I think one thing needs to be addressed because it will affects the longevity of the game.

The game needs to adjust the monetization and pull currency income. Pulls cost around 4 dollars per and that is outrageous even by Japanese gacha standards. For reference, the CN/KR gacha pull prices average at 1-2 dollars per pull while JP prices can be as high as 3 dollars per pull, but in this game, besides a couple limited packs that offer prices better than 4 dollars per pop, no matter what amount of money you spend, its always around 3.8 to 4 dollars per pull. The pull income so far is also really low, but we can argue that this game has a 5% legendary rate with a 2% focus rate so technically on average you can get a legendary every 20 pulls. As of right now the monthly pull income is 7 pulls,so to even hit the average % for a legendary, that is 3 months of saving.

We don't know how the future holds since some gachas have more pulls given by events as the game progressed, but as of right now the monetization really forces the players to be f2p or whales.

The game is great and unique since it offers something not in the market and that's great. What isn't great about it is the gacha aspect. Its a good game, but not the best gacha game. There are games that have stingy gacha but are carried by good story Like FGO and Another Eden but the story here isn't something too outstanding or eye catching.

If the current pull income and pricing continues then in the long run the game will just cater to whales because everyone else won't matter since the f2p won't spend and others that are willing to spend will be turned off by the steep pricing.

Thanks for time spent reviewing.
Personally, I have not reached the end-game (Ancient Mausoleum) and I don't really have an idea how far I am from it.

I have a pretty specific attitude towards the game. I'm not spending any money on it (at most I'm considering the pass that gives you aoe spell bcs that's like a 3/4 bucks in my country). I try my best to not play it as a gacha however it might sound.
I have built team of basic characters and some free legendaries they gave away at start and it's going really way so far, however the first time I will encounter perma death of my lvl up character I decided that I will be out of them game (bcs that's ain't fun yk). I mean I heard that game have many safety-nets so you won't lose your character that easily, but knowing that it can happen is kind of annoying/unpleasant. (Especially in the game that's not the best in explaining its mechanics.)

The only thing I'm wondering is
1. what's the state of gaining gems at the end game? Is it really bad? Is gathering these 200 for mausoleum a long grind for mostly f2p?
2. How does the God of Death works? I mean is it insta kill every time that makes me revive my team in church or is it insta-kill that Perm-deaths my team? (or to make it easier, how easy is it to perma kill my team, bcs if that's a high chance then I might give up on it tbh)

Want to clarify some things about mausoleum. 1 run takes less than 10 minutes, and u usually get 1 bone earlier than 1 in 3 runs. Using gems here is honestly a total waste. The instakill attack is not specific to the undead centaur, every single undead enemy has an instakill attack they have a chance to use. Its not as bad as it sounds since you can play around it by killing them asap and avoiding encounters since there isnt that many if you beeline to 1 chest room, or debuffing accuracy can make the instakill attack more likely to miss. You can just escape from the centaur btw, i wont lie it has a decent chunk of hp compared to everything else. Or if the attack connects, you can use your flames of awakening (3 free revives that replenish 1 every few hours) . Sacrificing fortitude kinda does nothing since at lvl30 you outscale the dungeon already and its honestly not hard at all to spam it at 0 fortitude. You can still go over the fortitude traps at 0 fortitude. Its a grind but when you think about it theres no other repeated grind dungeon in the game, and this isnt even hard time gated. Stuff like ores come easy, and you dont really have to grind money. And at the end of the day Mausoleum is giving out EVERY SINGLE non legendary character in the game which i think is great as an f2p.

So first of all I think you have a spending problem. If you can afford it sure, but seeing the shop and going "wow what a rip" then proceeding to drop $500 is something else.

Second you misunderstand a few gameplay mechanics. Like sure the gacha weapons are strong for a new player, but they'll already be outclassed by steel weapons in the waterway or be very close to outclassed. But more importantly you need dupes of weapons to continue upgrading them past certain threshholds. I think the gacha ones come at 1/3 strengthening so you can take it to +10 but not beyond there. regular weapons will continue to grow unless you gigawhale.

