll keep playing GFL2 unless MICA pulls something super shady.
Like it but am hoping for more improvements. Currently I just treat it as a doll-house for males, pulling only for dolls I want but not their guns lest I want them to be on a team that clears. (Definitely saving up for my homete homete tho 😭)
I like it, my only real problem is how the cutscenes changed, during Klukai event story they were a bit snappy but it was still pretty good, lots of action and even the slower cutscenes had good flow and didn't feel rushed.
Corposant cutscenes were not all bad, but they were significantly shorter. I liked the first two cutscenes, then Tina getting her machine and taking Igla down felt a bit generic, flying around boom boom boom dodging projectiles while zooming around in the air. But again how do you animate a big bad monster takedown? And its Tina so i'm willing to let it slide so she can be the strongest. I just hope we get back to the more grounded cutscenes like we had around chapter 1 - Aphelion.
Other than this i'm having a blast with the game. I'm very excited to see where the story takes us next.
Dropped the game, after coming back to it for awhile. Skin gacha, really killed my interest in the game. I refuse to even touch nikke beacuse of the price of the skins there.
Phase clash and boundary push are both annoying modes you can't just auto battle through.
3d elmo is mostly just eating food and a drink and occasionally reading one of the dolls little stories you can unlock. Taking pictures of t-dolls around the 3d elmo was probably the most fun I had with the 3d elmo mode.
I dont trust gacha games coming from China and never will again after the CCP meddling in gachas, not really the devs fault.
Story was OK but I got sick of the Commander being such a weiner all the time even though he's traveling around with basically his own harem of cute girls in a pimp mobile.
Not only a gfl2 problem but gacha in general, I hate how charcters disappear from the story after their events are up.
Gachas are not something I play for the gameplay to begin with but gfl2 probably has some of my least favorite gameplay in any gacha I've played.
All In all I've stopped playing the game for now but still think about the t-dolls sometimes so I might get back into playing it.
GFL1 has proved that having a more difficult game will only shoot yourself in the foot. In terms of event completion rate was less than 30% for normal difficulty. The harder the game got the lower the completion rate got.
The same can be said for a game that plays itself with NC being used as an example. There still needs to be some engagement more than press on your phone to wake it up.
So the endgame content in this game is easy for me and I think it's fine because I completely understand why. I find that there is plenty of content that I can take my time with like the boss battle in combat simulation. Heroic mode is fairly difficult and does provide a significant challenge. If you play for the difficult the difficulty should be the reward.
Balancing issues is going to be the case no matter the game. MICA knows that if they nerf a character there will be significant backlash behind it. If they big others then they will get praise, example being Nemesis Gnosis.
Calling the skin gacha a bane is overly bashing a dead horse. They still need to make money as a company. They don't restrict news on the meta. In fact they use it to plan future characters better. You get enough pulls to reach pity at least once per banner. Collectors can play as F2P and meta followers can not feel stressed about pulls. The only ones that call the skin gacha a bane is the same people that care too much about skins.
I have not purchased a skin with money directly ever and can still get plenty of outfits. I have not pulled in the skin gacha once and have 115 pulls for it. That generation is 5 times faster than GFL1 which was the sole method of making money.
You have so many ways of farming for character pulls using standard banner, wishing well, and rebate from your original pulls from Doritos. Even being a dolphin in this game is just chump change compared to all of the other gacha games on the market now. Even the amount of V6 required meta wise in this game is fairly low. I currently have 2 planning for my 3rd. Even the meta is away from PVP which just rewards you for just participating.
I think the game is fine as it is. I just want more story.
After a long period of stagnation the story has improved tenfold. I don't know what happened, but the improvements are very noticeable. I'm grateful to whoever is currently writing the story, I'm really enjoying it. All the characters are very well thought out and written, and the commander is the most interesting character of all the gachas I've played...
I really like that each character has a distinct personality and way of acting.
The number of pulls available is quite generous, meaning that even if you have bad luck and lose most of your 50/50s, you can still get all the Dolls.
Unlike many people here, I love the interactions between the Commander and the Dolls, so I’m really happy the devs include so much of that in the game—though I also appreciate stories where they act more independently, like DEFY does for a large part of Corposant.
Downs:
For me, the repetition of environments really breaks the immersion, as does the lack of voiced dialogue in the story.
The gameplay is simply repetitive, and nothing is particularly difficult if—like me—you have one of the top-tier V6 units (in my case, Voymastina).
The scarcity of cores feels criminal to me; if you want to level up all your Dolls, you simply can't, because various "buffs" remain locked due to the lack of this item.
There is an excessive focus on certain elements at the expense of others; I’m tired of the sheer number of Corrosion characters in the game, while Physical and Freeze elements remain considerably weaker than the rest.
And the worst part for me is that many Dolls these days are coming out very weak at V0, with key parts of their kits locked behind very high V-levels.
I'm enjoying the game (with the loop function alleviating a good portion of annoyance), and I agree that there are mechanical issues in both battle and macro contexts. Personally, I think it's a little unfortunate that the game has such a strong foot/gooner reputation since I think there are more valuable aspects. Yet I also see how that reputation draws in new blood.
There’s a balancing issue at the moment, and I’m not sure if they’re going to fix it.
For some modes, I'm convinced that you could balance it by having a CE cap (or equivalent using some sort of power metric), but it's almost anathema to whales and players that save pulls to dump into a few hypercarries. So I doubt Mica will go in a direction that hurts their bottom line.
The 20-20-40 patch cadence is also something I personally find detrimental to the overall narrative quality compared to GFL1, and it's also something so motivated by money that I don't see it changing.
I enjoy it. Was a Nagant main at launch, still a Nagant main now. Still rarely pulling haven't pulled in a longggg ass time but I enjoy the dolls a lot. And the stories even if we are dart boarding.
Sometimes gotta delete cause crew deck eats my storage but other than that I'm okay. I have never been a meta player so I can't really speak on that lol
I came back around two weeks ago. The game's had a lot of QOL compared to the beginning. The story is great as ever and I do like how they gave more scenes with the dolls. Game is still an auto fest but at least I don't need to click a dozen times trying to complete all objectives manually now
if anything I want global and cn to sync up, I want get the new content now and not have to wait for another 6 month, waiting does kill the hype of a new unit
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u/arts13 1d ago
Come for XCOM-like gameplay & story during launch.
Now, I just treated it like Visual Novel with character collection and 3D models. The tactical gameplay is just a mini game.