Dragalia Lost |OT| Perfect for Mobile

[Chrono]

Not going to lie, Matsuura was doing a great job but we'll see how things go with the new director. I'll remain cautiously optimistic, but it's always a little worrying when you see a shake-up like this.

Edit:

It seems like BlazeGames was only responsible for one major mobile release (Battle Champs) and that closed in January of this year. So yeah...I'm definitely a little worried now. :(

 

[mockingbird]

Not going to lie, Matsuura was doing a great job but we'll see how things go with the new director. I'll remain cautiously optimistic, but it's always a little worrying when you see a shake-up like this.

Edit:

It seems like BlazeGames was only responsible for one major mobile release (Battle Champs) and that closed in January of this year. So yeah...I'm definitely a little worried now. :(

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Was he though? So many drastic changes have taken place since launch. The changes are definitely for the better, but perhaps they shouldn't have erred in the first place?

 

[Chrono]

Was he though? So many drastic changes have taken place since launch. The changes are definitely for the better, but perhaps they shouldn't have erred in the first place?

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The game has always felt to me more like an open beta with it leading up to the full Global launch. While I can't say that was necessarily a good thing, Matsuura truly listened to the players and implemented so many amazing QoL changes since then. It was the first time where I actually felt like the Director was reading/listenting to our criticisms, and making the appropriate changes. I'm not saying things will be worse with a new Director, but I still feel like Matsuura did a great job with handling the game to this point.

 

[Cronogear]

I can't say I like the change of directors. Dragalia has only been getting better over time.

I don't want another FEH situation.

 

[Lusamine]

I can't say I like the change of directors. Dragalia has only been getting better over time.

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If only more people were spending more money on it too, but oh well.

 

[Razmos]

Yeah this is a tad worrying, the game was only getting better and now the future could go in any direction, for all we know the game could turn more pay to win.

I really hope that's not the case

 

[Chrono]

PVP coming to Dragalia Lost!

Spoiler

PLEASE NO!

 

[Ekid]

Director change are rarely good omens especially when they take place after the worst month of a game since its release.

But since the new dude was already involved in the game since before its release it may have been a planned move.

 

[Drax]

Director change are rarely good omens especially when they takes place after the worst month of a game since its release.

But since the new dude was already involve in the game since before its release it may have been a planned move.

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Iirc February was the worst month, but this change happened after a quarter.

 

[Numberfox]

If Dragalia's way of handling F2P and Powercreep changes in a way that's disagreeable for me, I'm probably dropping the game despite whaling every banner.

According to this Reddit post, Matsuura actually had a lot of JP haters, unrelated to how he handled DL. He got a lot of harassment from Shironeko players (from the company that Nintendo sued a while ago) who hated DL because they felt the lawsuit was due to this game. Matsuura, mostly likely before joining Cygames and was just a normal gamer, was also vocal in his dislike of popular games like FFIV and FGO, so the Shironeko players used this to rally a hate campaign against him. It got to the point where he set his social media accounts like Twitter to private to avoid the hate/harassment. I can't read Japanese though, so I'm not sure what the tweets from Matsuura that were captured in this Reddit post are saying.

While DL's performance is probably a factor, this might be as well for why he's stepping down if this is legitimate.

 

[Kalor]

I don't think this will lead to any drastic changes. Especially since the new director has been on the game since before release so he's probably also had a hand in the positive updates that have happened since release.

 

[Chrono]

They really should have released this news alongside an update notice detailing what's to come. The fact that they said they're changing directors with a promise to share more news soon as to upcoming content is all well and good, but not knowing exactly what that entails has a tendency to cause (likely unnecessary) worry, especially after a period of re-run content.

Hopefully we hear something more concrete sooner rather than later.

 

[Baladium]

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For whatever reason I didn't think the clear time would go past 3:00 after the timer disappeared at the end of the fight. Now I'm curious just how far you can push it.

Some raid group out there holds the world record slowest clear time. lol

 

[Stryda]

If the game shifts a bit to get more revenue its probably for the better. This game, while I love how f2p it is, just wont work when the point of making it was to make money even though I still don't believe the game does poorly, they just want to do better

 

[Stryda]

If Dragalia's way of handling F2P and Powercreep changes in a way that's disagreeable for me, I'm probably dropping the game despite whaling every banner.

