✧ Roll For Initiative ✧

Not to sound too parasocial about a fictional character, but that was such a bummer. I got excited for fucking nothing. He was the newest, best thing about this so-called update. Unlike some others, I was always excited to have a new LI and I’ve been a Valko supporter since day one.

However, nuking a fully developed character two weeks before release isn't "listening to the community." It’s a shield from scrutiny and criticism. Players have been furious for months over ACTUAL issues like the painfully slow main story progression (6+ months for updates), predatory back-to-back limited banners, and the neglect of existing LIs like Sylus and Caleb. Instead of taking accountability for greedy ass monetization and poor pacing, Infold threw Valko under the bus to try to dodge the heat.

The discourse around him was completely out of hand and stupid. People accusing him of being designed for the "male gaze" or made to appeal to gay men because he was "too masculine". People even tried to attach home intruder and rapist allegations to a fictional character just because they disliked his design which minimizes real-world trauma and misogyny just to throw a tantrum over a mobile game.

But the "A-0731" lore controversy is where Infold's incompetence really shines because I’m pretty sure that specific text file had been sitting in the game since April's "World Underneath" update. The 0731 history involves horrific colonial atrocities and is a serious trauma. Leaving a reference like that in the game for months is a massive, purely inexcusable oversight on Infold's part. But instead of taking responsibility for their own lack of quality control and narrative writing, Infold panicked when it was brought to light. They chose to weaponize the timeline, cancel Valko, and let him take the fall to deflect from their own failures.

As a Global player, the blatant hypocrisy and lack of respect leaves an incredibly bitter taste in my mouth. I’m a Caleb main but when global fans voiced genuine discomfort over Caleb’s pseudo-incestuous "raised as siblings" brother/sister dynamic, their stance was essentially to ignore it, leaving global players to be told to shut up and "just leave the game if you don't like it." Now, all of a sudden personal taste is a reason to cancel a LI? Lol. Then when Black and brown players spoke up about the poor lighting optimization making darker-skinned MCs look like shitty featureless, invisible shadows in cutscenes, or when we suggested more inclusive hair textures, we got verbally and racially harassed, called entitled and ungrateful for a game that we also invest money into, and then dismissed again. I think Infold just dropped a hollow PR statement to IGN and fixed absolutely nothing.

When international players have slight narrative discomfort or representation concerns, Infold ignores us. But the second a PR crisis hits their domestic servers due to their own careless oversight, Infold will completely delete a character and rewrite the game's plot to protect their bottom line in like 48–72 hrs. Well, nobody gets what they really want now huh???

And that what? daily login for 30 wishes? Infold knows they got caught being too greedy. Throwing out a few free cards doesn't change the fact that they treat this game like a cash cow to be milked with gimmicks rather than respecting the players' time, money, and investment in the actual plot. They don’t give us fair chances to farm dias and it’s not friendly to f2p unless you’re barely invested in the game.

I knew I shouldn't have trusted another gacha company after Hoyoverse. I’m keeping the game installed for now to see what further develops, but I won't be logging in and my wallet is officially closed. No more financial support for a company that handles its own massive oversights by treating its international player base like trash.