What I've Been Playing - SaGa Re:Universe

 What I've been playing recently: Romancing SaGa Re: Universe

This is a pretty standard PvE Gacha in the traditional Japanese style, based on an old JRPG property of the same name.

I'm not familiar with the underlying IP, but it appears that the games follow characters through different time periods (or maybe "life-periods" is more accurate), so the same character can be in the game multiple times under multiple "styles." It has a little bit of the waifu time going on, but it isn't offensive and certainly isn't something you won't want to play around your friends. The storylines themselves ranges from self-serious JRPG fare to goofy side-stories to ridiculous love plots. Honestly, I'm skipping a lot of it, what I do take a look at is fine.

The gameplay itself is decent enough - it is turn-based but there is a lot that isn't shown. For example, turn order is unpredictable and you can't often predict or know the health/stats of the non-boss enemies. That said, there is plenty of strategy and it seems like there is a lot of depth, and so far I'm enjoying the parts I've been able to engage with.

This game isn't full auto. Sure, there is plenty of auto grinding, but there is no "set it and forget it" gameplay. On the one hand, this is a game that rewards commitment and you will get ahead by grinding hours per day. On the other hand, you could probably play this game occasionally as long as you were willing to get in at times and grind up the characters you need, you could then use them to clear a lot of the content when you get around to it. Most of the timed events don't give irreplaceable rewards.

In terms of monetization, it has been ok so far. Without PvP, there doesn't seem to be balance issues, but it also is clear that using the best units is the best way to clear a lot of the content. Banners are frequent and typically tie those units to in-game events (like bonus drop % rates on the event item currency) so there is always an incentive to pull heavily, even if there isn't a meta defining character available. On the other hand, I haven't yet felt like I had to pull through $100's to ensure I had a specific character going forward.

My biggest gripe so far is that all of the banners are different and it can be hard to know what each one is doing. Some limit your pulls, some are pay only, some go into the larger pool quickly, some have pity timers... the information is published for each, but it can be hard, especially for a new player that is not up on the vocab, to figure out how to approach each one. If this were one of your first gachas, there would be no way.

I'm interested enough to keep playing, so we might see updates in the future.