Games worth discovering

Black Clover M - really went through with that patch!?

8K View2023-12-05

Game: Black Clover M

Platform: Android & IOS

Genre: Anime Adaptation / Gacha / Turn-Based

Released: November 30th 2023

Price: Free to Play with Microtransactions

Overview & Story
Black Clover M is the highly anticipated mobile adaption in which you will play as Astra and his friends as he makes his way through the land of The Clover Kingdom on his quest to become the Wizard King, despite the fact that he has no magical powers of any kind, he is fully determined to prove everyone that doubts him wrong. I can say that despite the fact that I did not watch the entire anime. I did notice a lot of similarities between the anime and the game, which appears to be far better than the anime in the way that they visualize emotions and the personalities.

Graphics & Presentation
I appreciated how simple the overall game UI was. While there are certainly many features here. I don't think I've ever been confused or lost my way trying to find things because everything is so well designed. I didn't notice anything particularly annoying about the visuals really. It all came together beautifully to highlight the style and flair of all the skills and effects used, providing a truly captivating experience.

Gameplay / Combat / Issues
This is your typical Gacha. It is completely turn-based, with the opportunity to use a really great feature right from the start if you have completed at least one level, namely auto-mated battles with x3 speed to help you farm and grind. You'll spend your time advancing through the anime storyline while also taking breaks to farm, level up, and summon powerful characters from the many various banners available.

This is where the game appears to hit a hard plateau.

If you are F2P don't expect to pull anything frequently as they opted to shut out the means for players to obtain tickets to pull with Season 2 and they also appear to have some of the worst rates I have seen in a while. It would be good if they would back off and make it less inconvenient, but the only way to get any reliable tickets for pulls is to use your Black Crystals, which are extremely useful for other features such as more energy, talents, and many other unlockables. It'd be a waste of 10000 for 100 pulls when it pays a lot for features to help you grind and level, yet those 100 pulls will gain you almost nothing since the guaranteed pull is 200.

Conclusion
This was a difficult one to swallow. I know the anime is very popular, and I was one of the few viewers who couldn't stand Asta, so I don't really have a bond with any of the characters because I don't really feel anything for any of them, which could be a contributing factor to why I didn't like this game that much.

Add to that the fact that you can pull and acquire some pretty powerful characters after playing the game for a week. It just feels... underwhelming, like I could simply toss some money down and perhaps acquire it, or I could spend an entire week playing the game to manually get something that may be obsolete by the time I do.

Games must provide meaningful rewards to their players. If they do it too frequently, it appears boring. However, if they make it too difficult or spread out the amount of achievement you receive. Then it becomes a little taxing. They need to do it correctly. You get a good mix of short-term gameplay, a sense of accomplishment, and a want to return the next day for more of the same because you don't feel overly forced.