What are your picks for each game in the award category? Please comment down below! Also, a lot of music used here, 28 in fact! - Ananta - Website Music - Honkai Star Rail - Menu Remix - Honkai Star Rail - Fable of the Stars - Zenless Zone Zero - Endless Construction Day - Arknights - Contingency Contract - Wuthering Waves - Crownless Boss Fight - Arknights - Storyteller (Babel Event) - NIKKE - First Page (Old Tales Event) - NIKKE - Shattered (Old Tales Event) - Girls Frontline 2: Exilium - Memory - Reverse 1999 - Sonnet (Political Greatness) - Wuthering Waves - Depth of Illusive Realm - Arknights - Andarsar (Expeditioner’s Joklumarkar) - Limbus Company - Main Menu - Wuthering Waves - Thaw of Eons Vocal - Wuthering Waves - Astrum Unicum (End of Wandering) - Wuthering Waves - Peal to the Infinite Skies (Donglu Research Station) - Wuthering Waves - Peal to the Infinite Skies (v1.3) - Reverse 1999 - Broken Shells (v2.4) - Zenless Zone Zero - 60% Daily Serenity - Girls Frontline - Operation Cube - Zenless Zone Zero - When Sandwiches Come A Knockin’ - NIKKE - Snow (Memory of Goddess) - Arknights - Downtime Recreation (Ceobe’s Fungimist Event) - Wuthering Waves - Between the Waves - Arknights - Bubble (Lone Trail Event) - Wuthering Waves - Encore Companion Story - Ananta or Project Mugen Reveal Trailer Music (Vocal Removed with AI)
Are you gonna review 1.4 story in Zzz cause as you mentioned in your video about storytelling you were spot on when you said that meeting every faction is a setup for a bigger plot
@@lyon7218 I will, but it's not going to be a positive video. 1.4 is kinda disappointing for me in terms of its writing. Yes, it's fun. But it fell short of what makes me love ZZZ in the first place... And I hate making critical video. It's very exhausting to make, but I think it's worth telling...
My picks for each category is limbus not because it’s Le best tm but because I only play limus smhsmh Anyways srs I really do wish to say limbus has a story unlike any other gacha game Games like r1999 just did not strike me as compelling enough, r99 is very intriguing and arknights world building has pulled me back into the game many times but I always do end up leaving the games. The only game I haven’t dropped is limbus. I drop games mainly because of its story and nothing else. I want to say the complaint about stories generally since every story I’ve read has this very personal gripe, but every character feels too goody two shoes? Like I genuinely am always made to cheer for the antagonists and then get mimfed when they inevitably get beaten because yk, good guys have to win. Limbus company really just provides the furthest thing in the gacha place i can find from this problem, which is why I sticked to it, and if I find something else on its level or more I’ll happily stick to that too. Many people say limbus is too dark for them and I get it but I complain it’s not far enough lol. I guess it’s from the books I’ve read, I have thoroughly enjoyed Wuthering heights and look back on “if I lived in a place where the laws of this land didn’t bind me so, to where a mob of armed men wouldn’t trample me after, I would capture you, and make grotesque vivisection of you two, if only just for one afternoons amusement.” And “I’ll think how after I am able to brutalize Joseph and I paint Wuthering heights with hindleys blood, only then I’ll find peace” for what I find compelling. Obviously not found in no gacha game. I find emotional story telling compelling, purely emotionally driven, stuff like saving a child or trying to “help as many people as I can!!” Is not that, what is that is deciding today that I not just want to kill myself, but if I am to be the cause of the misery to the one I value the most I am to kill everyone I live with and then hunt down every version of myself in pursuit of the end in which the only one left to kill is myself truely in which only then I shall attain peace!!!!!! That’s the thing that gets me giddy Last thing is really idk when someone tries to be ‘good’ it comes easily as preaching. I hiAYTE being told what to do and just like in arknights “ouuhhhh reunion this reunion that” okay but what will you say when I say that they got a point. Okok murder is bad yeah yeah but it becomes less bad when you TELL me and I don’t figure it out myself! Limbus has really good self reflection and because of that despite its shortcomings I myself am able to truly appreciate the innards of it, and that’s why I like it like you like your favorites. Anyways ramble over I just really wanted to talk me mind😭😭
@@FeyHunt You should try to play Sword of Convallaria it's the best gacha game in 2024 when it comes to story. There are multiple routes and endings depending on your choice.
@@EljuezDani Wow, is it really that great? Beyond chapter 3, I really don't get the hype. Chapter 4 kinda drained my will to play the game. Is it worth continuing for me? What is the best chapter after chapter 4?
@@EljuezDani I see! So it's a lot of hit or miss as well. Honestly, this game kinda surprise me after I slog through Chapter 1 and 2, which are not structured well. Chapter 3 is just... wow. I hope there's a pattern there somewhere where the multiplication of 3s are the best one yet 😄😄
Limbus has peak story imo the way they took the books and changed not too much but make it feel like its actually part of limbus instead is amazing plus its VAs make it way better
Yeah, I do hear a lot about them. I just can't continue past the first canto with that unnecessary grimdark shock factor. Maybe I'll give it a try again later.
@FeyHunt Yuri appeared more on LOR so maybe thats for LOR fans i didn't mind canto 1 it was until canto 5 I got real invested in the story but canto 3 and 4 were good as well especially the ending of canto 4 that shit made me tear up a little
@@FeyHunttbh Limbus and PM games arent grim dark but its hard to see that if you dont get past the first chapter/canto. While i have problems of the early cantos writing, they do do a nice job of showing how shit it is to live in the city if you arent rich. But again its hard to appreciate the things they do well if you arent a fan of previous PM games or of Limbus. Cause character writing wise the early cantos do alot more than you would initially realize.
Babel DEFINITELY my top limited event. Story telling was quick and straight forward but also told us everything we needed to know, and it was very emotional with great soundtrack as well. Hit my heart like a nuke and shattered it into dust. Is this your final decision, Doctor? - The most painful and hardest stage in arknights
I have little context on that BA-9 stage since I haven't got the time to read through it. But it is a great scene implemented in the game. A great event indeed! The only reason why I didn't give it best event award is just the gameplay. It's just... Arknights. Nothing too different from the basic gameplay. Of course, that's good if you enjoy the game. Arknights never felt too different, no matter what the gimmick is. It is both a gift and a curse for them. The gameplay is just... good. So when they shake things up, they immediately won Best Roguelike 😄😄
@@FeyHunt Yea i think the gimmick there was just to link operators with chains to slow enemies, and to not let them "fall" from unstable platforms IIRC? It mostly allows for funny strats but you can literally only the bare minimum (so your operators dont "fall") and ignore the slow effect altogether, and its basically the same old Arknights. Since i love AK gameplay, the event's story being absolute peak was great for me, but i understand people wanting something different as well.
@@Gojiradogzillagodzilla The moment I heard that Arknights "doesn't have great gameplay and stories as complete package in a single event" after mentioning Babel, I paused the video. The amount of symbolisms in the last stage of that event and making the player (the doctor) dubious about actually being the bad guy in the story, is just pure magic. Dismissing Arknights because it has a "basic gameplay" without acknowledging the new mechanics in each events, seems lazy.
@@pronak4410 I don't think Babel's mechanics are anything revolutionary, thats why he said "It's just more Arknights". I literally forgot about the chain mechanic sometimes because it wasnt a major part of the stages lol. Yea the story and the stages were GOD tier but the gameplay was almost the same, which is fair.
The WorldBuilding not go to Arknights seems kinda unbelievable. I know how ZZZ portray theirs with attractive visualization. BUT, Arknights worldbuilding is almost second to none. The many races of Terra and their unique race specialty; the multiple nation and their political struggles; the threat that looming over from the sea, sky, and frozen lands; the constant fight against Oripathy and Catastrophe; and also they even went and create a hecking new languange, that is Sarkaz/Teekaz ancient language. Full with their own characters and lore. It's amazing. Even more after the latest chapter in the story.
Yeah, people going for Hoyoverse is not quite what I had in mind for future of gacha games, but let's hope Arknights: Endfield will make people think more about their choices. People deserve the best.
For the worldbuilding, Arknights didn't lose in that category. It wasn't even in my consideration because of how little I've read about it. The biggest problem about Arknights for me to enjoy is the sheer intimidating length of it. As someone who only played about a year ago, I still have 200+ hours of VN to catch up. That's a very scary number. As someone with only 2-3 hours of gameplay per day, I have to make a choice whether to read on VN or play some other games. I chose the latter. Maybe if you've followed up on the lore and every event from day 1, it would be an amazing story to read on. But right now, I can't judge something I haven't seen yet, and very little time to do so.
True, he should change the world building to Story teller, Arknights Story teller suck but the world building is one of the best atleast my personal opinion when i play gacha games.
@@galihadam96 Of course. I was just explaining why I may never read Arknights lore at all to recommend it. Because I need to first read it in its entirety due to the time constraint I explained in my comment earlier. It's inaccessible content for me.
I cant count how many times an Arknights OST has given me goosebumps or brought me to tears this year. Even those that don't aim to bring the listener to tears it still did with me. I didn't play WuWa though so I can't judge 100% fairly, but I feel like Arknights should've taken that one
As I said in the video, my angle for best soundtrack was down to "which track has a story in it" to keep it somewhat more objective. Arknights have great tracks, but most of it are not used as a way to tell the story. Let me give you an example. Let's take "Lost Poetry" in What the Firelight Casts. Absolutely beautiful track, but it's only being used as a main menu track. It was not being used to set up leitmotifs for Reed. It didn't play during the story to convey her character growth. And to me, that is such a waste of a good music. Now hypothetically, imagine if "Radiant" was being played at the climax of Near Light to mark the culmination of all Nearl's growth along her journey? That would immediately give me chills. If this award is only given to the gacha game OST that I played the most on my spotify list, it would be hella more subjective.
@@FeyHunt Arknights Lone Trail lobby & Control's wishes I kinda disagree with your points how the OST itself NEEDS to be in the actual story Coming Back to the lobby after reading Lone Trail was the most ethereal experience I had since playing these gachas
@@indomaretlawrence1069 Well, let's put it this way... Imperial March wouldn't be as iconic as it is if it's just an after-credit music in Star Wars. The thing is... had Arknights actually put Control's Wishes as the background music in the story before Galleria Stellaria lift off, you would cry every time you heard that music. Because now, you will associate that music with a single moment in the story. That's the power of leitmotif.
@@FeyHunt Tbh, what about the Zwilingstürme Im Herbst OST? I think they match the feeling quite well, especially at the climax where they played Der Hexenkönig which is a fast paced soundtrack that fits on how crucial that moment is and how they need to act fast to end things. That soundtrack would hardly fits anywhere else in Arknights event. Not to mention the EPs of Arknights Operators, each of them can tell a story if you understand it both the music and the character in that said EPs. WuWa doesn't have that, right?
I have to agree with Zenless on the best Worldbuilding Presentation category. When I played the game the first time the theme has been clear right from the start and it can feel really cozy while also being extremely serious and dramatic without feeling out-of-place. The more humurous approach on the game does help a lot to build that feeling and it's perfectly executed in my opinion.
@@socialreveluv5428 Yep, definitely! There's just no other game that captures that homey vibe. And the writing is also done competently to avoid extended yapping. It's probably the peak gacha game in those regards. I really wish Ananta and Neverness to Everness luck to go top that. 😄😄
I agree, it just feels so warm and indie at the same time. though, i like the lorebuilding from arknnights, cause ain't no other game literally creates so many races, countries and history behind said countries in my entire life. like arknights made 23 countries with their unique history, with one of them, being entirely extinct... however, arknights does yap a bit too much and lore is a bit extensive. so unless you hate reading, arknights is the game for you..
I love zzz's world building. Granted, I'm a new to gacha games, zzz is my first and only gacha game, but learning about the white start institute, tops, hand, seeing how it all connect, I also love how somewhat unimportant the main player characters are, they're just tech guys basically, it feels like the world would go on without you. Seeing how the world is slowly connecting with one another and the events that flesh out the lore more and how things are hinted chapters out, it all feels interconnected. Seeing theorists think of stuff we won't see possible confirmed years and years out is so cool and there is actual evidence and stuff, not just crackpot theories, its fun and doing it all in a game thats overall so goofy. This was a ramble but yeah, I just wanted to glaze my game a bit.
If you're ever interested it seems like tou would like reverse 1999 story. It has a lot of philosophical and mathematical themes. Chapter 4 is a bit rough as it is just political battle but it is important too. But after that the story picks up and gets really intense. The main character is important for a possibility of change and makes things easier for others but not a vital part of progress. (The gacha is really good too and next batch gives a free random 6*)
@judgementCutter-j445 Like I've always had some Genshin osts, Arknights boss osts, PGR osts, etc... in my playlist. The song that won best soundtrack in this video is so... just mild and mediocre. Like any "chill" song you can find in a game. No oomph to it. Genshin's nightwind area has a really nice melody that stomps whatever won best ost here. Arknights also has cinderbringer and broken sun. But even in Wuwa there are probably a lot of melodies that are better than the one that won here.
@@tp9516 no worries buddy, I'm just jokin around. At the end of the day, it comes down to what you like, ain't nothin I can do to change what you like, so nobody should ever take someone else's opinion as scripture.
For me, limbus company is my favourite in terms of story, tho it requires patience to get to the best story chapters. I'm probably biased because I played previous games by project moon, but if you're into dark stories limbus company is simply the best in the gacha sphere, because not a lot of gachas goes that far with dark themes even if they are for the mature audience, and what i personally like is that limbus also has light-hearted moments despite what i said earlier, it has just enough of funny moments and serious ones to not ruin the atmosphere but not overwhelme you
What I love about R1999 is the Simpleness of it, because of its simpleness there are countless of amazing things that they can do with it, and they already did some of it. Story telling is peak, well its crooked at the first months of release but the fact that they rewrote the past scripts and planning to improve the future scripts is showing they really love their game and want the players to love it too. They also added breeze mode for the ones that wants to focus on the Lore first before brain farting with the battle.
Yep, the earlier chapters are very janky. Scenes are not properly connecting, and some parts need better explanations. That's why I left the game midway chapter 4. It dragged on its rescue plot for so long. But I'm willing to give it another shot if it does have better chapters later.
@@FeyHunt Oh yeah definitely. I was only slightly surprised you put chapter 3, since 5,6 and 7, the latest ones seemed much more memorable to me, but that makes sense, chapter 3 is really really good too, including the part where you didnt consider the event stories. There *is* (iirc), a mandatory short side story between chapters 5 and 6 which wasnt really much of anything, but the rest is great
@@FeyHunt They are not dragging their rescue mission, they are negotiating with the foundation, that is the only way that they can actually "rescue" the Vertin.
@@johnfan1015 When it took them half a chapter to start the rescue mission, I'd say that's dragging it. You can't write stories like that. Something has to happen or signaling that something is about to happen. Also, the negotiating to rescue Vertin part happened in the second half. The first half is talking about solitary confinement and the forced deal to join the Foundation. That's the boring part.
Reading your reply to others about AK lore, I can understand why u think AK lore is hard to get into, especially for new doctor. Hell, ive been playing since 28th Jan 2020 n I barely scratched the lore of AK. If you really wanna get into AK lore u need to read literally everything. From the items in the game, the description of the enemies, operators profiles n every other nuances that got scattered everywhere in the game. Imo AK world building is literally just an actual world that we are living in. Its just that it got locked behind a huge, huge, HUGE wall of texts. I dont even know how much the word counts for AK anymore as I think its longer than Lord Of The Ring around a year ago i think? Tho I still recommend getting into AK lore if u really intrigued by the world of Terra. If u dont want to read it in game u can try find lore summary of AK in yt.
Yep, that's my biggest problem with Arknights. It's a whole meal for a year and takes a lot of commitment. Yes, I can watch some lore summary, but that's like drinking soymilk instead of having a feast. I could easily read the wiki if I wanted to do that. And besides, I'm more interested in how they use those worldbuilding to tell a great story. Knowing that Witch King exist and have once tried to attack Kazimierz is one thing, but knowing how his legacy scarred his "children" is more interesting to me.
@FeyHunt I think for the side story, especially the one that doesnt have major influence in the main story line, is fine to be read on its own. Like, the seaborne arc Id say would be fine to be treated as its own story, or the Nearl Trilogy too as it dont have much correlation with the main story. Id say that u can read any part of the story n might be confused for a while but as u read more n more of their lore, those previous confusions n questions you got bfore will slowly be revealed to u. Many of us are still living in the dark about the Terra even after soo many major clue about it been dropped.
@@Mikufan-lb7zu its understandable tho, if ur a new player trying to get into AK lore, if u purely want to read it in game, its probably gonna be longer than finishing ZZZ n Genshin story combined. Not to mention we got our own lynx yapping non stop too
SOMEONE MENTION OLD TALES FROM NIKKE? I swear, my friends doesnt play Nikke so I cannot say to anyone how amazing it was. The story is magnificent, the lore is satisfying and complete, the voice acting is chef kiss, the relation of it to the main story is simply superb. I've played most of time limited story event in Nikke, while most of it actually just "okay" or "that's fine" because it mostly tells about the story of the new released character, so story events like this that related to the Ark history is a thing that not must be missed. This shits good, almost as good as Over Zone
@@mihyara0195 Totally! I think a lot of people immediately jumped to conclusion that NIKKE is just a gooner bait. But it's actually pretty well-written, especially the earlier chapters. I've learned that for all NIKKE events, only play those who have voice actings. The rest are disappointing or cringe at times. 😄😄
To me they are not that bad actually The main story is slow paced in the middle but they will get better and then after that they repeat it the cycle For events Collab they most likely mediocre The event stories more to make us forget what we have been through in the main story Although some of it is still depressing as hell (Dorothy story/Cinderella story/the latest one this new rapi event) The one story that I don't find interesting mostly on Collab story (although 2A story are good)
Ouh yeah and ice dragon event They mostly focused on funny things at first part and then dropped the BOM on the second part They likely do those event story to balance Like not everything in the games need to be depressing
@@nasiramani1725 This. A lot of "good" gacha game stories tend to overexploit the sadness part without proper release in relief. It can be exhausting to read if your characters just keep losing.
@@nasiramani1725 True. Collab has a a singular story template. Outerworldly character stuck in Nikke world, to get out we need fight Raptures that teleport them. They didn't really develop collab story. As for characters event, most are, not boring, but kinda stale and too much simplistic. It should be a fun and happy theme for most, but idk, it makes it boring to be followed. Well, but it's good to know that everyday in Nikke is not always a doomsday for our mentality
the peak story for me is Limbus company. Anything past chapter 3 where the story starts to specifically and personally focus on one of the cast is very unique for me, and i really like it all (especially when the music start playing during the final boss). I'm probably biased since i play their previous game, but still
@Sss54573 I do respect a lot of Project Moon's works, even if I never played them myself. They do have the correct mindset for developing "player-first" games. That being said, I really don't like the intro in Limbus and grimdark story in general. I immediately dropped the game after first canto. Unnecessary deaths for shock value feels off to me. Plus, some of the fans went rabid when I point this out.
@@FeyHunt i do agree with you. the first canto's death felt really unimpactful and i fully understand why people drop the game after that (i almost drop it as well, i think it really lame). the main problem with limbus is it's bad first impression (both story and gameplay wise) that enough to turn most people down
@@FeyHuntThats weird. It was a breath of fresh air to me since most gacha tends to 1. Bend over MC 2. Fake freaking Deaths 3. Gacha 50/50 system is cancer. Tell me what game can beat what Limbus' bp can offer. ( Which is can make all 5* farmable)
@@FeyHunt Each episode deal with a character's personal struggle, past, rivals or family. The first two chapters were lame, which is sad for said character and I do think they'll get a proper one later on, because right now chapters are very long, full of twist, unique challenges and soundtrack. Some characters surprise you with their secrets. What happen is what happen to many gachas, they get better each update and have a better grasp on where they are supposed to improve. For me the chapter 3 and 4 are what grabs you in and from there on is a rollercoaster of emotions.
In terms of general gaming (not just gacha) ZZZ was easily my biggest surprise this year. It was a game that looked fun enough, that I downloaded on my playstation just to kill some time until WuWa came out in the console... and it turned out to be one of my favorite games this year. Usually, I see gachas as just a lesser version of JRPGs (my favorite style of game), but ZZZ proved not only to be a great gacha game, but a great videogame in general. I believe I'm sticking to it for the foreseeable future, and I barely remember that WuWa was announced for playstation anymore 😅
Haha, yeah! ZZZ might seem like just another goofy game, but its writing is so competently written than people might realize. Hopefully it keeps up that quality as the game matured in years!
Heaven Burns Red needs more attention, just got released on global recently. I've played all of the available chapters and side stories and all I can say Jun Maeda cooked a masterpiece again! Whoopsie Gravy!
As a arknights players I played Reverse 1999 when it got launch and the story is WOW awesome and the game is underrated, for arknights it give you a viral lesson in real life something like that which in the story make me snap my mind realize something
The problem with this is the problem of all gachas and is the comparison this will always be wrong for anyone and right for others. But for me is : Best Prologue : ZZZ yep its a very goood start for a history. Best combat system : This is a bit trickier but the popular combat system is of Wuwa. Best limited event : yep Nikke seems interesting. But i Prefer the CO-OP of AK no history no stress, only fun and high ping. Best story chapter of this year :Re1999 drops the promissed neverland move and that is that and this is this. Best Alternative game modes : AK. Have two one is the IS and other is the RA. But RA its not for everyone but ia almost like a clash of clan/Uma Mussume/Resource Gathering. Best soundtrack: this is the most subjective one, if its Diversity what you want go to AK, wanna something Epic go to PGR, wanna Mili go to Limbus Company. Best worldbuilding: AK Best presentation of the history: Nikke/ZZZ and Heavens burns red for me Best character Design : oh boy this one is interesting we have various directions like Azur lane that is more "interesting". We have AK and Re1999 The styled ones drip maximus. A more futuristic will be PGR. So yeah what do you want today. Best Character history: Kiana from HI3rd. Best "Your choice matters" : Uma mussume pretty Derby (this is a meme) (but its not fake your choice really maters) All in all there is a lot of gachas and types that can ressonate more for you than others, no need to fight, its good to have every game with a community that likes it
@@brwolfon167 Of course. Even the real game awards would still have controversies around it. Some people like one game over the other, and that's totally okay! It looks like a lot of our picks are quite similar in many regards. Maybe we just so happen to be the same type of players. Of course, there are also some that can be wildly different. This is just for the fun of it. 😄😄
@@brwolfon167 Ananta is on my number one list, but I'm kinda cautious if they're overpromising a literal GTA for mobile games. Neverness to Everness is also there. Both Ananta and NtE would be an interesting contender for ZZZ in terms of vibe. Beyond that, Endfield seems to be getting better and better according to insiders. I'd also like to try Azure Promilia since I do like Azur Lane's concept, but I don't like the gameplay. These would be in a video next month or so. We're definitely entering the golden age of gacha games! I wonder which one will rise to the top in terms of writing? 🤔🤔
@@FeyHunt Very good list, mine is 1° Endfield, diferent and interesting enough, as a AK player for 3 years like the factory building and the building in genral it fits like a glove to me. 2° Uma mussume global : i Played the CN, i am very surprised that i like it, remembers of the old soccer managers, and its very cool to see the results of your choices. 3° Chaos zone Zero : Limbus + Darkest dungeon+Morimens. Oh yeah count me in. This is the games i am most hyped i am never be a GTA person so Ananta is a pass I will like a Bullet hell kinda Gacha, the Touhou one isnt, Azur lane is the most nearly of the concept but my god, redo the same stages and nothing withing changes is why i drop it
@@brwolfon167 Oh, you mean Chaos Zero Nightmare? Sure I'll take a look for a future "upcoming gacha game" video. Uma Musume is an interesting franchise I want to at least try. It seems like a very wholesome game. I have to be honest with you, when I first made a video about Endfield, I was very skeptical it would do well in terms of gameplay and writing. Because it seems to follow the self-insert protagonist and the Factorio gameplay seems to be one and done type of thing. Looking forward to seeing it in 2025 though!
A lot of strong contender in story and R1999 stories are great. My favourite of this years is Path to Nowhere chapter 13. Its wrap up the story of an entire first arc with a very satisfied ending and teasing the next chapter. The game is very underrated, especially for how good the story is in that game.
Personally for r1999 my fav chapter was el lucevan le stelle. It was gritty, with amazing voice acting with proper accents and languages, amazing music and beautiful characters both visually and writing wise
@Ebifuraaii Haha, I totally get the cheerful optimism with Quixote. Her real life novel is actually quite interesting to read too. But Heathcliff? Wuthering Heights is just not my cup of tea. I wonder how they reuse his character in Limbus though, because in the original story... it's kinda icky discussing his attraction... 😄😄
@@vp7877 Well, I'd argue that it is far better if they do loosely based than faithful adaptation. If they want the OG, then read the book. That gives me hope that I could enjoy Limbus later.
@@FeyHuntcharacter always develop the canto is a big story arc for the sinner you'll see the reason of everything why they are like that in their canto
Yeah chapter 3 of Reverse 1999 left a huge impression on me, it doesn't follow the same plot thread to a certain event story from Arknights but the devestation felt was quite similar for me. And dangit... Encore's leitmotif always starts up the waterworks for me...
