Some gacha games in a nutshell:
u/Old-Helicopter1689 — 1 month ago
▲ 0 r/gachagaming
Arknights Endfield review - Overhyped garbage or somehow "playable"? Part 1 (Played in February 2026. Status - used to play until June 2026)
DISCLAIMER: This post may contain some unmarked spoilers, so read it to your own risk or something. Also I will be talking about 1.0 version, which means that some of the flaws I mentioned are probably gone in later versions, but basically I will be talking about my experience during the playthrough in that time.
!!!BTW, TLDR IS IN THE END OF THIS REVIEW FOR THOSE WHO DON'T WANT TO READ ALL OF THIS!!!
I don't like hyping on new things. Especially when people think this is gonna be peak. Perhaps, I'm not really into hype stuff or something, whatever.
To be honest though, one major reason for why I don't tend to get hyped is that final product might be DISAPPOINTING. For example, Wreckreation, spiritual successor to Burnout series which ended up being nothing more than Burnout Paradise rip-off. It turned out that devs wanted to add more stuff that was actually good after the launch, but it's weird that they didn't add any of these during the development time. Or Project Motor Racing, people believed that it is gonna be greatest simulator of all time or something, but release turned out to be pretty rocky. Game being mid overall, "realistic" physics that even sim players complain about due to how unplayable it is actually, and devs shutting down criticism completely and so on. Same can happen in gacha gaming space as well. For example, Etheria Restart, ridiculously advertised everywhere, hyped up so much that people called it "Honkai Star Rail killer", but game ended up being another typical PVP-centric game with plenty of flaws. Another one is a game that I have been playing for couple of weeks lately (Writer's note: it was at February; I stopped playing in June, although used to play it daily until that month). Yes, it is Arknights Endfield.
Arknights Endfield is an action-RPG open-world gacha game released in 2026 and developed by Hypergryph. Unlike other action-RPG open-world gacha games out there, this one has factory gameplay too, inspired by games like Factorio and Satisfactory. Basically, it is a spin-off to Arknights, so instead of tower-defense gameplay, we have open-world (SEMI-open world, to be precise) to explore, and we have combat gameplay. I remember that I was sort of "shocked" by how negative the reception was in this sub. I mean, you couldn't be THAT bad, Hypergryph! You had these Lone Trails, Babels, and Masses Travels in original game, but you horribly screwed up with this game? And thus, I decided to see if it was true that this game was a massive downgrade in terms of story.
So game opens as we arrive to some snowy place. We meet someone in there, who yaps some nonsense (but unaware players will call such dialogues peak). And we go through the tutorial.
So combat gameplay consists of normal attacks (final attack of which is stronger), Battle Skills (They use skill points (SP) which is shown in the bottom of screen), Combo Skills (which can be used whenever special criteria is met (for example, landing a Combo Skill that damages enemies, or performing the final attack and so on)), and Ultimates. You are able to evade enemy attacks, and if you do so with perfect timing, then you can recover some stamina (which is used to dash and evade) along with some SP.
One noticeable difference is that your squad will fight alongside you (in its inspiration game, you were only able to change into another character, and see only that character you currently switched into). Well, it's possible to switch your character in this game, but non-controllable characters will still be there with you. Because of this, you can also use other characters' Skills (further explanation: if you control A character in your team, you can use B, C, and D characters' skills as well).
One thing I have to say that further you go, the more you will notice that gameplay is freaking repetitive! For most of the time, you are going through same chain of attacks and skills to deal more damage to your enemies, but eventually it gets boring. My recommendation for new players (and existing ones as well) is that you should rather change characters in your team very frequently, so you can come up with other chains of Combos, while making the gameplay feel less repetitve and more... refreshing, I guess.
Anyways, we keep going thru the story, but eventually we meet the dead end where we encounter... this clown!
You know what, I would rather not go into details, because intro is kinda boring and it's pointless to talk about it anyways. One thing I can say is that it was kinda so mysterious, that I... unintentionally rolled my eyes! I never saw something so empty that is carried by, I don't know, phylosophical dialogues or something. But whatever, I guess.
Anyways, we eventually wake up in the space station of Endfield Industries, Dijiang. However, all of a sudden, our main character, which is known as Endministrator (I picked male one), loses all of his memories instantly.
That's an interesting way to serve fruit, if you ask me.
After some time, something bad happens: Valley IV, the place where Endmin had to go to after his awakening, has been attacked by creatures called Aggeloi. Aggelois (which are pronounced as Angeloi, for absolutely no reason) are some mysterious creatures, who attack humans for unknown reasons. They are affiliated with Ankhors: to be precise, Ankhors fall from skies, and start constructing Aggelois around the areas where they landed.
Anyways, we manage to deal with Aggelois, and peace returns to Valley IV. Nothing really much happens at all, and I also prefer not talking about story a lot since it's mostly nothingburger.
That being said, I was still impressed by artstyle of some of the cutscenes, especially that one, where one of the NPCs give us a situation report about Valley IV. Still, that itself was not enough for the game to redeem itself.
As we progress through the game, we meet other evil guys, but this time, they are not aliens...
These are Landbreakers, basically like Bandits from Borderlands franchise, except they are less funny. These bastards have been raiding our bases lately and ruining our logistics or something. I remember moments where the main characters were discussing about why they are raiding our facilities and stuff, and I (being from the "other side of the screen" of course) kept saying: "BECAUSE THEIR BOSS CHANGED!"
