The overhype for Endfield is real, and my disappointment immeasurable. I don't trust Hypergryph, who I now call Hypergreed, after the PayPal fiasco. Chinese companies mishandling sensitive customer data isn't new, but HG should be better than that. I'm avoiding playing OG Arknights for now.
Bog-standard gacha story? Silent MC with amnesia? Characters glazing MC? Cartoony antagonists with unclear goals? Cast is mostly waifus? Excess exposition? Check on all of them. Endfield belongs in the waifu gacha trash. Waiting for NTE and Ananta to see if they're a breath of fresh air for gacha.
Endfield special program dropped a few hours ago, and my excitement died a bit. HG already forcing FOMO with the gacha currency in their welcome rewards. They won't carry over to limited banners and need to be spent before they expire. Gacha system is really convoluted so many different currencies.
The use of AI dub for the special release is awful. Either HG got lazy, or doing more than they can reasonably do.
The endgame modes are uninspired and come off as the Endfield's Spiral Abyss from Genshin, and I wasn't the only one who thought about it based on viewer reactions. HG really using everything in the FOMO playbook to make people pull for characters to pass the DPS checks.
Based on the narration (again with AI dubs), story barely improved from CBT2. Understandable given it's not too long since CBT2 ended. Also disappointed with the lopsided male-female ratio. It's gonna be another waifu gacha, but it's expected more males will play than females like with the original AK.
At this point, they'll be Hoyo 2.0 with how they exploit players and promote the game. AK glazers on YouTube are lapping up this special program like it's the greatest thing ever and it's honestly sad.
Even then, HG shouldn't copy Hoyo on inflated player stats. Not when they need to work on Endfield's story, cuz right now it's Hoyo levels of bloat. Valley IV arc is a boring mess.
I can't picture myself sticking through future patches each filled with tens of hours of bloated dialogue and poor story pacing just so I can be "caught up" with the story. Devs, not just Hoyo or HG, need to put in effort to make spending time (and optionally money) in their games worth it. Don't hold players captive with dailies and drag out stories just to pad it out.
Was not aware there's 8 Hoyoverse games now. Looks like a gacha hell to avoid or play sparingly.
A friend dropped GI and HSR, but still plays ZZZ because the excessive dialogue of the 2 games takes hours to catch up on their current stories. It's mostly irrelevant to character development and lore too.
