This is a bit of a personal post and less formal than what you can expect here, but if you see the images from this blog and think Iron Saga is a game you want to try I'd advise against it.

The Gameplay

The gameplay consists of building a team and deploying them to a partially-scrolling battlefield where they fight off enemies until one side is destroyed or time expires. You have minimal input, only able to direct one unit's movements every ten-seconds (with the ability to store up to three movements) and to activate their special ability once it is recharged assuming the necessary conditions are met. Not only does this make gameplay uninvolved, it also is unnecessarily hard as your units will not act optimally and may bunch up or move in ways that get them destroyed. There is a gamemode with direct controls but it has no narrative relevance, still requires for you to engage with the rest of the gameplay to build a suitable unit, and the controls themselves are sluggish.

It should also be noted the game is quite poorly translated. Not unreadable, but definitely a very rough experience. I'm not usually one to harp on that kind of thing, learning a second language is hard and as an English speaker I certainly don't need to be catered to, but between what this game is and how much that poor translation impedes accessibility it's noteworthy, at least.

The Gacha

Iron Saga is a gacha game, so even if it was amazing in every other respect I'd still be cautious to recommend it. To buy enough premium currency for a single pull you need to spend at least 3 USD even when buying the largest bundle possible. There are all sorts of bundles and monthly passes and daily discounts but this is not meant to be a cheap game or have an understandable monetary system.

It should also be noted that in usual gacha fashion you require lots of duplicates to max out your units' potentials, something that is necessary as explained in the gameplay section. This is made even more frustrating than most gacha games as you inventory is very limited and can only be expanded with premium currency. This, combined with the usual stamina limitations and limited banners, means if you're not prepared to spend a lot of money you're going to feel and be very limited.

The Story and Characters

I think one of the biggest reasons not to play this game is the narrative. I struggle to think of a game that is quite as gross as this, and I played Nikke for a moment. The protagonist, Becas, is an uninteresting nonce, remarking on every woman, girl, or effeminate character regardless of age and is fully supported by the narration that clumsily tries to describe their appearances. When he's not leering over the various women who cross his path he's stumbling between major world events with complete apathy, only stopping to care when it's meant to subvert our expectations or show how great he is. Basically, if you've seen any anime that has an aloof protagonist who doesn't flaunt his power level (but is still nearly undefeatable) and has a harem you know exactly what Becas is like and can guess what he'll do at any given time. The other characters are also painfully played-out archetypes and from the moment they're introduced you know exactly what their deal is and how they'll be treated by the narrative.

There's a lot I could say about the attitudes this game has about women and people from the global south, but smarter people than me have said the exact same stuff about other similar media, so I'll leave it unsaid here.

So why make this blog?