According to this Reddit post, Matsuura actually had a lot of JP haters, unrelated to how he handled DL. He got a lot of harassment from Shironeko players (from the company that Nintendo sued a while ago) who hated DL because they felt the lawsuit was due to this game. Matsuura, mostly likely before joining Cygames and was just a normal gamer, was also vocal in his dislike of popular games like FFIV and FGO, so the Shironeko players used this to rally a hate campaign against him. It got to the point where he set his social media accounts like Twitter to private to avoid the hate/harassment. I can't read Japanese though, so I'm not sure what the tweets from Matsuura that were captured in this Reddit post are saying.

While DL's performance is probably a factor, this might be as well for why he's stepping down if this is legitimate.

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Yea I did notice that the tweet mentioning the director Switch had an awkwardly high amount of retweets and likes so I wondered if people over there hated him

 

[ElFly]

The new director should have sent the customary 1000 wyrmite to everyone.

I assume the old director is needed to launch new projects, and the new one is specialized in running things day to day

would not read too much on it without further info

 

[Razmos]

The new director should have sent the customary 1000 wyrmite to everyone.

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Peace out guys, here's 10,000 wymrite

 

[deepFlaw]

Personally, I think it's good to keep one thing in mind: we have no idea what the Director does on a day to day basis, nor what level of control he has over various aspects of the game.

Surely he has the ability to influence, well, the overall direction of the game, so it is understandable to worry if things will continue on a path you've enjoyed. But the "he's totally gonna make it p2w" style fear-mongering I'm seeing around this is just silly. You have no idea the degree to which the monetization and such is decided by higher ups. Obviously he can come up with suggestions/solutions, but I very much doubt he can be solely responsible for any shift in how that stuff works. If anything, he could also just as easily be the scapegoat for any sudden change.

We should just look forward to his first What's Ahead and see what the next few months bring. Right now I'm just hoping for a fun summer event.

 

[Brazil]

Change is scary, but yeah, I agree with deepFlaw. We don't really know what this means in practical terms, and we don't know what prompted the change in the first place. Maybe this was the plan all along, and now Matsuura's simply moving on to a new project since he's pretty good at getting things off the ground.

It's best to just sit tight and see what the future brings.

 

[Man-is-Obsolete]

I just assumed the old director got the game in a comfortable spot and is ready to lead a new project. We'll see

 

[user__]

For whatever reason I didn't think the clear time would go past 3:00 after the timer disappeared at the end of the fight. Now I'm curious just how far you can push it.

Some raid group out there holds the world record slowest clear time. lol

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how close is this to that record? This was my nightmare run on the first day 😄

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Personally, I think it's good to keep one thing in mind: we have no idea what the Director does on a day to day basis, nor what level of control he has over various aspects of the game.

Surely he has the ability to influence, well, the overall direction of the game, so it is understandable to worry if things will continue on a path you've enjoyed. But the "he's totally gonna make it p2w" style fear-mongering I'm seeing around this is just silly. You have no idea the degree to which the monetization and such is decided by higher ups. Obviously he can come up with suggestions/solutions, but I very much doubt he can be solely responsible for any shift in how that stuff works. If anything, he could also just as easily be the scapegoat for any sudden change.

We should just look forward to his first What's Ahead and see what the next few months bring. Right now I'm just hoping for a fun summer event.

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The unexpected notification on the game made me worried, but your post eases that a little. I'm very grateful for the direction the game has got so far, Cy did a great work and I want to believe they'll continue to improve the game.

 

[Baladium]

how close is this to that record? This was my nightmare run on the first day 😄

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Wait... what...

Okay, now how is that even possible? That's some crazy good luck! lol

 

[deepFlaw]

Could be break -> box destroyed? Or maybe hail -> break, I think he keeps doing hail past the timer if he's currently in it.

maybe one of these days I'll actually get the full team endeavor... I was extremely close this time but Hilde suddenly died at the end; IIRC I got so bewildered by Nat's skill 2 actually giving me the strength buff for once I made some weird decision, or maybe that was the run before

But I'm actually consistently getting Nightmare done in only a run or 2, which is nice. Of course, I'm also consistently doing it ridiculously late at night, so I'd willingly waste more time later if I just got myself to sleep earlier, haha.

 

[user__]

Wait... what...

Okay, now how is that even possible? That's some crazy good luck! lol

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I really don't know unfortunately, I wasn't exactly watching what was happening in the heat of the moment.

Could be break -> box destroyed? Or maybe hail -> break, I think he keeps doing hail past the timer if he's currently in it.

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Was thinking something similar, yeah.

