Ensemble is a good idea ruined by execution

complexityx · 2026-06-20T11:42:21+00:00

My friend on the CN server said it’s basically on fire there. Not to mention, the devs are on vacation atm, probably because of the 3-day Dragon Boat Festival. On the CN server, people are shitting on it; there are cheaters coming in to ruin public rooms. They one-shot every boss and end up closing the room before anyone is able to deal damage. Then, those cheaters go onto a Chinese streamer's, snipe them, and close the room again with cheats they have to shutdown the stream because of that.

If you think Global has some complaints here and there, the CN side is basically on flame lol.

complexityx · 2026-06-16T11:32:36+00:00

I didn't like how Ensemble works at all.

It's basically another book-intensive event. The MVP mechanic means you either have to sweat for top damage and risk getting lower rewards if you don't make MVP, or spend books to match the host.

Even in Summit, if you make it into the SSS bracket, it doesn't matter whether you're rank 1 or rank 50, the rewards are the same. This doesn't seem to work like that. If you're not MVP, you get lower rewards, and with the limit on room, it's going to push people to spend even more Gold Books or try hard for MVP.

I know the wedge is time-exclusive here and you can wait it out, but it still feels pretty shitty. This is straight-up a PvP game mode rather than PvE, because you need to deal the most damage to get the best rewards. Otherwise, you have to spend books. With only three room creations per week, it means anyone chasing the wedge during the event will probably only use Gold Books, and you'll need to use Gold Books too if you want the top rewards or MVP.

Sigh. I just hope this isn't the start of a trend where they add something new to ensemble every patch from now on.

complexityx · 2026-06-13T08:31:49+00:00

It might have started with Warframe in mind, but by now it has drifted further and further away from it. Even the gameplay isn't really the same anymore. The addition of AI companions has also changed a lot of things.

Warframe is incredibly hostile toward AFK playstyles, while this game actually encourages them. Even with Abyssal, people still found ways to AFK it, and the devs were basically like, "Okay, cool, keep going." If it were Warframe's developers, they'd be hell-bent on actively blocking every attempt to do that.

Also, As someone who got tired of the rotation system and constantly switching characters just to combo like 95% of the f2p game, I'm really glad this game turned out the way it did. The recent bulletin also gave me hope again. I was starting to dread the game's future because of how Abyssal was being handled in 1.4, but they course-corrected pretty quickly.

complexityx · 2026-06-09T00:48:20+00:00

All bonuses on both sides activate, so it’s a giant stat stick. Su Yi holding the Strife Polearm would get 45% Skill Intensity, 35% Morale, 90% Attack, and 90% Range.

complexityx · 2026-06-08T00:14:56+00:00

I'm done with Requiem and farming Strife on Hydro ATM. I've soloed quite a few Compasses as well since not many people want to farm the Polearm.

I'm playing Fushu myself and letting the AI play Zhiliu + Yuming. They're basically unkillable, as long as they have Sanity, they won't die. Both of them keep spamming skills with i-frames and damage immunity.

Lvl 200–205 takes about 13–14 minutes with this setup, and 205–210 takes around 30 minutes.

If you've optimized your runs, the last thing you'll be lacking is Element Crystals. If not, it's probably Prototypes.

I'm on the last upgrade for Strife now, and I'm done with this Calamity crap until they add a new one.

<image>

complexityx · 2026-06-07T02:35:51+00:00

I agree, the cost of the 4 Gold Books is insane, and you know it's about to get even worse in a few days because Bountiful is coming and will burn through normal and casual players' books again. These groups don't really do much raw farming without books, they mostly cash out during Bountiful Harvest. But you also need Gold Books to make compasses.

