They recently announced some changes that are going to help with progression in the new 6.0 update!: -World mode maps that were playable worth 1 stamina will now be playable without using any! -World mode maps from Final Verdict and from chapter 1-5 will now be playable with only 1 stamina (excluding scenary maps) -There will be hints for main story anomalies
The changes to Act I progression go much, much farther than that: now the VL/LS anomalies are with no-fail on, the BF anomaly now uses a very heavily nerfed gauge and the pity percent unlock system for the FV terminal songs now gives a LOT more percentage on failure (for example, before the max % you could get on PRS was 25% for failing near the end, now I got 30% for failing in the middle of the chart)
It should be important to say that maps with 0 stamina won’t level up partners, as their leveling is based on the amount of stamina you use. For example using 6 stamina on a 1 map, you can see how much the partner levels up
As a long time player, I personally didn't have problems with the unlock system until recently (thanks to me getting busier). World Mode even after 6 years is still one of the worst unlock system I have ever experienced in a game ever. Although I hope it can be rework (probably like the switch version) I don't think it will happen anytime soon. Very good video Jack, you touch on problems that I didn't even realize were problem since I was basically stockholm'd in to Arcaea and thought it was fine lol.
On the other hand tho, I hope someone from lowiro or (in the best case) Guy watches the video because it is still valid criticism and I want to see some changes to the unlock system like maybe giving a choice of attempting the chart on normal gauge but you have to clear it twice or something like that.
For World Mode, I recently introduced a friend to Arcaea. They actually haven't been bothered by World Mode, since they're so new to the game that they're taking a while to get used to the game's mechanics and the default charts, and they just casually play once or twice a day to drain their energy to slowly unlock more content to digest. It's pretty clearly meant to be a system to encourage (or force) players to stay active, which does help in improving player skill over time. It's also quite indicative that this is the same model as many other mobile rhythm games...
As someone currently working on a video analysing/discussing Arcaea's story mode in relation to similar titles in the genre, this video nails some of the problems that I think the game has with nailing a balance between the story's artistic intent and really vague unlock requirements that clash with the game being much easier to "get into" compared to arcade games. While the story is incredibly ambitious (and very well-done considering stories in rhythm games weren't as much of a central/primary focus at the time of the main story's completion), it feels like Arcaea is split in two - you have the mobile gameplay progression on one hand, a non-linear narrative on the other, and they're awkwardly blended together in a way that can definitely take you out of the intended experience if you're not prepared with a guide to make progression more seamless as a whole. I definitely agree with many of the points offered in the video that Arcaea does create a divide between its existing and new audiences through integrating the core gameplay experience into the story - while I can't offer any suggestions as to how they could streamline that process other than making unlock hints less obtuse, the game does feel like it's in need of smoothing out the early-life curve so more people can enjoy the full intended experience. This was a good video! Very awesome to hear your insights as always ^^
the balance between artistic intent and actual mechanical progression was something I wanted to highlight more but was hard to fit into the scope, so ill be curious to see your video!
As an used-to-be avid Arcaea players for years at this point, the cryptic unlock requirements are my second biggest issue with this game. I love solving puzzles, but Arcaea puzzles are simply not reasonable to work through on your own, as you pointed out very well in the video. I experienced two phases of my Arcaea journey. When I was super active in the community around when Black Fate was released, solving the challenges along with my friends was the most fun experience I've had. The reveal of the 4th difficulty, the epic transition, everything was cool. But I also appreciate the other side of the argument. In that, how the hell is it reasonable to work through these cryptic requirements? Despite someone who enjoys solving puzzles, I've never solved a single unlock requirement on my own, I simply asked my friends how to do it. It really sucks because I feel like I'm missing out on what could be a very interesting experience. I would like to solve the puzzles, but the design of the game simply does not incentivise thinking on your own. I think it's lowiro's deliberate decision that you're supposed to solve the puzzle with the community, or just see the wiki. I wish this wasn't the case though... It's interesting that you find the hard gauge clear requirement annoying. Personally I've found it okay, even when I had to slog through multiple tries to clear Pentiment BYD. My skill level was enough that clearing with hard gauge was an exciting challenge for me. Honestly I would not complain one bit if they changed the gauge to normal like you suggest so, I agree regardless.