 

[Chrono]

If Shishimai does Hanetsuki Hail when he reaches the three minute mark, he'll go beyond the timer. If it happens right when he reaches three minutes, that can easily buy you another ten seconds or so.

 

[Baladium]

Oh, nice! Thanks for the explanations, y'all. That makes a lot of sense with his hail attack if the timing's just right.

And good luck on getting the no-death clear, deepFlaw. :)

 

[Vena]

The fact that the new director is an internal promotion makes me much less worried all in all.

I still think this game has done poorly to monetize (skins? Aesthetics? Where are visual possible customization options?), but I don't know how much of that was on Matsuura vs. marketing team.

I haven't been 100% with Matsuura's direction to begin with as I think his lead has really failed to make end-game content at a proper clip, but he was still pretty good and made a solid game.

 

[Baladium]

Where are visual possible customization options?

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I would love it if they would bundle new character accessories with epithet endeavors, like how Fire Emblem Heroes rewards accessories for completing quests and such.

Renelle needs her treasure hunter fedora, darnit!

 

[A.J.]

They need to do something about story content releases. Maybe they should just embrace the "mostly vn chapters with 1 or 2 actual game levels" that GBF adopted.

 

[GooZ]

The fact that the new director is an internal promotion makes me much less worried all in all.

I still think this game has done poorly to monetize (skins? Aesthetics? Where are visual possible customization options?), but I don't know how much of that was on Matsuura vs. marketing team.

I haven't been 100% with Matsuura's direction to begin with as I think his lead has really failed to make end-game content at a proper clip, but he was still pretty good and made a solid game.

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I agree, Matsuura has made a great foundation to the game but I think what's lacking currently is the production of content and perhaps being disorganized. Events in general is inconsistent, there's like four types of events now, and two have only been touched once (Defense, Story). Story event type doesn't offer anything more than other event types when it's the same amount of dialogue as any other event, rather have them spend resources on content we can interact with gameplay-wise.

Edit: Left out my initial response since they're not genuine issues and more like personal nitpicks.

I'm looking forward to what the new Director has to offer, the "What's next, Part 5" will play a huge first impression to the community. Anniversary is around the corner so it's going to be difficult for him to balance on what to show or not and accomplish both to not be underwhelming.

 

[XuandeXun]

Alliances. Crap.

We're getting the ability for increased comms in Co-Op rooms. I see no way that this ends well.

Also, some mild log-in bonuses. 500 Wyrmite and some upgrade consumables.

I don't blame any of this on the Director change, but this is the first update that is making me hesitate on spending any more money.

 

[Smiley90]

Alliances. Crap.

We're getting the ability for increased comms in Co-Op rooms. I see no way that this ends well.

Also, some mild log-in bonuses. 500 Wyrmite and some upgrade consumables.

I don't blame any of this on the Director change, but this is the first update that is making me hesitate on spending any more money.

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And eight (?) Free summons in July

What about this update makes you hesitate?

 

[Drax]

Alliances/crews/guilds were desperately needed imho. There was really a lack of social communication in game.

 

[XuandeXun]

Well, the summons part was already part of a datamine (Reddit doesn't care about spoilers in titles).

I don't want Guilds and I certainly don't want PvP. While "Alliances" appear to be less than a Guild, its still doubling down on what is an awful conditional matchmaking. Now, instead of just discriminating based on Might or not owning specific characters, we're going to have social discrimination too. I thought conditions were a good idea when they were announced, but I thought they would simply be like the goal conditions, and not Might/Element filtering that is forced on generic matchmaking like "Up for Anything" is.

As a bipolar with social anxiety, a major part of why I play the games I play is to get away from all of that. If Guilds come and are a significant, competitive part of the meta and staying relevant as a player, I will quit. And I'm one of the most active non-whaling players around. I'm out of Dia and would normally re-up with the $10 7-day Resource Pack today, but I think I'll wait on that.

I've played a gacha game without Guilds where I've been discriminated against and forced out of a Co-Op room scene that was required against top difficulties, because of my unwillingness to cheat through disconnecting. Said game had AI filler for Co-Op, but the AI had awful decks that could not beat or get carried through top content. I'm not going through an experience like that again.

 

[deepFlaw]

Without anything more being announced, I can see how this could be the start down a path towards overly competitive content, but it's also nothing different than using Discord is at this point.

I'm in a Twitter DM group with some other players and we'll probably just make an Alliance together so that we can co-op easier. That's about it.

