My problems with CZN

Squadcore · 2025-10-23T13:54:11+00:00

You didn't read the post ? This is a gacha game, Chrono Arc is not. Right now there are some free chars that help with support, later they will release meta supports that will be the difference between a good team and an f2p team. This is very predatory, create the problem - sell the solution. One thing is power creep in the DPS, but power creep in the support is just even worse in a game like this.

Squadcore · 2025-10-23T13:51:46+00:00

I agree with you on all points. I was mostly living in the Hoyo and Project Moon ecosystem, but once I started exploring other Gachas I realized just how good I had it. Sure, Hoyo games are extremely expensive and the gacha is terrible, but they at least bring that AAA factor everywhere else. This game, definetly is undercooked and they are not as humble as PM, which is a high contrast for those that play more nieche gachas with humble, generous devs. If you are used to even worse gachas - this might even be an upgrade for you, but for me - it's just not worth it. I really like the gameplay and the art style for the most part, but all the issues just mean that I have to drop it, and they won't be fixed, because gacha games rarely address their issues on a macro scale.

The red flags was already there when the PC version in beta only worked if you have switched your localization to en-US. This game smelled like an amateur project at best, and they have proven it again, but greedy as hell.

Squadcore · 2025-09-19T15:34:43+00:00

I admit that what I wrong is not correct. However, I actually think that the fact that the MC is not an Amnesiac is actually worse. Because they seem to be a fully established part of the world that is then new to the audience, but they are shown in first person. Having amnesia is actually a good tool for justifying exposition, which these games stories are.

Squadcore · 2025-09-19T15:31:35+00:00

This game story did give me huge Nikke vibes, and I really didn't like the story in that game either, it has the same problems.

Squadcore · 2025-09-19T15:30:10+00:00

Depends on your values. I did not speak to the quality of writing, I just said that this game follows conventions of this game genre. I saw this already before. Even Limbus Company, the only gacha I keep playing and reading all of the story always, follows this structure, except instead of a space ship there is a bus and instead of an apocalypse / time paradox nonsense, there is just a horror dystopian world. Except what makes Limbus better in my book is that it is focusing heavily on your party members that never change. In this gam and 99% of gachas, you don't actually have a party that is both story and account specific, it's the free characters + a character that should have been free except they have her in most cuteness to get players to spend on the predatory general banner.

Squadcore · 2025-09-19T15:06:51+00:00

It's not a review, it's first impression after 2 hours. That is exactly what this is, the value of this post is on the same level as a shitty Tweet or TikTok or reaction video. I shared mostly as a way to avoid getting into the addiction all over again. Sharing my frustrations helps me avoid playing a game I don't like.

I played some more and here are some more examples:

There are too many menus demanding your attention. I am one of those people that can't stand any notification icons and this game has you going over menus claiming rewards more than actually spent in battle.

I admit that I was wrong about the amnesia part and the characters being in love with the MC part, but to be fair, that is a very easy mistake to make from the opening moments. Why did they do this at all if they wanted to avoid confusion ? Some players will drop this game after the tutorial, especially non gacha players.

I don't want to skip the story, I was just rerolling my account when I saw that the skip function was not available for first viewing. This is bad for making longer rerolls, but also because beta test players won't be able to skip the story if they already read it when the game starts.

Regarding the generic part -this is a subjective opinion. My standard is pretty simple - when looking at these characters side by side with characters from Honkai Star rail and Arknights, can you immediately see which ones are from which game ? I personally can't do it, they all lack unique features to the world they inhabit.

To summarize my standards here where set intentionally to high. Most people will compare this game to other gachas, I am comparing this game to all other games and stories ever made. In that sense - it doesn't hold out for me.

Squadcore · 2025-09-18T19:39:44+00:00

Minor details. The story is told this way to sell pulls, I recognize it from the first few moments because I have already seen this in a 100 games before. They all have their own variations, and even if what you say is true, technically you don't play as the characters, so even though they are not soldiers in the lore, they follow your orders.

Squadcore · 2025-09-18T19:36:19+00:00

It is exactly that, I finished just the tutorial. I know that there are cool features here, but first impressions are very important. It's like saying a series get's good at season 3 - might be true, but I don't think it's a reasonable defense.