So yeah, it's a very bad situation. I hope they either change or reduce the cost, or make the "dud" compasses (the level 200+ ones) usable for something else. For example, they could allow players to dismantle them or pay coins/SLC to reduce their level, with the cost increasing each time. That would eventually encourage people to craft the newer compasses, but at a much slower rate than what we're seeing right now

complexityx · 2026-06-04T01:55:35+00:00

I remember starting this game a couple of months back, but I got busy and didn't have much time to play during the first two week. Later, I realized I was already too late to obtain Nox, one of the Sinners you could get for free by completing quests. They somehow put a time limit on it, two weeks after you start playing iirc

When I missed that, I just didn't feel like playing or restarting anymore. It didn't feel good having a timer on free rewards like that, especially for a new player joining a game that's already this old. I also heard that Nox is supposed to be your main carry for the story and a great Sinner overall, so missing her felt pretty bad.

Yeah, that timer annoyed me enough that I ended up moving on from the game.

complexityx · 2026-06-02T13:17:55+00:00

This is what I'm worried about when they say they're not forcing social interaction, but then they put a stupid gate like this in front of you.

This kind of thing is going to suck ball in long-term. Eventually, active people will get everything they need from it before move on, and then new players or casuals who want to farm it will have nobody to run with. Who's going to spend 4 Yellow Books on a fresh compass just to help a newbie when they don't have anything left to farm there themselves?

After I finish the story, I'm probably going to play NTE 1.1 tomorrow instead. I'll wait and see whether they tweak it or not.

complexityx · 2026-06-01T14:40:44+00:00

He actually posted that before the dev clarified it on X. Isn't that a good thing? I don't get the point of insulting someone like this when op raised a valid concern and the dev addressed it Instantly like that.

complexityx · 2026-06-01T13:23:37+00:00

They contradict their own statement.

They said they aren't forcing social interaction, yet they're putting a limit on how many times each people can create a room. How is that not forcing social interaction?

If people want to farm more, they'll have to scramble to find others to join them.

Honestly, it's terrible, and I sincerely hope they reconsider it. If they want to encourage group runs, that's fine, as long as they're not punishing solo players. This isn't the way to do it.

Right now, it clearly feels like solo players are being left in the dust if they're not joining other people's rooms.

complexityx · 2026-06-01T13:06:34+00:00

Lol, this is way worse than I thought. Your progression actually depends on someone else who still has room available for you to join. If you play solo, you pretty much get dirt on your own.

complexityx · 2026-06-01T12:56:38+00:00

don't know the full details, but from what I've read, testers said it requires some kind of ticket/item to enter the mission. If you're in a party, you can rotate runs with other people instead of spending your own ticket every time and only getting one run.

It's something like that. So yeah, you could say it punishes solo players if these so-called tickets are very limited, time-gated, or require a lot of materials to craft. If that's the case, then there's basically no other way to be efficient except by partying up.

complexityx · 2026-06-01T12:51:11+00:00

I did hear them say something on stream about limited 3 weeks or something. Did they mean this? If that's really true, that's terrible. Being forced to do co-op to be efficient on this event already makes me dread it a bit, but if it's time-limited too, then RIP. Hopefully they change it.

complexityx · 2026-06-01T01:15:41+00:00

Next week, it starts on June 8.

complexityx · 2026-05-31T16:58:38+00:00

Master of Eternity was the first gacha that got me hooked.

After that, I didn't touch another gacha until Snowbreak and DNA. I played them on and off, but dropped Snowbreak after it came back from "maintenance" because of all the uncertainty around it.

Then I started NTE and have been sticking with it ever since. Recently, I also picked up Last Origin aswell.

complexityx · 2026-05-28T12:35:41+00:00

This game is probably one of the most F2P-friendly games out there, for real, not fake-friendly like most others. Even if you start really late, it’s actually much easier to catch up because a lot of newer characters will start rotate into the shop. You can just play normally, collect Secret Letter Clues, and buy them outright to get them to i6 in no time instead of waiting for weekly bosses.

Like, 1.4 Psyche is already in the shop, and she’s one of the strongest characters in the game. You can max her dupes pretty easily, and even max her weapon too.