 

[Chrono]

As much as I knew it'd happen sooner or later, I'm not particularly happy with guilds. All it's going to do is divide the co-op experience into "groups", as people will probably stick to people within their Alliance and avoid randoms. Also, since this is a worldwide game, it's probably going to divide people further, as I can't see people from say Japan joining a North American guild, as the language barrier in chat would be too great (unless they're knowledgeable in second languages, of course). One of the things I liked most about DL was how when you joined a random room you never knew who you were going to get (whether players from Japan, North America, or the rest of the world), and with Alliances you'll probably get less of that.

I know not everyone will join Alliances and still look for groups the old-fashioned way, but it will definitely lessen the overall "pool" the match finder pulls from, and if they ever release Alliance-only content (i.e., Guild Wars in GBF)...

 

[XuandeXun]

I was hoping that Nintendo's pull as a publisher would prevent a system like Alliances from being announced. While I'm not in Nintendo's ecosystem anymore, I did appreciate their take on online multiplayer back when I had their consoles/handhelds. It allowed someone like me to play online without getting triggered as easily.

By itself, it just increases the number of (generally above-average players) that won't participate in matchmaking anymore for harder content. But it could easily lead to more drastic changes that I'm not willing to accept. For example, what if Astral Raids end up being more mechanically complex than HDTs, to the point where most PUGs can't clear but Alliance members can?

I'm never going to use Discord anywhere, so I don't stand to benefit from a Discord-lite service in-game.

 

[Drax]

As much as I knew it'd happen sooner or later, I'm not particularly happy with guilds. All it's going to do is divide the co-op experience into "groups", as people will probably stick to people within their Alliance and avoid randoms. Also, since this is a worldwide game, it's probably going to divide people further, as I can't see people from say Japan joining a North American guild, as the language barrier in chat would be too great (unless they're knowledgeable in second languages, of course). One of the things I liked most about DL was how when you joined a random room you never knew who you were going to get (whether players from Japan, North America, or the rest of the world), and with Alliances you'll probably get less of that.

I know not everyone will join Alliances and still look for groups the old-fashioned way, but it will definitely lessen the overall "pool" the match finder pulls from, and if they ever release Alliance-only content (i.e., Guild Wars in GBF)...

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Guild wars is something this game desperately needed, easy development time content that gets whales to optimize for clear times, i hope they don't go granblue style and more priconneish though.

Problem dragalia kinda has right now, is there really no incentive for anybody to say pull Natalie over Ieyasu if they had Ieyasu esp at 50/50. But if there's say a 60 second guild war fight? Yeah, people will def go in for Natalie.

Without anything more being announced, I can see how this could be the start down a path towards overly competitive content, but it's also nothing different than using Discord is at this point.

I'm in a Twitter DM group with some other players and we'll probably just make an Alliance together so that we can co-op easier. That's about it.

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I don't think this will be overly competetive perse, if you have a guild war type event every two months or so.

 

[Chrono]

Guild wars is something this game desperately needed, easy development time content that gets whales to optimize for clear times, i hope they don't go granblue style and more priconneish though.

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Maybe, I just hate how much of a time commitment it is. I'm not sure how PriConne does things, but when I used to play GBF it was hell. I loved how casual DL was, where you could really grind things if you wanted to but it wasn't necessary for events, but if it begins to become more "join a guild and grind grind GRIND to beat other guilds for the best rewards!", I could see myself losing interest in DL pretty quickly.

I'll remain cautiously optimistic until I learn more.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

And eight (?) Free summons in July

What about this update makes you hesitate?

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Can't speak for that poster, but if I have to deal with the potential for people shittalking in order to reasonably clear the higher end content going forward, I'm probably done with the game. The last thing I want is to be messaged by random people on a videogame.

 

[XuandeXun]

Maybe, I just hate how much of a time commitment it is. I'm not sure how PriConne does things, but when I used to play GBF it was hell. I loved how casual DL was, where you could really grind things if you wanted to but it wasn't necessary for events, but if it begins to become more "join a guild and grind grind GRIND to beat other guilds for the best rewards!", I could see myself losing interest in DL pretty quickly.

I'll remain cautiously optimistic until I learn more.

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In addition to what I've said earlier, this too. I've tried a gacha game like the bolded, and dropped it very fast once the pyramid scheme was evident.

I like optional solo grind, and optional "Co-Op with open matchmaking" grind. I do not at all like the grind of trying to join the best guilds, of meeting their exacting standards, or being online at specific times. There are plenty of other gacha games with that meta, I don't see why DL has to join them.

