Muse Dash 2 Might be a Gacha Game?
Maybe this is actually known, but I haven't seen anyone talk about this on this subreddit for as long as the couple months I've been lurking, so I thought I would share. I think Muse Dash 2 might be a gacha game, or at the very least will have some significant gacha element to it.
Also, sorry this gets a tad long. The following two paragraphs are what's important.
I got recommended this video on Youtube of gameplay from the demo of Muse Dash 2, and I noticed that there were 2 currencies at the top of the screen when the person entered a menu. I was just excited to see more gameplay at first so I didn't think much of it... until I decided to see what all the text in the menu said. I popped a screenshot into Google Translate (which of course isn't always accurate) and noticed one button that says "Gacha".
Of course, Google Translate isn't always accurate, especially when translating Chinese to English, but given that we can see the currencies at the top of the screen as well I don't think that's a mistranslation. The currencies are even a gold/gold adjacent thing and a gem/crystal type currency which is extremely common way to split the common (free) and premium (paid, and normally VERY expensive) currencies in gacha games for anyone that doesn't know. Regardless of how they're handled, even in the most "generous" of situations, gachas are an inherently predatory monetization model and it would make me really sad to see this game go down that path.
I'm not against playing gacha games conceptually, I've played many throughout my life, and still play one even now. However, I really think the player experience for Muse Dash would suffer if they really are deciding to make it a gacha game. I've gotten tired of a lot of gacha game practices, so one of the things I really like about Muse Dash is that it's a really cute, casual game with an anime aesthetic that is also relatively consumer friendly and very much not a gacha. When you consider that getting all of the unlockable "content" in gacha games (characters/weapons/skins/etc if you consider that content) costs up to tens of thousands of dollars, getting just about everything in Muse Dash for $30-40 is an amazing deal. I'm not an avid rhythm game player but this seems to be a very good deal even among other rhythm games with an upfront cost. For example another rhythm game, DJMAX RESPECT V has dlc that adds up to about $800~ for what I think is around a similar amount of content as Muse Dash.
Anyway my point is I think the game would suffer if it was a gacha. All gacha games are fundamentally built to funnel you towards spending more and more money, which almost always results in a worse player experience at every level regardless of if you're free to play or willing to be a big spender. I'm not against more monetization if the devs absolutely need it to sustain the game while keeping the devs paid and employed, but seeing something I love get turned into a gacha would make me really sad. Of course Muse Dash 1 will hopefully always be here, but that doesn't mean that I want to wholeheartedly accept Muse Dash 2 being a gacha. I would even accept a Muse Dash 2 version of Just as Planned/Muse Plus that's twice or even three times as expensive as it is now or increased prices for song packs, not because I'm okay with greed, but because that would still limit the ceiling of what people can pay for while also letting the devs get more money to continue developing the game. And frankly, I just prefer to spend a single, large upfront sum of money to access all content in a game over a weird and potentially extremely more expensive drip feed of money.
Even if you're cool with Muse Dash 2 being a gacha, or gachas as a monetization model in general, I'd like to see everyone's thoughts about this. I'll definitely still play the game if it's a gacha, but even depending on how it's handled I can't see myself warming up to the gacha aspect. Hopefully the gacha element is very avoidable and easy to not participate in even if it makes it into the final game.