@@tasogarerubica Haha, I think we both have soft spots for childhood trauma! Coz maybe we have one... 🤔 They just dropped Promised Neverland and dead parents and expect the rain wouldn't come... 😄😄
@FeyHunt Especially for Reverse 1999, I feel that the 50's aesthetics in general sold that chapter for me. The sterile lab environment that you can smell the intoxicating chemicals used to keep it squeaky clean and stark with the brutalist architecture too. It's definitely something right of the 50's aesthetics and I was all for it. Though Children of Urus will likely stay as my favorite story event in Gachagaming for a foreseeable future. I really enjoyed how it was structured too, picking into each main student cast through the PTSD and trauma of the incident. Drip feeding you, rather than showing all of what has occurred... Letting our own imagination will the gap was a nice touch. Hoping Enfield will go hard as Arknights for their story events.
@@tasogarerubica Oh I definitely need to check it out after I finish the main story. Arknights is a BIG time commitment to get through. It's honestly quite intimidating...
It really is one of the earlier gacha games that released globally and managed to stay in service with other gachas. Gacha games tend to cannibalize each other's player bases so that in itself is a testament to Arknights quality in their gameplay, presentation and story telling. Hopefully I didn't spoil too much for Children of Urus, also rather not raise the bar too high either cause high expectations can and will ruin player experience....
@@tasogarerubica I heard Arknights is nothing to scoff at in terms of its story. Hopefully, Endfield holds up since that's when I'll be joining the franchise.
Is it me I don't like storytelling on Wuwa? Love the character design and combat system but the story sometimes made me bored and sleepy when playing Wuwa. Maybe not my cup of tea 😅
It's not just you. I do like WuWa, and I just hate how they write the story. It's so unstructured and filled with so many yapping, making it hard to follow. That's probably why you get bored. Hopefully they keep improving this in future versions!
How's your opinion now that 2.0 dropped? Since that was a HUGE upgrade in storytelling (even though I personally didn't find 1.X story bad, 2.0 is still objectively miles better)
@@keeichidarow I'm still digging through the main story. I really hate how they STILL do yapping in the intro... Why overload the players with so much information at once?! And they're very redundant! Explaining the same thing about the Imperator three times in 30 minutes! I do hope the story gets better from here...
Old Tales is iconic, but it would be a far cry to not give praise towards Ice Dragon Saga. If Cinderella’s trauma is a read- Guillotine’s was equally as emotional and heartbreaking. You can tell the devs really put in the work, connecting what would be standard isekai fluff; into an introspection between finding community- and deeply interwoven behaviourisms. Not only did they expand on how Extrinsic came to be; IDS ties events from Booms Day and D.ark Hero. The hub world builds itself with each chapter, and there’s so many references jam packed within scenes (INCLUDING within the mini game). There’s so much freedom in creative input within the event. It’s clear that they chose to avoid making another winter based event; and gave us something with really fleshed out characters, standing on its own outside the main story. Addressing it here because there’s simply no circumstance for it to be considered within 2025; how it’s shadowed between Old Tales and Footstep, Walk, Run: especially with Rapi’s life, depicting her survival as a mass produced NIKKE.
Oh definitely! I'm quite surprised 30 minutes in that it's not another silly story like with Phantom Thief or worthless story like that Flora event. It genuinely had a unique twist. Though sadly, I was quite busy editing this video that I didn't manage to finish it in time... sadge..
I will be another one of those guys that say Limbus is my favorite story in gacha. Yes, PM fans can be a bit irritating to converse with and the game can be very new player unfriendly both gameplay and lore. But goddamn it manages to give me teary eyes every single chapter from 4th onward. It's such a well improvised story from the original to such a beautiful degree that it gave me life lessons. I highly recommend you to give it another try at your own pace.
What a refreshing take! Yeah, I did get yelled at in the comments when I stopped playing Limbus back then. It still kinda soured my experience, but I'm willing to give it another go once the aftertaste fades away.
@@FeyHuntsorry about that,most of us kinda have superiority complex including me. But it just become part of our identity. It indeed cringe and kinda toxic,sorry about that
Some serious W takes you have there! I strongly have to agree with most of them except for the abundance of ZZZ mentions. As a HoYo veteran, I am never touching another one of their games after they started to massively breach out instead of improving their core games. Nikke's Old Tales was indeed a masterful event! From the story, to the different soundtracks, the mini-game, and the many impactful lore-drops. Best event of 2024 by far. I still remember it vividly and was legitimately sad when it ended.
Well, ZZZ has its moments. The earlier chapters are not exciting, but it's indeed competently written. That's why I picked them. In recent months though? Not so much. NIkke's earlier chapters are also pretty good! Up until Chapter 8 with that unnecessary drama between Anis and Neon with no payoff. Somehow after Anis was proven right that she should suspect everyone, NOBODY acknowledged that she was right. It was simply just forgotten. I guess I'm in "good story desert" right now, entering Chapter 14.
i played 2 new gachas this yr, -heaven burns red a story focused gacha (energy system isnt even used for battle but to replay past choices) written and composed by jun meada with studio key the people behind: clannad, little busters and angel beats. characters and dialogue writing is impeccable, you really feel like your in an anime (gameplay is boring though) - infinity nikki made by a lead developer of legend of zelda series with animation director that worked on pixar, its a very cozy relaxing puzzle dressup exploration game with a bat*hit crazy story in all the good ways. (example of dialogue would be like: "oh i know! we can give him origami cranes to wish him luck in his exam. it's an ancient tradition used by our ancestors to wish loved ones for goodluck on the battlefield in the war of gods) now for my violent reaction to the world building category: arknights lost? especially this year??? with babel and chap 14? bruh -babel event was foretold 6 years ago with the concept trailers, before the game was even released. theyve been sprinkling doctors past thru the years with babel revealing the answers, (has spoilers with events this yr from this point on) -then with the end of act 2 in chapter 14 which told the secrets of originium and how the sarkaz is deeply involved, -and with that lone trail happens which signals the next phase, the invasion arc. -then after with rides to lake silbernaherze event this yr its shown kjerag allied with columbia and kazimierz for economics but rhine lab wants to make an observatory on kjera to follow kristen -and with zwillingsturme also this yr which ended with a laterano and lethania alliance, which complicates things more -because in path of life another event this yr, due to lone trail both aegir (whom allied with iberia) and the seaborn are now desperate to try to go to land and survive -which ended with aegir announcing to terra that they will command the united countries against the "threat" with the announcement shown in a video released almost 2 yrs ago. the different countries of this world is now on the move. different main and side stories are being connected with past, present and future events is that NOT world building? *bow thank you for reading the rant if youve gotten here
Nice pick! I have HBR and Infinity Nikki stored for next year when I have the time. I heard a lot of people recommending it. Arknights didn't lose. It's just not at play in that category because I didn't play any of its events this year due to time commitments. And honestly, it's kinda hard for me to chase after Arknights' story so far as a new Doctor starting last year. There are about 200+ hours of VN to read through, I just kinda give up. Of course, if you had played Arknights from launch, it would be a totally different story. I'm sure I'll enjoy it if I had the time to chew through it. So far, the only story events I read to finish are Il Siracusano, Firelight, Lone Trail, Main Theme Chapter 1-3, MonHun collab, and Ancient Forge.
@FeyHunt as also a story guy myself i think your gonna like HBR (bring tissues), IN depends on the person but the gameplay is relaxing Ahh thats why ak defaulted in worldbuilding, thanks for the answer. Because arknights actually locked in in terms of worldbuilding this year, so much that even the concerts theme this year is "world of terra" showing the different music from each country from the game I would recommend reading babel as well it can be read as a stand alone and its very connected to main story And is considered as the best event in arknights (yes even over lone trail the one praised by the baldurs gate 3 writer for its story telling)
@@B2.Benedajenzo I am definitely interested with Babel. But I don't really get the hype around Lone Trail tbh. I almost committed to make a video about "the evil storywriting" in Lone Trail last month. Since I really don't get why people love Kristen so much, despite all horrific things she allowed to happen to Ifrit and so many others. Oh, is HBR really that good? I will bring plenty of tissues then. I want to know how good gacha game writing can be when written by an actual novelist.
@@FeyHunt Personally I just think the Kristen thing is just how much are you willing to do in pursuit of greatness, at individual level she did some horrible stuff but at the same time rediscovering space is a pretty big deal for Terra. Although not similar whatsoever, I was reminded of Fritz Haber for some reason. Lone Trail is also closure and a new beginning for Saria, Silence and Ifrit (which i totally appreciate), it also got the stamp of approval by a BG3's writer and BG3's writing is a banger.
@@diralis7316 Approval aside, I don't get that sense of closure to be too appealing to me. Yes, I think Silence and Saria finally made up their differences. But the whole story was written as if they're the antagonists of the story, while Kristen is the protagonist. That just kinda feels wrong to me, especially since they're both good guys. But then at the same time, there's a weird contrast and paralel between Kristen and Loken Williams, where both done similar horrific things, but only one get praised because "she achieved success". It feels so morally wrong, I don't think I can agree with the story internal message.
I only play Genshin, Star Rail, R1999, zzz (and wuwa for a little) this year and i agree with all your take on zzz! The prologue with the gang leader turn into an ethereal sold me immediately. I never seen anything this graphic in hoyo game (later they double down with Pompey scene omg). And i love how they present the world building in zzz because EVERYTHING is connected. From main story, agent story, event story, agent trust event to the side quest from officer mew mew, everything is connected. Theres so many "Oh, right" moment when i play this game lol its so immersive like im part of the world. The story world building might not as grand as Genshin, Star rail or other gacha game (yet) but i never been immersed in video game like this before. Also for me personally, the best character story goes to Asaba Harumasa agent story. I watched your last zzz video and i have the same impression with you for Harumasa but his agent story changed that. Theres so much to him behind his happy attitude, its like watching Furina but while he is only a human. They tackle "my life span is much shorter than my loved ones so i must cherish it while it lasts" story very well and i think thats beautiful :")
Still here thinking the best gacha story has to have been FGO’s lb6, you can just tell it’s something special when reading it, and the worldbuilding being as strong as it was in the short amount of time the story took place in was amazing
@@FeyHuntthe franchise is very large (Fate alone is 20years old, and thats just part of Typemoon) But, FGO is a good start for the series' giant iceberg. Tho be warned that the gameplay/gacha might not be appealing and that the story has a bad/slow start, so it might deter you But if you keep at it, storywise, it gets better, and certain story chapters are great (like Camelot (Singularity 6) or Fairy Britain (Lostbelt 6))
Great to see a video from you before the year ends! I've personally only played HSR, ZZZ, R1999 and Wuwa but only ZZZ managed to keep me (for now). Seeing how some of the games that I've "dropped" made it to the list and were awarded makes me wonder if I should try and go back haha. I've been planning to play PGR and Nikke but wonder if its worth it. Anyway, if you were to choose a cutscene from the games you've played this year, what would it be?
Nice pick! Yeah, I kinda dropped a lot of games this year as well, like HSR, R1999, and Limbus. R1999 won the award, but it lost me once I got to Chapter 4. It's just way too slow and too unfocused for my taste, and Limbus writing is just not for me. I can't say for PGR, but NIKKE is definitely something you should try, especially from chapter 1-8. Excellent worldbuilding and character-based writing. The chapters after that is a bit of a letdown and just don't bother with events that has no Voice Over. As for the cutscene... we have a lot of great fight scenes this year... But I think I'll have to go for Girls Frontline 2 at Kalina's reunion. It's a very awkward reunion between two characters in a very torn relationship. The drama there is just so deliciously painful to enjoy.
@@FeyHunt I see, I've downloaded Nikke but I haven't play it yet!😅 just a question, have you played/heard of Path to Nowhere? If so, any thoughts about it? If not, are you planning to?
i like ZZZ's story. maybe its because im REALLY new to gacha games and Zenless Zone Zero is my FIRST ever gacha games... but i just really like the vibe. i like the post-apoclypse vibe, and also combine that with techs that is easy to follow, like the cute bangboos. the thing that caught my attention is the bouncy animations, really. since im a beginner animator. but were talking about story here. i cant really deal with heavy emotional impact and deppressing story. as whenever i watch or read them i sometimes cant sleep for weeks. its just not my cup of tea. but Zenless zone zero's story is... fun, some action, some goofy, some intense. and with just ENOUGH emotional impact that i can bear with. for example: Rina's agent story, and Miyabi's backstory video. the story is also really easy to follow, as like you said, lack of yapping and "show dont tell" kind of stuff. i know how the world goes, what proxy is, what almost EVERYTHING is just by playing chapter 1-2 and some side events!. i will end my ramble here as i know im not really good at expressing, and also i can just FEEL that i make some grammar mistakes(sorry). but thats it, really.
ZZZ did an amazing job in a lot of small things. You can FEEL it without even knowing why. The subtle horror, the world vibe, and the storytelling are insanely great, even when compared to older gacha games.
@@FeyHunt the true "attention to details", not to brad how good their animation team area, but actually put these details in to flesh out characters/scenes
ZZZ feels like Hoyo know this is going to be the side gacha that you play to your main one. The gameplay is fun and quick, the dailies are simple, the world and characters are cool and chill. The music is amazing. The story is slowly getting more interesting with all of the threads and storylines being laid out and the mystery behind the main character. It's my first gacha but have been looking forward to it since they first announced it.
Veterans probably goes for Arknights from first it's released to present day, Not that good at Storytelling but World building is Best, I feels old now 🗿
Oh I could see myself falling into Arknights rabbithole if I have the time to eat through it. But with only 2-3 hours of playtime per day, it is very hard for me to read through its 200+ hours VN when I could play IS4 or play something else.
@@FeyHuntAlso. There’s some stuff you can safely skip on since their story has ZERO FUCKING IMPACT! (Prime example of this is Intermezzi “A Walk in Dust.” 80% of it is useless dialogue with Dr Kal’stit speaking paragraphs to explain what a simple sentence would be suffice for.) (Side story content you should pay attention to: ANYTHING INVOLVING RHINE LABS! Through understanding what they’re like. You understand about just every single group of interest. [WARNING]: They have done literal human experimentation. To create a LIVING WEAPON! To make matters worse. THEY USED FUCKING CHILDREN! However. The first side story that mentions Rhine lab is Mansfield Break. Which they actually did some legitimate good…)
I'm one of those guys that doesn't enjoy open world / action combat. While I await a global release of Persona 5 - The Phantom X, my one true gacha game calling, I recently found GFL2 and uninstalled most any other gacha game in its stead. It's funny, the simplicity of a tactical combat game won't ever get the 'best combat' rewards, but I absolutely love that style over the action combat, so it wins for me. I love a slower, strategic and turn-based combat in my gacha games. Except, of course, HSR which left me uninstalling months ago from power creep and dialogue-bloat concerns. I would like to see some more shakeups to the main story's presentation based around a lot of the game coming off like a visual novel. The cinematics in game are great but too spread out. I would love to see them increase this in the future or change it up a bit in how they present the story so it isn't always the visual novel style. I think the weight of a lot of major moments in the game take a huge hit when most of it is up to the imagination (When it isn't cinematic-adapted). I think the Colphene story was really cool, but it can't compare to the stories that get shown with a lot more visual appeal and don't rely on only text to tell the story. A wuthering waves character story, like your award winner in the video, just triumphs over something like Colphene's story because, aside from a couple small cinematics, the majority of Colphene's story was presented through text, and with music that didn't feel impactful to boot. Still, it's great the game found great success in the global launch. It's definitely my preference in how it plays compared to the more popular gachas out there, but I think it will need to improve where it can because 25' is going to be heavy for the competition. I really hope I can continue playing this game in the future but I do think, while the combat is enjoyable to me, it will be a really low quality game through its story presentation in a world where the best gacha games are going all out on it. The visual novel storytelling will eventually bore people enough when so much of the competition allows so much more options to interact and showcase their characters and world.
I haven't got the chance to play Blue Archive yet. People have been saying that the writing is good, but I also heard that the localization is terrible. So I'm kinda torn on trying.
@FeyHunt the only localization problem I've heard were just when you tap/interact with the characters on your menu (please correct me if im wrong). The actual story itself isnt bad with the localization. It's worth a read. Volume 1 is the tamest, volume 2 starts calm but gets crazy later, volume 3 is just peak, volume 4 we chill again then volume F is just amazing writing overall and really ties in with everything in the story
@@DannyJ3636they removed the Arona title drop in the end of VolF and it’s just horrible, they also censored the lick Iori’s feet part, that’s the only one I know that haven’t been changed, unlike the Mika princess line has been fixed and other stuff
Yeah! And I'm quite surprised and happy that we get to explore a bit of it in the past in 1.3. It's just top-notch. The best 1.0 music by far. Though, I find a little contradiction in the plot. There is a side quest in WuWa called "Eternal Concert" where they said that the city collapsed about 20 years ago or so. And then in 1.3, the city was said to collapse centuries ago. I'm not sure how they reconciled it.
My best choice is going to be R1999. This game was a really good introduction to the gacha game genre for me, it helped me understand a whole lot about proper team building and resource management while also not being too taxing. The story was something I never expected to love, and that's coming from a guy who skipped through most dialogue in shows to get to juicy bits. I absolutely love the characters too, they all have a personality I can somewhat related to. PGR is coming in second as my introduction to the hack and slash type gameplay. And while I haven't gone too far into the story just yet, I am super excited to see what happens next
when you were describing combat being complexand also flexible enough where you could win wih underlevelled operators if you have skills - i 100% that Arknights would take place. I literally got recommended this vid after watching Silvergun explaining how H14-4 was beat with four 4* characters setting (setting new map record), and AK even has E0 Lvl1 niche, which i doubt any other game has Brilliance of AK combat lies not only in stage design, but also in fact that all enemies have static stats. They don't scale with stage level; if your lvl 1 unit beats slime at lvl 10 stage - it will beat the same slime on lvl 80 stage. This has so much impact on gameplay. in games like GFL2, if you have lvl 40 units and new event comes out - you pretty much just auto everything beyond 35, because enemy stats just can't keep up. Meanwhile in AK, stages are still hard, because enemies are balanced around characters, not stage levels.
Yeah, but that's artificial difficulty. In practice, most players won't go through that. It's just as silly as Genshin having Level 1 Amber beating Childe with 1 HP left. It's a spectacle content, but not exactly normal. All I can say about Arknights' difficult is that it's very flexible. You can beat some levels to a certain point, but there is still a DPS check. I don't think it's possible to beat EX-8 stages of any event without Elite 2 ops, and it's just impossible to beat the last S stages. Having the ability to borrow one operator really does the heavy lifting in that regard. The part that I don't like is that the very late game Arknights gameplay really boils down to DPS checks and whether you have specific S-tier operators to clear it. Like with CC#1 where you're pretty screwed if you don't have Ines for detecting invisible enemies or CC#2 if you don't have Lin to block the hits. This is still true even if you have a lot of Elite 2 operator at max level. To me at least, my best experience with Arknights is on the middle point where you barely have enough Elite 2 characters to clear the bosses with having to think. After that point, you really have to put artificial restrictions on yourself, like not using Texalt and Surtr with every stages.
This is a very good award video. All the categories are well thought out. My suggestion is to probably add best animated cutscene, best QOL & best gacha system category.
@@bartnye Thank you! Best QoL is a good pick too! I think we should award gacha game that do their best to make their games less annoying to play. That award would go to ZZZ again this year. They did a lot of improvements for in-game build recommentation, which makes looking up for guides online irrelevant. 😄😄 But, best gacha system would be hard to judge since they're using the same system. 80-90 hard pity with 50-50 drop rate is used by all Hoyo games, WuWa, GFL 2, and so many more.
The only gacha games that I have played are, ZZZ and HSR. Right now I'm only playing ZZZ but you got me interested in some games like Wuthering Waves. for 2025, probably going to play some of games that you said. Great Video!
@@EnmanuelJose-mi1mq Thank you! ZZZ and HSR are pretty top-tier pick for gacha game quality. Keep in mind that WuWa didn't win any awards in terms of writing. Encore is a bit of an outlier in that regards. But if you're in for a beautiful combat and artistic talent... you're in for a treat! WuWa is definitely the most beautiful-looking gacha game I've played so far. Hope to see you next year, friend! 😄😄
@@FeyHuntyou know what? That kinda sucks for me because I usually go past the artistic design or combat mechanics because I'm more invested in a game who has better story/storytelling. That's why I enjoyed Final Fantasy VI, IX, X, Chrono Trigger, Undertale and Omori to name a few because I personally enjoyed their story/storytelling. Yeah, I'm a millennial lol. But, that's just me. No hate on people who like artistic design and combat.
@@EXXIONN516 Totally got you! That's also why I quit HSR. While the story is okay, the combat just bores me to death. It's totally down to preference. We play games that scratch our itch. I'm not quite sure why I stayed in WuWa too. Maybe it's just the sheer artistry and the inherent challenges in its combat mechanic. The game has its charms there. The good news is that the writing gets better and better. After Encore, Camellya's writing is quite good, far better than previous ones. Here's hoping that the main story in 2.0 update and new region is far better! My recommendation is, try the main story as far as you can, then drop it if you had enough of it. Who knows? Maybe you can feel that charm later. 😄😄
@@EXXIONN516 Oh I would be overjoyed if they do that. That is the goal of this channel after all, to make every gacha game great in terms of writing. It would be a shock if my name appeared on the credits 😂😂
i agree with most of these but id give best character story to aventurine because rarely has a character gone from hated to beloved so quickly with just one patch.
@@sidvid1208 Wow, big props to the writing team if that's true! I had not played HSR since the end of Belobog. The combat just felt too repetitive for me.
I don't mean to glaze Nikke, but I will. While I can see where you're coming from in terms of ZZZ, Nikke's prologue is definitely something I would put it above. Because it always subverts everyone's expectations of the game. People *always* go in expecting the game's fanservice, but come out with a gut wrenching tutorial. You don't even know those characters, but you somehow still manage to feel bad. OST. Cosmograph is a god. I don't think I need to really dive further into that.
Oh, I do like NIKKE's writing from Chapter 1-8. One of the best "show, don't tell" worldbuilding in gacha games. But specifically for the prologue, it feels like they're running "fridging waifu any%" speedrun. We barely know anything about Marian and she just got cut off like that. I feel nothing about her. If only we have more time, more interactions, more heart to heart talk about "whether Nikke is human or machines", it would've hurt way more. I did check my recording and from the start of the game to her scene is just about 30 minutes. That's way too short.
@FeyHunt Normally I would agree with you, but because of the atmosphere itself and how it plays out there is a little more to it. I don't expect everyone to be bawling tears or anything, but even I'd say it warrants a slight tug at the strings. In the other vein, it was far better done with less time than Hoyoverse and Firefly. Sure this isn't a prologue, but it goes to show that even with more screen time doesn't necessarily dictate a good outcome.
Soundtrack: Overall I'd say arknights because of variety (It's something I value higher than most people) for integration into the story: probably limbus company because the way they integrate the chapters standout Mili song is peak every time Also for worldbuilding presentation would extra media count? Like manga, anime, even lore posts by devs or stuff like that? If not that could be a category of it's own Best character story for me would be Arknights: Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures, one of the most underrated stories in Arknights that does not get talked about enough. About a town in rural America which is broken down and Blacksteel, a private military company is contracted by the government to fix it and deal with "Troublemakers". It's a story about Jessica, a rich girl working for blacksteel seeing the ways that capitalism as a system grinds down the already downtrodden into dust, how the ones in control purposely use this for their own gain, and how she is part of the problem. I swear people who complain that Arknights doesn't have enough character development obviously can't read properly lol The other categories I don't got anything for
Personally, I feel like most of wuss’s designs are kinda just copies of each other - skintight skimpy little dresses or something with different colours for the girls, with no really meaningful details (ooh, a cute little strip of something dripping off randomly from changli’s dress.) HOWEVER, I definitely feel like r1999 puts a LOT of thought into their designs, such as for J they gave him some sort of graffiti-like pattern on his coat and ezra gets a little cap that makes him resemble a mushroom (which is what his kit is all about!)
Oh totally! I think early WuWa designs are rather... bland. Recent ones are a lot better, but it pales in comparison to R1999. I took an angle on the effort and level of details in gamedev-speak to make it somewhat objective. I know that Shorekeeper just took A LOT of time as a fellow gamedev. I have no experience in judging clothing designs with art-speak. And even then, I think it will be a lot more biased, depending on your preference.
