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It lives. They start updating it again.
|OT| Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium | Zhaohui (June 12th)
- Thread starter Cacher
- Start date
In that Beilan broadcast they actually called the non-challenging events in the patch 'welfare events' lol. As if anything that's easy is basically welfare for their playerbase.
As for pulls, I'm wondering what I should do now. I slowly made my way to 50 pity on Centauressi's banner and didn't get her. So now I'm within 20 pulls of a limited character. The plan was (and still is) to try and get a dupe or two of Klukai when she reruns, but I want to get Centauressi as well and my concern is that her rerun banners will become rarer after new dolls come into the game. Do we think she'll be gone for months after this rerun? And for that matter, will the same thing happen for Klukai after her rerun as well? It seems logical that they'd want to rerun the entire roster before coming back to these dolls who have already had one rerun right?
Also I didn't know this was a thing but apparently they celebrate their half year anniversary as well - https://x.com/GFL2EXILIUM_EN/status/1930580780423532822
As for pulls, I'm wondering what I should do now. I slowly made my way to 50 pity on Centauressi's banner and didn't get her. So now I'm within 20 pulls of a limited character. The plan was (and still is) to try and get a dupe or two of Klukai when she reruns, but I want to get Centauressi as well and my concern is that her rerun banners will become rarer after new dolls come into the game. Do we think she'll be gone for months after this rerun? And for that matter, will the same thing happen for Klukai after her rerun as well? It seems logical that they'd want to rerun the entire roster before coming back to these dolls who have already had one rerun right?
Also I didn't know this was a thing but apparently they celebrate their half year anniversary as well - https://x.com/GFL2EXILIUM_EN/status/1930580780423532822
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In CN they eventually added two banner reruns per patch instead of one. Not sure when we will see it in global but yeah, Centauressi will probably be gone for months.
The celebration art is pretty nice.
At least looking at the bright side it's not going to take too much to get global to chapter 12 considering the new doll cadence we have, but at this point I fully expect some of the more recent CN dolls to be fast tracked to global to fill the slots between main chapters if they're skipping Lenna or Jiangyu until the rewrites
I wonder if Springfield will be next after Zhaohui looking at who we're missing
I wonder if Springfield will be next after Zhaohui looking at who we're missing
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The interesting tidbit is that Leva / Robella stories are ch 11/12 whereas Springfield / Peri stories are side stories but closely related to main story (something I heard but cannot confirm). So technically Mica can get us Leva / Robella stories first.
In Zhaohui's Beilan video, Mo said the next program will be a special one so the next patch has to be something big. I see that there are three routes to take:
- The Popular: Springfield / Peri event. This is totally fair considering the element of Zhaohui
- The Unexpected: Leva / Robella event. Many people's Collapse Pieces collection will evaporate in thin air, and I can have good night's sleep!
- The Ambush: Global time-exclusive M200 / Type100 event. Unhinged and may cause anger from CN, but I can see the probability. I want to see this the most, just for the surprise and drama follows.
10th Event: Echo of Dawn
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Finished Yoohee's event. The story and writing was okay. Not good, not bad, Music is excellent though - there are some great tracks, especially the one played when Yoohee danced during stage 5. I also like the improvements on story presentation, like character portraits moving around (eg. Nagant grandma buried in snow and got pulled out by Ksenia) or the cache overflow effect.
Overall I am happy with the event. Bring on Zhaohui!
Overall I am happy with the event. Bring on Zhaohui!
Same. I enjoyed Peak Value Assessment too, especially the later tiers because of the level designs.
I thought Yoohee's event was just okay. It was clearly a Christmas even that they delivered in June, perfect timing. I don't know... how much I like this game varies from patch to patch depending on how much I enjoyed the storytelling of that patch.
