I thought I'd check out the new switch version of this. I tend to like these complete versions of mobile rhythm games, without the hassle of paying microtransactions or trudging through an awful progression system - oh wait.
Arcaea Switch is a $40 game with the progresion system of a F2P one. That's basically what it boils down to. You start with 50 of the 150~ songs and to unlock any more, along with the support characters and so on, you need to progress through the world mode, which starts of slow for the first set of worlds, requiring about 5 song plays per getting a new song. Ok, could be worse, sure, and it'll get quicker as you level up support units for sure, right?
And then you get to the next set of worlds and unlocks take 3 times as long. And you still only have like 75 songs. And your character is probably maxed out. Oh, and the game still has the pointless decision to have like 5 different currencies you can earn in different modes that would have previously been stamina gated, but now just feels like it's wasting your time.
It's a shame because the gameplay itself is pretty good. The core gimmick, the Arcs, which are basically hold notes above the normal play field, im not huge on themselves, but when combined with notes that go under and around it, it can result in this contortionist finger play which is really fun.
Sadly, on a core gameplay level, it does also have some visibility issues. There's a colour blind mode, but it only effects arcs, and not the normal, light blue notes on white-ish background for half the tracks. I can get by, but having visibility issues at al in a rhythm game like this, which you cant adjust at all, is a huge no go.
Frankly though, it is the progression of the switch version that really kills it for me. The songs are good but you'll be replaying them like 8 times each if you want to unlock all the content, and that's assuming it doesnt get even slower later on.
There's just no need for it. I have played Mobile Rhythm games with progression systems less obnoxious, and it's a huge damper on the game as a whole. Doesnt help that there's basically a 20 second unskippable cutscene to actually show you your megre progress in getting to the stuff you spent $40 on.
Its a shame as the gameplay is good, there's some fun original songs, and the story seems fairly interesting, with a good aesthetic throughout.
But i've just come to the conclusion that it's just not worth it. There's enough good rhythm games that dont make jump through so many damn hoops to actually play the songs, which is at the end of the day, what really matters.
Arcaea Switch is a $40 game with the progresion system of a F2P one. That's basically what it boils down to. You start with 50 of the 150~ songs and to unlock any more, along with the support characters and so on, you need to progress through the world mode, which starts of slow for the first set of worlds, requiring about 5 song plays per getting a new song. Ok, could be worse, sure, and it'll get quicker as you level up support units for sure, right?
And then you get to the next set of worlds and unlocks take 3 times as long. And you still only have like 75 songs. And your character is probably maxed out. Oh, and the game still has the pointless decision to have like 5 different currencies you can earn in different modes that would have previously been stamina gated, but now just feels like it's wasting your time.
It's a shame because the gameplay itself is pretty good. The core gimmick, the Arcs, which are basically hold notes above the normal play field, im not huge on themselves, but when combined with notes that go under and around it, it can result in this contortionist finger play which is really fun.
Sadly, on a core gameplay level, it does also have some visibility issues. There's a colour blind mode, but it only effects arcs, and not the normal, light blue notes on white-ish background for half the tracks. I can get by, but having visibility issues at al in a rhythm game like this, which you cant adjust at all, is a huge no go.
Frankly though, it is the progression of the switch version that really kills it for me. The songs are good but you'll be replaying them like 8 times each if you want to unlock all the content, and that's assuming it doesnt get even slower later on.
There's just no need for it. I have played Mobile Rhythm games with progression systems less obnoxious, and it's a huge damper on the game as a whole. Doesnt help that there's basically a 20 second unskippable cutscene to actually show you your megre progress in getting to the stuff you spent $40 on.
Its a shame as the gameplay is good, there's some fun original songs, and the story seems fairly interesting, with a good aesthetic throughout.
But i've just come to the conclusion that it's just not worth it. There's enough good rhythm games that dont make jump through so many damn hoops to actually play the songs, which is at the end of the day, what really matters.