It's nice you were open to spread these awards out since of course you played a lot of games. Not to make this a lengthy comment but I'd like to nominate my top 3 gachas in terms of how much I love playing them in general. 1. Zenless Zone Zero It's THE Hoyoverse game for me. Yeah it's flawed and the story could have used some more work here and there but you can't tell me it wasn't at least enjoyable. I personally feel the playable characters carry it for me. Each of them just has a distinct personality and they just make the story for me. The "smaller" areas and maps make for a better, linear game than most open world games Hoyo makes. And the genre. The GENRE! Specifically Urban fantasy. I never knew how much I'd LOVE it. Kinda makes me want to check out Ananta when it releases too. 2. Another Eden This past year, they made some pretty great story content. The Wryz Saga was just 10/10 for me as an Episode Series, kinda for the same reason as ZZZ and it just felt like a great story. There's also a new Mythos currently going on, the 4th chapter is out but it wouldn't be fair to include anything incomplete but so far it's an awesome one too. But gameplay and QoL wise... it's starting to fall off for me lately... especially the Stellar Awakening system. It's not necessarily needed but it kinda locks out newer character's from their great abilities unless you either get really lucky or are really patient to wait for the materials (which aren't even easy to get in game it's a monthly achievement reward) 3. Heavens Burn Red Okay I'll be honest. I haven't played this for too long. 3 gacha games are too hard to manage. Which is why I consider HBR not EXACTLY a gacha for me. It's VERY visual novel heavy with turn based combat encounters in between. I'm honestly in no rush to get the meta characters or whatever. So far, it's a great story. Dark... that's for sure and I'm going to run into a GUT PUNCH eventually. But the characters are wonderful and the comedy is hilarious... I have yet to get to the sadder parts though but there was some dark themes in between that made me go... oh...
Sorry for the late reply! I have to go through about 1000+ comments these couple few days, ehehe... Nice picks! Yeah, I am trying to highlight when gacha games do something right to prove that gacha games are not lesser games. HBR is definitely on my next-to-play list! It seems very highly regarded!
Tbh, Arknights is a PEAK game in my opinion. The gacha is so humble that even most players wonder if they don't want any money to be spent. The prologue is also a top notch, showing you how cruel the world can be and it's been shown by the Catastrophe(Natural Disaster caused by the Originium) that basically happens when we, the Dokutah, came out from the Sarcophagus and also how the terror that Reunion has caused on its awake. For combat, it's actually very great where you can actually beat a hard stage with low rarity, mostly 4 star operators so those 6 star operators are for those who wants to follow the meta. Nah, even there are 6 star operators that's very conditional but still useful if that specific conditions are met. Anyway, every operators in Arknights are usable as long as you know how to use them properly. The combat is so good that even with niches squad you can still beat most stages. For story, don't get me start with it because it's too goddamn beautiful as hell. You can get yourself hooked up if you're willing to read it, even there are people who likes the bad guy because of the story. For me, I like the story of Zwilingstürme Im Herbst because it's too goddamn fantastic. There's also a backstory of our character, The Dokutah, in the Babel event story. Did you know? Every operators has it's record and even a story about them when you reach a certain trust level. For music, they have so many that you might think the game is for their side hustle and they're actually a music company, their OSTs are also a banger. Babel Event OST is heartbreaking since the story is a tragedy, the song literally made me tear up. World building is also great, they even make a short video explaining about each country in the main Arknights channel. There are also other channels made by Arknights content creator talking about the world building and lore of the game, they even talks about all the race in the game itself. For Rogue like gameplay, they have 3 in global and 4 in CN server and it's called Integrated Strategy which are fun gamemode alongside Contingency Contract or CC(Very painful to do but it's super fun, it's like an event where the game gives you the map layout, enemies, and challenges you can do to increase your points. More points equal more rewards by the form of Contingency Contract's Token which you can trade in the shop of that CC), There's also Annihilation which is you fighting against hordes of enemies and resets every week(and it's for restocking your Gacha by 1800 per week uf you clear a stage not for the first time because if you clear it for the first time, there'll be additional rewards for it). There's also SSS but we don't talk about that, it's fun but you don't need to do it often as you want with the others. And also, for limited time event, it's actually very great(They give you module block for the first clear which is great if you want to unlock module for your Elite 2 operator, Elite 2 is the highest form of upgrade). Limited event in Arknights is great, They will give you a free 10 pulls ticket when you logged in the game by the time of the event, the event also lasted for a very long time and the event shop is very wonderful. They gives you a lot of materials if you play the event stages, and not to mention they also gives you free operators from the event(works with every events btw and not just the limited). And for every limited events, there's also a limited operators which are very OP in some cases ngl. Talking abiut the story, every event's story is worth a book because of how many the words are in that story. The Zwilingstürme Im Herbst that I like has 144702 words in the main event story, and 170448 words if you count the side story inside the event. I must say, if you want to learn about the story you better be ready for a long read
Well, that's one hell of a wall of text... Alot of these points I already know. I played the game for almost two years now. I kinda disagree on Arknights being generous. If you mean just to get a random operator? Sure. They give plenty of currency. BUT, Arknights banners practically don't have a rerun. If you miss your banner, especially for new players, you can't get them anymore. That's what happened to me. I can't get my Sui collection completed because of seasonal and sparking needed for that. You either go 50-50 when your favorite characters are in a double banner, or wait until it's available in the shop a year later. As for the story... I don't I'll ever be able to finish it. If you start reading all stories in AK right now, you will need 250+ hours. That's just impossible for someone with a real job.
@ZitongQiu By that definition, no one can ever judge a gacha game. You haven't read every single Arknights' artifact in Integrated Strategies? Well, you can't judge its storytelling! That's how IS tells its story! You haven't read every single Operator Records? Well, you can't judge character stories! Those are arbitrary lines. We can only judge stories that we've already read and keep our minds open for our opinions to change. Nothing I said in the video is final. It's only final in 2024. 2025 FeyHunt could have a different opinion.
@@FeyHunttbf the artifacts in IS don't require you read all of them. Most just have a little flavour text to give a little more random tidbits of world building while the important artifacts you need to understand any one IS story is around 3-7 while most of the actual story are in the non combat nodes
On the topic of character story, I just did Harumasa’s agent story in ZZZ a couple nights ago and I actually bawled lol. Not even Rina’s got me to cry that much, but it was close! But I think it’s interesting that Harumasa was one of the characters I was least interested in, just didn’t really care about him at all, and then they made me like him by giving him probably my favorite story in the game! EDIT: I forgot I also wanted to mention, I know exactly what you mean when you describe the ruined city and the soundtrack evoking that depressing feeling of nostalgia mixed with what could have been. I got the exact same feeling from the final area of The Evil Within 2. One of my favorite horror games ever made, and that last zone is one of the biggest reasons why.
I haven't played Evil Within series yet, but I'm looking forward to try out Harumasa's story. I just have to finish WuWa's story first! ZZZ kinda burned me out due to how unsatisfying the main story is to me. I'm writing a video about it right now.
Oh, Path to Nowhere is already on my list. Mainly because I want to see how their gameplay differs from Arknights. Some said the story is incredible too!
Thanks for the video! I like your take on the focus in story, and I agree with most of them! I play Genshin, HSR, Wuwa, Nikke, Reverse 1999, Eversoul and PGR. So I cant say for ZZZ or Arknights but ngl, your explanations kind of make me want to try it (just cant take any more at the moment). I would say that the ones I am enjoying the most at the moment are HSR, Wuwa and Nikke... the characters, music, attention to detail, events and general quality is just insane. I have dropped a bit Genshin from the top rankings just because I wasnt the biggest fan of Natlan. Overall, Wuwa is just such a masterpiece!
Hey, thank you for the kinds words! Yeah, this video is a celebration of a full year in gacha games! I'm astonished how they become better and better each year! Especially WuWa. That level of artistry is just unreal for a gacha game, pun intended. Rest easy! All of these gacha games are staying for a while. Try it out when you have the time to do it!
Made a post about the one i would change but overall it doesnt matter becuase what videos like this show is not what is thw undeniable best, but how good these game can be and that they arent lesser than the console and pc game in any way. And i know this is cliché but the real winner is us for getting to enjoy so many masterpieces.
@@ads3047 Yep! You got it! There's never an intention to be undeniably correct. It's how these games can make you feel its story. This year, the theme is how gacha games are NOT lesser than single player games.
Kuro is just probably the best combat designer in the whole gacha game industry right now, tbh. They know how to make fights look cool while keeping it as challenging as it looks. I tried PGR for a bit, and that match three color element is a bit off to me. Maybe I just need to get used to it.
I couldnt disagree more, old pgr was way better than the ult spamming crap we got now, also wuwa combat is nothing special you feel the jank the more you play 2.0 characters are looking like an improvement but when parrying becomes actually a thing and not just a gimmick to character like Jiyan and Camillia its hard to even compliment this poorly design POS
A lot of issues that gacha games have when it comes to stories is the way they tell them. I appreciate that zzz tells it in a very natural comic book style, makes it very easy and interesting to follow. A lot of other games are so tedious to go through with a million filler dialogues just to tell us that "there's enemies here". Arknights in particular feels that way for me. Maybe the world is very interesting but i cant connect it with the gameplay at all. I'd rather just read an actual arknights novel than play the game at that point. That and the fact that a lot of the encounters feel the same to me. It got boring fast just purely due to how long it takes to reach actual interesting content. When zzz first released i had the same issues as well with tv mode but at least in 1.4 everything came together and i actually enjoy it way more now.
I read arknights main story all the way up to the current one on RUclips and I loved it before even playing the game. To me, the gameplay is just a bonus if you like TD games
Yes, it's the problem with the presentation. A lot of gacha games, especially Arknights, are telling stories that are NOT made for visual novels. You can't present a 6 hour long VN with NO voiceover and expect people can stomach it. Glad that ZZZ work for you though! It does have a very fun presentation style.
I played all ZZZ, Arknights, BlueArchive, WuWa, R1999, and Genshin but the best story definitely should go to NIKKE. I'm willing to bet most of the commenters here did not give NIKKE a fair shot. The Goddess squad storyline is so damn good it's crazy. (Red Ash, Overzone, Old Tales) There's also Last Kingdom and Miracle Snow with the latter absolutely hitting the feels. The side story in between though feels lackluster but it's a welcome one at times with how heavy they throw their punches when it comes to the main cast!
Oh yes definitely! NIKKE has a surprisingly good track record of telling character-centric stories. The recent Rapi Alter event is another solid proof of that. Though, these days I just don't bother with side stories with no voice over. They are either too bland or just cringe at times.
I get chapter 3 being great and all in r1999, BUT the vienna trilogy arc is just a masterpiece ESPECIALLY chapter 6 and 7, they were INCREDIBLY well-written intricate chapters with so much tragedy and incredible storytelling, the music got better in quality and the cinematography was much better. Not to mention the depressing and mind-blowing plot narrative of chapter 6 exploring how a character named Isolde is spiraling down in mental illness and societal pressure
Man, i had the same opinion about what the best story chapter in gacha games (in my experience) is. (I play R1999, Nikke for the story. And BA as a whole) For me, R1999's Chapter 3: Nouvelles et Textes pour rien ties with BA's Volume F: Where All Miracles Begin, Chapter 4. They have the same perspective in a child's freedom and rights. However, BA won me over. Even though despite being a Cute and Funny game meant to reel in l*licons (😭😭😭), BA's VolF delved it deeper to the real-life perspectives, scenarios and metaphors about "Responsibility" as a whole, be it a child or an adult. With only a heartfelt speech of [Spoilers] to [Spoilers] in the climax. It hit me and got emotional in the whole climax of the 4th chapter of Vol F because I emphasized with it. ngl this is the only gacha story that touched my heart as a person and changed my view in life as a whole, and that says something. (Though that's just my experience and opinion.) I may not discuss the full details of the climax (since obviously, spoilers), but BA wins for me in the best chapter story category tbh. (Also sorry if there's some grammatical errors here and there, I am not a native English speaker to begin with so it's hard for me to explain properly in full english, lol)
I haven't got a chance to try out Blue Archive yet. I have heard that it does wonders in its storytelling, but I also heard that there are some localization issues, so I've been holding back.
@FeyHunt Yeah, the localization is pretty sloppy if you ask me (like they misspelled "it hurts" to "it smarts", and then heavily censoring a certain dialogue of certain characters like this for example from Ibuki: "Huh? but Ibuki's not for sale though?" to "Huh? But I'm not selling anything though?" When the dialogue is told in an event shop, which is something you buy items from 🤦) I mean, doesn't all gacha games have localization problems? Though, that doesn't stop me from reading the game's main story (even the event stories) and going in depth to the character's personality through the momotalk since the characters in the game have soo much variety in personality from any of the gacha games I've played 😭😭😭(momotalk is a system in the game that lets you bond with the characters and level-up relationship points.) Also, BA's story is very "Slice of Life" Anime in terms of story writing, so the story is very headed towards the characters and you, so World Building is approached less. Though they do tell you a bit of lore, and some action from time to time. Honestly, the Story progression of this game is pretty much alike to the several gacha games that you may be encountered. (Mild Prologue and chapters, then it goes higher quality the more you delve deeper into it) Anyways, that's about it for my take. Our community is very welcoming to new people and is very wholesome, do be wary of the "cunnyseurs" they're meat shields that use such...wild gatekeeping tactics, lol.
I agree with almost all of your takes, even on zzz, dropped after a couple of weeks but i can still see where it was good Can't wait to see PGR combat being picked for 2025, it gets better than wuwa, the orb system adds a very nice dynamic to the combat Every character has 3 different orb skills (some with specific unique orbs), basic attacks (some have "charged" ones) ultimate (which can be a stance change) and also dodge related mechanics, this doesnt even include how character kits changes how you can interact with the orb system Characters play vastly different than any other character in any other gacha game i have ever played, feels like its almost unfair to compare. Its never the same old rotation, you have to adapt to the orb system, every teamhas different orb interaction demands, never gets old Story goes crazy after chapter11, get ready to cry your eyes out Sad how early on the story is stale early on, its why i dropped it on launch, its makes a bit hard to recommend the game even, tho it definetly gets good with a few hours in Good vid mate, cheers
Oh, yes! A lot of time-related musical notes are really my jam. Reversed piano keys, reversed broken glass sound effect, and ticking clock in Genshin's tracks. All of them just somehow makes everything better!
nice vid, glad to see someone into integrated strategies as much as me lol respect the effort trying to see all these games work, even GFL1? damn I really want to experience their stories after seeing the lore document since reading about things and actually seeing the writers efforts is completely different, but I'm just too tired now to deal with all the games systems x-x after years of being in and out of gachas I find only arknights and limbus will keep me playing for as long as they remain true to their creative visions, which so far seems like it will be for as long as they can exist lol no other gachas writing has me enjoying every second like these two and I enjoy and appreciate just about everything the devs do both in and outside of their games ofc these games have things I take issue with but the good far exceeds the pain points though I do wish I could put up with some other games since I still want to enjoy certain aspects of them lol, wish I had your ability to go through all these games I do want to ask, how has ZZZ been since release? launch story was pretty competent for mihoyo (and ofc people didn't appreciate it enough) but I feared it'll inevitably go the crazy honkai and world breaking concepts route that somehow none of their writing teams seem to be able to do properly yet refuse to give up on also the amount of times they keep throwing combat at you was tiring, the combat system isn't anything special but they treat it like it is this made me sick of logging in regularly, they just had to use the same worthless gear grinds and character building systems :/ idk why they're so bent on using these archaic and miserable systems (yes even with the QoL it feels bad and like a waste of time) knowing mihoyo I doubt that has changed much but how is the recent story at least, I assume it finally delves more into the ethereals?
Haha, it's mostly because I do have plenty of free time to spend as a content creator. Exploring these different worlds do give me a greater insight on what makes a good story and what do I like about it. Props to you for acknowledging the downsides of both Arknights and Limbus, while praising its overall quality. Not a lot of people in this comment section can take that amount of nuance. ZZZ... is a slow-moving accident. At least to me, everything in 1.4 with the lore is falling apart. The writing team has officially given up on telling a tight, well-paced story in favor of spectacle setpieces. There are barely any setups or payoffs I love at launch. I'm writing a video right now discussing this point. And yes, the combat is just so tiring. It's the same combat all the time, even when they try to make it different with stats bonuses and stuff. Their latest roguelike still insists on making the same combat system. At this point, ZZZ is a game I'm on the verge of dropping. The writing is just disappointing.
Some things i didn't know and i agree with you on zzz , wuwa idk because i didn't play or watch any of the story yet , I'm planning to do it in the future wish me luck
@@kiarime Yeah! ZZZ does earn its place on a lot of writing awards. So it's kinda sad to me that I began to notice their writings starting to slip bit by bit... Good luck with WuWa! Definitely worth trying 👍👍
great list. Not played all the games but like all the Hoyo games, plus WuWa and dipped into the cool art style of R1999 for awhile. Thought you might have an overall 'story arc' category looking at how well a story keeps you engaged. I loved the Belebog story arc in HSR and the firmament arc in WuWa which has kept me coming back to these games. Also first time checking you out so consider me subscribed :)
Thank you for the kind words! Belobog is definitely a good story in HSR, though a bit slowed down at times from the side activities you need to do. I do these kinds of essay videos all the time to praise gacha games when they did it right, and sometimes criticize them when they did wrong to fix it. Glad to have you onboard!
I just came from playing wuwa. I'm a day 1 player. So, my guy, if you ever make a category of the wrost gacha events than, be sure to pick that piece of garbeg Pincer manuver event from wuthering waves. I'm still mad rn.
Oh, I think Pincer Manuever II is probably the worst experience I got right now in WuWa events. I don't have a lot of Lightning characters ready, so it feels like a drag. The last Pincer Manuever was a bit more fun because it's basically Camellya spin simulator. But at least it's quick to get through. ZZZ has more terrible events that have like 50+ go to A, go do B quests that are made to waste your time (The Overlord's Feast). Also, a TV Mode that extends its welcome far longer than it should (Arpeggio Fault).
only played ZZZ, mostly because of the animations at first, but the story sold me so hard, now I have 150 days of activity in the game and more are coming. Later if Ananta and NTE gets released in 2025 those are the next games I will play.
I TRIED playing WuWa but the depressing atmosphere, poor story telling, and high-skilled gameplay requirements (with so many buttons to press) made me give my luckiest account to someone who can love the game more than I could. Right now, ZZZ is the game for me. It's just the right amount of combat I want.
i guess it is not your cup of tea so mention that you do not like it instead its of poor quality, opinions are welcome but baseless biased claims are not.
Chapter 2 of Reverse 1999 was by far the best for me with it's Suspense, Thriller, Character and the overall Build up. Absolutely Peak Cinema with a dramatic end.
I do like that chapter on its premise and the idea... but the execution left a lot to be desired. There are many times in there where I was asking myself "Why?" on character decision. Like why did Vertin and Schneider chose to stay in the speakeasy, or why did Druvis still choose to side with the Manus despite seeing Vertin forced to "kill" Schneider. Had it been rewritten one more time, the writers could've cooked something more amazing.
Girls Frontline 1 is definitely best for me, unlike other that usually combines fantasy and some scifi elements on it, GFL really deleted almost all of their fantasy element, some fantasy elements such as alien technology still exist though (idk if this counted as pure scifi or scifi/fantasy hybrid. The setting unlike other games that took in a fictional places, GFL took a place like in real world, to be exact the MC are from Soviet Union, while the main antagonist is from Germany. Not only that, GFL also took some real life event into their lore such as United Nation, WWI, WWII, Tunguska Incident, etc (GFL timeline occurred from 1905 till 2064) The story focuses on the MC as a PMC Commander and the Heroine (M4A1/Lunasia) as a hybrid Android/Human fully immune individual. Sadly the game have really sad ending
Yes, I am playing GFL 1 right now. My only complain is that it took SOOO LONG for them to get into the quality meat of the story. I'm on Chapter 7 and I haven't seen the great writing people talk about. Doing Arctic Warfare right now.
Kinda ironic u have never heard any of the Vanguard Sound Studio OST for PGR which might replace most of ur soundtracks in ur list. U need to diversify ur picks. The content u make revolves around few selections that its really kinda hard to make this kind of Best of gacha games video with this roster of games. Anyways good luck for 2025, and happy new year in advance.
I do know Vanguard. They also make music for Girls Frontline and the test music for WuWa. While their music is great, I haven't found one which has a context to tell a story. I also haven't played PGR because the PC port keep giving me bugs like no sound bug or failure to launch entirely.
@@Ssilhouette73 Wow, including roguelike and minigame category? I think those are the weakest in ZZZ. I wish they could improve on that. Hollow Zero gets very boring after a while.
@@Ssilhouette73 No, not yet. I do know they try to make themed roguelike in this update, something like what WuWa did with Illusive Realm. I'll check it out tomorrow.
Though the pacing on Hsr Penacony felt a bit too tiring since there was lots to read, I happen to have paid very much attention to Penacony chapter. It would'nt have been that way if the story was so garbage and uninteresting, but it wasn't. A story about dreams and like so many mysteries. The va's we're great, cutscenes, lines and the story itself was peak! The cutscnes was what especially got me, so many surprises which got me definitely.
I have heard plenty of good impressions from Penacony! The thing that prevented me from actually trying it out myself is the dreaded fact that I need to go through Luofu first. Nobody seems to praise Luofu due to excessive yapping, and the fact that you go there for special events like every other version. I stopped playing after Belobog story due to the combat being repetitive.
this video is by no means perfect as there may be better games to put but you haven't played them yet, but overall a very good choice for the game you play although I'm a bit surprised at *Best Story Chapter* because I haven't updated with r99 since I left it and *Best Soundtrack* since rn there are A LOT of amazing osts I'm surprised you could choose one tho I have to give a different comment on *Best Character Design*, not that Shorekeeper design is bad but I don't think she's the best when it comes to character design, the main focus is obviously clothing, hair, and possibly faces but personally, a good design it's not when the clothes are revealing or the faces are pretty. it's when a basic stuff works wonderfully. For me this is the same as a generic story that has awesome storytelling my point, simplicity is the best I think you get my catch, I have several candidate but if I must pick, for me the best character design is both ZZZ mc's, they has the most generic real life clothing but it. just. works. they're not generic enough to be looking like an npc nor eccentric enough to be looking like a stand out main character. It just the right amount of special but yes, this is the category that will never have an objective view so this is just my own preference on good character design
Nice pick! Belle and Wise do fit in their respective world nicely, along with other ZZZ characters in general. Reverse 1999 is a mess in all of its chapters, I already drop the game because of that. Chapter 3 does hit me hard several months ago and it is the odd one out so far. I have to narrow down my pick based on storytelling perspective to make it more objective. Yeah, I do enjoy a lot other OSTs in my playlist, but I can only pick those that has strong story correlations. This is why I can't use most ZZZ music, since they're just... fun, but there isn't a single one that has great ties to a storytelling. The same goes for character design, so I can only narrow it down to work-hour effort and level of detail from gamedev perspective, since I do have experience in doing that kind of stuff.
@@FeyHunt how do I say this, a simple example is like Venti or Zhongli in GI, at first glance they look like any other playable character but they have some kind of aura in their design that makes them feel special, to me that's a good design while SK is made to look like a special individual just because she is, to me that's not good design, it's like a cheat to make her feel like one even though it's the other characters design that are "underwhelming" no worries tho, I still respect your pick, I just wanna tell my opinion ̶n̶o̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶m̶e̶
@@FrezASH5 Oh, no worries. Shorekeeper has quite a big lore behind her, since she's not human at all. And yes, that is the main reason why I like her, just like I like Qingyi in ZZZ, or Ei in Genshin, or Xueyi in HSR... Wait... I think I have a type...
@@FeyHunt while at it, I highly recommend you to play 2 archived event in NIKKE, Overzone and Red Ash both of em is the same series with Old Tales so I think you will like it if you go release order it would be Overzone(½ anniv) - Red Ash(1st anniv) - Old Tales(2nd anniv) but the timeline is actually backwards so the mystery in Overzone answered in Red Ash, mystery in Red Ash answered in Old Tales and since you basically start with the last of trilogy you can also play according to timeline Old Tales - Red Ash - Overzone if you can reset your brain I recommend you to play with the former order to avoid confusion and play it safe, the latter also fine
@@FrezASH5 Ah, thanks for the tips! I do know that Overzone is where we got introduced to Rapunzel, and Red Ash is where we got that amazing MOG. I hope I do have the resource to unlock it. Oh and while at it, the current Rapi event is also very interesting lore wise, even if I haven't reached that point in the game yet. Is her alter must pull?
I forgot the tragic version of royal road, not sure about the name. Also felt it in enkanomiya, totally fits ancient greek tragedy tales of how all the civs are in ruins now
Sad that we never get a full main storyline about Enkanomiya. It's a side quest with no voice acting at all. A bit of correction, Enkanomiya didn't crumble. The people there found a happy ending in Inazuma. It's just abandoned. The Sunchild however... Also, Enkanomiya's battle theme is still my favorite track in all of Genshin.
Genshin and hsr has so much potential but they focus on trapping players to gain more active playtime and include stuff that shadows all the greatness in it and i love the fact how they take the problems from each game and improve their next well if they ever bring 4th game its gonna break all records but as of now wuwa is peak along with zzz catching up with their revamp and 1.5 fox girl
There's no such thing as trapping.. there's a reason why zzz is the only hoyoverse game that lost 80% of their playerbase in china.. and no need to mention wuwa, they had the biggest potential to compete against genshin, earning 2x of genshin's google interest during release, but flopped so hard that they lost ~95% of their google trends in a matter of a month. If you work in a game company and came up with nasty excuses on why your game is failing to retain players, you will easily be the next person to get fired.