Years ago I had heard of GFL1. The first impression you get for these games when you look into them is that they're just sexy anime girl games... but the people who played it insisted it had this really dark, desperate, devastating sort of writing. I never tried it because it was mobile only but that was the expectation from this sequel. And so far, can anyone say that they have delivered that? There have only been hints of it throughout the last 6-7 months. I think one reason is that the main story has just been fridged because they are still doing rewrites of their content. Honestly, at this point it's just mismanagement. Changing around the order of doll releases in the global version, coming up with things like Chapter 8.5, 9.75 and so on is just comically silly. And so without consistently good writing, this game really is just a sexy anime girl game (which I have no issues with whatsoever). A look at reddit or Twitter just reinforces this. All the screenshots, all the fanart, all the memes, it's always the same. Although I will say that this community has nothing on the First Descendant community. That community hit an all time high (or low) a few weeks ago when they managed to embarrass the developers during a live interview. I've never seen anything like it.
Anyway I had about 365 tickets at the start of this patch. Was also on 60 pity in the banner. Used up half my tickets and got 1 copy of Tololo and 3 copies of Klukai. Hopefully I'll reach around 240-250 by the time the next patch comes. People are getting hyped up for something big in their half anniversary event so hopefully that turns out good.
Years ago I had heard of GFL1. The first impression you get for these games when you look into them is that they're just sexy anime girl games... but the people who played it insisted it had this really dark, desperate, devastating sort of writing. I never tried it because it was mobile only but that was the expectation from this sequel. And so far, can anyone say that they have delivered that? There have only been hints of it throughout the last 6-7 months. I think one reason is that the main story has just been fridged because they are still doing rewrites of their content. Honestly, at this point it's just mismanagement. Changing around the order of doll releases in the global version, coming up with things like Chapter 8.5, 9.75 and so on is just comically silly. And so without consistently good writing, this game really is just a sexy anime girl game (which I have no issues with whatsoever). A look at reddit or Twitter just reinforces this. All the screenshots, all the fanart, all the memes, it's always the same. Although I will say that this community has nothing on the First Descendant community. That community hit an all time high (or low) a few weeks ago when they managed to embarrass the developers during a live interview. I've never seen anything like it.
Anyway I had about 365 tickets at the start of this patch. Was also on 60 pity in the banner. Used up half my tickets and got 1 copy of Tololo and 3 copies of Klukai. Hopefully I'll reach around 240-250 by the time the next patch comes. People are getting hyped up for something big in their half anniversary event so hopefully that turns out good.
Having just finished Zhao Yui's event, I feel it highlights most of the issues the game has with the writing (although I don't think it's a bad event on its own)
Regardless of its quality, this event really shows the real problem with the story, and why they're rewriting older events: they just don't know what they're doing. Zhao Yui is a baffling character, or maybe she is a relic of a long lost time when the devs hoped the end gameplay would have been different. Congratulations, you made a unit that can basically move anywhere on a map while sacrificing damage, in a game where 90% of the maps have a kill all/boss win condition. Now now, everyone is free to like her or roll her, but her kit is so poorly thought I really can't think of a reason to ever deploy her in any stage. Vanguard as a class has been in a weird position since the game's launch but at least units like Ullrid or Daiyan have ways to cause damage (even if less than sentinels), but Zhao doesn't even have that, her damage output is Krolik level terrible. She is unsalvageble
And her event, I'll say there is an interesting setup in the whole new Varjager "Boss" that suddenly turned them into a real organized group instead of the random fodder they were (although it's still another setup for the future among many setups), and the story is "fine" as far as side stories go, but this event is supposed to "sell" Zhao to the players? Because the only thing I wanted after the event is for the rest of Moonson squad to be fast tracked to global instead. I won't go into detail because otherwise I'll post the entire event here but man what a poor showing she has. And that's without talking about how obviously the event feels like something the devs scraped together with what they had (what the hell was with that pathetic excuse to justify Aida's portrait lmao)
In the end, with the event and the character kit it's time to talk about the real issue with the game: the Exilium originals just don't bring the money