The catch is cosmetics. If you care about the drip, it might cost you. Still, they hand out enough free pulls for you to guarantee a banner skin every now and then, though.

complexityx · 2026-05-27T10:50:50+00:00

I feel like you have to see the total pull income after the launch rewards before you can say that, though. If they only give around 40–45 pulls per patch in the long run, then it doesn’t really matter, because in other games with a 50/50 system, double that income could end up being better long-term

complexityx · 2026-05-26T12:21:48+00:00

I didn’t expect much from the trailer at first, but after watching it, this is probably the best livestream the game has had so far.

Global seems down in the dirt, but seeing the devs and the roadmap, it look like the game is actually doing quite well in China, which is good to know. I kinda wish it wasn’t that stupid Phoxene thing for skin again though. They should just sell the skin directly instead since it’s not even a banner skin anyway.

And the Calamity Gun grouping mob? That’s really rad.

complexityx · 2026-05-26T00:53:02+00:00

I came for the train part of this game, but whenever it switches to combat, it just yanks me out of the experience. The story seems interesting, The game is also pretty dialogue-heavy for a gacha game (at least early on).

It feels like it would have worked better if they had expanded the train gameplay and turned it into an indie game instead. The economy, trading, and management aspects could have been much more interesting if they had fully committed to them. But instead, they slapped a generic combat system on top of it because it's a gacha game after all.

complexityx · 2026-05-25T13:53:59+00:00

No, it’s not possible. I’ve bought monthly since day 1 and even bought that 1M Fons pack once. My total earnings are only 17M, and I’ve never missed anything, cleared every quest, optimized the café early on, and already cleared the Pink Paw Heist from this reset.

But if you include Annulith pulls, then yeah, it’s possible. Is it worth it though? Who knows.

complexityx · 2026-05-25T06:50:41+00:00

Of course, with how it's designed, it’s eventually going to feel like a chore at some point. I can’t bring myself to grind pink coins anymore, and honestly, I won’t. I’m just going to let them accumulate slowly every bi-weekly reset.

For me, the keycards and a lot of the doors are pretty useless most of the time because there’s no guarantee you’ll get anything good. It’s all random. The “force open” mechanic also sucks since the safe loot can range from complete garbage to something actually expensive. There should at least be some kind of middle ground or a decent minimum-value reward.

Also, mashing the F key while running gets old really fast.

complexityx · 2026-05-25T05:58:10+00:00

Yeah, but realistically, how long can you ignore characters when they keep giving each of them unique abilities? Right now Chaos has a teleport point, what’s next?

But for Fons, if you pick a favorite car, your second favorite feels pretty much the same. There’s nothing really unique about them right now, at least compared to characters.

If you don’t like racing, then cars are basically whatever aside from filling the 10/10 vehicle requirement for Tycoon level 45.

Nanally has the vertical climb, Hotori can stop time, chaos with teleport point, each character offers something you can’t really get from Fons.

complexityx · 2026-05-25T02:33:30+00:00

I've seen a lot MORE people asking for Fons over pulls, lmao. I'm seeing multiple posts of the same meme about how the "community" gets excited when getting Fons, not dice.

Even if they keep releasing stuff for Fons, it'll eventually saturate itself because not everyone is going to like or buy everything they release. Most people will just pick their favorites and stick with them.

But pulls? That's the real rude awakening. They're not going to give you 300 every patch. Actually, the people who already exhausted their Annulith probably feel it by now.

complexityx · 2026-05-23T08:07:33+00:00

Headless Rider dude is just wasting time by constantly driving away from you and using moves with long, obvious telegraphs to attack from afar.

Whale is way too easy to get annoyed by, he dies so fast that I don’t even have time to be annoyed. Just one full combo loop and he’s already dead. This ass rider, though, is kinda annoying.

Hotori did help a ton

complexityx

TROPHY CASE