My musing about inaccessibility for new players of long running gachas
The most vivid memory a gacha game left me with was playing Granblue Fantasy (GBF). It was a mixed bag for me on the one hand enjoying their heartfelt story and their bright cast of characters while on the other hand being a beginner frustated with their longwinded and confusing navigation as well as tutorial hell.
Before I started playing GBF I already had experience with other gacha, mostly Ayakashi: Ghost Guild. Even then, nothing would've prepared me for GBF.
Personally, I would dub it the most beginner unfriendly game I have ever experienced. When I started out it was around 2018 when the anniversary event "What makes the sky blue: Paradise Lost" was released.
I became interested in the game when on twitter someone posted about a character named Belial, the antagonist of the anni event. He caught the attention of many players because he talks with a raunchy and suggestive undertone.
Funnily enough, Belial being a slut was the only reason I wanted to start playing GBF but I digress.
In the beginning I just played the event and afterwards progressed by just reading the main story. The more time went on, the more I came across information and options.
Stuff like: Recruiting Eternals, Seraphic Weapons, Fate Episode, Coop, Bahamut Weapons, Class, Class Weapons, Weapon Grid, Xeno Weapons, Rank Uncap, etc.
First of all, finding those things within the game was and is sometimes still a challenge for me. More then often certain options are buried in multiple conveluted subpages.
Another thing is the information overload you get when looking up for certain things. For example you want to know what a grid is and ultimately build it. Case in point:
Okay, it might be unfair to say that this page is too much information if you only want to look at a specific element.
Still, as a beginner you have to still look up all the required weapons: where to grind them, how many, what does it do, do i need it, what weapon can i substitute it with and so on and forth. It is still mentally taxing.
And in the end, if you look at an incredibly long wiki page, at least for me, I automatically lose all motivation to go on.
Luckily enough I could ask a friend for advice but it makes me wonder do i really want to rely on other people to teach me how to play a game?
I can imagine that this is a ongoing problem because the older a gacha game becomes the more content it will get therefore making it harder for newcomer to hop right on.
In the end I pushed through by on playing content I only cared about and with a lot of help from a friend but to this day, I still feel like I haven't unlocked the full potential. The most important part is that I can comfortably clear most content and that's enough for me.










