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Reverse 1999 Fans Express Anxiety After Third Test - Here's What's Causing Concern

2K View2023-04-25

Reverse 1999, a highly anticipated mobile mystery RPG featuring anime-style characters, has recently completed its third closed beta test. The game’s first two tests impressed fans with its stunning artwork, and this time; players hope it will distinguish itself from the numerous similar games slated for release this year. The game has garnered an impressive 5.5 million pre-registrations on its official website.

The excitement intensified in March when Reverse 1999 received approval for a game license from the NPPA regulators, paving the way for its official release in the market.

However, the third test left some fans disappointed due to issues with the game's emphasis on cultivating excessive teams of characters and the high demand for obtaining resources from its gacha system. They felt that the costs and benefits were not equitable, causing concerns about the game's balance and overall experience.As a result, its rating on TapTap has dropped from above 9 points to 7.7/10.

Reverse 1999's rating on TapTap dropped from above 9 points to 7.7/10.

In the previous two tests, one of the main draws of Reverse 1999 is its exquisite art style. The game's story is set in an alternate history where humans and arcanists coexist. As a member of the arcanist foundation, players must navigate through the Storm, avoid evil plots, and uncover the hidden truths of the year 1999.

Players have found the English accents of the voice acting to be beautiful. Combined with the storyline and retro background settings, this has made for an engaging gaming experience, and the third test showed more of the game’s polish in those areas.

This time, during the test, fans were able to experience the first three chapters of the game.

Screenshots of Reverse 1999

As a turn-based card game, Reverse 1999 defines itself as strategic, and to realize that, the devs have turned the character’s potential actions into a set of cards.

The cards have effects such as damage, health, debuffs, buffs, and ultimate skills. To succeed in the game, players need to balance the overlapping of neighboring cards and carefully choose when to launch each card. The sequence and timing of card usage are also important to achieving victory.

Screenshot of the turn-based card combat system of Reverse 1999

But the problem is that to succeed in Reverse 1999, players must carefully launch a selected team with characters possessing attribute strengths and weaknesses that are effective against specific enemy types. The design for this part requires investing significant time and resources into upgrading characters. However, the game's Consciousness (心相) upgrade system, which is unlocked when certain plot elements are completed and added to the gacha system, has been viewed by some players as an additional burden.

As a result, players may find themselves getting stuck in the main storyline because they lack the necessary character development. To obtain the desired characters or items, they will need to spend more time in the gacha system, while the gacha system appears to be vague in its description of the possibility of obtaining limited-time Six-Star characters.

Among the complaints, there is also dissatisfaction with the 7-day new player sign-in bonus, which they feel is not generous enough to guarantee a 10-pull for new characters. This has led to concerns about the effectiveness of the bonus in retaining new players' interest.

On April 15th, the dev team BLUEPOCH issued an apology letter to players and promised to make adjustments to address these issues. The future adjustments include adding more resources for pulling characters, increasing earnings of the in-game currency Raindrop, and improving the character-building system.

The announcement for adding in-game resources, by Reverse 1999’s developer.

Overall, the third test shows that the framework of Reverse 1999 has taken shape. Despite these concerns, some players maintain an optimistic attitude toward the game's production level and potential. With the promised adjustments and the dev team continuing to listen to feedback, there is hope that a balance point that satisfies players can be reached in the next round of testing or at the official launch.

Source: YYS

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