The gauge requirement should be changed to a grade/score requirement if I'm being honest. The hard gauge works as sort of a skill gate to force you to be consistent across the whole chart. It's supposed to discourage you from playing the chart until you're better at the game as people can, will, and have rushed through to 11's too early and messed up their muscle memory. A clear caused by free gauge at the end via holds isn't exactly meaningful in any way. Hard gauge requires you to be consistent across the whole chart rather than just have a certain amount of gauge at the end... but unfortunately it doesn't help encourage accuracy. Hard gauge is still very nice to have over normal gauge though as a normal clear actually means/says literally nothing about your skill level. A hard clear shows across the whole chart you are able to play decently - no parts that you play is noticably worse than the rest of the chart. The hard gauge is pretty eye opening to your actual skill level. But a score/grade based gauge would be more eye opening to your actual skill level. Though it does kinda get the check consistency issue again, it checks your acc and that's something I tend to see way too neglected by newer players. And it makes sense why it's neglected - the gauge design doesn't punish you for bad acc so long as you don't miss much. They tend to focus on whether they can clear rather than whether they can get good scores and that's a massive issue. He found the hard clear requirement annoying because he thought normal clearing was good enough when it really isn't. I do think his GL score being an AA meant yes in this case the hard requirement was kinda stupid. But on some other ones where he said he was able to immediately clear I saw mid/low A rank clears. He didn't care that his score was fairly low, he only cared about the fact he cleared and that isn't a good thing. So it should be score or grade based unlocks
24:46 thats because testify is the final final final boss of arcaea and a VERY special song :) also because of the chart breaking at the end, it adds to the story experience and it wouldnt make sense if you could just fail the song 20 times cuz then you wouldnt see the chart break and everything that happens after you played testify for the first time (tbh i forgot what happens after because i unlocked testify after the epilogue released) but i hope my explanation makes sense
As someone who is still sitting in the 10ptt, I can agree that having unlock requirements as reaching X ptt level or being able to clear a hard chart with hard gauge is way too strict for someone who just want to know about the story. Thats why I havent unlocked Tempestisimo and Aegleseeker, and the thing is that i havent thought about what you said in the video: THAT'S CONTENT YOU ARE PAYING FOR. You shouldn't be restricted to access it just because you are, not saying a beginner, but a less skilled player than the rest. Is like they exclude you from enjoying the content or marginalizing you to play lower and way too easier difficulties. Good video man, really nice to see some criticism over something i love
@@TPMaster1 My issue with Final Verdict and it being locked behind the Tempestissimo anomaly is that it forces you to play half of a hard level 9 song with tempest gauge even on Past. That’s way harder than anything else on that difficulty. Even the hardest final verdict song is just a 7+ there. In my case I just blindly bought it when I was still mainly playing Present difficulty charts (probably around 7.5ptt back then) to see the end of the main story, but got hit by a wall for multiple months because I couldn’t get through that anomaly. It definitely forced me to get better in the game but it was also super frustrating to not be able to play songs I already paid for.
It's supposed to be a challenge. I agree that the tempestissimo challenge is quite hard for a new player, but I vividly remember bashing my head against that anomaly for 2 days straight and then finally getting it. Very few games have given me that feeling of complete satisfaction. One of my fondest memories of playing the game for these past 2 years. The final verdict lock I agree makes very little sense, I literally didn't even know that was a thing until recently. If they locked it behind a ex+ or something of tempestissimo on the difficulty you are trying to play FV in would make more sense. Ig they just wanted to keep newer players from bashing their head against FV to unlock the beyonds @@Niruja
i made a bunch of notes while i was watching this because i had a feeling some of them were going to be brought up later [i was right!] here they are: a) i think arcaea is getting better about "hard clear fail interrupting the reveal" given lasting eden seems to be going towards the idea of the challenge being songs you've already seen [addendum: this was mentioned. figures] b) in the switch ver they actually added additional hints to axiom of the end that you can pay fragments to see, obviously because it came out 9 months after. they should really implement this into mobile but i guess it isnt a huge priority [addendum: this was also mentioned! unsurprisingly] c) you don't actually have to replay the intro movie over and over again. it's dumb and unintuitive but if you unlock it on a lower difficulty you can hop right into the chart by selecting it on a higher difficulty on the song wheel d) i think it's a common misconception that you HAVE to play high difficulties in world mode. you don't! you can play present charts and get nearly the exact same world progress because you score better anyway. STEP stat matters waaay more than your progression, and the calculation for it tapers out past a certain point anyway, meaning playing anything above 9+ won't get you much more progression and is just for fun. i think world mode sucks for a lot of people but for what it is i still think it's designed relatively fairly, as long as you have tempest tairitsu and are fine playing easier charts you can progress just as fast as anyone else e) potential gates should probably have an alternate method to get past them if you REALLY want to. i think they're good in the sense that it gives the player encouragement to improve [when i hit 11 ptt i felt a burst of dopamine being able to finally unlock aegle] but i get not everybody wants to improve and kinda just wants to throw themselves at the wall which. you paid for it you do what you want i guess good ass video! i think it airs a lot of my own greivances with the game and while i don't mind them now given i'm 12.3ptt with a maxed out tempest tai they were absolutely pretty discouraging when getting into the game. hopefully with act 2 they start designing their content to be more friendly to new players
i already wrote a long response to this on the discord server, but i just wanna come here and acknowledge (again) how this video has made a lot of solid points, most of which i haven't seen being brought up in conversations that are being critical of the game. while i share different views and opinions on the progression system, i now have a better understanding of how this system could affect players' experiences, and i hope it can be improved in fhe future.
