Gacha!
Well, Nintendo held their Direct for Dragalia Lost last night. Sorry, people expecting Smash news, it didn’t happen. But all in all, Dragalia Lost is shaping up to be quite the mobile action RPG.
Story being what it is, I’m not really going to go over it. But, in a surprise of sorts, the game does have a seemingly solid touch-based combat system. Moving is just dragging from a point of the screen; dodging is a matter of swiping in a direction. And fighting is a matter of taping what you want to hit.
You also form a party of four, the members of which can be switched to at any time, should you wish to use their abilities actively. Each character i the game has a general role, like attacker or defense, so making a balanced party is probably going to be a thing. There’s also a bit of rock-paper-scissors going on; not just with weapons, but elementally. Knowing what you’re likely to run into element-wise is specifically mentioned, so making the right choice for a given area is also important.
The major feature of combat, however, are dragon transformations. Each character in your party has a dragon to which they’re bonded. Once you’ve collected enough crystals from monsters, or environmental pickups, you can transform for a limited time (as long as the bar lasts, that is). The dragons are far more powerful than your characters normally are, so you probably want to save a transformation for when you’re in a bind, or against a tough opponent.
As is expected in an action RPG, there are plenty of ways to get stronger. There are, of course, experience levels, as well as rarity promotions (more on that below). But there’s also equipment. And every piece of equipment can be upgraded, too. The two unusual options are the Mana Circle, and The Halidom. The Mana Circle allows you to choose certain buffs and abilities to add to a character, in exchange for Mana resources. Think the like of boosting HP, or getting a special attack. The Halidom, on the other hand, is where you earn resources to feed all of that stuff above. It lets you build mines to earn money or other resources, in addition to shrines that increase your party’s abilities.
But, as is common in mobile games (and especially those from Japan), you don’t just get the characters the game gives you. At least, as long as you’re willing to pony up some cold, hard cash. That said, the gacha in the game seems pretty fair from this distance.You can summon three types of things: new adventurers, new dragons, and special items called wyrmprints. While rolling a natural 5 star saves you some time, adventurers from the gacha can be promoted to that rank for better stats and abilities, etc. Since you only ever need one of a character, duplicates grant you Eldwater, used to promote all characters to a higher rank. You can also summon Dragons, which is fairly self explanatory. And Wyrmprints are like talismans; when equipped,they grant special abilities, like a percentage increase to healing and the like. Wyrmprints can also be leveled, so they too can get stronger.
There are two currencies used for summoning: Wyrmite and Diamantium. Wyrmite is the stuff they hand out for completing certain quests or as log in bonuses. Diamantium is the premium currency, which can only be purchased. Why you couldn’t have just one single thing like they did with Fire Emblem Heroes is beyond me.
You can also team up with other players in real time to play through the game. Yes, you an play the entire game’s quests in multiplayer! You can set up a lobby to look for people willing to join, or invite friends. There are also special events where a large number of players fight a boss in something like a raid.
The last thing the Direct left us with is the release date. Dragalia Lost goes live on iOS and Android on September 27, 2018. And it’s available in Japan, the US, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and will have language support for Japanese, English, and both traditional and simplified Chinese.
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