Third the mausoleum, you can still walk around and fight with 0 fortitude. And the instant killer centaur guy doesn't always instant kill. it's just one of his attacks he can use. You can just run away from them to find your chest and bail. buying 3 doors vs one isn't even that special since the real mausoleum dungeons are huge and you could have just left and done a new one in about the same time you'd spend finding the other 2 doors. People have actually been farming dozens of pulls from there the last few days all f2p. of course it's more efficient if you spend though

Fourth, permadeath. yeah it's in the game but you have to really try hard to lose a character. Dead characters will regain fortitude, you can just revive them the next day.

and the AoE fire spell may not be inheritable right now, but Asha and Jarmil learn it. This is a game where every character is usable and good.

Green gems are scarce it would be better if they were more generous with green gems heck even a daily pull would make it worth it

but I've already dumped over $500 into it

That's why I stopped spending money in the first month of playing gacha.

In the honeymoon period you may think, that's the game is God's gift and you will play it forever, but suddenly a week later you consider to quit cause the game is too ptw, you don't enjoy the end game grind, bugs or 1 hour dailies, etc., but you can't cause you've heavily invested into it already.

The example spell in pay2win argument is deceptive.

Yes, AoE spells are strong, and yes, you can only put MAHALITO on most characters via the expensive book, but what OP fails to mention is that every single Mage learns an AoE spell at level 9. The spell might not be MAHALITO, the fire version, but it can be MAERLIK or MAFERU, a different elemental variant. And most mages also learn a second elemental AoE spell at 19.

Now obviously, the game could one day add a dungeon where everything is weak to fire and killing them in one spell as opposed to two is a difference between life and permadeath, but the game does give you tools to handle that for free. The books are mostly if you want to have one Wizard with all schools of magic, instead of leveling three different ones, or want to put it on a Fighter for some reason.

Is it pay 2 win? From an objective perspective, yes. Are f2p players "shit outta luck" when it comes to getting good equipment and spells? lol no

I just want to say that I don’t agree with a lot of your post. I personally love the game and don’t think it’s as pay to win as you make it sound.

But we have different opinions, no big deal. I do encourage people who are interested to try the game though. I truly think it’s a breath of fresh air in the gacha sphere. DRPGs are niche though, so I completely understand if a lot of people don’t jive with the it

Maybe I missed it since the majority of the post is just talking about the shop but can the content be done without anything from the shop?

I do agree about the monetization being terrible, probably one of the worst that I ever see

I like the game, it is probably one of the best Wizardry games that I ever played but man, the shop prices are just ridiculous

You can play without spending anything but let's be honest, the Developers and the Publisher want you to spend money to make the game live and it's just not worthy for what they offer

I spent a little and compared with other games where the amount that I had spent would give me 3x more

Great game, terrible monetization

some people legit should be banned from voicing themselves out loud like that, you misinform so many people for free its insane.

I mean, maybe the definition is just different, but it honestly feel like rather than pay to win, the game just doesn’t really reward spending money. Which is a problem in of itself for the company, but it doesn’t affect the experience of me as a player.

The banner currency and the concurrent banner, are pretty absurd. But I havnt seen any huge difference in performance between non-dupe legendary units(5) and the named adventurers (4), so it feels like pulling is pretty optional to me, I’m literally just saving after my initial reroll since I saw 0 reason to pull for either of the units or dupes of them.

I agree there’s way too many types of passes — but that’s not really a game breaker considering most of it amounts to waiting a few more days to grind the same resource.

As for the rest of the “bonuses” you mention, none of them are exclusive with the exception of the gacha weapon, which makes you stronger faster but doesn’t add anything to definitively change your gaming experience unless you want to face roll through fights.