I play ZZZ, WuWa and HSR actively and you are actually right. I believe HSR has the potential to actually win the best worldbuilding award. At least for me, it’s by far the best universe that I enjoy to be a part of. But they seem to take things too slowly and with too much yapping and presentation of the story is too bad, in Genshin’s level. If only they had the presentation quality of WuWa and ZZZ…
Thank you man. Finally someone gave other gacha games the spot light. Combat category I feel you one more biased than you think because a lot of these games can be played with combat power deficiency and you can still win it's a more of a do you understand the game mechanics for example. PGR if you bring in an element that is not recommended you will have a drastic DPS drop and it doesn't matter if you have the power required you are just going to suffer and as for story in PGR if you don't level up your characters you are just going to have a long fight because the bosses will be difficult and they'll be able to kill you in one or between two and 5 if you're luck. Another game that personifies this is Nikke which will force you to understand the bosses and due to the fact that Leveling resources are so rare you are going to be forced to fight at bigger and bigger combat power deficits during the main campaign if you want to progress at chapter 17 everything on the screen will kill you to the point where you have to know the timing and kill counter for every Rapture on field and you can't always bring the same unit to a fight at the end of the day some raptures will require a different unit and others might require different playstyle altogether you can also participate in solo raid and Union raid the more you get to the higher ends the harder it will ultimately get but to drive it home there are actual bosses that if you don't understand what you're doing you will either run out of time or die no if's and's or buts. The rest do the same but I think you get the point you just need to find it like you did with WuWa but your winner is fine. As for the categories of best world building and music based on the reasons they won I think it would have been way better to have 3D and 2D where separate in these categories because the 2D simply can not do what the 3D did to win this competition so I hope you keep that in mind for the next video you do so they have a chance next year. Good video anyway.
Thank you! I think you severely underestimate how DPS checks are so limiting in so many games. For NIKKE, try Hard Mode with like 20.000 points below the recommended run. Or any boss really. You can't even pop the QTE circles if your DPS is too low. Worldbuilding-wise, that's why I compared 3D and 2D in terms of how well they do expositions. I'd say NIKKE won against Arknights simply because of its "show, don't tell" principle. I'd also say that Nikke would win against HSR for the same reason. My music selection are just limited to music that is actually in the game. Sure, a lot of gacha game have great EPs. But I don't consider them a part of the game. It's a nice side content. Otherwise, I will need to read every single manga and dev livestream in every gacha game. It'll be so exhausting.
I didn't know about nikke mini game so much because i rarely play them but i agree they have really good mini game my fav is cake (i forget the name, it's was the story of a cat cafe and private was in there)and dungeon mini game the latest one
In terms of character story I feel like Limbus just executes that really well above a lot of other gachas because each chapter is focused on the limited cast so it’s a very character driven story The only other gacha that executes character story as well as limbus is definitely hi3
GAME AWARDS WHO?!?! The only games that i play now are ZZZ and rev1999, personally i think zzz has really good world building and the Best introduction like ever,rev1999 was pretty awkward and confusing to me at the start but i truly fell in love due to ch3, where I do think the game truly shines is in the anecdotes(character stories) and event stories
@@Randomnesshopeless1086 Yeah I've heard a lot about them couldn't catch up due to study tho,if I recall ch6 is about the island where 6 and 37 are from right?? Looking forward to it sm
@@justvibingowo736 now this is the best time to start right now the game will have a major update in next week. A ton of free stuff and skin, new main story 8. Also new true time limited characters are coming soon. I believe her name is anjo nala. The global livestream at this week Friday 5 pm. Come free to join us, we welcome everyone.
Sorry if this feel like a advertisement. I just love the game so much. Honestly future patch after 2.2 is pretty awesome. Also there is two livestream about re1999 this week Friday first one is global from official re1999 account second one is from merui re1999 creator channel. Hope we see you there.if you had free time of course. It start at 5:30 pm.
@@Randomnesshopeless1086 nah dw I'm all for rambling about games,rev1999 is actually one of my favorite games too and it's good to see it will be getting amazing updates soon!! Hopefully I'll have time to fully experience especially since my vacation isn't far away
As a metalhead I was surprised that my 3 most listened to tracks this year ended up being Gacha game promotional songs. 1. Saving Light (Wuthering Waves) 2. Resounding Storm (Punishing Gray Raven) 3. Brave New World (Endfield) (and yes I'm a huge Starset fan already, I understand the track was not SPECIFICALLY made for the game.)
i think limbus clearly sweeps although it has a weak start.,, everything from canto 3 onwards is insanely great r1999 and Arknights also sweeps in my heart ... penacony was also good!
Oof, yeah that's the reason why I can't get into Limbus. Canto 1 really turned me off due to its unnecessary grimdark trope. I would probably give it a try again sometime later in the future. I guess that's the same sentiment for HSR Penacony. I have to go through 2 months of Luofu's yapping 🤣🤣
Yeah... That's why I only play gacha game exclusively on PC. And thankfully, a lot of gacha games do have dedicated PC port these days. And emulators are less demanding than it was years ago.
Hmm...interesting vid. Several points i agree and several i disagree but good vid overall. I feel like you have put alot of weight into the specific aspects of storytelling itself within the game rather than the broader aspect and it just feels unfair thay way. I am biased towards Arknights and i do believe anyhow that they shoukd have gotten best worldbuilding. (What you mentioned feels more like story telling). I saw you say how overwhelming it is and thats very true but then again that's just also how large, intricate and complex the world of terra is. Arknights story telling is balls thats true but world building is pretty different aspect. Not just side stories and all, but the multiple comics that arknights has and even the small animated serises they, have. In regard to music, i agree with your comments that its important to consider leitmotifs and use of music as a story telling device but then the use of music in osts and music EPs are also factors that need be considered. Like Hellagur's EP where it just gives you the feels man. Especially with Arknights, there music is not just good, they actually do relate to the operator they are sung off. Like in "Sentenced" , the Guilt that Penance has thay we have seen in the story is beautifully expressed here. To not consider such parts for neither music and nor for character design either???? Plus charachter designs in arknights shine in the depth of the characters over time over events and the story. Like Amiya over the main story. Like Jessica in her event. All that are also factors i feel that you have overlooked tbh
You have a good point, but the problem for these two are scope. First of all, I haven't fully read all stories in Arknights, so I can't fully tell if it's worldbuilding is as good as people make it out to be. And second, I limit myself to contents that exist in the game itself. If I have to browse all media a gacha game have, then I'll need to read all Arknights manga, watch all EPs, and even watch all the dev livestreams. And I would also need to do that for Honkai Impact 3rd, and Genshin, and so many more. The scope is just way too big. And then there's a problem in judging worldbuilding between games. Do you judge it from variety and how many amazing things in it? If that's the case, then it would be massively unfair to compare Arknights and ZZZ where the worldbuilding is just modern slice-of-life story. These are the reasons why I chose to only measure their worldbuilding presentation in the story itself. Does it being used and conveyed well? Or do they keep dumping them in yapping? HSR lost to ZZZ due to yapping problem. Arknights lost to NIKKE due to how well NIKKE use "show, don't tell" to build its world. Amiya at the intro TOLD you that Oripathy victims are discriminated. Nikke SHOWS you that a human would only get a slap in the wrist, while a Nikke got a full memory wipe when they do the same crime. In fact, Nikke never have a character yelling "we're discriminated". They let you draw your own conclusion. And that's just one example.
@@FeyHunt hey man thanks for taking the time to reply. And i do suppose that with consideration to scope would be too large then. That would be a complete dif video concept then as well and thats just a big endeavour. As for world building, while presentation of the worldbuilding into the story and gameplay would be important, then again it's just one factor. Further more, quantity has a quality of it's own. Arknights is a game that has focused specifically on it's worldbuilding and therefore the large extent of it. The depth of the story and how the world revolves arounds its changes would be much more intricate and detailed in arknights. How a world stuck with catastrophes has relied on large moving cities with their relieance on originium s well as its use in industries leading to technological booms and oripathy. We see in Kjerag a society free of originium enter into it after bring introduced and how the cultural & economic reasons collide. Then we have other problems in terra other than originium and oripathy, because the scope of Arknights for covers variety of large incidents in terra, regardless of rhodes islands presence at times. The Nearl trilogy where we see kazimierz and how the knight culture slowly devolves into a hyper capitalistic money making scheme. And personally Lone trail in its world building as well. Obviously we have the questionable story lines too ( so long adele) in terms of worldbuilding. Variety and content are, still at the end of the day part of the same worldbuilding. Tbh i would consider conveying and presentation of it with storytelling rather than worldbuilding itself but its kind of a gray area and could argue either way, however we can't just discredit the first 2 either. ZZZ being a modern slice of life would struggle in regard to grand scales of worldbuilding, but then again the vast world of AK is deserving of the recognition for the time and effort gone into building this whole world over the years. Dumping and yapping is a problem in AK , and especislly in the early years but eventually getting better. But the world they have built should be recognised as well. And regard to "Show dont tell" , it improves later on as we all know the story telling in year 1 wasnt the best. But as we move on we can see how the Eye of Iberia held significance to the people, the pride of Iberia of past in their ships and buildings in stulifera , we can see the suffering discrimination of infected in kazmierz, we can see the problems of catastrophe to rhe villagers in Chunfen and the difficulties of ordinary people, the desperation in Chernobog and Urussu in the children of Ursus. Heck thats all the ones i know and i haven't event touched the Sui sibling events, ebenholz event and the beach events and other stuff. Catching up to AK story is very draining and overwhelming. But then again it is worth it tbh in my opinion because when everything comes together its just beautiful. Takes time and honestly can be annoying tho. They shluld really work on story telling department i also.bloody hate they dont use more of their tracks in the story itself.
@@lordkingstali Thanks for the food for thought! Yes, I wish I had more time in a day to dive into Arknights VN. But as you may know, that would require about 200+ hours of VN to read them all. There are great concepts in Arknights I want to read through, but right now I'd rather play one more IS4 run than reading... I only have 2 hours a day to play after all. Of course, none of my opinions in this video or in the comments are final. This is just a reflection of FeyHunt in 2024. 2025 might be the year of Arknights, I don't know! Also I'm putting a lot of hopium on Endfield's storytelling, since they should be more consumable than Arknights. Only time will tell. I hope to see you more often in the comment section this year!
@@FeyHunt well thanks for ACTUALLY hearing out the concerns and feedback, plus AK VN is a whole ass package in itself and i really do hope you and more people are able to enjoy it. As for endfield, i heard that the story us rather mediocre and doesn't compare to the world building in AK. But yhats with the closed beta test i think, so i really do hope that Endfield carries the legacy of AK properly.
I love Reverse 1999. Fun fact: when you talked about the best character story, the girl of pink hair with those ¿Sheep? following her... She is voiced by Carina Reeves, the same voice actor of Regulus in Reverse 1999. You can check that because in her character introduction video, the comments say jokes about Regulus like "So you also have a mother" XD
Blue Archive abd Nikke take the cake for me. Simple but not easy to predict, complicated but not convoluted, great characters, great moments. Overall great experience and immersion.
Funnily enough, I tend to gravitate towards slice-of-life games these days like Nikke and ZZZ. Small-scale conflict, focussed on characters. Other "save the world" gacha games tend to promise a lot, and then drop the ball so hard... Would definitely give Blue Archive a try!
@FeyHunt Blue Archive somehow has best of both worlds. One day, you will help some students to develop some games, next day you will have to prevent a dark alternative timeline from happening, and the devs blended both of those stories so well.
It will sound a bit strange but the most interesting story was happened to Aether Gazer. This is not out of topic, just trust me. the most epic Gacha drama of the past year which happened to Yostar and Yongshi. "Aether gazer is a wake up call" " stuff harassment, gaining controll over the life of the employee" sutuation .... Please pay attention to this situation. It is scary.
I'm not interested in drama content at all. I'm more interested in talking about game design and storywriting. Does this drama have anything to do with those two? If not, I will not comment on it. I prefer to stay in my lane and talk about things I know best.
@FeyHunt well actually the main conflict started from game design decisions ( which were probably changed after a sexuall harassment on the working place ), and I actually analyse this too in my own video about this situation. also I'm an Indie game developer who was trying to help to the game development team with even sending concepts of my own project t and making concepts of new update and new story arc to them for free. The were not expected this probably but I do not know for sure since I was asking them about this even scary situation with harassment and changing game designing course for about 4 months. But I still do not have any answers from the companies ( Chinese officially mail addresses and publishers mail addresses) about what have happened. Just some mails from global server CS which can't say anything about this clearly and said that they have sent my concerns to the relevant department with asking me to not confuse game with reality. The point is I build my statements on real cases of such things in othere companies and on the very strange marketing decision which actually looks too much obviously as a reminder to some employee about the harassment at working place.. But. I have made a video with a lot of content about this game, new Fanmade song to this potential story arc I was making to them, analysing even the content and actually design of the characters. So yeah... This may fit your common theme of the content probably....
I'm a bit torn to give that award to them right now. Beyond the spectacle, some of it just don't click to me, and I'm trying to figure out why for a future video.
@@urdeadnotbigsuprise7439 That's a part of it, but it's also more that the story is so rushed. We didn't have time to process what just happened. We literally got hacked in our own home. SOMEBODY knew we're Phaethon and knew where we live. Are we not concerned about that? If I were them, I would have someone watch my back for me 24/7 from now on.
@@FeyHunt I think it was more like a DDoS attack but siblings think it's has to do with electricity. Also one of my gripes with story is at the near end where protagonist open up to their secret to Miyabi but they don't do the same for Zhu Yuan after promising to not hide things from her any longer. Edit : Attack might be from another super AI like Fairy, after all, one of the AIs from lore video was used to hack stuff. There are some things in this chapter that game glossed over a lot like the Zhu Yuan thing, I hope you mention that in your ZZZ video.
@urdeadnotbigsuprise7439 I'll try to defend it since i enjoy zenless a lot. Basically i believe the reason they didn't talk to zu about the secret although they said they wouldn't hide anything was because specifically them being children of the guilty is a very sensitive topic for them and the only reason miyabi was told it was because they saw she had connection to the event personally and she already was suspecting them of lying, so at that point they didn't necessarily feel comfortable to tell her but obligated to even though there was a big risk of miyabi just straight up arresting them on the spot for defending provably the biggest criminal in the world which was their teacher. Zu however hasn't said anything about the incident indicating a connection so there's no obligation to tell her at the current time but eventually if it becomes less of a sensitive topic to the siblings or zu refers to it then maybe they'll tell her.
ZZZ has been such a great overall game in general. Despite being thrashed as a gooner game, I find that its world and gameplay are very easy to digest. You walk in easy to understand yet thrilling combat, a story that's deep enough for those who want to get into nitty gritty details yet easy to understand enough for the casual dialogue skipper. The way they immerse you in their world is way too good. I would say that their awards are very valid.
Haha, yeah! I generally don't care much about when people say "gooner game" anymore. All these gooner games have great stories in it, some more than others. ZZZ is just an excellent example of real competent writing in subtlety. You nailed down a lot of what I talked about in my videos about ZZZ. Check it out if you're interested! They are about 7 minutes long each!
if it's about story guardian tale's have the best story i seen in like ever the game itself tho it's quite popular sadly nikke story is just so amazing it's why iam still playing too
@FeyHunt the story is just straight up insane for a game that look like kids game the gameplay especially early on is boring but it's a great experience just be patient in the first 10 world's 🙏
@FeyHunt they're pretty fun and have a unique story and gameplay/puzzle for each tho the problem it's being too long so it's will take you a time before you do anything 🤔and after 10 world's the game is insanely hard so always save some gems you die a lot xd
@FeyHunt the first 10 world's are kinda slow and doesn't have much of important for the story so don't expect much story wise and enjoy the puzzles and maybe world building xd
I thought the soundtrack would be PGR 😂, cause every theme is totally related to character development like how hikari suit to plume, Narwal with rival between Alpha and Rosetta, also under dimension
I agree about Arknights sometimes a dps check, still I don't or can't (because fon storage) play wuwa so idk what about it so I'm ok with that (I have plans to play them, i just don't know which gacha game to uninstall)
@@FeyHuntcurrently the only anomaly weapon with a crit stat which is essential for her It provides crit rate as a main stat and crit damage as a bonus along with ice damage. However, with a good build, she's still goated with Grace's weapon or the weeping something one.
@@bluebelleix8479 Yeah, I just used Grace's weapon right now. It's acceptably good right now, even without artifact min-maxing. I think I managed to score 50% CR to 90% Crit Damage, which is pretty decent.
@@FeyHuntbro you can almost oneshot the enemy with her skill and untimate, well if you have yanagi and shokaku in your team also sharkboo with full upgrade
Personally, I prefer visual novel types over open world exploration. That’s why I really like R1999 as its less of a game and more of a fun adventure story (imo) It’s not really THAT fair to compare open world games to visual novel types as open world offers a lot more “show not tell” scenes under similar screen time. Plus, games like Wuwa really put a lot of budget into everything, while R1999 is just starting out with limited budget😅
Of course. But I would also like to point out that R1999 would lose to NIKKE in terms of "show, don't tell" and the general competency in writing, at least for R1999 Chapter 1-4. R1999 has this weird jank where some scenes don't connect to each other well, like some scenes are cut from it. This makes the game so confusing and the characters' decision incomprehensible at times. For example: Chapter 1, why did Vertin and Schneider decided to stay behind to hold Druvis? Was the car full? Is it intentional so Vertin can learn more about Manus? I feel like these should be a scene to explain this. In Chapter 1, did Druvis really can't tell that Manus is evil, after seeing Arcana made Vertin shoot Schneider in the chest? Does Vertin need to tell her that? Another one, why did Vertin care so much about Schneider? I don't think this had been properly explained at all. By all accounts, she should have hated her. Her first scene is her literally shooting several guys dead. By that logic, why did she emphatized with Schneider but not Arcana? These unanswered questions made my experience with Chapter 1 and 2 really miserable. That's why I can't award them any award for that. Maybe they'll improve it later, but I haven't get to it that yet.
Of course. But I would also like to point out that R1999 would lose to NIKKE in terms of "show, don't tell" and the general competency in writing, at least for R1999 Chapter 1-4. R1999 has this weird jank where some scenes don't connect to each other well, like some scenes are cut from it. This makes the game so confusing and the characters' decision incomprehensible at times. For example: Chapter 1, why did Vertin and Schneider decided to stay behind to hold Druvis? Was the car full? Is it intentional so Vertin can learn more about Manus? I feel like these should be a scene to explain this. In Chapter 1, did Druvis really can't tell that Manus is evil, after seeing Arcana made Vertin shoot Schneider in the chest? Does Vertin need to tell her that? Another one, why did Vertin care so much about Schneider? I don't think this had been properly explained at all. By all accounts, she should have hated her. Her first scene is her literally shooting several guys dead. By that logic, why did she emphatized with Schneider but not Arcana? These unanswered questions made my experience with Chapter 1 and 2 really miserable. That's why I can't award them any award for that. Maybe they'll improve it later, but I haven't get to it that yet.
@@FeyHunt welp, can’t really argue with that. R1999 has a lot of plot holes at first, and they don’t really cover these holes even later on 🤷♀️ Really wished they did tho. There’s a lot of potential that they did not tap
While i can def appreciate shorekeepers design, personally not my fav. Just cause i love so many designs from Arknights. As for character story. I think Theresas/Doctors should be a runner up imo.
Well, character story here is something like Companion Story, which is a standalone small story for each characters. For Arknights, only Operator Records are valid in this award. They're a bit of a hit or miss, but does work well to introduce the character. But strangely, it's only available once you unlocked Elite 2, which is... rather weird to me. It won't be an introduction anymore, will it? It's also very difficult for Arknights to win best character design award in my criteria due to it being 2D. It has to beat 3D character designs from various games. If the criteria is just "which character I like the most", it would be hella subjective and would still pissed a lot of people. That's why I can only judge it from the most amount of work and details added. For Arknights, my best pick for character design would be those cats from MonHun collab. That Snoopdog drip and the wacky 3 cats as one character really took effort to make 😄😄
@FeyHunt companion stories? Like wuwas? Sounds like an event is perfectly resonable if its to talk about the character imo Hmm i do get what you mean if we talk intro then.
I think Reverse 1999 has the best storytelling these days, but I was actually surprised by ZZZ. I thought it would be another exercise in clicking skip, but I actually enjoy the story and the delivery methods. And the story moves. In Star Rail, the story just drags and drags for most of the patches and then you realize you spent a few hours and nothing really happened. Too much needless dialogue.
Yep! I think more and more people finally waking up to realize how good ZZZ's writing is. Sure, it's not bombastic, but there's a level of artistry that a lot of people failed to notice. That's what I've been highlighting in this video: ruclips.net/video/GtD-vw0F0Y8/видео.html
What are your picks for each game in the award category? Please comment down below!
Also, a lot of music used here, 28 in fact!
- Ananta - Website Music
- Honkai Star Rail - Menu Remix
- Honkai Star Rail - Fable of the Stars
- Zenless Zone Zero - Endless Construction Day
- Arknights - Contingency Contract
- Wuthering Waves - Crownless Boss Fight
- Arknights - Storyteller (Babel Event)
- NIKKE - First Page (Old Tales Event)
- NIKKE - Shattered (Old Tales Event)
- Girls Frontline 2: Exilium - Memory
- Reverse 1999 - Sonnet (Political Greatness)
- Wuthering Waves - Depth of Illusive Realm
- Arknights - Andarsar (Expeditioner’s Joklumarkar)
- Limbus Company - Main Menu
- Wuthering Waves - Thaw of Eons Vocal
- Wuthering Waves - Astrum Unicum (End of Wandering)
- Wuthering Waves - Peal to the Infinite Skies (Donglu Research Station)
- Wuthering Waves - Peal to the Infinite Skies (v1.3)
- Reverse 1999 - Broken Shells (v2.4)
- Zenless Zone Zero - 60% Daily Serenity
- Girls Frontline - Operation Cube
- Zenless Zone Zero - When Sandwiches Come A Knockin’
- NIKKE - Snow (Memory of Goddess)
- Arknights - Downtime Recreation (Ceobe’s Fungimist Event)
- Wuthering Waves - Between the Waves
- Arknights - Bubble (Lone Trail Event)
- Wuthering Waves - Encore Companion Story
- Ananta or Project Mugen Reveal Trailer Music (Vocal Removed with AI)
Are you gonna review 1.4 story in Zzz cause as you mentioned in your video about storytelling you were spot on when you said that meeting every faction is a setup for a bigger plot
@@lyon7218 I will, but it's not going to be a positive video. 1.4 is kinda disappointing for me in terms of its writing. Yes, it's fun. But it fell short of what makes me love ZZZ in the first place...
And I hate making critical video. It's very exhausting to make, but I think it's worth telling...
Nu carnival
My picks for each category is limbus not because it’s Le best tm but because I only play limus smhsmh
Anyways srs I really do wish to say limbus has a story unlike any other gacha game
Games like r1999 just did not strike me as compelling enough, r99 is very intriguing and arknights world building has pulled me back into the game many times but I always do end up leaving the games. The only game I haven’t dropped is limbus.
I drop games mainly because of its story and nothing else.
I want to say the complaint about stories generally since every story I’ve read has this very personal gripe, but every character feels too goody two shoes? Like I genuinely am always made to cheer for the antagonists and then get mimfed when they inevitably get beaten because yk, good guys have to win. Limbus company really just provides the furthest thing in the gacha place i can find from this problem, which is why I sticked to it, and if I find something else on its level or more I’ll happily stick to that too. Many people say limbus is too dark for them and I get it but I complain it’s not far enough lol.
I guess it’s from the books I’ve read, I have thoroughly enjoyed Wuthering heights and look back on “if I lived in a place where the laws of this land didn’t bind me so, to where a mob of armed men wouldn’t trample me after, I would capture you, and make grotesque vivisection of you two, if only just for one afternoons amusement.” And “I’ll think how after I am able to brutalize Joseph and I paint Wuthering heights with hindleys blood, only then I’ll find peace” for what I find compelling. Obviously not found in no gacha game.
I find emotional story telling compelling, purely emotionally driven, stuff like saving a child or trying to “help as many people as I can!!” Is not that, what is that is deciding today that I not just want to kill myself, but if I am to be the cause of the misery to the one I value the most I am to kill everyone I live with and then hunt down every version of myself in pursuit of the end in which the only one left to kill is myself truely in which only then I shall attain peace!!!!!! That’s the thing that gets me giddy
Last thing is really idk when someone tries to be ‘good’ it comes easily as preaching. I hiAYTE being told what to do and just like in arknights “ouuhhhh reunion this reunion that” okay but what will you say when I say that they got a point. Okok murder is bad yeah yeah but it becomes less bad when you TELL me and I don’t figure it out myself! Limbus has really good self reflection and because of that despite its shortcomings I myself am able to truly appreciate the innards of it, and that’s why I like it like you like your favorites.
Anyways ramble over I just really wanted to talk me mind😭😭
@@FeyHunt You should try to play Sword of Convallaria it's the best gacha game in 2024 when it comes to story. There are multiple routes and endings depending on your choice.
R1999 story is simply amazing.
Its R1999 no contest
@@charcoal5495Yep. Definitely.
@@EljuezDani Wow, is it really that great? Beyond chapter 3, I really don't get the hype. Chapter 4 kinda drained my will to play the game. Is it worth continuing for me? What is the best chapter after chapter 4?
@@FeyHunt Like definately yes, chapter 5 maybe not, but 6-7 is incredible.
@@EljuezDani I see! So it's a lot of hit or miss as well. Honestly, this game kinda surprise me after I slog through Chapter 1 and 2, which are not structured well. Chapter 3 is just... wow.
