Before we officially don our Mystic Codes and descend into the Nasuverse, we have two final tasks that need to be done. As a request from good friend and fellow podcaster Maxie (you can find her in Eidolon Playtest), we talk about our very brief impressions of Cookie Run. And because our episode on Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle was lost due to hard drive failure, I really wanted to finally get a Dragon Ball episode out there, so Sierra graciously tried out Dragon Ball Legends with me. Join us as we discuss how perfectly okay both games are and just goof around for half an hour.
Read MoreEpisode 18 - Fire Emblem Heroes & Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
A while ago on this podcast, I talked about Final Fantasy Record Keeper, the gacha that burned me the most. Now it’s Sierra’s turn to do the same for Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. We discuss the ways it could have been great and the horrible grinding mechanics that hold it back. We also go back and check out Fire Emblem Heroes, a game with both tried and launch, to see if it’s as frustrating as we remember it being.
Read MoreEpisode 17 - Goddess Kiss
Okay, I’m just gonna be honest here: this episode is just shy of an hour and a half and we spend maybe 20 minutes talking about the actual game in the episode title. If you’re online as much as Sierra and I are, you may have come across this Vice article about how to have a “healthier” relationship system with Genshin Impacts gacha systems. Our own frustrations with that article and our growing discomfort with how even we’ve covered the games on this podcast led us to spend a significant chunk of time explicitly talking about the dangers of gacha games, being honest with our own experiences of how these games targeted our weaknesses and financially exploited us, and sharing techniques we’ve both used to resist the temptations inherent to these games. We also discuss our plans to transition this podcast away from gacha games and into a topic that we feel still suits the mixture of chaotic bullshit and genuine critical analysis we exude: the works of Kinoko Nasu.
Read MoreEpisode 16 - Honkai Impact 3rd & Genshin Impact
It’s our first-ever double-feature for Gacha Journalism! Back when we initially recorded this episode, Genshin Impact just happened to come out the same week we decided to cover Honkai Impact 3rd, so we thought, “Hey, why not do both and compare the two?” What we discovered were two pretty solid games that may not be for everyone but fill specific niches very well.
Read MoreEpisode 15 - Azur Lane
This was inevitable. When Sierra and I started on this journey, we knew we’d eventually have to cover a game where the core premise is “inanimate objects become hot anime girls.” And well, here we are. So, is it just as trashy as we expected, or is it actually good? The answer to that is more complex than you might imagine.
Read MoreEpisode 14 - Puzzle and Dragons
We’ve finally arrived at one of the very first gacha games that made it big: Puzzle and Dragons. It was a big deal in the mobile-gaming space back in the day, and it’s still chugging along pretty well in 2020. Considering the last game we covered—Magia Record—is being shut down barely over a year after it finally got a global release, well, PAD’s longevity is pretty impressive. But does it still hold up when compared to newer, slicker gacha games? Shockingly, yes! On this episode, Sierra talks in-depth about why she still loves this game, and Dustin manages to discover a new appreciation for it (even if it still intimidates and overwhelms him).
Read MoreEpisode 13 - Magia Record
This episode is technically a review of Magia Record, a mobile game sidestory for Madoka Magica. However, Sierra and Dustin mostly use it as an excuse to shit-talk Gen Urobuchi for a bit. Also, they have an in-depth discussion of their opinions on different styles of “grinds” by contrasting how progression works in Dissida Final Fantasy Opera Omnia and Granblue Fantasy. Oh yeah, and I guess they talk about Magia Record for a bit.
Read MoreEpisode 12 - Terra Battle
Our two-parter on dying games continues with a game that is straight-up actually dead but still keeps trucking anyway: the puzzle game Terra Battle. Sierra explains the history of the game, why she still plays it, and why it was killed in the first place. Meanwhile, Dustin attempts to wrap his head around how it works to…uh…mixed success.
Read MoreEpisode 11 - Mobius Final Fantasy
We’re back once again with another Final Fantasy gacha game. This one, though, is quite a bit weirder than Record Keeper or Dissidia. For one thing, it’s dying, which makes it the very first game we’ve reviewed on this podcast that has been given a definite shutdown date. For another thing, it has a completely original story mode that—unlike both Dissidia and Record Keeper—doesn’t use any pre-existing characters and seems to try to deconstruct the traditional JRPG narrative tropes. On this episode, we’ll try to answer the big question: is it worth it to play through a game that’s already marked for death to see the unique things it’s doing? Or is Mobius a gacha experiment that’s simply getting the fate that it ultimately deserved?
