I'm actually pleasantly surprised at the generosity of chest at times, especially on "Sega Sunday" doubles day. Getting 4k gold as a lump sum feels GOOD. Of course, between those times, I just feel like it's impossible to earn money, haha. But this game is full of "every other day" content, rather than "each part, EVERY DAY!" stuff. Some days I get coins for Survival, somedays Arena, and some days Gold for the special offers.
I think Marvel Future Fight has made me more patient, lol. What seems "long" in this game may take a week or 2. Long in Future Fight is like 1 to 3 months.
Getting characters to 25 / 26 now, and I have so much easier a time in Arena. I'm actually surprised at how much I'm steam-rolling teams that claim to have around the same power I do. Also, unlocked Sonic. He seems like the "Death Adder of Blue" at this point. He's an amazingly useful, versatile character that can blitz enemies before they get to make turns. Having him at Lvl 9 beside 15 or 16 characters STILL makes him feel strong.
I feel like the 20s in levels have made me appreciate power and fully-leveled characters much more. Pre-20 felt like SO MUCH of the game was unfair and impossible to beat. I don't really care that the Beyondering and normal campaign split the characters; That daily missions, arena, and survival are where you get to use your full cast. So you have one mode for certain characters, another mode for others, and then 2 or 3 modes where you get to mix whatever you want.
I really hope they would give new players the starting "Beyondering Team" perk too, however. That free drop made the gating of content much more tolerable.
I'm currently back into Gems of War on XB1 also, and I actually miss some of Sega's combo mechanic and character uniqueness, while playing Gems. However, Gems is so, SO lax on it's pay model and rush to content, that it feels like something I should have paid for multiple times by now. I've played the game on and off for multiple years at this point, and it's still pumping out fresh fun.
Sega's gating of content is FINE as long as it's not your main game. There's no reason to need to rush, competitive Arena can easily be conquered by free units, you can boost up your favorites by spending free gems on Premium shards, and leveling up characters to higher stars helps you in a variety of modes, not just 1. Play it as a side distraction that happens to have some nice Sega Fanservice, and their decisions become much less frustrating.