I hope there's a pattern there somewhere where the multiplication of 3s are the best one yet 😄😄
Limbus has peak story imo the way they took the books and changed not too much but make it feel like its actually part of limbus instead is amazing plus its VAs make it way better
Yeah, I do hear a lot about them. I just can't continue past the first canto with that unnecessary grimdark shock factor. Maybe I'll give it a try again later.
@FeyHunt Yuri appeared more on LOR so maybe thats for LOR fans i didn't mind canto 1 it was until canto 5 I got real invested in the story but canto 3 and 4 were good as well especially the ending of canto 4 that shit made me tear up a little
@@alexmercer6730yuri isnt in ruina
@bluejaybrother I heard somebody she was so I assume she was sorry for the misinfo havent played LOR yet
@@FeyHunttbh Limbus and PM games arent grim dark but its hard to see that if you dont get past the first chapter/canto. While i have problems of the early cantos writing, they do do a nice job of showing how shit it is to live in the city if you arent rich.
But again its hard to appreciate the things they do well if you arent a fan of previous PM games or of Limbus. Cause character writing wise the early cantos do alot more than you would initially realize.
Babel DEFINITELY my top limited event.
Story telling was quick and straight forward but also told us everything we needed to know, and it was very emotional with great soundtrack as well. Hit my heart like a nuke and shattered it into dust.
Is this your final decision, Doctor? - The most painful and hardest stage in arknights
I have little context on that BA-9 stage since I haven't got the time to read through it. But it is a great scene implemented in the game. A great event indeed!
The only reason why I didn't give it best event award is just the gameplay. It's just... Arknights. Nothing too different from the basic gameplay.
Of course, that's good if you enjoy the game. Arknights never felt too different, no matter what the gimmick is. It is both a gift and a curse for them. The gameplay is just... good.
So when they shake things up, they immediately won Best Roguelike 😄😄
@@FeyHunt Yea i think the gimmick there was just to link operators with chains to slow enemies, and to not let them "fall" from unstable platforms IIRC? It mostly allows for funny strats but you can literally only the bare minimum (so your operators dont "fall") and ignore the slow effect altogether, and its basically the same old Arknights.
Since i love AK gameplay, the event's story being absolute peak was great for me, but i understand people wanting something different as well.
@@Gojiradogzillagodzilla The moment I heard that Arknights "doesn't have great gameplay and stories as complete package in a single event" after mentioning Babel, I paused the video. The amount of symbolisms in the last stage of that event and making the player (the doctor) dubious about actually being the bad guy in the story, is just pure magic.
Dismissing Arknights because it has a "basic gameplay" without acknowledging the new mechanics in each events, seems lazy.
@@pronak4410 I don't think Babel's mechanics are anything revolutionary, thats why he said "It's just more Arknights".
I literally forgot about the chain mechanic sometimes because it wasnt a major part of the stages lol.
Yea the story and the stages were GOD tier but the gameplay was almost the same, which is fair.
@@Gojiradogzillagodzilla That's right. And if you use summons, you're just ignoring the mechanic entirely, which is kinda funny. 😄😄
The WorldBuilding not go to Arknights seems kinda unbelievable. I know how ZZZ portray theirs with attractive visualization.
BUT, Arknights worldbuilding is almost second to none. The many races of Terra and their unique race specialty; the multiple nation and their political struggles; the threat that looming over from the sea, sky, and frozen lands; the constant fight against Oripathy and Catastrophe; and also they even went and create a hecking new languange, that is Sarkaz/Teekaz ancient language. Full with their own characters and lore.
It's amazing. Even more after the latest chapter in the story.
Yeah, people going for Hoyoverse is not quite what I had in mind for future of gacha games, but let's hope Arknights: Endfield will make people think more about their choices. People deserve the best.
For the worldbuilding, Arknights didn't lose in that category. It wasn't even in my consideration because of how little I've read about it.
The biggest problem about Arknights for me to enjoy is the sheer intimidating length of it. As someone who only played about a year ago, I still have 200+ hours of VN to catch up. That's a very scary number.
As someone with only 2-3 hours of gameplay per day, I have to make a choice whether to read on VN or play some other games. I chose the latter.
Maybe if you've followed up on the lore and every event from day 1, it would be an amazing story to read on.
But right now, I can't judge something I haven't seen yet, and very little time to do so.
True, he should change the world building to Story teller, Arknights Story teller suck but the world building is one of the best atleast my personal opinion when i play gacha games.
@@FeyHunt i understand that but that was not world building but story teller i think.
@@galihadam96 Of course. I was just explaining why I may never read Arknights lore at all to recommend it. Because I need to first read it in its entirety due to the time constraint I explained in my comment earlier. It's inaccessible content for me.
I cant count how many times an Arknights OST has given me goosebumps or brought me to tears this year.
Even those that don't aim to bring the listener to tears it still did with me.
I didn't play WuWa though so I can't judge 100% fairly, but I feel like Arknights should've taken that one
As I said in the video, my angle for best soundtrack was down to "which track has a story in it" to keep it somewhat more objective. Arknights have great tracks, but most of it are not used as a way to tell the story.
Let me give you an example. Let's take "Lost Poetry" in What the Firelight Casts. Absolutely beautiful track, but it's only being used as a main menu track.
It was not being used to set up leitmotifs for Reed. It didn't play during the story to convey her character growth. And to me, that is such a waste of a good music.
Now hypothetically, imagine if "Radiant" was being played at the climax of Near Light to mark the culmination of all Nearl's growth along her journey? That would immediately give me chills.
If this award is only given to the gacha game OST that I played the most on my spotify list, it would be hella more subjective.
@@FeyHunt Arknights Lone Trail lobby & Control's wishes
I kinda disagree with your points how the OST itself NEEDS to be in the actual story
Coming Back to the lobby after reading Lone Trail was the most ethereal experience I had since playing these gachas
@@indomaretlawrence1069 Well, let's put it this way... Imperial March wouldn't be as iconic as it is if it's just an after-credit music in Star Wars.
The thing is... had Arknights actually put Control's Wishes as the background music in the story before Galleria Stellaria lift off, you would cry every time you heard that music. Because now, you will associate that music with a single moment in the story. That's the power of leitmotif.
So long Adele had me in tears when I realized what the story was about
@@FeyHunt Tbh, what about the Zwilingstürme Im Herbst OST?
I think they match the feeling quite well, especially at the climax where they played Der Hexenkönig which is a fast paced soundtrack that fits on how crucial that moment is and how they need to act fast to end things.
That soundtrack would hardly fits anywhere else in Arknights event.
Not to mention the EPs of Arknights Operators, each of them can tell a story if you understand it both the music and the character in that said EPs. WuWa doesn't have that, right?
I have to agree with Zenless on the best Worldbuilding Presentation category. When I played the game the first time the theme has been clear right from the start and it can feel really cozy while also being extremely serious and dramatic without feeling out-of-place. The more humurous approach on the game does help a lot to build that feeling and it's perfectly executed in my opinion.
@@socialreveluv5428 Yep, definitely! There's just no other game that captures that homey vibe. And the writing is also done competently to avoid extended yapping. It's probably the peak gacha game in those regards.
I really wish Ananta and Neverness to Everness luck to go top that. 😄😄
No r1999 better
So its mcu ahh writing? 😂
I agree, it just feels so warm and indie at the same time. though, i like the lorebuilding from arknnights, cause ain't no other game literally creates so many races, countries and history behind said countries in my entire life. like arknights made 23 countries with their unique history, with one of them, being entirely extinct...
however, arknights does yap a bit too much and lore is a bit extensive. so unless you hate reading, arknights is the game for you..
Bro u need to know how amazing Arknights world building is
I love zzz's world building. Granted, I'm a new to gacha games, zzz is my first and only gacha game, but learning about the white start institute, tops, hand, seeing how it all connect, I also love how somewhat unimportant the main player characters are, they're just tech guys basically, it feels like the world would go on without you. Seeing how the world is slowly connecting with one another and the events that flesh out the lore more and how things are hinted chapters out, it all feels interconnected. Seeing theorists think of stuff we won't see possible confirmed years and years out is so cool and there is actual evidence and stuff, not just crackpot theories, its fun and doing it all in a game thats overall so goofy. This was a ramble but yeah, I just wanted to glaze my game a bit.
If you're ever interested it seems like tou would like reverse 1999 story. It has a lot of philosophical and mathematical themes. Chapter 4 is a bit rough as it is just political battle but it is important too. But after that the story picks up and gets really intense. The main character is important for a possibility of change and makes things easier for others but not a vital part of progress. (The gacha is really good too and next batch gives a free random 6*)
Definitely! ZZZ has one of the coolest writing in gacha games so far. It's not as obvious, but once you experience it, you'll get why immediately.
@pvnenidk I like the story but it's kinda hard to understand
@abdulrahmanzubairu8371 yes it is sometimes, especially as I'm not native english speaker but I still love it
@pvnen same
wuwa win against arknights sound track is crazy 😭 the babel lobby ost alone can win almost all wuwa osts
Wuwa soundtrack is pretty mediocre when you put it against any of the big gacha.
@@tp9516 cant even win against her big sis, pgr
@@tp9516I agree, with zzz and arknights in the equation, this is just Wuwa glazing. Buddy isn't cookin shit, he ain't even in the kitchen.
@judgementCutter-j445 Like I've always had some Genshin osts, Arknights boss osts, PGR osts, etc... in my playlist.
The song that won best soundtrack in this video is so... just mild and mediocre. Like any "chill" song you can find in a game. No oomph to it. Genshin's nightwind area has a really nice melody that stomps whatever won best ost here. Arknights also has cinderbringer and broken sun. But even in Wuwa there are probably a lot of melodies that are better than the one that won here.
@@tp9516 no worries buddy, I'm just jokin around. At the end of the day, it comes down to what you like, ain't nothin I can do to change what you like, so nobody should ever take someone else's opinion as scripture.
For me, limbus company is my favourite in terms of story, tho it requires patience to get to the best story chapters. I'm probably biased because I played previous games by project moon, but if you're into dark stories limbus company is simply the best in the gacha sphere, because not a lot of gachas goes that far with dark themes even if they are for the mature audience, and what i personally like is that limbus also has light-hearted moments despite what i said earlier, it has just enough of funny moments and serious ones to not ruin the atmosphere but not overwhelme you
I would give Limbus Company for Best combat system, Best story chapter for canto VI , VII and Best character story
But i think some of this will change if i play Reverse:1999 in the future
Yeah, I would try Limbus again sometime in the future. It's very hard for me to find that motivation after that first Canto, though.
What I love about R1999 is the Simpleness of it, because of its simpleness there are countless of amazing things that they can do with it, and they already did some of it. Story telling is peak, well its crooked at the first months of release but the fact that they rewrote the past scripts and planning to improve the future scripts is showing they really love their game and want the players to love it too. They also added breeze mode for the ones that wants to focus on the Lore first before brain farting with the battle.
Yep, the earlier chapters are very janky. Scenes are not properly connecting, and some parts need better explanations. That's why I left the game midway chapter 4. It dragged on its rescue plot for so long.
But I'm willing to give it another shot if it does have better chapters later.
I wouldn't be lying if I tell you that you can skip through most of Chapter 4 without any major plot loss @@FeyHunt
@@FeyHunt Oh yeah definitely. I was only slightly surprised you put chapter 3, since 5,6 and 7, the latest ones seemed much more memorable to me, but that makes sense, chapter 3 is really really good too, including the part where you didnt consider the event stories. There *is* (iirc), a mandatory short side story between chapters 5 and 6 which wasnt really much of anything, but the rest is great
@@FeyHunt They are not dragging their rescue mission, they are negotiating with the foundation, that is the only way that they can actually "rescue" the Vertin.
@@johnfan1015 When it took them half a chapter to start the rescue mission, I'd say that's dragging it.
You can't write stories like that. Something has to happen or signaling that something is about to happen.
Also, the negotiating to rescue Vertin part happened in the second half. The first half is talking about solitary confinement and the forced deal to join the Foundation. That's the boring part.
Reading your reply to others about AK lore, I can understand why u think AK lore is hard to get into, especially for new doctor. Hell, ive been playing since 28th Jan 2020 n I barely scratched the lore of AK. If you really wanna get into AK lore u need to read literally everything. From the items in the game, the description of the enemies, operators profiles n every other nuances that got scattered everywhere in the game. Imo AK world building is literally just an actual world that we are living in. Its just that it got locked behind a huge, huge, HUGE wall of texts. I dont even know how much the word counts for AK anymore as I think its longer than Lord Of The Ring around a year ago i think? Tho I still recommend getting into AK lore if u really intrigued by the world of Terra. If u dont want to read it in game u can try find lore summary of AK in yt.
Yep, that's my biggest problem with Arknights. It's a whole meal for a year and takes a lot of commitment. Yes, I can watch some lore summary, but that's like drinking soymilk instead of having a feast. I could easily read the wiki if I wanted to do that.
And besides, I'm more interested in how they use those worldbuilding to tell a great story. Knowing that Witch King exist and have once tried to attack Kazimierz is one thing, but knowing how his legacy scarred his "children" is more interesting to me.
@FeyHunt I think for the side story, especially the one that doesnt have major influence in the main story line, is fine to be read on its own. Like, the seaborne arc Id say would be fine to be treated as its own story, or the Nearl Trilogy too as it dont have much correlation with the main story. Id say that u can read any part of the story n might be confused for a while but as u read more n more of their lore, those previous confusions n questions you got bfore will slowly be revealed to u. Many of us are still living in the dark about the Terra even after soo many major clue about it been dropped.
dude literally said he chose another game because he couldn't get through Arknights
@@Mikufan-lb7zu its understandable tho, if ur a new player trying to get into AK lore, if u purely want to read it in game, its probably gonna be longer than finishing ZZZ n Genshin story combined. Not to mention we got our own lynx yapping non stop too
Arknights might even be as deep as something like Malazan in terms of world-building and content in general
SOMEONE MENTION OLD TALES FROM NIKKE? I swear, my friends doesnt play Nikke so I cannot say to anyone how amazing it was. The story is magnificent, the lore is satisfying and complete, the voice acting is chef kiss, the relation of it to the main story is simply superb. I've played most of time limited story event in Nikke, while most of it actually just "okay" or "that's fine" because it mostly tells about the story of the new released character, so story events like this that related to the Ark history is a thing that not must be missed. This shits good, almost as good as Over Zone
@@mihyara0195 Totally! I think a lot of people immediately jumped to conclusion that NIKKE is just a gooner bait. But it's actually pretty well-written, especially the earlier chapters.
I've learned that for all NIKKE events, only play those who have voice actings. The rest are disappointing or cringe at times. 😄😄
To me they are not that bad actually
The main story is slow paced in the middle but they will get better and then after that they repeat it the cycle
For events Collab they most likely mediocre
The event stories more to make us forget what we have been through in the main story
Although some of it is still depressing as hell (Dorothy story/Cinderella story/the latest one this new rapi event)
The one story that I don't find interesting mostly on Collab story (although 2A story are good)
Ouh yeah and ice dragon event
They mostly focused on funny things at first part and then dropped the BOM on the second part
They likely do those event story to balance
Like not everything in the games need to be depressing
@@nasiramani1725 This. A lot of "good" gacha game stories tend to overexploit the sadness part without proper release in relief. It can be exhausting to read if your characters just keep losing.
@@nasiramani1725 True. Collab has a a singular story template. Outerworldly character stuck in Nikke world, to get out we need fight Raptures that teleport them. They didn't really develop collab story.
As for characters event, most are, not boring, but kinda stale and too much simplistic. It should be a fun and happy theme for most, but idk, it makes it boring to be followed.
Well, but it's good to know that everyday in Nikke is not always a doomsday for our mentality
the peak story for me is Limbus company. Anything past chapter 3 where the story starts to specifically and personally focus on one of the cast is very unique for me, and i really like it all (especially when the music start playing during the final boss). I'm probably biased since i play their previous game, but still
@Sss54573 I do respect a lot of Project Moon's works, even if I never played them myself. They do have the correct mindset for developing "player-first" games.
That being said, I really don't like the intro in Limbus and grimdark story in general. I immediately dropped the game after first canto. Unnecessary deaths for shock value feels off to me.
Plus, some of the fans went rabid when I point this out.
@@FeyHunt i do agree with you. the first canto's death felt really unimpactful and i fully understand why people drop the game after that (i almost drop it as well, i think it really lame). the main problem with limbus is it's bad first impression (both story and gameplay wise) that enough to turn most people down
@Sss54573 Which is a shame. Maybe I'll support them in different ways. I heard that Lobotomy Corp is quite interesting. Roguelike is kinda my jam.
@@FeyHuntThats weird. It was a breath of fresh air to me since most gacha tends to
1. Bend over MC
2. Fake freaking Deaths
3. Gacha 50/50 system is cancer.
Tell me what game can beat what Limbus' bp can offer. ( Which is can make all 5* farmable)
@@FeyHunt Each episode deal with a character's personal struggle, past, rivals or family. The first two chapters were lame, which is sad for said character and I do think they'll get a proper one later on, because right now chapters are very long, full of twist, unique challenges and soundtrack. Some characters surprise you with their secrets.
What happen is what happen to many gachas, they get better each update and have a better grasp on where they are supposed to improve. For me the chapter 3 and 4 are what grabs you in and from there on is a rollercoaster of emotions.
In terms of general gaming (not just gacha) ZZZ was easily my biggest surprise this year. It was a game that looked fun enough, that I downloaded on my playstation just to kill some time until WuWa came out in the console... and it turned out to be one of my favorite games this year. Usually, I see gachas as just a lesser version of JRPGs (my favorite style of game), but ZZZ proved not only to be a great gacha game, but a great videogame in general. I believe I'm sticking to it for the foreseeable future, and I barely remember that WuWa was announced for playstation anymore 😅
Haha, yeah! ZZZ might seem like just another goofy game, but its writing is so competently written than people might realize. Hopefully it keeps up that quality as the game matured in years!
Heaven Burns Red needs more attention, just got released on global recently. I've played all of the available chapters and side stories and all I can say Jun Maeda cooked a masterpiece again! Whoopsie Gravy!
I'm very excited to try HBR soon! It even has a PC port, so I just need to find the time!
As a arknights players I played Reverse 1999 when it got launch and the story is WOW awesome and the game is underrated, for arknights it give you a viral lesson in real life something like that which in the story make me snap my mind realize something
The problem with this is the problem of all gachas and is the comparison this will always be wrong for anyone and right for others.
But for me is :
Best Prologue : ZZZ yep its a very goood start for a history.
Best combat system : This is a bit trickier but the popular combat system is of Wuwa.
Best limited event : yep Nikke seems interesting. But i Prefer the CO-OP of AK no history no stress, only fun and high ping.
Best story chapter of this year :Re1999 drops the promissed neverland move and that is that and this is this.
Best Alternative game modes : AK. Have two one is the IS and other is the RA. But RA its not for everyone but ia almost like a clash of clan/Uma Mussume/Resource Gathering.
Best soundtrack: this is the most subjective one, if its Diversity what you want go to AK, wanna something Epic go to PGR, wanna Mili go to Limbus Company.
Best worldbuilding: AK
Best presentation of the history: Nikke/ZZZ and Heavens burns red for me
Best character Design : oh boy this one is interesting we have various directions like Azur lane that is more "interesting".
We have AK and Re1999 The styled ones drip maximus.
A more futuristic will be PGR.
So yeah what do you want today.
Best Character history: Kiana from HI3rd.
Best "Your choice matters" : Uma mussume pretty Derby (this is a meme) (but its not fake your choice really maters)
All in all there is a lot of gachas and types that can ressonate more for you than others, no need to fight, its good to have every game with a community that likes it
@@brwolfon167 Of course. Even the real game awards would still have controversies around it. Some people like one game over the other, and that's totally okay!
It looks like a lot of our picks are quite similar in many regards. Maybe we just so happen to be the same type of players. Of course, there are also some that can be wildly different.
This is just for the fun of it. 😄😄
@@FeyHunt yes we have very similar tastes my brother, but what gachas you are hyped for in the 2025 ?
@@brwolfon167 Ananta is on my number one list, but I'm kinda cautious if they're overpromising a literal GTA for mobile games.
Neverness to Everness is also there. Both Ananta and NtE would be an interesting contender for ZZZ in terms of vibe.
Beyond that, Endfield seems to be getting better and better according to insiders.
I'd also like to try Azure Promilia since I do like Azur Lane's concept, but I don't like the gameplay.
These would be in a video next month or so. We're definitely entering the golden age of gacha games!
I wonder which one will rise to the top in terms of writing? 🤔🤔
@@FeyHunt Very good list, mine is
1° Endfield, diferent and interesting enough, as a AK player for 3 years like the factory building and the building in genral it fits like a glove to me.
2° Uma mussume global : i Played the CN, i am very surprised that i like it, remembers of the old soccer managers, and its very cool to see the results of your choices.
3° Chaos zone Zero : Limbus + Darkest dungeon+Morimens. Oh yeah count me in.
This is the games i am most hyped i am never be a GTA person so Ananta is a pass
I will like a Bullet hell kinda Gacha, the Touhou one isnt, Azur lane is the most nearly of the concept but my god, redo the same stages and nothing withing changes is why i drop it
@@brwolfon167 Oh, you mean Chaos Zero Nightmare? Sure I'll take a look for a future "upcoming gacha game" video.
Uma Musume is an interesting franchise I want to at least try. It seems like a very wholesome game.
I have to be honest with you, when I first made a video about Endfield, I was very skeptical it would do well in terms of gameplay and writing. Because it seems to follow the self-insert protagonist and the Factorio gameplay seems to be one and done type of thing. Looking forward to seeing it in 2025 though!
A lot of strong contender in story and R1999 stories are great. My favourite of this years is Path to Nowhere chapter 13. Its wrap up the story of an entire first arc with a very satisfied ending and teasing the next chapter. The game is very underrated, especially for how good the story is in that game.
This is probably the third time someone recommending Path to Nowhere to me. I'll check it out as soon as I can!
Personally for r1999 my fav chapter was el lucevan le stelle. It was gritty, with amazing voice acting with proper accents and languages, amazing music and beautiful characters both visually and writing wise
Limbus Company had two of the best character stories in Canto 7 for Don Quixote and Canto 6 for my goat Heathcliff
@Ebifuraaii Haha, I totally get the cheerful optimism with Quixote. Her real life novel is actually quite interesting to read too. But Heathcliff? Wuthering Heights is just not my cup of tea. I wonder how they reuse his character in Limbus though, because in the original story... it's kinda icky discussing his attraction... 😄😄
@@FeyHunt They change the characters a lot, so it's more loosely based, which has annoyed some og book readers~
@@vp7877 Well, I'd argue that it is far better if they do loosely based than faithful adaptation. If they want the OG, then read the book. That gives me hope that I could enjoy Limbus later.
@@FeyHunt Oh yeah I know it's not completely faithful because Heathcliff is likeable
@@FeyHuntcharacter always develop the canto is a big story arc for the sinner you'll see the reason of everything why they are like that in their canto
Yeah chapter 3 of Reverse 1999 left a huge impression on me, it doesn't follow the same plot thread to a certain event story from Arknights but the devestation felt was quite similar for me.
And dangit... Encore's leitmotif always starts up the waterworks for me...
@@tasogarerubica Haha, I think we both have soft spots for childhood trauma! Coz maybe we have one... 🤔
They just dropped Promised Neverland and dead parents and expect the rain wouldn't come... 😄😄
@FeyHunt Especially for Reverse 1999, I feel that the 50's aesthetics in general sold that chapter for me. The sterile lab environment that you can smell the intoxicating chemicals used to keep it squeaky clean and stark with the brutalist architecture too. It's definitely something right of the 50's aesthetics and I was all for it.
Though Children of Urus will likely stay as my favorite story event in Gachagaming for a foreseeable future. I really enjoyed how it was structured too, picking into each main student cast through the PTSD and trauma of the incident. Drip feeding you, rather than showing all of what has occurred... Letting our own imagination will the gap was a nice touch. Hoping Enfield will go hard as Arknights for their story events.
@@tasogarerubica Oh I definitely need to check it out after I finish the main story. Arknights is a BIG time commitment to get through. It's honestly quite intimidating...
It really is one of the earlier gacha games that released globally and managed to stay in service with other gachas. Gacha games tend to cannibalize each other's player bases so that in itself is a testament to Arknights quality in their gameplay, presentation and story telling.
Hopefully I didn't spoil too much for Children of Urus, also rather not raise the bar too high either cause high expectations can and will ruin player experience....
@@tasogarerubica I heard Arknights is nothing to scoff at in terms of its story. Hopefully, Endfield holds up since that's when I'll be joining the franchise.
I cheered for Zenless every time!
@@zoobMer Haha great! 😄😄
Is it me I don't like storytelling on Wuwa? Love the character design and combat system but the story sometimes made me bored and sleepy when playing Wuwa. Maybe not my cup of tea 😅
It's not just you. I do like WuWa, and I just hate how they write the story. It's so unstructured and filled with so many yapping, making it hard to follow. That's probably why you get bored.
Hopefully they keep improving this in future versions!