As we progress through the story, we also get to witness the Factory gameplay. But before that, I'd like to mention that I have never played any kind of "factory" games in the past. Well, until now. It is pretty good I think. Well, firstly, it is executed fairly well: you produce some things so you can sell them to Outposts (which will give you region credits), there are some products you can use during exploration gameplay (like bombs), there are products that are required for making some very important facilities or Gears (which you equip on your characters to make them stronger), and so on. I mean, it is not a "extra gimmick" that you would ignore. It's inseparable part of the game: you gotta expand the production to produce other stuff at some point. I personally spent significant amount of time, manually setting up mass-production of some rare stuff in my factory. Blueprints exist for people who are lazy with this tho. Secondly, this alone makes Arknights Overfield more unique in comparison to other Genshin clones, market of which is very saturated nowadays.
This is the most AMATEURISH factory of all time. And it's MINE.
Anyways, during our quest to find out why Landbreakers are terrorizing our bases, we meet Wulfgard, probably the only person that has the highest level of IQ and competence among my squad, and a Landbreaker (as we progress through, we find out that Landbreakers are divided into clans: Bonekrushers, who are the most aggressive out of bunch, and the main antagonists who are ruining our facilities; and The Pack, who are, well, friendly Landbreakers who are seemingly cooperating with Endfield Industries, and Wulfgard is one of them).
We also get to meet new boss of the Bonekrushers, Nefarith...
Virgin Nefarith (right) and Chad Red (left).
...along with the first boss of the game.
Boss cutscenes are very good, I gotta say.
And here comes my complaint with this game. Well, with many games that are open-world action RPG: Majority of combat encounters are copy-pasted! You fight against same dudes multiple times in multiple locations, which stops being interesting completely, especially with how repetitive gameplay can get. At some point, you just start avoiding fight against them, or just run away through the encounter. Thankfully, we have bosses that are different than same motherfuckers who appear in every 500 meters, but I don't really think these bosses are going to fix this flaw anyways. Maybe it's just my problem, I don't know how you feel about it.
Anyways, after we beat this boss, we see that Nefaris is getting away. Wulfgard goes with her as well (chasing her, to be precise (don't worry though, he's fine)). Later, we witness that some test site across the Valley 4 gets fucking busted and we must go to there to fix it. Firstly we go to Originium Science Park, only to see that this place is full of blight.
Blight is phenomenon that is related to AEtherside, which is some kind of alternate dimension where life just ceases to exist. So if anyone touches blight, they die. Blight can be harmless though, but only after it becomes Static (Active Blight is dangerous, while Static Blight kinda isn't, it just turns into a rock or something). Anyways, we manage to clear our way to meet one important person that could help with fixing blown-up test site. At some point, I noticed that this game slightly turns into a horror game.
Eventually we fight through these bastards, and we finally meet that person...
And she is a fucking clown!
So this is Yvonne, apparently the smartest person ever and also happens to be a fashionista. So the main reason I dislike her (not just dislike, I fucking HATE her) is that she is just... NOISY. ANNOYINGLY noisy! Perhaps this is expected from such characters, but holy shit. The fact that she comes across as bit shallow completely ruins the character for me.
I swear, main characters feel like they were made from generic blueprints for characters you would find in your typical action anime. There is just not much of a depth in them, especially when it's a main quest. It feels like they consist of only one trope or something like that. It's just not that great.
Okay, a rant aside, after she helps us a bit, we go to another region, called Origin Lodespring, in our way to the blown-up test site. There we meet another fool...
This is Rossi, a young sister of Wulfgard and current leader of the Pack. To be honest, I really didn't like how she got very shy or... embarrassed, whatever you call it, almost instantly. Like, initially she was being very tough, but the moment she saw Endmin, she starts blushing quickly. Like, come on.
Additionally, the cutscene where she was eliminating Aggeloi like a badass didn't completely help, it just came across as generic. But anyways...
...to be continued in Part 2...
u/Old-Helicopter1689 — 2 months ago
▲ 0 r/gachagaming
Chinese regions of gacha games vs chinese regions of old games
!!! I flagged this meme as NSFW because of some screenshots featuring extreme violence !!!
Additional text for the meme:
Arknights Endfield (latest game): This place is so peaceful and so prospering! Also, look at the magnificent leader of this region!
Sleeping Dogs (2012 game): Undercover cop infiltrates a chinese mafia (triad), while causing havoc everywhere. And things are always serious there!
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (2010 game): Two infamous criminals are doing criminal things in China. The duo is so infamous, even some Abnormalities are shocked at their adventure (or some shit like that)!
BTW, point I'm trying to make with this meme (and possibly failing to do so) is that chinese regions of some gacha games are always peaceful (mostly because devs would get "penalties" for portraying the dark side of China or something), which, in my opinion, is one of the reasons why gacha games can't have serious stories within these chinese regions. I'm basically sort of making fun of this issue, while showcasing some moments from other games that are much older + are set in a chinese region (of course, these games aren't made in China itself, and one of studios got into some "hot water" for "vilifying the Chinese people").
u/Old-Helicopter1689 — 3 months ago
▲ 0 r/gachagaming
This is why microtransactions were invented:
I couldn't find a good example for left one, so... my bad, I guess (?).
Also my drawing isn't brilliant and I drew this in MS Paint.
BTW, point I'm trying to make with this meme is that nowadays you can get some great stuff just by paying some money, but it means that there won't be any sense of accomplishment. Like, you didn't do anything much to get that thing. Meanwhile, in the past (probably still exists currently, although very rarely), you HAD to polish your skills so you can be able to unlock great stuff. This came to my mind while playing F-Zero GX because, to complete the game and unlock everything, at some point you had to play the levels on Very hard, which tends to get ridiculously hard.
u/Old-Helicopter1689 — 4 months ago
▲ 1.4k r/gachagaming
Majority of memes in this sub be like:
Not necessarily bitching about it, just found it interesting. Wouldn't be against having different types of memes tho.
u/Old-Helicopter1689 — 4 months ago