Saber/Metrics

Our two-parter on dying games continues with a game that is straight-up actually dead but still keeps trucking anyway: the puzzle game Terra Battle. Sierra explains the history of the game, why she still plays it, and why it was killed in the first place. Meanwhile, Dustin attempts to wrap his head around how it works to…uh…mixed success.

We’re back once again with another Final Fantasy gacha game. This one, though, is quite a bit weirder than Record Keeper or Dissidia. For one thing, it’s dying, which makes it the very first game we’ve reviewed on this podcast that has been given a definite shutdown date. For another thing, it has a completely original story mode that—unlike both Dissidia and Record Keeper—doesn’t use any pre-existing characters and seems to try to deconstruct the traditional JRPG narrative tropes. On this episode, we’ll try to answer the big question: is it worth it to play through a game that’s already marked for death to see the unique things it’s doing? Or is Mobius a gacha experiment that’s simply getting the fate that it ultimately deserved?

Hey, remember Valkyrie Profile? That incredibly niche but pretty interesting JRPG with turn-based combat where juggling enemies with combos was an integral part of the gameplay? This gacha game is…almost like that. A faint imitation. Like a charcoal rubbing. Or like if you pressed some Silly Putty down really hard onto the original Valkyrie Profile, peeled it off, and then used the surface-level impression Valkyrie Profile left upon the Silly Putty to try and reconstruct what the game is like. And then you also filtered it through micro-transaction-based mechanics. Look, I’m gonna be honest here: we’re not going to be kind to this thing.

It’s time for even more Final Fantasy, as Sierra gets to try out a gacha game I’ve been playing since its release date. The results? Shockingly positive! We break down why we love this game and discuss what elements it shares with Granblue that we think make both games friendly for newcomers and free-to-play players. Also we yell about our favorite characters a bunch.

Hey, wait, didn’t we say we were gonna talk about Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle next? Well yes, we did. And we did, in fact, record that podcast. Unfortunately, one of my hard drives died completely, and I was only able to recover 2% of the files that were on it. The audio for the Dokkan Battle episode was not on it. Instead of immediately re-recording the episode, Sierra and I made the decision to put it back in the list of games to review and talk about it whenever our dice roller tells us to.

On that now-destroyed episode, though, we rolled the first of several Final Fantasy gacha games that was in our lists: Record Keeper. Sierra and I dig deep into why this game that both of us once loved now leaves us feeling sad and bitter.

This is it, folks. The highest-grossing gacha game in the world. The archetypal wife-collecting simulator. Perhaps Dustin’s most problematic of faves. Fate/Grand Order. We'll be going pretty in-depth on this episode, dissecting why the Fate franchise is appealing even with all its blatant flaws and weird gender dynamics; and, of course, we’ll pick apart where the game itself succeeds and fails and why it feels so much more predatory than other gachas. Also, Dustin will get the gentle roasting he deserves for liking this dumb thing.

This episode of Gacha Journalism brings crushing disappointment in the form of a game that should be good but extremely is not. Join us as we delve into the story of the Kingdom Hearts mobile game (which rules) as well as its gameplay (which is awful). It truly is a land of contrasts.

On this episode, Sierra gets to introduce me to a tactical fantasy RPG series I’ve never heard of before: Langrisser. Turns out this forgotten franchise of consoles past has a mobile game version now and it’s…actually pretty decent? Arguably even better than Fire Emblem? If that sounds bizarre to you, trust us, we were surprised as well, and give this review a listen if you’d like to hear us examine why.

This time on Gacha Journalism, we find a game we actually like again? Yes, we escaped the doldrums that were our last two episodes and landed into gay rhythm game paradise with Bang Dream, which is basically Love Live for band nerds. Are you prepared for positivity and also arguing about which band is objectively the best? The answer is Roselia, by the way, and Sierra can’t argue that it’s Afterglow here because she’s not writing the blog posts.

On this episode, Sierra and I ostensibly talk about the SMT mobile game, but spend most of our runtime bantering about literally anything else. Our issues with Persona and how the Arena games are amazing? Yep. Our hopes for the Granblue fighting game’s roster? Yeah, we cover that too. Welcome to this tangent-filled episode where we try desperately to not discuss this thoroughly mediocre gacha game.