How's your opinion now that 2.0 dropped? Since that was a HUGE upgrade in storytelling (even though I personally didn't find 1.X story bad, 2.0 is still objectively miles better)
@@keeichidarow I'm still digging through the main story. I really hate how they STILL do yapping in the intro... Why overload the players with so much information at once?! And they're very redundant! Explaining the same thing about the Imperator three times in 30 minutes!
I do hope the story gets better from here...
@@FeyHuntright? Some story has cool ideas but a lot of author struggles at storytelling
@@somebodythatyouusedtoknow9960 Yes! I do hope they keep improving though. The jump from 1.0 to 2.0 is a good step forward.
Old Tales is iconic, but it would be a far cry to not give praise towards Ice Dragon Saga.
If Cinderella’s trauma is a read- Guillotine’s was equally as emotional and heartbreaking. You can tell the devs really put in the work, connecting what would be standard isekai fluff; into an introspection between finding community- and deeply interwoven behaviourisms. Not only did they expand on how Extrinsic came to be; IDS ties events from Booms Day and D.ark Hero. The hub world builds itself with each chapter, and there’s so many references jam packed within scenes (INCLUDING within the mini game). There’s so much freedom in creative input within the event. It’s clear that they chose to avoid making another winter based event; and gave us something with really fleshed out characters, standing on its own outside the main story.
Addressing it here because there’s simply no circumstance for it to be considered within 2025; how it’s shadowed between Old Tales and Footstep, Walk, Run: especially with Rapi’s life, depicting her survival as a mass produced NIKKE.
Oh definitely! I'm quite surprised 30 minutes in that it's not another silly story like with Phantom Thief or worthless story like that Flora event. It genuinely had a unique twist. Though sadly, I was quite busy editing this video that I didn't manage to finish it in time... sadge..
I will be another one of those guys that say Limbus is my favorite story in gacha. Yes, PM fans can be a bit irritating to converse with and the game can be very new player unfriendly both gameplay and lore. But goddamn it manages to give me teary eyes every single chapter from 4th onward. It's such a well improvised story from the original to such a beautiful degree that it gave me life lessons. I highly recommend you to give it another try at your own pace.
What a refreshing take! Yeah, I did get yelled at in the comments when I stopped playing Limbus back then. It still kinda soured my experience, but I'm willing to give it another go once the aftertaste fades away.
@@FeyHuntsorry about that,most of us kinda have superiority complex including me. But it just become part of our identity. It indeed cringe and kinda toxic,sorry about that
Some serious W takes you have there! I strongly have to agree with most of them except for the abundance of ZZZ mentions. As a HoYo veteran, I am never touching another one of their games after they started to massively breach out instead of improving their core games.
Nikke's Old Tales was indeed a masterful event! From the story, to the different soundtracks, the mini-game, and the many impactful lore-drops. Best event of 2024 by far. I still remember it vividly and was legitimately sad when it ended.
Well, ZZZ has its moments. The earlier chapters are not exciting, but it's indeed competently written. That's why I picked them. In recent months though? Not so much.
NIkke's earlier chapters are also pretty good! Up until Chapter 8 with that unnecessary drama between Anis and Neon with no payoff. Somehow after Anis was proven right that she should suspect everyone, NOBODY acknowledged that she was right. It was simply just forgotten. I guess I'm in "good story desert" right now, entering Chapter 14.
i played 2 new gachas this yr,
-heaven burns red
a story focused gacha (energy system isnt even used for battle but to replay past choices) written and composed by jun meada with studio key the people behind: clannad, little busters and angel beats. characters and dialogue writing is impeccable, you really feel like your in an anime (gameplay is boring though)
- infinity nikki
made by a lead developer of legend of zelda series with animation director that worked on pixar, its a very cozy relaxing puzzle dressup exploration game with a bat*hit crazy story in all the good ways.
(example of dialogue would be like: "oh i know! we can give him origami cranes to wish him luck in his exam. it's an ancient tradition used by our ancestors to wish loved ones for goodluck on the battlefield in the war of gods)
now for my violent reaction to the world building category:
arknights lost? especially this year??? with babel and chap 14? bruh
-babel event was foretold 6 years ago with the concept trailers, before the game was even released. theyve been sprinkling doctors past thru the years with babel revealing the answers,
(has spoilers with events this yr from this point on)
-then with the end of act 2 in chapter 14 which told the secrets of originium and how the sarkaz is deeply involved,
-and with that lone trail happens which signals the next phase, the invasion arc.
-then after with rides to lake silbernaherze event this yr its shown kjerag allied with columbia and kazimierz for economics but rhine lab wants to make an observatory on kjera to follow kristen
-and with zwillingsturme also this yr which ended with a laterano and lethania alliance, which complicates things more
-because in path of life another event this yr, due to lone trail both aegir (whom allied with iberia) and the seaborn are now desperate to try to go to land and survive
-which ended with aegir announcing to terra that they will command the united countries against the "threat"
with the announcement shown in a video released almost 2 yrs ago.
the different countries of this world is now on the move. different main and side stories are being connected with past, present and future events
is that NOT world building?
*bow thank you for reading the rant if youve gotten here
Nice pick! I have HBR and Infinity Nikki stored for next year when I have the time. I heard a lot of people recommending it.
Arknights didn't lose. It's just not at play in that category because I didn't play any of its events this year due to time commitments. And honestly, it's kinda hard for me to chase after Arknights' story so far as a new Doctor starting last year. There are about 200+ hours of VN to read through, I just kinda give up.
Of course, if you had played Arknights from launch, it would be a totally different story. I'm sure I'll enjoy it if I had the time to chew through it. So far, the only story events I read to finish are Il Siracusano, Firelight, Lone Trail, Main Theme Chapter 1-3, MonHun collab, and Ancient Forge.
@FeyHunt as also a story guy myself i think your gonna like HBR (bring tissues), IN depends on the person but the gameplay is relaxing
Ahh thats why ak defaulted in worldbuilding, thanks for the answer.
Because arknights actually locked in in terms of worldbuilding this year, so much that even the concerts theme this year is "world of terra" showing the different music from each country from the game
I would recommend reading babel as well it can be read as a stand alone and its very connected to main story
And is considered as the best event in arknights (yes even over lone trail the one praised by the baldurs gate 3 writer for its story telling)
@@B2.Benedajenzo I am definitely interested with Babel. But I don't really get the hype around Lone Trail tbh. I almost committed to make a video about "the evil storywriting" in Lone Trail last month. Since I really don't get why people love Kristen so much, despite all horrific things she allowed to happen to Ifrit and so many others.
Oh, is HBR really that good? I will bring plenty of tissues then. I want to know how good gacha game writing can be when written by an actual novelist.
@@FeyHunt Personally I just think the Kristen thing is just how much are you willing to do in pursuit of greatness, at individual level she did some horrible stuff but at the same time rediscovering space is a pretty big deal for Terra. Although not similar whatsoever, I was reminded of Fritz Haber for some reason. Lone Trail is also closure and a new beginning for Saria, Silence and Ifrit (which i totally appreciate), it also got the stamp of approval by a BG3's writer and BG3's writing is a banger.
@@diralis7316 Approval aside, I don't get that sense of closure to be too appealing to me. Yes, I think Silence and Saria finally made up their differences.
But the whole story was written as if they're the antagonists of the story, while Kristen is the protagonist. That just kinda feels wrong to me, especially since they're both good guys.
But then at the same time, there's a weird contrast and paralel between Kristen and Loken Williams, where both done similar horrific things, but only one get praised because "she achieved success". It feels so morally wrong, I don't think I can agree with the story internal message.
I only play Genshin, Star Rail, R1999, zzz (and wuwa for a little) this year and i agree with all your take on zzz!
The prologue with the gang leader turn into an ethereal sold me immediately. I never seen anything this graphic in hoyo game (later they double down with Pompey scene omg). And i love how they present the world building in zzz because EVERYTHING is connected. From main story, agent story, event story, agent trust event to the side quest from officer mew mew, everything is connected. Theres so many "Oh, right" moment when i play this game lol its so immersive like im part of the world. The story world building might not as grand as Genshin, Star rail or other gacha game (yet) but i never been immersed in video game like this before.
Also for me personally, the best character story goes to Asaba Harumasa agent story. I watched your last zzz video and i have the same impression with you for Harumasa but his agent story changed that. Theres so much to him behind his happy attitude, its like watching Furina but while he is only a human. They tackle "my life span is much shorter than my loved ones so i must cherish it while it lasts" story very well and i think thats beautiful :")
Still here thinking the best gacha story has to have been FGO’s lb6, you can just tell it’s something special when reading it, and the worldbuilding being as strong as it was in the short amount of time the story took place in was amazing
Oh, I haven't played FGO yet, or any game in the series. It's a pretty intimidating franchise to get into...
@@FeyHuntthe franchise is very large (Fate alone is 20years old, and thats just part of Typemoon)
But, FGO is a good start for the series' giant iceberg. Tho be warned that the gameplay/gacha might not be appealing and that the story has a bad/slow start, so it might deter you
But if you keep at it, storywise, it gets better, and certain story chapters are great (like Camelot (Singularity 6) or Fairy Britain (Lostbelt 6))
Great to see a video from you before the year ends! I've personally only played HSR, ZZZ, R1999 and Wuwa but only ZZZ managed to keep me (for now). Seeing how some of the games that I've "dropped" made it to the list and were awarded makes me wonder if I should try and go back haha.
I've been planning to play PGR and Nikke but wonder if its worth it. Anyway, if you were to choose a cutscene from the games you've played this year, what would it be?
Nice pick! Yeah, I kinda dropped a lot of games this year as well, like HSR, R1999, and Limbus. R1999 won the award, but it lost me once I got to Chapter 4. It's just way too slow and too unfocused for my taste, and Limbus writing is just not for me.
I can't say for PGR, but NIKKE is definitely something you should try, especially from chapter 1-8. Excellent worldbuilding and character-based writing. The chapters after that is a bit of a letdown and just don't bother with events that has no Voice Over.
As for the cutscene... we have a lot of great fight scenes this year... But I think I'll have to go for Girls Frontline 2 at Kalina's reunion. It's a very awkward reunion between two characters in a very torn relationship. The drama there is just so deliciously painful to enjoy.
You should add this as a category for next years' gacha games award.
@@bartnye Noted! Best cutscene is definitely a good pick for future awards! Thank you for the feedback.
wuwa started as a promising stuff, but quickly fell off for me, the game lost its identity by pleasing the fans too much
@@FeyHunt I see, I've downloaded Nikke but I haven't play it yet!😅 just a question, have you played/heard of Path to Nowhere? If so, any thoughts about it? If not, are you planning to?
i like ZZZ's story. maybe its because im REALLY new to gacha games and Zenless Zone Zero is my FIRST ever gacha games... but i just really like the vibe.
i like the post-apoclypse vibe, and also combine that with techs that is easy to follow, like the cute bangboos.
the thing that caught my attention is the bouncy animations, really. since im a beginner animator. but were talking about story here.
i cant really deal with heavy emotional impact and deppressing story. as whenever i watch or read them i sometimes cant sleep for weeks. its just not my cup of tea.
but Zenless zone zero's story is... fun, some action, some goofy, some intense. and with just ENOUGH emotional impact that i can bear with. for example: Rina's agent story, and Miyabi's backstory video.
the story is also really easy to follow, as like you said, lack of yapping and "show dont tell" kind of stuff. i know how the world goes, what proxy is, what almost EVERYTHING is just by playing chapter 1-2 and some side events!.
i will end my ramble here as i know im not really good at expressing, and also i can just FEEL that i make some grammar mistakes(sorry). but thats it, really.
I'm fairly old in gacha games and I would also say ZZZ did an amazing job
ZZZ did an amazing job in a lot of small things. You can FEEL it without even knowing why. The subtle horror, the world vibe, and the storytelling are insanely great, even when compared to older gacha games.
@@FeyHunt the true "attention to details", not to brad how good their animation team area, but actually put these details in to flesh out characters/scenes
ZZZ feels like Hoyo know this is going to be the side gacha that you play to your main one. The gameplay is fun and quick, the dailies are simple, the world and characters are cool and chill. The music is amazing. The story is slowly getting more interesting with all of the threads and storylines being laid out and the mystery behind the main character. It's my first gacha but have been looking forward to it since they first announced it.
Veterans probably goes for Arknights from first it's released to present day, Not that good at Storytelling but World building is Best, I feels old now 🗿
Oh I could see myself falling into Arknights rabbithole if I have the time to eat through it. But with only 2-3 hours of playtime per day, it is very hard for me to read through its 200+ hours VN when I could play IS4 or play something else.
@FeyHunt it's okay, take your time Even i Only read story when having motivation 😅 No need to rush.
@@FeyHuntAlso. There’s some stuff you can safely skip on since their story has ZERO FUCKING IMPACT! (Prime example of this is Intermezzi “A Walk in Dust.” 80% of it is useless dialogue with Dr Kal’stit speaking paragraphs to explain what a simple sentence would be suffice for.)
(Side story content you should pay attention to: ANYTHING INVOLVING RHINE LABS! Through understanding what they’re like. You understand about just every single group of interest. [WARNING]: They have done literal human experimentation. To create a LIVING WEAPON! To make matters worse. THEY USED FUCKING CHILDREN! However. The first side story that mentions Rhine lab is Mansfield Break. Which they actually did some legitimate good…)
I'm one of those guys that doesn't enjoy open world / action combat. While I await a global release of Persona 5 - The Phantom X, my one true gacha game calling, I recently found GFL2 and uninstalled most any other gacha game in its stead. It's funny, the simplicity of a tactical combat game won't ever get the 'best combat' rewards, but I absolutely love that style over the action combat, so it wins for me. I love a slower, strategic and turn-based combat in my gacha games. Except, of course, HSR which left me uninstalling months ago from power creep and dialogue-bloat concerns.
I would like to see some more shakeups to the main story's presentation based around a lot of the game coming off like a visual novel. The cinematics in game are great but too spread out. I would love to see them increase this in the future or change it up a bit in how they present the story so it isn't always the visual novel style. I think the weight of a lot of major moments in the game take a huge hit when most of it is up to the imagination (When it isn't cinematic-adapted). I think the Colphene story was really cool, but it can't compare to the stories that get shown with a lot more visual appeal and don't rely on only text to tell the story. A wuthering waves character story, like your award winner in the video, just triumphs over something like Colphene's story because, aside from a couple small cinematics, the majority of Colphene's story was presented through text, and with music that didn't feel impactful to boot.
Still, it's great the game found great success in the global launch. It's definitely my preference in how it plays compared to the more popular gachas out there, but I think it will need to improve where it can because 25' is going to be heavy for the competition. I really hope I can continue playing this game in the future but I do think, while the combat is enjoyable to me, it will be a really low quality game through its story presentation in a world where the best gacha games are going all out on it. The visual novel storytelling will eventually bore people enough when so much of the competition allows so much more options to interact and showcase their characters and world.
crazy blue archive wasnt in here, Volume F was so beautifully done
I haven't got the chance to play Blue Archive yet. People have been saying that the writing is good, but I also heard that the localization is terrible. So I'm kinda torn on trying.
@FeyHunt the only localization problem I've heard were just when you tap/interact with the characters on your menu (please correct me if im wrong). The actual story itself isnt bad with the localization. It's worth a read.
Volume 1 is the tamest, volume 2 starts calm but gets crazy later, volume 3 is just peak, volume 4 we chill again then volume F is just amazing writing overall and really ties in with everything in the story
@@DannyJ3636they removed the Arona title drop in the end of VolF and it’s just horrible, they also censored the lick Iori’s feet part, that’s the only one I know that haven’t been changed, unlike the Mika princess line has been fixed and other stuff
i'm glad to see appreciation for the port city of guixu theme, i've spent so much time in that region just listening to the music
Yeah! And I'm quite surprised and happy that we get to explore a bit of it in the past in 1.3. It's just top-notch. The best 1.0 music by far.
Though, I find a little contradiction in the plot. There is a side quest in WuWa called "Eternal Concert" where they said that the city collapsed about 20 years ago or so. And then in 1.3, the city was said to collapse centuries ago. I'm not sure how they reconciled it.
it's definitely chapter 6-7 Reverse 1999 for me. absolute cinema.
Now I feel bad dropping the game midway chapter 4! I thought the story keep sliding down in quality after that...
My best choice is going to be R1999. This game was a really good introduction to the gacha game genre for me, it helped me understand a whole lot about proper team building and resource management while also not being too taxing. The story was something I never expected to love, and that's coming from a guy who skipped through most dialogue in shows to get to juicy bits. I absolutely love the characters too, they all have a personality I can somewhat related to. PGR is coming in second as my introduction to the hack and slash type gameplay. And while I haven't gone too far into the story just yet, I am super excited to see what happens next
when you were describing combat being complexand also flexible enough where you could win wih underlevelled operators if you have skills - i 100% that Arknights would take place.
I literally got recommended this vid after watching Silvergun explaining how H14-4 was beat with four 4* characters setting (setting new map record), and AK even has E0 Lvl1 niche, which i doubt any other game has
Brilliance of AK combat lies not only in stage design, but also in fact that all enemies have static stats. They don't scale with stage level; if your lvl 1 unit beats slime at lvl 10 stage - it will beat the same slime on lvl 80 stage. This has so much impact on gameplay.
in games like GFL2, if you have lvl 40 units and new event comes out - you pretty much just auto everything beyond 35, because enemy stats just can't keep up. Meanwhile in AK, stages are still hard, because enemies are balanced around characters, not stage levels.
Yeah, but that's artificial difficulty. In practice, most players won't go through that. It's just as silly as Genshin having Level 1 Amber beating Childe with 1 HP left. It's a spectacle content, but not exactly normal.
All I can say about Arknights' difficult is that it's very flexible. You can beat some levels to a certain point, but there is still a DPS check. I don't think it's possible to beat EX-8 stages of any event without Elite 2 ops, and it's just impossible to beat the last S stages. Having the ability to borrow one operator really does the heavy lifting in that regard.
The part that I don't like is that the very late game Arknights gameplay really boils down to DPS checks and whether you have specific S-tier operators to clear it. Like with CC#1 where you're pretty screwed if you don't have Ines for detecting invisible enemies or CC#2 if you don't have Lin to block the hits. This is still true even if you have a lot of Elite 2 operator at max level.
To me at least, my best experience with Arknights is on the middle point where you barely have enough Elite 2 characters to clear the bosses with having to think. After that point, you really have to put artificial restrictions on yourself, like not using Texalt and Surtr with every stages.
I have never played WuWa but that second soundtrack is beautifully haunting. I love it.
Yeah! WuWa does have several bright spots. I'm quite saddened that a lot of people won't get to experience it.
This is a very good award video. All the categories are well thought out.
My suggestion is to probably add best animated cutscene, best QOL & best gacha system category.
@@bartnye Thank you! Best QoL is a good pick too! I think we should award gacha game that do their best to make their games less annoying to play.
That award would go to ZZZ again this year. They did a lot of improvements for in-game build recommentation, which makes looking up for guides online irrelevant. 😄😄
But, best gacha system would be hard to judge since they're using the same system. 80-90 hard pity with 50-50 drop rate is used by all Hoyo games, WuWa, GFL 2, and so many more.
I'm glad that the efforts from the nikke devs got appreciated here
Haha, that's what I do in this channel. Calling out when gacha games do terrible storytelling, and praising them when they do amazing.
@FeyHunt I can see that, I just love shift up and their game
@@KorhanR6 Haven't tried Stellar Blade yet, but I would pick them up once it has a PC port on steam 😄
@FeyHunt I'm sure they will release it when the nikke collab with it releases or right before that
The only gacha games that I have played are, ZZZ and HSR. Right now I'm only playing ZZZ but you got me interested in some games like Wuthering Waves. for 2025, probably going to play some of games that you said. Great Video!
@@EnmanuelJose-mi1mq Thank you! ZZZ and HSR are pretty top-tier pick for gacha game quality.
Keep in mind that WuWa didn't win any awards in terms of writing. Encore is a bit of an outlier in that regards. But if you're in for a beautiful combat and artistic talent... you're in for a treat! WuWa is definitely the most beautiful-looking gacha game I've played so far.
Hope to see you next year, friend! 😄😄
@@FeyHuntyou know what? That kinda sucks for me because I usually go past the artistic design or combat mechanics because I'm more invested in a game who has better story/storytelling. That's why I enjoyed Final Fantasy VI, IX, X, Chrono Trigger, Undertale and Omori to name a few because I personally enjoyed their story/storytelling. Yeah, I'm a millennial lol. But, that's just me. No hate on people who like artistic design and combat.
@@EXXIONN516 Totally got you! That's also why I quit HSR. While the story is okay, the combat just bores me to death. It's totally down to preference. We play games that scratch our itch.
I'm not quite sure why I stayed in WuWa too. Maybe it's just the sheer artistry and the inherent challenges in its combat mechanic. The game has its charms there.
The good news is that the writing gets better and better. After Encore, Camellya's writing is quite good, far better than previous ones. Here's hoping that the main story in 2.0 update and new region is far better!
My recommendation is, try the main story as far as you can, then drop it if you had enough of it. Who knows? Maybe you can feel that charm later. 😄😄
@@FeyHunt Yeah, you're right. I'll give it a shot once Rinascita is done. Hopefully they look notes from your storytelling advice 😅
@@EXXIONN516 Oh I would be overjoyed if they do that. That is the goal of this channel after all, to make every gacha game great in terms of writing.
It would be a shock if my name appeared on the credits 😂😂
i agree with most of these but id give best character story to aventurine because rarely has a character gone from hated to beloved so quickly with just one patch.
@@sidvid1208 Wow, big props to the writing team if that's true! I had not played HSR since the end of Belobog. The combat just felt too repetitive for me.
I don't mean to glaze Nikke, but I will. While I can see where you're coming from in terms of ZZZ, Nikke's prologue is definitely something I would put it above. Because it always subverts everyone's expectations of the game. People *always* go in expecting the game's fanservice, but come out with a gut wrenching tutorial. You don't even know those characters, but you somehow still manage to feel bad.
OST. Cosmograph is a god. I don't think I need to really dive further into that.
Oh, I do like NIKKE's writing from Chapter 1-8. One of the best "show, don't tell" worldbuilding in gacha games.
But specifically for the prologue, it feels like they're running "fridging waifu any%" speedrun. We barely know anything about Marian and she just got cut off like that. I feel nothing about her. If only we have more time, more interactions, more heart to heart talk about "whether Nikke is human or machines", it would've hurt way more.
I did check my recording and from the start of the game to her scene is just about 30 minutes. That's way too short.
@FeyHunt Normally I would agree with you, but because of the atmosphere itself and how it plays out there is a little more to it. I don't expect everyone to be bawling tears or anything, but even I'd say it warrants a slight tug at the strings.
In the other vein, it was far better done with less time than Hoyoverse and Firefly. Sure this isn't a prologue, but it goes to show that even with more screen time doesn't necessarily dictate a good outcome.
Soundtrack: Overall I'd say arknights because of variety (It's something I value higher than most people)
for integration into the story: probably limbus company because the way they integrate the chapters standout Mili song is peak every time
Also for worldbuilding presentation would extra media count? Like manga, anime, even lore posts by devs or stuff like that? If not that could be a category of it's own
Best character story for me would be Arknights: Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures,
one of the most underrated stories in Arknights that does not get talked about enough. About a town in rural America which is broken down and Blacksteel, a private military company is contracted by the government to fix it and deal with "Troublemakers".
It's a story about Jessica, a rich girl working for blacksteel seeing the ways that capitalism as a system grinds down the already downtrodden into dust, how the ones in control purposely use this for their own gain, and how she is part of the problem. I swear people who complain that Arknights doesn't have enough character development obviously can't read properly lol
The other categories I don't got anything for
Personally, I feel like most of wuss’s designs are kinda just copies of each other - skintight skimpy little dresses or something with different colours for the girls, with no really meaningful details (ooh, a cute little strip of something dripping off randomly from changli’s dress.)
HOWEVER, I definitely feel like r1999 puts a LOT of thought into their designs, such as for J they gave him some sort of graffiti-like pattern on his coat and ezra gets a little cap that makes him resemble a mushroom (which is what his kit is all about!)
Oh totally! I think early WuWa designs are rather... bland. Recent ones are a lot better, but it pales in comparison to R1999.
I took an angle on the effort and level of details in gamedev-speak to make it somewhat objective. I know that Shorekeeper just took A LOT of time as a fellow gamedev.
I have no experience in judging clothing designs with art-speak. And even then, I think it will be a lot more biased, depending on your preference.
Completely agree with best character design take. Shorekeeper design is just unreal.
@@lalitthakur6430 Yeah... I hope there is another character that can surpass her, in any gacha game. She's just top notch 😍😍
It's nice you were open to spread these awards out since of course you played a lot of games.
Not to make this a lengthy comment but I'd like to nominate my top 3 gachas in terms of how much I love playing them in general.
1. Zenless Zone Zero
It's THE Hoyoverse game for me. Yeah it's flawed and the story could have used some more work here and there but you can't tell me it wasn't at least enjoyable. I personally feel the playable characters carry it for me. Each of them just has a distinct personality and they just make the story for me. The "smaller" areas and maps make for a better, linear game than most open world games Hoyo makes. And the genre. The GENRE! Specifically Urban fantasy. I never knew how much I'd LOVE it. Kinda makes me want to check out Ananta when it releases too.