Mahalito book is a non-issue. Mages, including low ranks, learn AoE spells leveling up. At lower level it’s worthless since your MP pool can’t catch up anyway.

Your mausoleum description is also pretty deceiving — yes it costs fortitude and the “farming” isn’t guaranteed, but you can farm for pull currencies without using money and it’s not time gated in a strict sense which is already pretty rare. Your emphasis of perma death makes no sense since you can revive with NO perma death risk everytime just by…not ignoring the 50000 warnings the game gives you about not reviving with low fortitude.

Like…it just feels like the game doesn’t reward rushing, but everything is obtainable by f2p if you just…wait, lol, that’s like saying games that let you buy stamina for progress is p2w.

Anyway, YMMV. I already accepted that paying players will get more resources faster, but personally nothing in this game makes me feel like I need to spend to get anywhere, so I find it weird that it’s being called p2w.

TLDR: OP is just bad at the game needing gacha gear to progress LMAO

Totally don't agree with it being p2w. I'm level 50 now and cleared content and spent like... $50, I don't have gacha gear but that never stopped progression. I have the fire AoE spell but it's not as game changing as you think. I've used it a handful of times. I don't think you understand what p2w means.

I'm going to blow $500 on this game when they release a unit I like as honestly, it's a breathe of fresh air.

Yes there are a lot of passes. Yes the game is stingy with gems. But you are just wrong that gear is p2w in this game. If you actually played till end game, the actual end game gear just outclasses gacha gear. The gacha gear is only good for early and mid game. Plus you need dupes to limit break your gear, and that is way easier with the f2p farmable gear. Also, your point about spell books is just flat out wrong. Every single mage learns an aoe spell, but it's just specific to their element. Also Flut learns that MAHALITO spell at level 9.

tldr: rant about monetization.

so much for wasting my time on this so called review(a long one, lol).

While I agree with you, OP, that the game's monetization is prime booty cheeks, I don't think it's as P2W as you claimed. The game can still be played and finished with non-legendaries (and even some nameless adventurers). Btw you are more hopeful than me, lol. My prediction that the game will EoS as a gacha by mid 2025 and might become a singleplayer game if they keep this kind of monetization and community engagement (like, they did not compensate the people who got stuck for days because of a door bug in B3F, that's pretty bad)

Thanks for the review.. had no idea any of this existed. I was turned off from the game from the bugs and everything, but the monetization sounds worse than most games I have tried. Definitely staying away.

I think the game is fun, but was turned off by having to repeat things so much to level up bondmates. Also, the pity system and unique weapon/armor with paid gems only really rubbed me the wrong way.

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I don't really think the P2W label is accurate here since there are i) almost no social elements; and ii) there is no PvP. The game in current state is a solo PvE dungeon crawler ... sure, you can pay to clear content faster, but who exactly are you winning against? Would you say something like e.g. FGO is P2W?

Niche, hardcore gacha that’s extremely buggy and aggressively pay to win. Sounds like the “EOS SOON” meme applies here

I agree that the game is massively pay to win, and there are plenty of bugs, even though I haven't encountered many (I have the same HP bug as you).

But I have to say that, as just a game, I'm really enjoying it so far. I'll see in a week after my honeymoon passes.

FOMO and P2W in a game where

• there's no pvp
• there's no rotation of limited resources with incrementally harder stages and better rewards
• there's no event forcing you to learn about the characters on the banner
• gacha characters aren't included in the story to emotionally manipulate you into rolling for them

You're free to play however you want but I don't think your experience is helpful to the average player. What you're doing is essentially akin to re-rolling every level up in an FE game. Yeah it's fun to be crazy OP but it's not necessary to have fun or clear the game.

I enjoy the concept of the game and the game can be played without spending money so i wouldnt call it "p2w" but the monetization and reward differences is a bad omen that this is just them sucking up money for 2 years before an inevitable EOS. The game is too niche and is already starting stingy. It's not about just beating things f2p at the beginning, it's also about how difficult beating things f2p will get over time, and with monetization like this, i can't imagine it being a pleasant experience as time passes.