Yeah well I guess making most of the originals bad on purpose didn't help, but it's undeniable all the rewrites but even all the upcoming dolls are there so they can push fan favorites to make more money. There have been serious mistakes made with the gameplay since launch the devs still didn't manage to fix, like how MGs have no role at all (there have been zero new MGs added to the game since launch, Littara and Peritya are the only ones even in CN), how Vanguards have poor stat spread (high movement but limited damage, and this is also why BLDs are in the same situation as MGs, although 1 was added post launch), and how the early story chapters were so devoid of events which probably soured most players over the (mostly original) Elmo team, which then caused those same players to be soured on the few original dolls too
And so the devs didn't just press that emergency button, they smashed the entire set up with a hammer: no more original dolls (Andoris is the only one still missing from global, and honestly her design, character and voice is so similar to a Neural Cloud original doll I'm not even sure she is really "fully original" despite having a different name), full pivot to returning GF1 dolls, especially the most popular ones (so many dolls that have been hinted are still missing, hell one that was in the dusty journals since launch (Lind) and had a model ready since at least 6 months ago just recently got added to CN). rewriting the story to make the commander more present but also to have his most trusted dolls rejoin him (suddenly the "agreement" is void because... and I say this as someone who though the agreement was a complete copout), no more vanguards because players don't roll them, sentinels and supports only because they are the only classes worth using in the game (and even with supports most new ones have ways to cause high amounts of damage too, because damage is the only stat that matter in the current game modes). Boy look at all these dolls that cried in desperation after they could join you for 10 years. Feeling guilt yet? Good think you can now roll for them! Krolik? Nemesis? Never heard of them. We even got rid of Helena just to get a "better Helena" with Melanie despite Helena being the entire main focus point of the first 6 chapters (and, again, I say this as someone who is basically only using his old favorites and prefers the "new" story because of how boring the early chapters were). Even when looking at costumes the vast majority of the paid ones are for the popular dolls, while units like Ullrid still have no costume even after more than a year
Unfoprtunately money is king with gachas, and if paid users want only nostalgia then the devs will eventually comply
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The way I see it, we are still in the huge "chapter 1" stage. The main players are still being introduced and there's not much big fighting yet. GFL1 middle to late main story events had wars (literally) involving multiple factions, perspectives, and the use of weapons of mass destruction. GFL2 main story takes place in peaceful time after formation of URNC and the scale of events is much smaller compared with what happened in war times. Obviously, to many modern players the slow-burnt pacing and relatively slice-of-life story (of side event) doesn't work. We are living in an age of AAAA gachas and they can pump out huge, high quality content every month. GFL2 is much better to treat as a side thing at its current state. Although I wish that Mica can recruit more people and make more content, I seriously doubt their management can sustain a huge team and big output.
Money is definitely a big issue. Popular characters show up with pervy skins (not my thing. sadly) in CN year 2, which is quite obviously a product of year 1 data. I can imagine that global money will help them a lot but the effect of global money will not be obvious until next year.
I am currently halfway through Zhaohui event story. Interestingly it exceeded my expectations. I originally had no expectation to her story after Yoohee's event but I like that Zhaohui and commander disagree on things and they need to sort it out like colleagues. And the fact that her damaged facial module means she does not show and say her thoughts outright. On the other hand, how she randomly bumped into the Commander and Groza is pure bullshit though. Yellow Zone isn't that small lol.
I would say that GFL2 story has one strength over GFL1: all characters have their time to shine. In GFL1 many characters did not have proper stories (outside of some side stories from skins and festival events); in contrast every character in GFL2 has their own main or side story event. All characters have their fans, unlike many minor GFL1 characters who are forgotten by most people. Hell, I honestly don't remember the personality of Cheeta (or MP7, by her old name. And no offense to her fans) in GFL1 but now she is quite a popular character although she is weak in combat.
My biggest complaints are still the minigames and the platoon system. The formers are half-baked while the latter is simply a poorly-thoughtout mode. Yeah 'fun'smoke alright
In other news, my wallet will be in danger.
Money is definitely a big issue. Popular characters show up with pervy skins (not my thing. sadly) in CN year 2, which is quite obviously a product of year 1 data. I can imagine that global money will help them a lot but the effect of global money will not be obvious until next year.