Read MoreEpisode 10 - Valkyrie Anatomia: The Origin
Hey, remember Valkyrie Profile? That incredibly niche but pretty interesting JRPG with turn-based combat where juggling enemies with combos was an integral part of the gameplay? This gacha game is…almost like that. A faint imitation. Like a charcoal rubbing. Or like if you pressed some Silly Putty down really hard onto the original Valkyrie Profile, peeled it off, and then used the surface-level impression Valkyrie Profile left upon the Silly Putty to try and reconstruct what the game is like. And then you also filtered it through micro-transaction-based mechanics. Look, I’m gonna be honest here: we’re not going to be kind to this thing.
Read MoreEpisode 9 - Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia
It’s time for even more Final Fantasy, as Sierra gets to try out a gacha game I’ve been playing since its release date. The results? Shockingly positive! We break down why we love this game and discuss what elements it shares with Granblue that we think make both games friendly for newcomers and free-to-play players. Also we yell about our favorite characters a bunch.
Read MoreEpisode 8 - Final Fantasy Record Keeper
Hey, wait, didn’t we say we were gonna talk about Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle next? Well yes, we did. And we did, in fact, record that podcast. Unfortunately, one of my hard drives died completely, and I was only able to recover 2% of the files that were on it. The audio for the Dokkan Battle episode was not on it. Instead of immediately re-recording the episode, Sierra and I made the decision to put it back in the list of games to review and talk about it whenever our dice roller tells us to.
On that now-destroyed episode, though, we rolled the first of several Final Fantasy gacha games that was in our lists: Record Keeper. Sierra and I dig deep into why this game that both of us once loved now leaves us feeling sad and bitter.
Read MoreEpisode 7 - Fate/Grand Order
This is it, folks. The highest-grossing gacha game in the world. The archetypal wife-collecting simulator. Perhaps Dustin’s most problematic of faves. Fate/Grand Order. We'll be going pretty in-depth on this episode, dissecting why the Fate franchise is appealing even with all its blatant flaws and weird gender dynamics; and, of course, we’ll pick apart where the game itself succeeds and fails and why it feels so much more predatory than other gachas. Also, Dustin will get the gentle roasting he deserves for liking this dumb thing.
Read MoreEpisode 6 - Kingdom Hearts Union X
This episode of Gacha Journalism brings crushing disappointment in the form of a game that should be good but extremely is not. Join us as we delve into the story of the Kingdom Hearts mobile game (which rules) as well as its gameplay (which is awful). It truly is a land of contrasts.
Read MoreEpisode 5 - Langrisser
On this episode, Sierra gets to introduce me to a tactical fantasy RPG series I’ve never heard of before: Langrisser. Turns out this forgotten franchise of consoles past has a mobile game version now and it’s…actually pretty decent? Arguably even better than Fire Emblem? If that sounds bizarre to you, trust us, we were surprised as well, and give this review a listen if you’d like to hear us examine why.
Read MoreEpisode 4 - BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!
This time on Gacha Journalism, we find a game we actually like again? Yes, we escaped the doldrums that were our last two episodes and landed into gay rhythm game paradise with Bang Dream, which is basically Love Live for band nerds. Are you prepared for positivity and also arguing about which band is objectively the best? The answer is Roselia, by the way, and Sierra can’t argue that it’s Afterglow here because she’s not writing the blog posts.
Read MoreEpisode 3 - SMT Liberation Dx2
On this episode, Sierra and I ostensibly talk about the SMT mobile game, but spend most of our runtime bantering about literally anything else. Our issues with Persona and how the Arena games are amazing? Yep. Our hopes for the Granblue fighting game’s roster? Yeah, we cover that too. Welcome to this tangent-filled episode where we try desperately to not discuss this thoroughly mediocre gacha game.
Read MoreEpisode 2 - DanMachi ~Memoria Freese~
For our first randomly-chosen gacha game, the dice roller saw fit to give us DanMachi, a game based on an anime neither of us has seen (but Dustin has seen plenty of tweets and fanart of). Does it elevate its source material? And more importantly, was it at all worth the short amount of time we spent on it? The answer will…probably not surprise you. Join us as we try to find a character we like that doesn’t also make us feel bad for liking them.
Read MoreEpisode 1 - Granblue Fantasy
Hello and welcome to the first episode of Gacha Journalism, a podcast about free-to-play “gacha” games. On our introductory episode, Sierra and I give a brief overview of what gacha games are and some of the common terminology we’re going to be throwing around. Then we dive right into Granblue Fantasy, one of the most influential (and profitable) gacha games. We talk about what makes it so appealing, if its friendly to those who don’t want to spend a dime, and the impact it’s had on legislation. Most importantly, though, we answer the question: how gay is it?
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