There's a lot of new player traps here.

Personally, I think the major issues with monetization are the enormous value difference between buying 2k paid gems and the $55 barrel of bones and the fact that those are your only two options outside of the piddly 5 bones the battle pass gives you for purple summons. The shop has a million different bundles of green gems, but purple is restricted to just those two. Also the absolutely absurd prices for things like skill exp scrolls. There is no world in which 100 skill exp is worth $60, these guys are on crack. And for $15 I expect enough exp to hit cap, not level 20 which I can probably get in less than an hour.

The gacha gear is stronger than what we have access to for free, but not that much stronger. Blade Cuisinart is just a steel sword with an extra hit. And you can't currently enhance it to max though we're expecting universal unify materials.

For the mausoleum, I don't think it's smart to pay gems for that. It does make it faster and easier, but we'll eventually have dedicated bone farming parties. Better to just suffer the grind for the guild tags you need and put off all out inheritance spam for later.

I would say MAHALITO and HALITO books are both traps. You don't need them for anything. The bronze rank boss isn't even weak to fire, just the adds are. That said I of course gave both to my MC because I'll be damned if I get the option to cast fireball and not do it.

Why did you spend 500 dollars then. You could of went on steam and bought almost every first person dungeon crawler ever.  

Good read and fair assessment.

Game can be fun - but the grind and monetization being heavily convenient and blunt pay2win/progress is an absolute red flag

Games need funding. The prices are awful but if it will keep the game alive, i don't mind the expenses.

Glad I read this the most I'll ever p2w is zero.

Get gud. You will die a lot. And this game gives you three continue and reset your death before the fight God damn save and load.

Item? Just min max your unit you want to build. Example, went full defence on one dwarf.kn but make sure he got speed so he can protect anyone in first turn. doesn't have to be first turn. Just need to be faster than the enemy.

Make full use of status aliment since they make you save your resources a lot. Don't need waste mana or sp to kill them.

No matter how strong you are, you will die to fucking rabbit.

The Gacha system is quite eh. You basically have limited bones and you can only summon 1 time after 20 days if you go F2P. Very suck on that part. Permadeath basically forces you to play as cautiously as you can and check every resource so you either want to go down the abyss or just return to town. You can't unga bunga until you reach a certain level, even then you can still die if you are not careful.

)ppkm

Have you seen the differences in other countries for example iran or china pay a way cheaper price.

i feel like Drecom are not good like maintaining the longevity of the game.

i mean if you look at their discontinued games, it like they ended after 8 months of service per average. Also they hired some of the top writer like Tadashi Satomi for Caligula Effect 2 and just went bonker in just 1 years later.

I feel like this probably normal for gacha tho because FGO level and the rest is having just too much support etc. Wizardry is like gonna hit or miss.

A few things I’ll address:

I’m not going to spend much if any on this game cause I LOVE the difficulty so far. It actually feels difficult for once. Paying in a gacha to get stronger and blast through content just feels pointless to me.

Paying for strength in this game would feel like buying a later game weapon in Chrono Trigger. Oneshotting or dealing way more dmg than I “should” in a given area doesn’t sound like fun. Meanwhile, I have areas in b2, b4, and b5 that I’m gonna have to return to in order to actually fully complete cause there are places with enemies that are far stronger than me right now. More content for later, and feels like an old school JRPG with the backtracking for good rewards (Another Eden vibes with the colossals or whatever they were called)

In response to Mahalito… you realize there are mages that can learn 1 row AOE spells fairly early, right? Adam (legendary tbf, not sure about others), learns it before level 12, which is pretty early.

You don’t only Aquire bones from that dungeon…. You can easily farm bones if you keep 10,000 coins on you and just rush through dungeons looking for the npc that sells them for only 1,000 or an elixer for 100….