I am currently halfway through Zhaohui event story. Interestingly it exceeded my expectations. I originally had no expectation to her story after Yoohee's event but I like that Zhaohui and commander disagree on things and they need to sort it out like colleagues. And the fact that her damaged facial module means she does not show and say her thoughts outright. On the other hand, how she randomly bumped into the Commander and Groza is pure bullshit though. Yellow Zone isn't that small lol.
I would say that GFL2 story has one strength over GFL1: all characters have their time to shine. In GFL1 many characters did not have proper stories (outside of some side stories from skins and festival events); in contrast every character in GFL2 has their own main or side story event. All characters have their fans, unlike many minor GFL1 characters who are forgotten by most people. Hell, I honestly don't remember the personality of Cheeta (or MP7, by her old name. And no offense to her fans) in GFL1 but now she is quite a popular character although she is weak in combat.
My biggest complaints are still the minigames and the platoon system. The formers are half-baked while the latter is simply a poorly-thoughtout mode. Yeah 'fun'smoke alright
In other news, my wallet will be in danger.
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My biggest complaints are still the minigames and the platoon system. The formers are half-baked while the latter is simply a poorly-thoughtout mode. Yeah 'fun'smoke alright
Just "kluk" it to save your sanity
Borrow one, press auto and go do something else for 10 minutes and come back to your free 3k score
Borrow one, press auto and go do something else for 10 minutes and come back to your free 3k score
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Yeah. Borrowing your Klukai soon.
Just "kluk" it to save your sanity
Borrow one, press auto and go do something else for 10 minutes and come back to your free 3k score
Thank you.WHAT EVEN IS GFL2?/jk
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I finished the new event story and thought it was okay. It was nice to see the perspective of a doll that isn't head over heels in love with the commander but the story was too short to properly explore that idea. Also, we got confirmation that The Agreement means nothing anymore even though that was obvious with the parade of older dolls finding their way into the story in the last few months.
I hadn't given much thought to the structural problems of the game but you guys are right with some of your thoughts.
The game is too easy, but that's as it should be. These kinds of games have to be easy with optional hard modes for the people who are fully invested monetarily or otherwise. I would have dropped the game a long time ago if the gameplay had been as involved as Genshin for example. The ability to just press a few buttons to automate the whole thing is a big part of why I didn't leave. But being so easy means the classes and even elements/synergies are next to meaningless. You can just delete the vanguard class archetype because nothing ever needs to be tanked in the game. Making synergistic teams is only required if you're going for the hardest challenges or highest score in Gunsmoke or something. I don't know if there's a future where team building is going to matter but right now you just need 1 healer/support (basically Suomi) and you can use any other combination of sentinels that you choose. I don't know what they can do to make the actual combat gameplay interesting enough without making it too hard for most of the playerbase.
The other issue is the narrative, and again you're right that the game really feels like a GFL1 doll waiting room now. Everyone who played the first game has a favorite they were or still are waiting for. Aside from the fact that this invalidates the ending of the first game, it also means the narrative drags to halt while we wait for all these old dolls to randomly find their way onto the Elmo. It's kind of crazy that the main story is still at the point where we're doing the first contract of the game and trying to resolve the situation surrounding Helena. That flowchart above is nuts and I bet no one can keep track of the timeline if it keeps expanding that way. And then you hear they're still doing rewrites. Surely they are losing support over time right? Has anyone been keeping track of how much the game is making in those monthly reports? Is it going up or down?
Again, I'm not sure what they can do to fix the narrative but it also feels like it shouldn't be too hard. They just need to properly plan out a narrative for at least a year and implement it. It's a visual novel where they regularly reuse old backgrounds so it can't be that time consuming to actually make the story chapters once they have the story figured out. The real question is why is the story still not figured out.
Also Gunsmoke still sucks. Really dislike doing it. And the vampire survivors mode kind of sucks too. I don't know why but I think they made it harder or something. I played it a few times yesterday and I was getting terribly low scores with Sabrina. Is there some trick I'm missing or should I just let it be and save myself the irritation?