The weird thing about final verdict is that on the switch version you can use fragment to reveal different levels of hints for each unlock requirement. I don't get why this isn't on the mobile version edit : oh you talked about it in the video lmao
Hello, long time arcaea player here! (Ptt 12.35) Awesome video, very consise! I've bought every single song in the entire game (my wallet is crying) and have all partners/event partners except one (rip Stellights), but I'm not even close to finishing everything world mode has to offer. It's definitely up there as my favourite game of all time, but i can't deny that world mode is Arcaea's Achilles heel. As you said, I'd love to see more updates focusing on better user experience for both new and veteran players, as it's very lacking at the moment. Keep on the good work!
I really wanted to get into Arcaea about a year or so ago but saw how much of a grind world mode is and the energy system to it,, thats why I brought the game on switch so I didn't have to experience that and play the story when I wanted too and not after 6 hours for my energy to come back. Its a shame that the switch version barely gets any updates on it but im hopeful that lowrio will drop another massive content update for it again like last year. Something I will say is that another switch port of a rhythm game, Muse Dash also got the same treatment, it got a massive update after being left behind for like years and now its almost at sync with the pc/mobile release,, just getting the Miku collab on it
When I was really into the game, I bought all the content up to current (at the time) during the anniversary sale. Suffice it to say that actually unlocking everything took months. Looking back, I don’t know how I made it through the slog.
Personally, I don’t remember having to sit through the final verdict animations every attempt, I’m fairly certain you can skip it. Also, I think you’d be really happy with the unlock system for the most recent pack, absolute nihil. From making it a little bit easier each time you fail to genuinely being a fun memory puzzle where you have to remember a bunch of digits while playing maps on hard gauge, I think it’s probably one of the better unlock systems-the first one I didn’t have to use the wiki for. I am glad they’re moving torwards these kinds of unlock systems. The unlock conditions for Magnolia are also kinda neat, if a bit odd. Also the unlock for Tempestissimo used to be way different. Back when I unlocked it there was this whole ARG thing where you had to go to a privately owned web page by lowiro to get a code…I think they changed the unlock method after they stopped paying for the domain though, I don’t think the site is up anymore.
24:40 I think the reason why they do that is because, they want to show the Crack part at the end of the song LOL And it will kill the mood if you got a track lost when you first try/play this song
I definitely did always find it strange that arcaea's anomaly unlocks forced the use of more difficult gauges. It makes me wonder if a weaker form of hard gauge would have been more suitable, keeping the stress and tension of clearing with a bar that will fail out when hitting zero, but while not being much more difficult, if at all, than a normal gauge clear. Something like permissive rate from SDVX's dan courses perhaps. Spamming the pity unlock percentages was never fun though.. I remember back when I brute forced the unlock of Grievous Lady as a new player and had bad muscle memory/mindblock on the start of that chart for literal years as a result of it I will say, I was able to participate in the large community gathering that surrounded the search for Final Verdict's unlock requirements at launch, and I think it was one of the most fun and unique rhythm game experiences I've had to this day. That being said, once that time window passes, the magic is lost and most players are left just looking up requirements in a wiki. It'd be wonderful to be able to give that experience for people playing through the pack after the fact, but I just don't really see a way in which that could reasonably happen. The cipher style for Arghena's unlock accomplished this a lot better I think. I ended up playing through Severed Eden a few weeks later than release, but I was still able to reasonably deduce the unlock requirements from the information given, and I had a great time doing it. Not to mention, the cipher and the course really help in building hype for when you're able to play the absolutely wild chart that is Arghena, especially with the amazing full background video. oh, and as someone who's taken the time to fully clear out world mode and the beyond chapter, holy shit that takes far too much time and is so obnoxious. even now as the world extend event goes on allowing you to unlock songs for free by playing a bit of world mode, i find myself skipping out just due to lack of interest, even though it'd be saving me money in the long term (tbf I am on a hiatus with the game right now, but I feel like that's still saying something, especially given the short length of the world extend maps and the length of time they're available) I kinda just freewrote this without much direction as I watched the video to write down my thoughts as they came to me, so I don't think I really have an overarching point here, but I very much agree with much of everything you've listed out. Even as a veteran player who doesn't really have to deal with these problems anymore, it's been quite challenging to get some of my friends into this amazing game just because of the grindy unlock systems. I very much enjoyed the video, keep up the great work!
