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Another Superb Play-To-Win Gacha Game - Alice Fiction Review

1K View2022-08-14

It feels increasingly hard to find gacha games that aren’t blatantly pay-to-win. I have no problem spending a few bucks on getting a character or weapon in a game I’ve been enjoying, but it seems like every year gachas try to one-up each other over whose microtransactions end with the most zeros. We recently shared some of our top choices for gacha games that have more reasonable monetization, and I’m glad to have found another game to add to that list. That game is Alice Fiction, an immersive gacha RPG about the Metaverse.

Alice Fiction is set in a futuristic world where people can live in the Metaverse and shape their virtual lives however they want. You play one of those people, but things quickly go wrong and you need to unveil the mysteries behind a series of catastrophic events.

Image Credited to ALICE Fiction | WonderPlanet Inc.

One of Alice Fiction’s selling points that most gacha games fail to deliver is its storyline. Out of all the gacha games I’ve played, this one features the most in-depth narrative, as well as the most voice-acted dialogue.

In the world of Alice Fiction, the Metaverse (which is named ALICE) provides people with a second chance to live their dream life under the rule of an AI called the Queen. Because of an error that occurs when your protagonist jumps into ALICE’s world, you lose your memory, face a terrifying monster built of corrupted data, and your supposed sister dies in front of you. From there, the mysteries about yourself unravel, and it’s up to you to regain your memories and uncover the secrets within ALICE.

Stretches of dialogue and frequent tidbits of character lore aren’t uncommon in gacha games, but Alice Fiction goes the distance with extensive backstory and fully voiced lines for every character. I typically scroll past the story portions of gacha games without paying much attention, but not so with Alice Fiction. I found it to be one of the more compelling sides of the game.

Image Credited to ALICE Fiction | WonderPlanet Inc.

That’s not to dismiss the quality of its gameplay as well. Alice Fiction is a rapid-paced experience that required me to tap at my screen quicker than ever. Combat here is split into phases, shifting from your turn to the enemies. In the initial phase, you choose which castable ability you want each character to focus on; then once the actual combat phase begins, you need to start tapping color-coded panels at the bottom of the screen in order to pull off your moves.

These color-tapping segments are timed to keep up the intensity and discourage you from just zoning out as you play. The more panels you correctly tap, the more damage you’ll dish out by stringing together combos of attacks and abilities. It’s a challenging but engaging system.

Though it requires eager and energetic tapping to keep up, I didn’t run into any difficulties grasping Alice Fiction’s combat mechanics. The tutorial system was comprehensive, to the point that I’d be surprised if any players end up not understanding how things work. I found the quick pace of this gameplay system invigorating, and thanks to the balanced mechanics and smooth character power curves, I never ran into any power-level walls.

Image Credited to ALICE Fiction | WonderPlanet Inc.

Alice Fiction’s playable characters are called Folklores. Most of them correlate to gods and goddesses like Apollo or significant pioneers of science like Hippocrates, but they don’t particularly look the part. However, the Folklores also aren’t just scantily clad women like in other gachas; they tend toward more fashionable and eye-catching styles.

Alice Fiction also has a strikingly different approach to how it handles gacha rolls. Each gacha roll is based on the set draw rates (the roll percentage per individual character), meaning you may not always roll the best character at one hundred pulls. But you’re guaranteed either a two or three-starred character every tenth pull. The highest attainable rarity in gacha rolls in Alice Fiction is only three stars, and the character progression is built around building your heroes up to five stars from there. Instead of high pity systems, the game hooks you in through collecting characters and character tokens needed to upgrade Folklore.

Just how play-to-win friendly is Alice Fiction? Well, I’ve only been playing for a week, and I’ve already collected almost all of the game’s current roster of forty-two characters. Most of them are only three or two-starred at the moment, but there hasn’t been any noticeable power gap that’s held me back from completing content. Alice Fiction also has tons of rewards it gives out just for playing too. It’s not hard to imagine collecting the strongest versions of the game’s characters within mere weeks or months of gameplay, as opposed to the years of endless grinding (or hefty payments) required in some gacha games.

Image Credited to ALICE Fiction | WonderPlanet Inc.

These days, I test lots of gacha games but usually end up deleting them within a week due to the low quality standards in the genre as a whole. I initially thought Alice Fiction was sure to be just another disappointment on the growing stack of gacha games that weren’t worth my time, but it ended up being a lovely surprise. I genuinely enjoyed everything about the game. If you’re looking for a gacha that isn’t just a money pit, Alice Fiction is a splendid option—one I expect to continue relishing for a long time to come.

SCORE: 4 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• Destiny Child. If you’re looking for something a little similar to Destiny Child’s gameplay and various characters, albeit less overtly provocative, Alice Fiction is the game for you. Feel free to check out my review of Destiny Child to see how the two compare.

• Cookie Run: Kingdom. If you enjoy play-to-win gacha games like Cookie Run: Kingdom, you’ll likely adore Alice Fiction. If you’re interested in more games that aren’t disguised as money pits, feel free to read TapTap’s collection of the best gacha games that don’t just steal your wallet.

💬 Have you played Alice Fiction? Do you think we’ll be able to enter the Metaverse and live second lives in the next century, like in Alice Fiction?

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