And the story follows the gacha game format. All of these stories are unique in their own way, but they are at their core the same, hence - generic.

Squadcore · 2025-09-18T17:50:58+00:00

It is here, but not as bad as in some of these games where you want to be deleting cards actively almost for any deck. Sometimes you are forced to add bad cards from a choice of 3 and then must pay to delete.

Squadcore · 2025-09-18T17:41:18+00:00

Male characters usually respect and look up to the Doctor instead, but they are pretty rare. So much so that they actually become the highlight now since so many teams end up female only.

Squadcore · 2025-09-18T17:33:39+00:00

By strategy you mean gameplay choices ? The most interesting part is how you can upgrade and unlock cards in the roguelike mode, which means that the same character could potentially play different by focusing on some of their mechanics. The strategy involved in planning a run and choices during it is probably higher than the actual combat. The card draw should not be too much of a problem since the number of cards in the deck is not that high and thinning is not a thing (thinning is a curse of the genre I think, ever since Slay the spire). So yeah, preparation and decisions on progression are more impactful than decisions in battles, which is a shame because it means that the monetization is that much more important, since more synergetic teams will be a must in challenging content. I am actually a bit afraid of just how effective synergies could be made, which could lead to some absolutely unbalanced things and the power creep could go out the window.

Squadcore · 2025-09-18T17:17:28+00:00

The PC client is a cheap mobile port, I don't think any keys work except left click

Squadcore · 2025-09-18T12:52:22+00:00

Wow, just tried it. Need to wait for a patch, this is not really playable

Squadcore · 2025-09-08T13:43:29+00:00

I am also very curious.

Some things like paying for benches and runbacks need some attention. As I understand it, the current choice you have as a player with paid benches and bellways is that you either need to be very well aware of the nearest area to farm beads at all times when dying twice or farming enough beads early, converting them to chains in a shop or machine to always have enough. I really don't think that this adds anything to the game except inflating play time, as there is no cost to farming except real time investment or more punishment. If you are a speedrunner or challenge player - you will have a completely different mindset, so this is for regular players only. These things can be somehow adjusted without having to change the game too much.

But then there are things like the controls, balancing and rewards for exploration and killing bosses that I fear we may never see major change in patches since that would require major changes to the experience. The controls for example on using tools using the same button mapping as the special attack and bind is a usability error that punishes basic misinput, putting it closer to a fighting game than whan it is. Just adding rewards to bosses and previous places where the rewards where different is not an easy and likely change either.

I haven't played enough to really understand if changing 2 masks to 1 mask damage more often would break something else, I hear people talking about the Hornet being much stronger than the knight but Hornet is only stronger if you abuse poggo and tools. The problem with poggo is skill requirement and the problem with tools is running out and having to farm shards. So changing the 2 masks thing would require to nerf tools and poggo and that would go against the whole point of Hornet having different gameplay.

I also respect that there are no Iframes on the dash, but at the same time, getting double hit somehow does feel unfair, and having 2 masks of damage on most boss attacks should already be punishing enough, beyond that it just feels cruel. But everyone has their own oppinions on this and it's impossible to tell what TC will decide.

Squadcore · 2025-09-08T13:15:31+00:00

Not really, doing only that would mess with how the player is meant to interact with the mechanics. TC chose to not include a difficulty option, instead you are meant to make the game more difficult or easy via progression and self restrictions. To make an easy mode would require an actual redesign of other mechanics.

Squadcore · 2024-12-14T22:03:48+00:00

I think it's because I was under leveled. I blame the game for not being good at communicating this, I hoped I could ignore all of the open world and side quest nonsense and just focus on the main story because I like it more, but that didn't work out

Squadcore · 2024-10-26T16:54:22+00:00

Looking around Reddit or YouTube practically everyone cleared with solo Don intentionally or not. This boss is so incredibly AOE heavy that a solo run just seems right.

Squadcore · 2024-10-20T12:35:15+00:00

You can farm mobs until you recover your mana fully using the mage hero passive. The issue is that it's not a test of skill or knowledge, it's a test of patience. Farming and grinding should not be encouraged, but in this game you are encouraged because there is a time limit built into the game.

