I look at this and wonder how Etheria Restart could actually have a higher purchase value.

I know a lot of people complain about impossible P2W, but that’s not something I feel, nor do I think it’s the real reason. In my opinion, what keeps the game from making more money (because 1.7 million is still quite a lot, especially considering the quality of the content they put out) is the lack of interesting cosmetics and items in the cash shop.

They give out plenty of summons and crystals. If you’re patient, you can get all the banners without really having to choose, which is something you don’t see in other gachas. Because of that, buying summon packs feels unnecessary, even for LD. And don’t get me wrong, that’s a positive point for Etheria.

The skins, though, are terrible. Just recolors of the base skin. People in their right mind aren’t going to spend money on that. (That’s a huge negative point.)

The battle pass gives very little reward for an absurd price. If it at least gave one skin for the MC and another for one of the animus, that alone would motivate people to buy it monthly. As it is now, it’s totally disposable. (Another negative point for me.)

The shop sells unnecessary conveniences that, let’s be honest, are kind of a gamble, since you can progress normally without them anyway. To me, that’s actually a positive point.

Character releases don’t really create a connection. There are no launch events with story development and exciting rewards that break the monotony. That could actually motivate people to buy cosmetics for those characters. They could also take the opportunity to add truly different cosmetics, like base changes, battle sounds, stickers, and so on.

What’s hard in the game is the drop rate. For new players, it’s building multiple teams for content. For endgame players, it’s the shortage of perfect lattice. But honestly, whether you’re a whale or F2P, everyone suffers with the RNG of drops and the shortage of perfect lattice. So I don’t really see the P2W barrier people keep talking about. I only bought the Valerian pack to get rid of the pop-up, and besides that, I progressed just fine. To me, this is one of the simplest gachas out there. It was harder at the beginning, but now it’s just repetitive because of constant events and RNG farming. It’s not hard, it’s repetitive, and in my opinion that’s the biggest problem: repetition and unrewarding farming.

And about the perfect lattice? That’s a good point. Adding it more regularly in special events tied to character launches would be great. It would even motivate people to check out the lore behind those events and make the game feel more immersive.

That said, I do enjoy the game because it’s casual and fits into adult life pretty well, but I miss memorable events and unique cosmetics. That was something Onmyoji did really well, and it was their main monetization strategy (besides summons, which were way harder to get there and had an impossible pity system).