Gacha Chronicles - Endfield
Will the real factory growers please stand up?
Now, we’ve come to the last entry of my 3-part testimony of my gacha gamer’s journey.
Granted, there are actually a lot more personal things I could say about how I ended up playing Endfield. I say this because I used to believe that one should try to limit gacha game consumption to just two titles.
What possessed me to get a third?
I can’t really answer that outside the context of a therapy session.
The fact remains: I’ve found myself in a position where Endfield somehow managed to squeeze into my daily routine (albeit rather tightly).
I mentioned in the previous Genshin post that I still found some areas of the game’s open-world design wanting. Endfield is the one that has come very close to providing alternatives.
There. That’s it. That’s what got me in the end.
I’m dead certain that I’m not the only person who came here without any attachment to the wider Arknights franchise. We came here because we have never seen an audacious fusion of gacha game ARPGs and factory builders.
Let alone, one that’s free.
Even now, I wish someone would hire me as a copywriting consultant just so I could buy Factorio.
But since that ain’t happening, I might as well take the very next best thing.
I must stress just how weary I was with Genshin’s progression rate when I started Endfield. No matter what kind of farming route or mineral resource process I came up with, it was all still tedious to actually execute.
It seemed just better for me to dig up artifacts and mine ores when I really felt like it, rather than tricking myself into thinking I’m some kind of one-man industrial digger.
Can you really blame me for reinvesting my extra gacha game time to something that was actually designed to let me live out that different sort of fantasy?
Of course, now that I’ve actually reached the current endgame of Endfield (heh), I will admit that the immersion is not quite there yet.
That is why I will caution prospective gacha players from expecting too much from its manufacturing-based progression loop.
Yes, you will be producing the equivalent of the game’s artifacts this way instead of farming domains nonstop.
No, you will still be short on progression currency, talent materials as well as weapon and character ascension crap. Endfield’s factory does not tie into increasing those at all (especially the currency and talent materials).
There, hopefully I’ve saved you hours of time finding out for yourself.
Granted, I still enjoy the game despite my mild disappointment. Playing around with the factory utilities and nailing my own, creative builds for gearing materials was still very satisfying.
This brings me to the reason why I haven’t dropped this 6-month old game despite it obviously having a lot of room to improve.
Much like Genshin, Endfield is trying to combine a refined gacha anime RPG formula with another genre that’s well-liked. For Genshin, it was open world. And for Endfield, it’s the factory game loop.
So far, it’s doing it fairly well and I can see where the devs are still struggling to find their footing. My main concern are the players who are clearly just in it for the Arknights brand and expecting it to be the main focus of how it’ll kick Hoyo to the curb.
Sorry but if that’s you, I’d firmly advise toning down the Hoyo hate. Asides from time constraints, that kind of ‘fan dedication’ actually turns me off from a franchise (whether it’s WuWa or the OG Arknights).
More importantly though, it distracts from the wider perspective of what differentiates Endfield in the big gacha market. Genshin continues to hold its own as a very ambitious, open world high fantasy experience. F/GO stays rooted in both its original otaku cult following as well as its distinctly weird celebration of human history and mythology.
Endfield is a sci-fi ARPG that’s already surrounded by aesthetically similar brands like WuWa, Blue Archive and Nikke. Without the factory, what chance does it even have to really make itself stand out?
Combat?
Yeah, sure. Having your party out in the field ala Star Ocean feels like a breath of fresh air. It certainly gives you just wee a bit more reason to level up everyone’s auto attack… but is that it?
The SP point system still feels unpolished. It also feels a bit out of sync with the combo skills. And as for the admittedly sophisticated elemental and physical mechanics, the lack of polish in the overall system still constraints any potential for really going wild with them.
I’ve lost count of the many times I’ve studied a team comp’s rotation only to be thrown off by its dependencies on ultimates. 50% of the time, I’m back to just tinkering with a rotation of my own that has far less eye-popping results. Don’t even get me started on how bad the auto-lock targeting is in this game!
Story?
Look, I very much enjoyed 1.4’s climactic and moving plot. It’s a far cry from the Valley IV infodump in a lot of ways. But even then, the AIC factory has been integral to the plot all the way.
I actually have another blog post coming up that will go into further detail as to how 1.4’s story progression, for all its peaks, severely misaligns with factory progression.
Right now, my main point is that the factory, in other words the industries, part is a big distinguishing feature of Endfield’s plot too. So, how do you expect it to even win in terms of world building and story while leaving aside the actual mechanics of the game’s factory aspect?
You can’t.
Don’t get me wrong: I have very high hopes for Endfield and its potential with this very unique combination. I love the so-called “secret lewdness” that folks are pointing out with all its characters. The generosity of its gacha system is certainly eager to please (though I sure won’t say no to more).
A lot of that, however, is going to ride on the very few things that actually set it apart from the competition.
Let’s not be quick to set those precious few things aside.
And that concludes my little testimony series of the three main gachas I play. Not sure what I’ll exactly be posting next (maybe a more extended essay on Endfield’s factory-plot alignment). Still, please hit the Subscribe button cuz your little dings can be pretty motivating, algorithms be damned.