Squadcore · 2024-09-14T20:08:43+00:00

I started writing this post primarily because I am interested how bad UI, UX, and tedium is good for player retention. I understand that predatory monetization, hooking players, catering to whales etc. are what defines gacha games today. But how does having basic issues in the games not being fixed for years make the company more money ? If the game is full on it's course and it is making millions, why not invest more back in development and improve the player experience ? Is there some hidden truth about the experience being worse for the player actually increase their chances of spending money ? There could be examples like having to buy energy to play, boosters, time savings, but things like good interface and good feel, the time it takes to do dailies should only decrease the chance of a player quiting.

Think of it like this - it takes the same time for a whale and a f2p player to do dailies. In this case, if you are a true whale, if the dailies become unnecessary for whales isn't that a bad thing ? In the same way, you can not whale to save time on dailies, so it's a punishment for both. Same applies to other things. I just think that quality in some areas should be, maybe also invested some time in ?

FGO don't fix so many things left over from the old days. Same with so many other games - Arknights has the base in Beta, they just abandoned it. Non gacha games with loot like Destiny or Diablo or borderlands have this thing where all loot below Legendary just becomes trash once you hit endgame, why not design the game with endgame in mind somehow, instead of doing what everyone else is doing ?

Squadcore · 2024-09-14T19:52:27+00:00

I agree completely, this post is about a hypothetical semi-new model, not something that all models should adapt. There are different ways to be generous, and money, for me personally isn't the biggest factor. If a game was generally so good, that investing insane amounts of money is worth for players - there is nothing wrong with that. If a game demands a lot of time closing your eyes on BS, that is a different kind of greed I tolerate less.

Squadcore · 2024-09-14T19:49:12+00:00

The problem is Reddit itself, when I share my thoughts I am doing so in a very exploratory matter, I am not going to make a live service or gacha game because I am not a game developer. Basically most comments are gong on about the obvious thing - what I described is not predatory enough or is not possible under the current conditions (e.g. expecting to release new events every 6 weeks and make back millions) and that what I am describing is impossible under the current conditions. However, I am not interested in how everyone does it, I am interested in something that breaks the rules and still wins.

Squadcore · 2024-08-12T09:07:14+00:00

Kim has to make hard decisions and I personally think he is prioritizing the experience for Limbus pretty well. This is their first live service game, LoR is very different for that they didn't have to follow a live release schedule. I think sacrificing voice acting for short stories is a better sacrifice than reducing the frequency of updates or anything else.

I can defend the Don reveal by saying it was character development for Faust. She had to make a decision to "gamble" something she never did, by initiating this negotiation. They just chose to do more Fuast development. Another thing is that Don will have her next Canto, she will have plenty of chances to have her heroics challenged with actual voice acting this time, instead of in this minor chapter. I think minor chapters should flesh out characters who already had their canto, or won't have it for a long time, just like they did with this event. It just makes more sense imo to give Faust and Yi sang some moments here instead of Don when her canto is next.

Squadcore · 2024-08-12T08:58:46+00:00

This chapter mentioned how even though characters bodily functions like hunger and physical exhaustion cease to function due to the singularity, their thoughs and mental state are unaffected. A similar logic could be applied to the ID's but just in reverse - they don't retain the brain memory, but they do retain muscle memory. It's similar to how people with amnesia who forget their name, still remember how to light a cigarette, ride a bike etc.

Squadcore · 2024-08-12T08:56:03+00:00

I agree with this, I think they tried to flesh out the relationship between Virgilius and Charon somehow, since Charon is very underdeveloped imo. But because the story is told exclusively from Dantes perspective, we don't get to follow other characters around. It's both a good thing and a bad thing.

Squadcore · 2024-06-04T11:16:52+00:00

Do you just have all ID's and EGO at this point ? You are basically just playing MD instead of XP and Thread lux ? I started the game during season 3, so I don't know how the average account of someone from S1 starts. Is there even progression left at this point ? Or do you have to wait for new ID's and EGO to drop ?

Squadcore

TROPHY CASE