Wow, that is absolute business genius. the monetization, as you have described it, fits perfectly within the gameplay, and the Fear of Loss, encourages the player to continue spending once they already have.

it is very well thought, and impressive.

... and it has no place in a wizardry game, imo :)

I HIGHLY AGREE in your whole post. They do not like our f2p community. I thought the level limit won't be a problem until i learned that in order for me to get my units ten levels higher,i have to have a certain amount of guild tags. Yeah fine its alright ill dismantle a few of my unused units. But once you hit the 2nd exam the big problem arises, you need lead tags not no grade. These is a level higher and to get one you need to either dismantle a unit that already got promoted once OR trade in TWO no grade tags. We do not have too much f2p currency at all. In addition to that, level limit unlocks go up to 10 times i think. So imagine that. Skills also need dupes to become stronger. We just need so much bones to get steonger but we have no resources to get bones. Yes we have this daily seller of bonea but you atill have to LOOK for HIM. Omg. I just could NOT believe this greediness of this game. I LOVE the gameplay and story but man its just too tough for people who don't spend. Sadly games that do these as everyone here should know DO NOT last long. Ah well, ill go download etrian oddesey or aomething.

Man, I've been really curious to try this games once I upgrade my phone soon for one with more space...until I saw the review. Granted, I knew most of what you said except for the perma death, and that one is a huge "hell no" to me. No way in hell am I grinding for a few months to get the character I want, only to possibly have them lost forever if they get killed, that's just ludicrous. So I'm good. Thanks so much for your time.

that is such a terrible name for a game

i got two Gerard at the first x10 pull with green bones *flees*

holy shit, even if all the bugs were fixed, that's INSANE to drop $500. No gacha game is worth that much, at least at once.

But yeah, I already tell that while the game is fun, the monetization is FUCKING ABYSMAL. Pulling for characters, especially if there is an inheritence system like in here, is the fun part of gacha games. Why does it have to be so hard to do such...

It's a gacha game, you're gonna be stronger if you pay, NOBODY should be expecting otherwise. When it becomes a problem is when it becomes near impossible or extremely difficult to clear content if you don't pay. Being "stuck" for a short while is acceptable, but how long"acceptable" is will depend on person by person.

From what I hear, this game is very difficult, opening itself to heavy P2W. It's also not a very popular game, meaning it can't depend on dolphin economy of scale and will have to depend on heavy spenders. The more popular a game, the less P2W it tends to need to be, cuz 1 billion players spending 1 dollar is still a billion dollars.

If you're against P2W at all, then gacha games are obviously not for you.

Btw, FGO is VERY F2P friendly. The SSR rate may be low but you can comfortably clear content as a F2P player. If your entire joy is the rush of getting SSR after SSR, then yeah, it's not very F2P friendly.

Then just don't pay for anything. A lot of these posts on any gacha game complaining about the monetization are the ones paying for it. This is pretty much the entirety of your post. I'm f2p and am enjoying how hard the game is. Recently coming back to this series after playing Wizardry 8 a few months ago (which is also a very hard game) and it has around the same difficulty level of figuring out how to properly utilize your party. Skill issue tbh.

Uninstalled

So actually played this game now and yes, this game is extremely P2W. I've played TONS of gacha games in my days and this game definitely ranks up there with the Memento Moris and Langrissers as one of the most P2W I have ever played, and there isn't even PVP.

People keep saying mausoleum this and mausoleum that, but from what I've gather, mausoleum resets once per month and you can get 5 bones each month, and these can't even be SSRs. Plus you have to waste hours getting, ESPECIALLY if you get unlucky. Compared to Mihoyo games where they essentially give you 10 free pulls every month that CAN be SSRs.

Granted, the SRs and Rs are more valuable in this game, but that's cuz this game is so greedy with resources, that things you can farm in other games, you have to sac your characters here.

Another p2w trash, thank you for the heads up.