I hadn't given much thought to the structural problems of the game but you guys are right with some of your thoughts.
The game is too easy, but that's as it should be. These kinds of games have to be easy with optional hard modes for the people who are fully invested monetarily or otherwise. I would have dropped the game a long time ago if the gameplay had been as involved as Genshin for example. The ability to just press a few buttons to automate the whole thing is a big part of why I didn't leave. But being so easy means the classes and even elements/synergies are next to meaningless. You can just delete the vanguard class archetype because nothing ever needs to be tanked in the game. Making synergistic teams is only required if you're going for the hardest challenges or highest score in Gunsmoke or something. I don't know if there's a future where team building is going to matter but right now you just need 1 healer/support (basically Suomi) and you can use any other combination of sentinels that you choose. I don't know what they can do to make the actual combat gameplay interesting enough without making it too hard for most of the playerbase.
The other issue is the narrative, and again you're right that the game really feels like a GFL1 doll waiting room now. Everyone who played the first game has a favorite they were or still are waiting for. Aside from the fact that this invalidates the ending of the first game, it also means the narrative drags to halt while we wait for all these old dolls to randomly find their way onto the Elmo. It's kind of crazy that the main story is still at the point where we're doing the first contract of the game and trying to resolve the situation surrounding Helena. That flowchart above is nuts and I bet no one can keep track of the timeline if it keeps expanding that way. And then you hear they're still doing rewrites. Surely they are losing support over time right? Has anyone been keeping track of how much the game is making in those monthly reports? Is it going up or down?
Again, I'm not sure what they can do to fix the narrative but it also feels like it shouldn't be too hard. They just need to properly plan out a narrative for at least a year and implement it. It's a visual novel where they regularly reuse old backgrounds so it can't be that time consuming to actually make the story chapters once they have the story figured out. The real question is why is the story still not figured out.
Also Gunsmoke still sucks. Really dislike doing it. And the vampire survivors mode kind of sucks too. I don't know why but I think they made it harder or something. I played it a few times yesterday and I was getting terribly low scores with Sabrina. Is there some trick I'm missing or should I just let it be and save myself the irritation?
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Regarding future difficulty, these are what I know:
- Event story stages stay easy, but a new "Hero Mode" was created: optional high difficulty stages which require the best dolls. No additional rewards from clearing.
- Boundary Rush has element-specified bounties: enemies only receive damage from one particular element
- Likewise, physical only / AOE damage only enemies also appear
I may have missed some other additions since I only follow CN server briefly. Personally I agree with you that the game should be easy. A ton of players would have left if the game was difficult. The game not feeling like a chore to do (outside Gunsmoke) is a huge plus.
Regarding revenue, GFL2 is still doing really good. Surely not among the big leagues like Mihoyo, but I am pretty sure that it stays in the top 30/40, and the chart only includes numbers from mobile so it should make a lot more. Don't know much about future story, but judging from the flowchart, a big showdown from all side seems to be warming up. Maybe the next CN major event (likely next patch) will be the one where all hell breaks loose.
Another thing to look out for would be the Elmo free roam mode update. For CN server, Mica said it is planning to go live in July (so next patch). Knowing how Mica works, I wouldn't expect them to knock it out of the park at first but I think it will build up into something nice down the road. Hopefully it will be added to global soon.
Regarding Gunsmoke, I don't really use hydro squad lol. I stick with my physical squad and "Klukai and her friends". With Sabrina, I guess you need to use her AOE to make hydro tiles in order to make the buff coming into effect?
Not heard of this free roam mode. Is it like driving the Elmo around an open world map?
Also when I mentioned Sabrina I was referring to having trouble using her in the vampire survivors mode, not gunsmoke.
Nah, it's more like being able to explore and decorate the Elmo freely instead of being just a menu
Also don't bother with the Vampire Survivor minigame. It's not that great and since all upgrades reset each time it's just a massive chore
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