Gacha Games Review: Part 2

Previously published Feb 16. 2022

Gacha Terms Glossary:

• Gacha game: a type of game where luck is the most essential part in receiving new characters/weapons
• Rolls/pulls/wishes: spending a special in-game currency to receive random characters or weapons from the gacha, depending on the banner they choose to pull on (often there are both standard and time-limited event banners for players to pull on)
• Co-op: a mode where you can collaborate with other players (multiplayer)
• F2P (free to play): a player who plays a game without paying any real money; if a game is F2P friendly, then the game is not exceedingly difficult without paying
• Pity: when you make a certain number of rolls, you are guaranteed to receive a high rarity character; this number where a high rarity character is guaranteed is known as pity
• Dailies: the missions/quests that refresh on a daily basis; completing these tasks often yield good rewards
• Whale: a person who spends money on the game, often to pull to get the character/weapon they want 

Cookie Run: Kingdom

First of all, one of the hottest gacha games, Cookie Run: Kingdom (CRK)! Although this is not the first release of CRK, this is definitely the most popular! After all, in a game in a world ruled by cookies, what’s not to love? And get this: the cookie designs are top tier too! The main character cookie, Gingerbrave, goes on an adventure with his companions, all the while exploring ancient kingdoms, meeting new cookies, battling Cake Monsters, and creating a Kingdom of their own along the way!

F2P Friendly: Yes
CRK is a F2P friendly game because of how easy it is to get up to 3,000 gems, the amount required for a 10 pull. However, being F2P does mean there are some difficulties getting level up material and the like.

Difficulty: Easy
CRK is a pretty easy game to play due to the existence of an “auto” function in World Exploration, where the attacks are set to happen as soon as their cooldown is over, and a speed-up function where the fights are able to be sped up to 1.5 times the original speed. The main point of this game is to use gems to pull for cookies and create more materials to level them up in order to build your Kingdom. So other than that RNG needed, all you need is game knowledge and strategies, as well as team compositions, which are searchable online!

Content amount:
Permanent content – decent amount | Event content – decent amount
CRK has a Kingdom where materials are created, World Exploration where the storyline is mainly unraveled, Arena for PVP, daily Bounties for more material, Guilds, Quests, etc. Most of the time, there are events going on, many with decently generous awards that range from skins to free materials for logging in daily.

Storage taken: Not a lot (~1.5 GB)

Other information:
There is no Co-op in CRK.
There is a system where friends can send you gifts (mostly coins).
Players can play against other players in PVP battles in the Arena; like the typical PVP, players will move up ranks and receive rewards for every rank they go up and every player they defeat.

Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! (aka Project Sekai: Colorful Stage! feat. Hatsune Miku)

Second of all is an up and coming rhythm game that just got an English version, Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage (Colorful Stage for short)! If you’re familiar with rhythm games or VOCALOID, you might have heard of this game under the name Project Sekai (or ProSeka). In this game, you can use gacha to pull for cards that each come with skills, and you can then upgrade them in order to increase your score.

F2P Friendly: Yes, but also no…

This game is somewhat friendly because a full team of 4 stars is not needed to get a good score (3 stars should suffice, and there is one guaranteed for every 10 pull). However, on the flip side, in order to reach pity and guarantee a 4 star card, you need to do 300 pulls, on one banner, as instead of getting a card from the gacha for pity, you exchange 300 gacha stickers for any 4 star featured in that banner. Since these stickers do not carry over from banners, pity is very hard to reach unless you save up.

Difficulty: Up to you. There are five levels of difficulty you can choose from.
The five difficulties are Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert and Master. Unlike the other difficulties, which are all unlocked initially, Master is unlocked individually for songs, and only if players break their combo less than seven times on Expert.

Content amount: Not so much
In the end, there are only so many songs in the game, and gameplay remains similar for most songs. People who are easily bored will likely not be able to keep playing for a long time. Also, due to Co-op song selection, you may end up having to play the same few songs many, many times.

Storage amount: Decent amount (~3-4 GB)

Other information:
Certain songs have 3DMVs (MVs with 3D models) or 2DMVs (MVs with art) that can be shown in the background while you play that song. You can also view 3DMVs outside of gameplay with the Music Video Viewer.
The characters shown in the 3DMV will correspond with the cards in your team. As such, you can change the 3DMV’s characters to your liking. There are also aesthetic changes that you can make to characters, such as costumes, and these changes will be reflected in 3DMVs.
There is Co-op in this game. You can randomly join rooms and play with others, and then all members select songs and one is randomly chosen to be played; in addition, playing in co-op would increase the rewards you receive.
There are Virtual Lives, where you can watch characters perform songs and are similar to virtual concerts; by joining these and staying until the end of one, you can gain rewards such as gacha currency.
The Japanese version of the game is a little more than a year ahead of the English version (this will remain the case until the summer of 2022, which is when the English version will be 1 year behind the Japanese version and will remain that way)