2. Another Eden
This past year, they made some pretty great story content. The Wryz Saga was just 10/10 for me as an Episode Series, kinda for the same reason as ZZZ and it just felt like a great story. There's also a new Mythos currently going on, the 4th chapter is out but it wouldn't be fair to include anything incomplete but so far it's an awesome one too. But gameplay and QoL wise... it's starting to fall off for me lately... especially the Stellar Awakening system. It's not necessarily needed but it kinda locks out newer character's from their great abilities unless you either get really lucky or are really patient to wait for the materials (which aren't even easy to get in game it's a monthly achievement reward)
3. Heavens Burn Red
Okay I'll be honest. I haven't played this for too long. 3 gacha games are too hard to manage. Which is why I consider HBR not EXACTLY a gacha for me. It's VERY visual novel heavy with turn based combat encounters in between. I'm honestly in no rush to get the meta characters or whatever. So far, it's a great story. Dark... that's for sure and I'm going to run into a GUT PUNCH eventually. But the characters are wonderful and the comedy is hilarious... I have yet to get to the sadder parts though but there was some dark themes in between that made me go... oh...
Sorry for the late reply! I have to go through about 1000+ comments these couple few days, ehehe...
Nice picks! Yeah, I am trying to highlight when gacha games do something right to prove that gacha games are not lesser games. HBR is definitely on my next-to-play list! It seems very highly regarded!
Heaven Burns Red and Limbus Company are my favorite gacha games.
Great story, world building and really good music.
Nice picks! I'm looking forward to try out HBR!
Tbh, Arknights is a PEAK game in my opinion. The gacha is so humble that even most players wonder if they don't want any money to be spent. The prologue is also a top notch, showing you how cruel the world can be and it's been shown by the Catastrophe(Natural Disaster caused by the Originium) that basically happens when we, the Dokutah, came out from the Sarcophagus and also how the terror that Reunion has caused on its awake. For combat, it's actually very great where you can actually beat a hard stage with low rarity, mostly 4 star operators so those 6 star operators are for those who wants to follow the meta. Nah, even there are 6 star operators that's very conditional but still useful if that specific conditions are met. Anyway, every operators in Arknights are usable as long as you know how to use them properly. The combat is so good that even with niches squad you can still beat most stages. For story, don't get me start with it because it's too goddamn beautiful as hell. You can get yourself hooked up if you're willing to read it, even there are people who likes the bad guy because of the story. For me, I like the story of Zwilingstürme Im Herbst because it's too goddamn fantastic. There's also a backstory of our character, The Dokutah, in the Babel event story. Did you know? Every operators has it's record and even a story about them when you reach a certain trust level. For music, they have so many that you might think the game is for their side hustle and they're actually a music company, their OSTs are also a banger. Babel Event OST is heartbreaking since the story is a tragedy, the song literally made me tear up. World building is also great, they even make a short video explaining about each country in the main Arknights channel. There are also other channels made by Arknights content creator talking about the world building and lore of the game, they even talks about all the race in the game itself. For Rogue like gameplay, they have 3 in global and 4 in CN server and it's called Integrated Strategy which are fun gamemode alongside Contingency Contract or CC(Very painful to do but it's super fun, it's like an event where the game gives you the map layout, enemies, and challenges you can do to increase your points. More points equal more rewards by the form of Contingency Contract's Token which you can trade in the shop of that CC), There's also Annihilation which is you fighting against hordes of enemies and resets every week(and it's for restocking your Gacha by 1800 per week uf you clear a stage not for the first time because if you clear it for the first time, there'll be additional rewards for it). There's also SSS but we don't talk about that, it's fun but you don't need to do it often as you want with the others. And also, for limited time event, it's actually very great(They give you module block for the first clear which is great if you want to unlock module for your Elite 2 operator, Elite 2 is the highest form of upgrade). Limited event in Arknights is great, They will give you a free 10 pulls ticket when you logged in the game by the time of the event, the event also lasted for a very long time and the event shop is very wonderful. They gives you a lot of materials if you play the event stages, and not to mention they also gives you free operators from the event(works with every events btw and not just the limited). And for every limited events, there's also a limited operators which are very OP in some cases ngl.
Talking abiut the story, every event's story is worth a book because of how many the words are in that story. The Zwilingstürme Im Herbst that I like has 144702 words in the main event story, and 170448 words if you count the side story inside the event. I must say, if you want to learn about the story you better be ready for a long read
Well, that's one hell of a wall of text... Alot of these points I already know. I played the game for almost two years now.
I kinda disagree on Arknights being generous. If you mean just to get a random operator? Sure. They give plenty of currency.
BUT, Arknights banners practically don't have a rerun. If you miss your banner, especially for new players, you can't get them anymore. That's what happened to me. I can't get my Sui collection completed because of seasonal and sparking needed for that.
You either go 50-50 when your favorite characters are in a double banner, or wait until it's available in the shop a year later.
As for the story... I don't I'll ever be able to finish it. If you start reading all stories in AK right now, you will need 250+ hours. That's just impossible for someone with a real job.
@@FeyHunt i respect ur opinions but man if u dont finish the story i don't think u have the right to judge?
@ZitongQiu By that definition, no one can ever judge a gacha game. You haven't read every single Arknights' artifact in Integrated Strategies? Well, you can't judge its storytelling! That's how IS tells its story! You haven't read every single Operator Records? Well, you can't judge character stories! Those are arbitrary lines.
We can only judge stories that we've already read and keep our minds open for our opinions to change. Nothing I said in the video is final. It's only final in 2024. 2025 FeyHunt could have a different opinion.
@@FeyHunttbf the artifacts in IS don't require you read all of them. Most just have a little flavour text to give a little more random tidbits of world building while the important artifacts you need to
understand any one IS story is around 3-7 while most of the actual story are in the non combat nodes
@@virgondust I know, that's just to point out how absurd drawing arbitrary lines on when people are "worthy" to judge.
On the topic of character story, I just did Harumasa’s agent story in ZZZ a couple nights ago and I actually bawled lol. Not even Rina’s got me to cry that much, but it was close! But I think it’s interesting that Harumasa was one of the characters I was least interested in, just didn’t really care about him at all, and then they made me like him by giving him probably my favorite story in the game!
EDIT: I forgot I also wanted to mention, I know exactly what you mean when you describe the ruined city and the soundtrack evoking that depressing feeling of nostalgia mixed with what could have been. I got the exact same feeling from the final area of The Evil Within 2. One of my favorite horror games ever made, and that last zone is one of the biggest reasons why.
I haven't played Evil Within series yet, but I'm looking forward to try out Harumasa's story. I just have to finish WuWa's story first! ZZZ kinda burned me out due to how unsatisfying the main story is to me. I'm writing a video about it right now.
I'm sad that Path of Nowhere is not on many people's radars. Its story is one of those that leaves me in awe.
Oh, Path to Nowhere is already on my list. Mainly because I want to see how their gameplay differs from Arknights. Some said the story is incredible too!
Thanks for the video! I like your take on the focus in story, and I agree with most of them! I play Genshin, HSR, Wuwa, Nikke, Reverse 1999, Eversoul and PGR. So I cant say for ZZZ or Arknights but ngl, your explanations kind of make me want to try it (just cant take any more at the moment). I would say that the ones I am enjoying the most at the moment are HSR, Wuwa and Nikke... the characters, music, attention to detail, events and general quality is just insane. I have dropped a bit Genshin from the top rankings just because I wasnt the biggest fan of Natlan. Overall, Wuwa is just such a masterpiece!
Hey, thank you for the kinds words! Yeah, this video is a celebration of a full year in gacha games! I'm astonished how they become better and better each year! Especially WuWa. That level of artistry is just unreal for a gacha game, pun intended.
Rest easy! All of these gacha games are staying for a while. Try it out when you have the time to do it!
Made a post about the one i would change but overall it doesnt matter becuase what videos like this show is not what is thw undeniable best, but how good these game can be and that they arent lesser than the console and pc game in any way. And i know this is cliché but the real winner is us for getting to enjoy so many masterpieces.
@@ads3047 Yep! You got it! There's never an intention to be undeniably correct. It's how these games can make you feel its story.
This year, the theme is how gacha games are NOT lesser than single player games.
There's no doubt about Kuro when it comes to combat designs. I see Wuthering Waves as PGR but open world, in a good way.
Kuro is just probably the best combat designer in the whole gacha game industry right now, tbh. They know how to make fights look cool while keeping it as challenging as it looks.
I tried PGR for a bit, and that match three color element is a bit off to me. Maybe I just need to get used to it.
I couldnt disagree more, old pgr was way better than the ult spamming crap we got now, also wuwa combat is nothing special you feel the jank the more you play 2.0 characters are looking like an improvement but when parrying becomes actually a thing and not just a gimmick to character like Jiyan and Camillia its hard to even compliment this poorly design POS
@xtentiong.f2537 is it because current PGR became too flashy? Like vfx cover all the screen and stuff?
@@FeyHunt Gacha character, gacha in combat, too 😅
@@xtentiong.f2537 What do you mean? You can easily parry from day one. Did you not see those QTE prompts?
Its definitely Limbus Company
A lot of issues that gacha games have when it comes to stories is the way they tell them. I appreciate that zzz tells it in a very natural comic book style, makes it very easy and interesting to follow.
A lot of other games are so tedious to go through with a million filler dialogues just to tell us that "there's enemies here". Arknights in particular feels that way for me. Maybe the world is very interesting but i cant connect it with the gameplay at all. I'd rather just read an actual arknights novel than play the game at that point.
That and the fact that a lot of the encounters feel the same to me. It got boring fast just purely due to how long it takes to reach actual interesting content. When zzz first released i had the same issues as well with tv mode but at least in 1.4 everything came together and i actually enjoy it way more now.
I read arknights main story all the way up to the current one on RUclips and I loved it before even playing the game. To me, the gameplay is just a bonus if you like TD games
I play Arknights skipping everything focusing only on gameplay. And then read the story in my pace on the website.
Yes, it's the problem with the presentation. A lot of gacha games, especially Arknights, are telling stories that are NOT made for visual novels. You can't present a 6 hour long VN with NO voiceover and expect people can stomach it.
Glad that ZZZ work for you though! It does have a very fun presentation style.
I played all ZZZ, Arknights, BlueArchive, WuWa, R1999, and Genshin but the best story definitely should go to NIKKE.
I'm willing to bet most of the commenters here did not give NIKKE a fair shot. The Goddess squad storyline is so damn good it's crazy. (Red Ash, Overzone, Old Tales) There's also Last Kingdom and Miracle Snow with the latter absolutely hitting the feels. The side story in between though feels lackluster but it's a welcome one at times with how heavy they throw their punches when it comes to the main cast!
It's hard to accept that a fanservice game has a plot
@@miralisikoWhen a game tries to do too much at once. It achieves nothing.
@@ninja6245-real =))
@@miralisiko Maybe you should try it before commenting on it.
Oh yes definitely! NIKKE has a surprisingly good track record of telling character-centric stories. The recent Rapi Alter event is another solid proof of that.
Though, these days I just don't bother with side stories with no voice over. They are either too bland or just cringe at times.
I get chapter 3 being great and all in r1999, BUT the vienna trilogy arc is just a masterpiece ESPECIALLY chapter 6 and 7, they were INCREDIBLY well-written intricate chapters with so much tragedy and incredible storytelling, the music got better in quality and the cinematography was much better. Not to mention the depressing and mind-blowing plot narrative of chapter 6 exploring how a character named Isolde is spiraling down in mental illness and societal pressure
I haven't gotten there yet! I had dropped R1999 for several months now, so I'd like to give it another go soon.
Man, i had the same opinion about what the best story chapter in gacha games (in my experience) is. (I play R1999, Nikke for the story. And BA as a whole)
For me, R1999's Chapter 3: Nouvelles et Textes pour rien ties with BA's Volume F: Where All Miracles Begin, Chapter 4. They have the same perspective in a child's freedom and rights. However, BA won me over.
Even though despite being a Cute and Funny game meant to reel in l*licons (😭😭😭), BA's VolF delved it deeper to the real-life perspectives, scenarios and metaphors about "Responsibility" as a whole, be it a child or an adult. With only a heartfelt speech of [Spoilers] to [Spoilers] in the climax.
It hit me and got emotional in the whole climax of the 4th chapter of Vol F because I emphasized with it. ngl this is the only gacha story that touched my heart as a person and changed my view in life as a whole, and that says something. (Though that's just my experience and opinion.)
I may not discuss the full details of the climax (since obviously, spoilers), but BA wins for me in the best chapter story category tbh.
(Also sorry if there's some grammatical errors here and there, I am not a native English speaker to begin with so it's hard for me to explain properly in full english, lol)
I haven't got a chance to try out Blue Archive yet. I have heard that it does wonders in its storytelling, but I also heard that there are some localization issues, so I've been holding back.
@FeyHunt Yeah, the localization is pretty sloppy if you ask me (like they misspelled "it hurts" to "it smarts", and then heavily censoring a certain dialogue of certain characters like this for example from Ibuki: "Huh? but Ibuki's not for sale though?" to "Huh? But I'm not selling anything though?" When the dialogue is told in an event shop, which is something you buy items from 🤦) I mean, doesn't all gacha games have localization problems?
Though, that doesn't stop me from reading the game's main story (even the event stories) and going in depth to the character's personality through the momotalk since the characters in the game have soo much variety in personality from any of the gacha games I've played 😭😭😭(momotalk is a system in the game that lets you bond with the characters and level-up relationship points.)
Also, BA's story is very "Slice of Life" Anime in terms of story writing, so the story is very headed towards the characters and you, so World Building is approached less. Though they do tell you a bit of lore, and some action from time to time.
Honestly, the Story progression of this game is pretty much alike to the several gacha games that you may be encountered. (Mild Prologue and chapters, then it goes higher quality the more you delve deeper into it)
Anyways, that's about it for my take. Our community is very welcoming to new people and is very wholesome, do be wary of the "cunnyseurs" they're meat shields that use such...wild gatekeeping tactics, lol.
I agree with almost all of your takes, even on zzz, dropped after a couple of weeks but i can still see where it was good
Can't wait to see PGR combat being picked for 2025, it gets better than wuwa, the orb system adds a very nice dynamic to the combat
Every character has 3 different orb skills (some with specific unique orbs), basic attacks (some have "charged" ones) ultimate (which can be a stance change) and also dodge related mechanics, this doesnt even include how character kits changes how you can interact with the orb system
Characters play vastly different than any other character in any other gacha game i have ever played, feels like its almost unfair to compare.
Its never the same old rotation, you have to adapt to the orb system, every teamhas different orb interaction demands, never gets old
Story goes crazy after chapter11, get ready to cry your eyes out
Sad how early on the story is stale early on, its why i dropped it on launch, its makes a bit hard to recommend the game even, tho it definetly gets good with a few hours in
Good vid mate, cheers
10:34 Reversed piano keys! Such a haunting yet enchanting sound
Oh, yes! A lot of time-related musical notes are really my jam. Reversed piano keys, reversed broken glass sound effect, and ticking clock in Genshin's tracks. All of them just somehow makes everything better!
nice vid, glad to see someone into integrated strategies as much as me lol
respect the effort trying to see all these games work, even GFL1? damn
I really want to experience their stories after seeing the lore document since reading about things and actually seeing the writers efforts is completely different, but I'm just too tired now to deal with all the games systems x-x
after years of being in and out of gachas I find only arknights and limbus will keep me playing for as long as they remain true to their creative visions, which so far seems like it will be for as long as they can exist lol
no other gachas writing has me enjoying every second like these two and I enjoy and appreciate just about everything the devs do both in and outside of their games
ofc these games have things I take issue with but the good far exceeds the pain points
though I do wish I could put up with some other games since I still want to enjoy certain aspects of them lol, wish I had your ability to go through all these games
I do want to ask, how has ZZZ been since release?
launch story was pretty competent for mihoyo (and ofc people didn't appreciate it enough) but I feared it'll inevitably go the crazy honkai and world breaking concepts route that somehow none of their writing teams seem to be able to do properly yet refuse to give up on
also the amount of times they keep throwing combat at you was tiring, the combat system isn't anything special but they treat it like it is
this made me sick of logging in regularly, they just had to use the same worthless gear grinds and character building systems :/
idk why they're so bent on using these archaic and miserable systems (yes even with the QoL it feels bad and like a waste of time)
knowing mihoyo I doubt that has changed much but how is the recent story at least, I assume it finally delves more into the ethereals?
Haha, it's mostly because I do have plenty of free time to spend as a content creator. Exploring these different worlds do give me a greater insight on what makes a good story and what do I like about it. Props to you for acknowledging the downsides of both Arknights and Limbus, while praising its overall quality. Not a lot of people in this comment section can take that amount of nuance.
ZZZ... is a slow-moving accident. At least to me, everything in 1.4 with the lore is falling apart. The writing team has officially given up on telling a tight, well-paced story in favor of spectacle setpieces. There are barely any setups or payoffs I love at launch. I'm writing a video right now discussing this point.
And yes, the combat is just so tiring. It's the same combat all the time, even when they try to make it different with stats bonuses and stuff. Their latest roguelike still insists on making the same combat system.
At this point, ZZZ is a game I'm on the verge of dropping. The writing is just disappointing.
@@FeyHunt hey thanks for replying!|
damn, shame to hear that about zzz but oh well
@@bakutie Yeah, I mean if you are still up for it, sure go ahead. But I can't recommend it right now.
Some things i didn't know and i agree with you on zzz , wuwa idk because i didn't play or watch any of the story yet , I'm planning to do it in the future wish me luck
@@kiarime Yeah! ZZZ does earn its place on a lot of writing awards. So it's kinda sad to me that I began to notice their writings starting to slip bit by bit...
Good luck with WuWa! Definitely worth trying 👍👍
@FeyHunt thanks you man
great list. Not played all the games but like all the Hoyo games, plus WuWa and dipped into the cool art style of R1999 for awhile. Thought you might have an overall 'story arc' category looking at how well a story keeps you engaged. I loved the Belebog story arc in HSR and the firmament arc in WuWa which has kept me coming back to these games. Also first time checking you out so consider me subscribed :)
Thank you for the kind words!
Belobog is definitely a good story in HSR, though a bit slowed down at times from the side activities you need to do.
I do these kinds of essay videos all the time to praise gacha games when they did it right, and sometimes criticize them when they did wrong to fix it. Glad to have you onboard!
I just came from playing wuwa. I'm a day 1 player. So, my guy, if you ever make a category of the wrost gacha events than, be sure to pick that piece of garbeg Pincer manuver event from wuthering waves. I'm still mad rn.
Oh, I think Pincer Manuever II is probably the worst experience I got right now in WuWa events. I don't have a lot of Lightning characters ready, so it feels like a drag.
The last Pincer Manuever was a bit more fun because it's basically Camellya spin simulator.
But at least it's quick to get through. ZZZ has more terrible events that have like 50+ go to A, go do B quests that are made to waste your time (The Overlord's Feast). Also, a TV Mode that extends its welcome far longer than it should (Arpeggio Fault).
only played ZZZ, mostly because of the animations at first, but the story sold me so hard, now I have 150 days of activity in the game and more are coming. Later if Ananta and NTE gets released in 2025 those are the next games I will play.
Oh god... has it been 6 months? Time flies... Also excited to check Ananta out!
I TRIED playing WuWa but the depressing atmosphere, poor story telling, and high-skilled gameplay requirements (with so many buttons to press) made me give my luckiest account to someone who can love the game more than I could. Right now, ZZZ is the game for me. It's just the right amount of combat I want.
Just to make sure, you know the difference between story and story telling, right?
@@vozzy06both aspect sucks anyway, their pgr was better
i guess it is not your cup of tea so mention that you do not like it instead its of poor quality, opinions are welcome but baseless biased claims are not.
@@Master-Ash-AOW3wuwa story is genshin tier bad
@@Master-Ash-AOW3 People should have higher standards for themselves. They consume too much of mediocre instread of extraordinary.
Chapter 2 of Reverse 1999 was by far the best for me with it's Suspense, Thriller, Character and the overall Build up. Absolutely Peak Cinema with a dramatic end.
I do like that chapter on its premise and the idea... but the execution left a lot to be desired. There are many times in there where I was asking myself "Why?" on character decision. Like why did Vertin and Schneider chose to stay in the speakeasy, or why did Druvis still choose to side with the Manus despite seeing Vertin forced to "kill" Schneider.
Had it been rewritten one more time, the writers could've cooked something more amazing.
Girls Frontline 1 is definitely best for me, unlike other that usually combines fantasy and some scifi elements on it, GFL really deleted almost all of their fantasy element, some fantasy elements such as alien technology still exist though (idk if this counted as pure scifi or scifi/fantasy hybrid.
The setting unlike other games that took in a fictional places, GFL took a place like in real world, to be exact the MC are from Soviet Union, while the main antagonist is from Germany. Not only that, GFL also took some real life event into their lore such as United Nation, WWI, WWII, Tunguska Incident, etc (GFL timeline occurred from 1905 till 2064)
The story focuses on the MC as a PMC Commander and the Heroine (M4A1/Lunasia) as a hybrid Android/Human fully immune individual. Sadly the game have really sad ending
Yes, I am playing GFL 1 right now. My only complain is that it took SOOO LONG for them to get into the quality meat of the story. I'm on Chapter 7 and I haven't seen the great writing people talk about. Doing Arctic Warfare right now.
Kinda ironic u have never heard any of the Vanguard Sound Studio OST for PGR which might replace most of ur soundtracks in ur list. U need to diversify ur picks. The content u make revolves around few selections that its really kinda hard to make this kind of Best of gacha games video with this roster of games. Anyways good luck for 2025, and happy new year in advance.
so only zzz won this year for me in every category...... call me a shill i am all for zzz.
I do know Vanguard. They also make music for Girls Frontline and the test music for WuWa. While their music is great, I haven't found one which has a context to tell a story. I also haven't played PGR because the PC port keep giving me bugs like no sound bug or failure to launch entirely.
@@Ssilhouette73 Wow, including roguelike and minigame category? I think those are the weakest in ZZZ. I wish they could improve on that. Hollow Zero gets very boring after a while.
@@FeyHunt have u tried the new modes?
@@Ssilhouette73 No, not yet. I do know they try to make themed roguelike in this update, something like what WuWa did with Illusive Realm.
I'll check it out tomorrow.
Though the pacing on Hsr Penacony felt a bit too tiring since there was lots to read, I happen to have paid very much attention to Penacony chapter. It would'nt have been that way if the story was so garbage and uninteresting, but it wasn't. A story about dreams and like so many mysteries. The va's we're great, cutscenes, lines and the story itself was peak! The cutscnes was what especially got me, so many surprises which got me definitely.
I have heard plenty of good impressions from Penacony! The thing that prevented me from actually trying it out myself is the dreaded fact that I need to go through Luofu first. Nobody seems to praise Luofu due to excessive yapping, and the fact that you go there for special events like every other version. I stopped playing after Belobog story due to the combat being repetitive.
this video is by no means perfect as there may be better games to put but you haven't played them yet, but overall a very good choice for the game you play although I'm a bit surprised at *Best Story Chapter* because I haven't updated with r99 since I left it and *Best Soundtrack* since rn there are A LOT of amazing osts I'm surprised you could choose one
tho I have to give a different comment on *Best Character Design*, not that Shorekeeper design is bad but I don't think she's the best
when it comes to character design, the main focus is obviously clothing, hair, and possibly faces
but personally, a good design it's not when the clothes are revealing or the faces are pretty. it's when a basic stuff works wonderfully. For me this is the same as a generic story that has awesome storytelling
my point, simplicity is the best
I think you get my catch, I have several candidate but if I must pick, for me the best character design is both ZZZ mc's, they has the most generic real life clothing but it. just. works.
they're not generic enough to be looking like an npc nor eccentric enough to be looking like a stand out main character. It just the right amount of special
but yes, this is the category that will never have an objective view so this is just my own preference on good character design
Nice pick! Belle and Wise do fit in their respective world nicely, along with other ZZZ characters in general. Reverse 1999 is a mess in all of its chapters, I already drop the game because of that. Chapter 3 does hit me hard several months ago and it is the odd one out so far.
I have to narrow down my pick based on storytelling perspective to make it more objective. Yeah, I do enjoy a lot other OSTs in my playlist, but I can only pick those that has strong story correlations. This is why I can't use most ZZZ music, since they're just... fun, but there isn't a single one that has great ties to a storytelling. The same goes for character design, so I can only narrow it down to work-hour effort and level of detail from gamedev perspective, since I do have experience in doing that kind of stuff.
@@FeyHunt how do I say this, a simple example is like Venti or Zhongli in GI, at first glance they look like any other playable character but they have some kind of aura in their design that makes them feel special, to me that's a good design
while SK is made to look like a special individual just because she is, to me that's not good design, it's like a cheat to make her feel like one even though it's the other characters design that are "underwhelming"
no worries tho, I still respect your pick, I just wanna tell my opinion
̶n̶o̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶m̶e̶
@@FrezASH5 Oh, no worries. Shorekeeper has quite a big lore behind her, since she's not human at all. And yes, that is the main reason why I like her, just like I like Qingyi in ZZZ, or Ei in Genshin, or Xueyi in HSR...
Wait... I think I have a type...