 

[Drax]

Maybe, I just hate how much of a time commitment it is. I'm not sure how PriConne does things, but when I used to play GBF it was hell. I loved how casual DL was, where you could really grind things if you wanted to but it wasn't necessary for events, but if it begins to become more "join a guild and grind grind GRIND to beat other guilds for the best rewards!", I could see myself losing interest in DL pretty quickly.

I'll remain cautiously optimistic until I learn more.

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Priconne Guild Battle is

https://princess-connect.fandom.com/wiki/Clan_Battle

As for Granblue's guild wars, yes you can go insane farmng those events, just like you can go batshit insane farming this current event right now for crystalized water.

However, there's ton of people who just do the bare min for those guild wars in that game as well (b and c tier crews), and a good portion of the population is like that.

 

[Chrono]

Priconne Guild Battle is

https://princess-connect.fandom.com/wiki/Clan_Battle

As for Granblue's guild wars, yes you can go insane farmng those events, just like you can go batshit insane farming this current event right now for crystalized water.

However, there's ton of people who just do the bare min for those guild wars in that game as well (b and c tier crews), and a good portion of the population is like that.

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I know you can easily grind the current event in DL, but it's never needed. In GBF, if you want the stones to uncap your summons you need to rank high, as they're not given out otherwise (outside of random/rare giveaways). Granted things might have changed since I last played, so if they did then I apologize. I just really don't want to see them locking the current high-end event rewards behind higher ranking Alliances, assuming we get a GW-styled event at all. It's very simple to grind and finish off the reward ladders in DL right now, for both present and past events, aside from FEH which was a grind, but it wasn't really required as the rewards beyond two million (IIRC) were very minor and not at all important. I'm not saying this will happen, and it might be a little silly to worry about something we know so little about, but I've seen how similar battle systems in other gacha games are a thing, when guilds and such are present. I hate PVP in all of the gacha games I play, and while guild vs. guild isn't exactly PVP, it's still competing against another group for better rewards.

Again, we don't know if DL will have this at all, so I'm not going to stress about it too much now and wait to learn more.

 

[XuandeXun]

There's a big difference between grinding the current event because I want to, and grinding Guild Wars because the Guild I'm in is forcing me to either do it or lose access to a meta-required Guild. We're not there yet, but we could easily get there in a few months, and I feel like a lot of the groundwork for it is happening now. I know this would make my wife quit her account immediately, and I wouldn't be very far behind. Playing in a mid-tier or low-tier Guild is not a reasonable option for me, the same way that ignoring PvP in a game with PvP rewards wouldn't be.

Right now all DL grind is optional, and you can experience all content in the game with a minimum of grind. Guilds will change that, and they will turn a non-social game into a social one. For me, these are bad things that I can still believe are coming because other gachas do it, and Cygames does it.

 

[ginnokane]

Is there a (small) possibility of a second prize box refill (ie, a 3rd box to break) on the Shishimai EX battles? I just had a round where we broke his box for a second time, then he did the gift giving dance again, and locks appeared on the box. By this point, he was only at a sliver of health, so I didn't see the box health gauge appear before we defeated him, but this makes me worried that this might be a new thing I've missed from being in rooms with might that's too high to notice.

 

[XuandeXun]

I ran into that bug for the first time an hour ago, but on Expert. I assume it has something to do with the way they fixed the bugs from the first time this event ran, where a box often wouldn't empty because you inflicted Break or Overdrive in the same moment.

You're not likely to be able to get a third Break on any difficulty anyway, short of removing the AI characters from all players.

 

[Kalor]

Alliances are a nice addition. The game needed some kind of other social aspect, even if it's one I won't use because I don't play much.

 

[Numberfox]

To add to the potential upside of Alliances, with new multiplayer content being regularly added I could see people struggling to find pub groups for some content during off-times. I personally struggle finding Prelude groups sometimes for my F2P alt when I want to farm crimson cores, I imagine Void Battles suffers from this potentially during events, and Astral Raids might possibly also be affected by this. Alliance could help to just find others to run content with, especially if everyone is around the same spot account progression-wise. It'd be great to be able to paste your code in the alliance chat room, which people could click and instantly join.

 

[ElFly]

i doubt we'll need to talk to each other much, guys

worst case we make a silent alliance

 

[A.J.]

My take away is that "JuggrNotte" is the best name I wish I thought of.