@@FeyHunt while at it, I highly recommend you to play 2 archived event in NIKKE, Overzone and Red Ash
both of em is the same series with Old Tales so I think you will like it
if you go release order it would be
Overzone(½ anniv) - Red Ash(1st anniv) - Old Tales(2nd anniv)
but the timeline is actually backwards so the mystery in Overzone answered in Red Ash, mystery in Red Ash answered in Old Tales
and since you basically start with the last of trilogy you can also play according to timeline
Old Tales - Red Ash - Overzone
if you can reset your brain I recommend you to play with the former order
to avoid confusion and play it safe, the latter also fine
@@FrezASH5 Ah, thanks for the tips! I do know that Overzone is where we got introduced to Rapunzel, and Red Ash is where we got that amazing MOG.
I hope I do have the resource to unlock it.
Oh and while at it, the current Rapi event is also very interesting lore wise, even if I haven't reached that point in the game yet. Is her alter must pull?
I forgot the tragic version of royal road, not sure about the name.
Also felt it in enkanomiya, totally fits ancient greek tragedy tales of how all the civs are in ruins now
Sad that we never get a full main storyline about Enkanomiya. It's a side quest with no voice acting at all.
A bit of correction, Enkanomiya didn't crumble. The people there found a happy ending in Inazuma. It's just abandoned. The Sunchild however...
Also, Enkanomiya's battle theme is still my favorite track in all of Genshin.
Genshin and hsr has so much potential but they focus on trapping players to gain more active playtime and include stuff that shadows all the greatness in it and i love the fact how they take the problems from each game and improve their next well if they ever bring 4th game its gonna break all records but as of now wuwa is peak along with zzz catching up with their revamp and 1.5 fox girl
There's no such thing as trapping.. there's a reason why zzz is the only hoyoverse game that lost 80% of their playerbase in china.. and no need to mention wuwa, they had the biggest potential to compete against genshin, earning 2x of genshin's google interest during release, but flopped so hard that they lost ~95% of their google trends in a matter of a month. If you work in a game company and came up with nasty excuses on why your game is failing to retain players, you will easily be the next person to get fired.
I play ZZZ, WuWa and HSR actively and you are actually right. I believe HSR has the potential to actually win the best worldbuilding award. At least for me, it’s by far the best universe that I enjoy to be a part of. But they seem to take things too slowly and with too much yapping and presentation of the story is too bad, in Genshin’s level. If only they had the presentation quality of WuWa and ZZZ…
Thank you man. Finally someone gave other gacha games the spot light.
Combat category I feel you one more biased than you think because a lot of these games can be played with combat power deficiency and you can still win it's a more of a do you understand the game mechanics for example.
PGR if you bring in an element that is not recommended you will have a drastic DPS drop and it doesn't matter if you have the power required you are just going to suffer and as for story in PGR if you don't level up your characters you are just going to have a long fight because the bosses will be difficult and they'll be able to kill you in one or between two and 5 if you're luck.
Another game that personifies this is Nikke which will force you to understand the bosses and due to the fact that Leveling resources are so rare you are going to be forced to fight at bigger and bigger combat power deficits during the main campaign if you want to progress at chapter 17 everything on the screen will kill you to the point where you have to know the timing and kill counter for every Rapture on field and you can't always bring the same unit to a fight at the end of the day some raptures will require a different unit and others might require different playstyle altogether you can also participate in solo raid and Union raid the more you get to the higher ends the harder it will ultimately get but to drive it home there are actual bosses that if you don't understand what you're doing you will either run out of time or die no if's and's or buts.
The rest do the same but I think you get the point you just need to find it like you did with WuWa but your winner is fine.
As for the categories of best world building and music based on the reasons they won I think it would have been way better to have 3D and 2D where separate in these categories because the 2D simply can not do what the 3D did to win this competition so I hope you keep that in mind for the next video you do so they have a chance next year.
Good video anyway.
Thank you! I think you severely underestimate how DPS checks are so limiting in so many games. For NIKKE, try Hard Mode with like 20.000 points below the recommended run.
Or any boss really. You can't even pop the QTE circles if your DPS is too low.
Worldbuilding-wise, that's why I compared 3D and 2D in terms of how well they do expositions. I'd say NIKKE won against Arknights simply because of its "show, don't tell" principle. I'd also say that Nikke would win against HSR for the same reason.
My music selection are just limited to music that is actually in the game. Sure, a lot of gacha game have great EPs. But I don't consider them a part of the game. It's a nice side content. Otherwise, I will need to read every single manga and dev livestream in every gacha game. It'll be so exhausting.
I didn't know about nikke mini game so much because i rarely play them but i agree they have really good mini game my fav is cake (i forget the name, it's was the story of a cat cafe and private was in there)and dungeon mini game the latest one
Really? That's insane... Those devs must be quite bored with regular NIKKE combat to be cooking something like that, haha 😄😄
@FeyHunt lol
In terms of character story I feel like Limbus just executes that really well above a lot of other gachas because each chapter is focused on the limited cast so it’s a very character driven story
The only other gacha that executes character story as well as limbus is definitely hi3
Yeah, I would try Limbus again sometime in the future. It's very hard for me to find that motivation after that first Canto, though.
GAME AWARDS WHO?!?!
The only games that i play now are ZZZ and rev1999, personally i think zzz has really good world building and the Best introduction like ever,rev1999 was pretty awkward and confusing to me at the start but i truly fell in love due to ch3, where I do think the game truly shines is in the anecdotes(character stories) and event stories
The game is very good at writing main story too. Especially main chapter 6 and 7 go watch them. It is honestly so good in my opinion.
@@Randomnesshopeless1086 Yeah I've heard a lot about them couldn't catch up due to study tho,if I recall ch6 is about the island where 6 and 37 are from right?? Looking forward to it sm
@@justvibingowo736 now this is the best time to start right now the game will have a major update in next week. A ton of free stuff and skin, new main story 8. Also new true time limited characters are coming soon. I believe her name is anjo nala. The global livestream at this week Friday 5 pm. Come free to join us, we welcome everyone.
Sorry if this feel like a advertisement. I just love the game so much. Honestly future patch after 2.2 is pretty awesome. Also there is two livestream about re1999 this week Friday first one is global from official re1999 account second one is from merui re1999 creator channel. Hope we see you there.if you had free time of course. It start at 5:30 pm.
@@Randomnesshopeless1086 nah dw I'm all for rambling about games,rev1999 is actually one of my favorite games too and it's good to see it will be getting amazing updates soon!! Hopefully I'll have time to fully experience especially since my vacation isn't far away
As a metalhead I was surprised that my 3 most listened to tracks this year ended up being Gacha game promotional songs.
1. Saving Light (Wuthering Waves)
2. Resounding Storm (Punishing Gray Raven)
3. Brave New World (Endfield) (and yes I'm a huge Starset fan already, I understand the track was not SPECIFICALLY made for the game.)
Nice picks! I'm not into metal genre, but strangely enough... Contingency Contract's theme are always great. Some more than others.
i think limbus clearly sweeps although it has a weak start.,, everything from canto 3 onwards is insanely great
r1999 and Arknights also sweeps in my heart ... penacony was also good!
Oof, yeah that's the reason why I can't get into Limbus. Canto 1 really turned me off due to its unnecessary grimdark trope. I would probably give it a try again sometime later in the future. I guess that's the same sentiment for HSR Penacony. I have to go through 2 months of Luofu's yapping 🤣🤣
@@FeyHunt”Unnecessary grim dark tone.”
Welcome to the city. THE WORLD IS FUCKED AND NO ONE CARES FOR YOUR SURVIVAL!
As much I like and love gacha story for different reasons it still hurts me to leave out some to save buck or no more space for storage
Yeah... That's why I only play gacha game exclusively on PC. And thankfully, a lot of gacha games do have dedicated PC port these days. And emulators are less demanding than it was years ago.
Hmm...interesting vid.
Several points i agree and several i disagree but good vid overall.
I feel like you have put alot of weight into the specific aspects of storytelling itself within the game rather than the broader aspect and it just feels unfair thay way.
I am biased towards Arknights and i do believe anyhow that they shoukd have gotten best worldbuilding. (What you mentioned feels more like story telling).
I saw you say how overwhelming it is and thats very true but then again that's just also how large, intricate and complex the world of terra is. Arknights story telling is balls thats true but world building is pretty different aspect.
Not just side stories and all, but the multiple comics that arknights has and even the small animated serises they, have.
In regard to music, i agree with your comments that its important to consider leitmotifs and use of music as a story telling device but then the use of music in osts and music EPs are also factors that need be considered. Like Hellagur's EP where it just gives you the feels man.
Especially with Arknights, there music is not just good, they actually do relate to the operator they are sung off. Like in "Sentenced" , the Guilt that Penance has thay we have seen in the story is beautifully expressed here.
To not consider such parts for neither music and nor for character design either????
Plus charachter designs in arknights shine in the depth of the characters over time over events and the story. Like Amiya over the main story. Like Jessica in her event. All that are also factors i feel that you have overlooked tbh
You have a good point, but the problem for these two are scope.
First of all, I haven't fully read all stories in Arknights, so I can't fully tell if it's worldbuilding is as good as people make it out to be.
And second, I limit myself to contents that exist in the game itself. If I have to browse all media a gacha game have, then I'll need to read all Arknights manga, watch all EPs, and even watch all the dev livestreams. And I would also need to do that for Honkai Impact 3rd, and Genshin, and so many more. The scope is just way too big.
And then there's a problem in judging worldbuilding between games. Do you judge it from variety and how many amazing things in it? If that's the case, then it would be massively unfair to compare Arknights and ZZZ where the worldbuilding is just modern slice-of-life story.
These are the reasons why I chose to only measure their worldbuilding presentation in the story itself. Does it being used and conveyed well? Or do they keep dumping them in yapping?
HSR lost to ZZZ due to yapping problem. Arknights lost to NIKKE due to how well NIKKE use "show, don't tell" to build its world.
Amiya at the intro TOLD you that Oripathy victims are discriminated. Nikke SHOWS you that a human would only get a slap in the wrist, while a Nikke got a full memory wipe when they do the same crime. In fact, Nikke never have a character yelling "we're discriminated". They let you draw your own conclusion. And that's just one example.
@@FeyHunt hey man thanks for taking the time to reply.
And i do suppose that with consideration to scope would be too large then. That would be a complete dif video concept then as well and thats just a big endeavour.
As for world building, while presentation of the worldbuilding into the story and gameplay would be important, then again it's just one factor. Further more, quantity has a quality of it's own. Arknights is a game that has focused specifically on it's worldbuilding and therefore the large extent of it. The depth of the story and how the world revolves arounds its changes would be much more intricate and detailed in arknights. How a world stuck with catastrophes has relied on large moving cities with their relieance on originium s well as its use in industries leading to technological booms and oripathy. We see in Kjerag a society free of originium enter into it after bring introduced and how the cultural & economic reasons collide. Then we have other problems in terra other than originium and oripathy, because the scope of Arknights for covers variety of large incidents in terra, regardless of rhodes islands presence at times.
The Nearl trilogy where we see kazimierz and how the knight culture slowly devolves into a hyper capitalistic money making scheme. And personally Lone trail in its world building as well. Obviously we have the questionable story lines too ( so long adele) in terms of worldbuilding.
Variety and content are, still at the end of the day part of the same worldbuilding. Tbh i would consider conveying and presentation of it with storytelling rather than worldbuilding itself but its kind of a gray area and could argue either way, however we can't just discredit the first 2 either.
ZZZ being a modern slice of life would struggle in regard to grand scales of worldbuilding, but then again the vast world of AK is deserving of the recognition for the time and effort gone into building this whole world over the years. Dumping and yapping is a problem in AK , and especislly in the early years but eventually getting better. But the world they have built should be recognised as well.
And regard to "Show dont tell" , it improves later on as we all know the story telling in year 1 wasnt the best. But as we move on we can see how the Eye of Iberia held significance to the people, the pride of Iberia of past in their ships and buildings in stulifera , we can see the suffering discrimination of infected in kazmierz, we can see the problems of catastrophe to rhe villagers in Chunfen and the difficulties of ordinary people, the desperation in Chernobog and Urussu in the children of Ursus.
Heck thats all the ones i know and i haven't event touched the Sui sibling events, ebenholz event and the beach events and other stuff.
Catching up to AK story is very draining and overwhelming. But then again it is worth it tbh in my opinion because when everything comes together its just beautiful. Takes time and honestly can be annoying tho. They shluld really work on story telling department
i also.bloody hate they dont use more of their tracks in the story itself.
@@lordkingstali Thanks for the food for thought! Yes, I wish I had more time in a day to dive into Arknights VN. But as you may know, that would require about 200+ hours of VN to read them all. There are great concepts in Arknights I want to read through, but right now I'd rather play one more IS4 run than reading... I only have 2 hours a day to play after all.
Of course, none of my opinions in this video or in the comments are final. This is just a reflection of FeyHunt in 2024. 2025 might be the year of Arknights, I don't know!
Also I'm putting a lot of hopium on Endfield's storytelling, since they should be more consumable than Arknights. Only time will tell.
I hope to see you more often in the comment section this year!
@@FeyHunt well thanks for ACTUALLY hearing out the concerns and feedback, plus AK VN is a whole ass package in itself and i really do hope you and more people are able to enjoy it.
As for endfield, i heard that the story us rather mediocre and doesn't compare to the world building in AK. But yhats with the closed beta test i think, so i really do hope that Endfield carries the legacy of AK properly.
I love Reverse 1999.
Fun fact: when you talked about the best character story, the girl of pink hair with those ¿Sheep? following her... She is voiced by Carina Reeves, the same voice actor of Regulus in Reverse 1999.
You can check that because in her character introduction video, the comments say jokes about Regulus like "So you also have a mother" XD
Oh wow... I didn't notice that was the same person. But now you point it out, yeah... they do sound similar.
Blue Archive abd Nikke take the cake for me. Simple but not easy to predict, complicated but not convoluted, great characters, great moments.
Overall great experience and immersion.
Funnily enough, I tend to gravitate towards slice-of-life games these days like Nikke and ZZZ. Small-scale conflict, focussed on characters. Other "save the world" gacha games tend to promise a lot, and then drop the ball so hard...
Would definitely give Blue Archive a try!
@FeyHunt Blue Archive somehow has best of both worlds. One day, you will help some students to develop some games, next day you will have to prevent a dark alternative timeline from happening, and the devs blended both of those stories so well.
It will sound a bit strange but the most interesting story was happened to Aether Gazer.
This is not out of topic, just trust me.
the most epic Gacha drama of the past year which happened to Yostar and Yongshi.
"Aether gazer is a wake up call" " stuff
harassment, gaining controll over the life of the employee" sutuation ....
Please pay attention to this situation. It is scary.
I'm not interested in drama content at all. I'm more interested in talking about game design and storywriting.
Does this drama have anything to do with those two? If not, I will not comment on it. I prefer to stay in my lane and talk about things I know best.
@FeyHunt well actually the main conflict started from game design decisions ( which were probably changed after a sexuall harassment on the working place ), and I actually analyse this too in my own video about this situation. also I'm an Indie game developer who was trying to help to the game development team with even sending concepts of my own project t and making concepts of new update and new story arc to them for free. The were not expected this probably but I do not know for sure since I was asking them about this even scary situation with harassment and changing game designing course for about 4 months. But I still do not have any answers from the companies ( Chinese officially mail addresses and publishers mail addresses) about what have happened. Just some mails from global server CS which can't say anything about this clearly and said that they have sent my concerns to the relevant department with asking me to not confuse game with reality. The point is I build my statements on real cases of such things in othere companies and on the very strange marketing decision which actually looks too much obviously as a reminder to some employee about the harassment at working place..
But. I have made a video with a lot of content about this game, new Fanmade song to this potential story arc I was making to them, analysing even the content and actually design of the characters. So yeah... This may fit your common theme of the content probably....
Best chapter was zzz 1.4 Zenless assemble, sorry no other came close
I'm a bit torn to give that award to them right now. Beyond the spectacle, some of it just don't click to me, and I'm trying to figure out why for a future video.
@@FeyHunt It's probably cause other factions didn't do much beyond appearance.
@@urdeadnotbigsuprise7439 That's a part of it, but it's also more that the story is so rushed. We didn't have time to process what just happened.
We literally got hacked in our own home. SOMEBODY knew we're Phaethon and knew where we live. Are we not concerned about that? If I were them, I would have someone watch my back for me 24/7 from now on.
@@FeyHunt I think it was more like a DDoS attack but siblings think it's has to do with electricity.
Also one of my gripes with story is at the near end where protagonist open up to their secret to Miyabi but they don't do the same for Zhu Yuan after promising to not hide things from her any longer.
Edit : Attack might be from another super AI like Fairy, after all, one of the AIs from lore video was used to hack stuff.
There are some things in this chapter that game glossed over a lot like the Zhu Yuan thing, I hope you mention that in your ZZZ video.
@urdeadnotbigsuprise7439 I'll try to defend it since i enjoy zenless a lot. Basically i believe the reason they didn't talk to zu about the secret although they said they wouldn't hide anything was because specifically them being children of the guilty is a very sensitive topic for them and the only reason miyabi was told it was because they saw she had connection to the event personally and she already was suspecting them of lying, so at that point they didn't necessarily feel comfortable to tell her but obligated to even though there was a big risk of miyabi just straight up arresting them on the spot for defending provably the biggest criminal in the world which was their teacher. Zu however hasn't said anything about the incident indicating a connection so there's no obligation to tell her at the current time but eventually if it becomes less of a sensitive topic to the siblings or zu refers to it then maybe they'll tell her.
ZZZ has been such a great overall game in general. Despite being thrashed as a gooner game, I find that its world and gameplay are very easy to digest. You walk in easy to understand yet thrilling combat, a story that's deep enough for those who want to get into nitty gritty details yet easy to understand enough for the casual dialogue skipper. The way they immerse you in their world is way too good. I would say that their awards are very valid.
Haha, yeah! I generally don't care much about when people say "gooner game" anymore. All these gooner games have great stories in it, some more than others.
ZZZ is just an excellent example of real competent writing in subtlety. You nailed down a lot of what I talked about in my videos about ZZZ. Check it out if you're interested! They are about 7 minutes long each!
if it's about story guardian tale's have the best story i seen in like ever
the game itself tho it's quite popular sadly
nikke story is just so amazing it's why iam still playing too
I have been hearing a lot of people praising Guardian Tales for its story, and some people calling its gameplay boring. I haven't tried it yet though.
@FeyHunt the story is just straight up insane for a game that look like kids game
the gameplay especially early on is boring but it's a great experience
just be patient in the first 10 world's 🙏
@@MasterNasr0 And how long are the first 10 worlds in terms of gameplay?
@FeyHunt
they're pretty fun and have a unique story and gameplay/puzzle for each
tho the problem it's being too long
so it's will take you a time before you do anything 🤔and after 10 world's the game is insanely hard so always save some gems you die a lot xd
@FeyHunt the first 10 world's are kinda slow and doesn't have much of important for the story so don't expect much story wise and enjoy the puzzles and maybe world building xd
I thought the soundtrack would be PGR 😂, cause every theme is totally related to character development like how hikari suit to plume, Narwal with rival between Alpha and Rosetta, also under dimension
I haven't went deep into PGR due to its PC port keep giving me no sound errors and stuff. Would try to reinstall it again this year!
I guess you haven’t played chapter 7 of R1999. Don’t get me wrong,I also really love chapter 3 but mann chapter 7 is in whole another levels
Yeah, Chapter 4 made me quit the game entirely due to how dragged on the plot gets. I guess I'll pick the game up again later when I have the time...
You should have a look at one of the most underrated gacha game, The Battle Cats because it just does everything so well
Wait, Battle Cats is a gacha? I thought it was just an auto-chess like game...
I agree about Arknights sometimes a dps check, still I don't or can't (because fon storage) play wuwa so idk what about it so I'm ok with that
(I have plans to play them, i just don't know which gacha game to uninstall)
Haha, I'd recommend playing it on PC to get the best experience. Unless you got a very good phone to marvel at their beautifully crafted worlds 😄😄
@@FeyHunt 😢😢😢 I'll save up some money
@@kiarime6-5 Is a survivability check. You are NOT beating it without a durable defender.
I'm really looking forward to see the 2025 video!!!
I will do it again for this year! Stay tuned!
Sadly, and this is a weird comment, I got Miyabi and her W-engine in Zenless Zone Zero and the game became ridiculously easy.
Oh... Is her W-Engine really that broken? 🤔🤔
@@FeyHuntcurrently the only anomaly weapon with a crit stat which is essential for her
It provides crit rate as a main stat and crit damage as a bonus along with ice damage. However, with a good build, she's still goated with Grace's weapon or the weeping something one.
@@bluebelleix8479 Yeah, I just used Grace's weapon right now. It's acceptably good right now, even without artifact min-maxing. I think I managed to score 50% CR to 90% Crit Damage, which is pretty decent.
@@FeyHuntbro you can almost oneshot the enemy with her skill and untimate, well if you have yanagi and shokaku in your team also sharkboo with full upgrade
Personally, I prefer visual novel types over open world exploration. That’s why I really like R1999 as its less of a game and more of a fun adventure story (imo) It’s not really THAT fair to compare open world games to visual novel types as open world offers a lot more “show not tell” scenes under similar screen time.
Plus, games like Wuwa really put a lot of budget into everything, while R1999 is just starting out with limited budget😅
Of course. But I would also like to point out that R1999 would lose to NIKKE in terms of "show, don't tell" and the general competency in writing, at least for R1999 Chapter 1-4.
R1999 has this weird jank where some scenes don't connect to each other well, like some scenes are cut from it. This makes the game so confusing and the characters' decision incomprehensible at times.
For example: Chapter 1, why did Vertin and Schneider decided to stay behind to hold Druvis? Was the car full? Is it intentional so Vertin can learn more about Manus? I feel like these should be a scene to explain this.
In Chapter 1, did Druvis really can't tell that Manus is evil, after seeing Arcana made Vertin shoot Schneider in the chest? Does Vertin need to tell her that?
Another one, why did Vertin care so much about Schneider? I don't think this had been properly explained at all. By all accounts, she should have hated her. Her first scene is her literally shooting several guys dead. By that logic, why did she emphatized with Schneider but not Arcana?
These unanswered questions made my experience with Chapter 1 and 2 really miserable. That's why I can't award them any award for that.
Maybe they'll improve it later, but I haven't get to it that yet.
Of course. But I would also like to point out that R1999 would lose to NIKKE in terms of "show, don't tell" and the general competency in writing, at least for R1999 Chapter 1-4.
R1999 has this weird jank where some scenes don't connect to each other well, like some scenes are cut from it. This makes the game so confusing and the characters' decision incomprehensible at times.
For example: Chapter 1, why did Vertin and Schneider decided to stay behind to hold Druvis? Was the car full? Is it intentional so Vertin can learn more about Manus? I feel like these should be a scene to explain this.
In Chapter 1, did Druvis really can't tell that Manus is evil, after seeing Arcana made Vertin shoot Schneider in the chest? Does Vertin need to tell her that?
Another one, why did Vertin care so much about Schneider? I don't think this had been properly explained at all. By all accounts, she should have hated her. Her first scene is her literally shooting several guys dead. By that logic, why did she emphatized with Schneider but not Arcana?
These unanswered questions made my experience with Chapter 1 and 2 really miserable. That's why I can't award them any award for that.
Maybe they'll improve it later, but I haven't get to it that yet.
@@FeyHunt welp, can’t really argue with that. R1999 has a lot of plot holes at first, and they don’t really cover these holes even later on 🤷♀️ Really wished they did tho. There’s a lot of potential that they did not tap
While i can def appreciate shorekeepers design, personally not my fav. Just cause i love so many designs from Arknights. As for character story. I think Theresas/Doctors should be a runner up imo.
Well, character story here is something like Companion Story, which is a standalone small story for each characters. For Arknights, only Operator Records are valid in this award.
They're a bit of a hit or miss, but does work well to introduce the character. But strangely, it's only available once you unlocked Elite 2, which is... rather weird to me. It won't be an introduction anymore, will it?
It's also very difficult for Arknights to win best character design award in my criteria due to it being 2D. It has to beat 3D character designs from various games.
If the criteria is just "which character I like the most", it would be hella subjective and would still pissed a lot of people. That's why I can only judge it from the most amount of work and details added.
For Arknights, my best pick for character design would be those cats from MonHun collab. That Snoopdog drip and the wacky 3 cats as one character really took effort to make 😄😄
@FeyHunt companion stories? Like wuwas? Sounds like an event is perfectly resonable if its to talk about the character imo
Hmm i do get what you mean if we talk intro then.
@@FeyHunt also based on edited comment LOL
Choosing the cats is wild and funny XD
I think Reverse 1999 has the best storytelling these days, but I was actually surprised by ZZZ. I thought it would be another exercise in clicking skip, but I actually enjoy the story and the delivery methods. And the story moves. In Star Rail, the story just drags and drags for most of the patches and then you realize you spent a few hours and nothing really happened. Too much needless dialogue.
Yep! I think more and more people finally waking up to realize how good ZZZ's writing is. Sure, it's not bombastic, but there's a level of artistry that a lot of people failed to notice. That's what I've been highlighting in this video: ruclips.net/video/GtD-vw0F0Y8/видео.html