I actually absolutely love how the game forces hard gauge. It means you have to be consistent across the whole chart and actually be able to get decent score on the chart. New players tend to think normal clears are good enough... they really aren't. A normal clear doesn't mean jack in a game where score is 100% based on accuracy. Grievous Lady especially needs hard gauge because it has 4 holds that gives free gauge at the end. If the requirement was normal clear, players would think they're good enough to play the chart but the truth is they probably most likely cleared due to the free gauge or they don't have consistency across the chart. Using hard gauge usually makes new players realise they aren't good enough for the chart. And it has caused players to go back, try a lower diff and leave the anomaly as something to try when they get better. It is very eye opening to your skill level if you aren't stubborn. I do think hard gauge is a little too punishing but at the time these story packs were made it was a good choice. It would be unreasonable to expect the devs to create an entirely new gauge (such as a nerfed version of hard gauge) that's exclusive to the anomaly especially since at the time they were still experimenting.
I'm in the same boat where while I really love the game overall, but... The frustration I have with the Tempestissimo anomaly has left me unsure that I'll ever finish Act 1 for myself. Personally, even the PRS9 chart is already a bit close to my skill ceiling and that is the minimum difficulty that can be set in the anomaly. I can clear the PRS chart, albeit with a low-A on an easy gauge. The one time I finished the anomaly chart through to the end (on a fluke run)? Still a track lost because the anomaly gauge's bleed persists past the last note before leveling out and I had missed too much of the burst trills near the end. And unlike the Beyond chart unlock or even other anomalies, the >PRS and >FTR versions of the Tempest anomaly don't have the pity system to fall back on. A fun fact: Arcahv's original unlock only required to have acquired Tempestissimo normally (NOT anomaly), and then play PRAGMATISM, Fracture Ray and Ringed Genesis-- EDIT: with Fracture Hikari-- in order w/o fail or retry. The game doesn't hint at this, nor does it display in the song list at all until you unlock it. Arcahv was considered the most expensive song in the game since you needed to also buy the three previous packs (EC/LS/AV) in order to access the unlock method and the song itself-- the main reason why it was changed in the lead-up to Final Verdict to the World map that exists now (which only requires the anomaly). I had unlocked Arcahv in the old way and was "caught up on the story" prior to v4.0.0, so I was able to purchase and access Final Verdict on launch... only to then be met with needing Tempest Tairitsu (content from a previous pack) in order to unlock the first song in the Axiom. So, I essentially spent $5 on... just Defection? Not a bad song, but... just feels a little ironic. I feel like something that could bridge the gap between 3.0 and 4.0 content for casual/lower-skill players is to have Tempest Tairitsu work like Lagrange: where the base partner is unlocked (separately from the anomaly) so it can be used for story progress, but have the gauge skill and stat boost locked behind the anomaly so it's still a reward for besting the challenge? Thanks for the video!
Another thing with the potential system - since it's essentially a measure of how well you do on more difficult charts, it's more difficult to raise it to high levels without owning many higher-level charts. Because you only get so many songs in the base pack, if you're a F2P user, you have to score much better on the songs you do have than you would if you had a lot of paid content. According to the misc trivia page on Arcaea wiki, as of the Arghena update discussed in the video, the maximum potential for a F2P user was 11.67, while the maximum for a 100% content user was 13.60. For context, I'm a person who buys Arcaea original content packs, and my ptt is 11.27... but I pretty much only play 9s and 9+s. And that's 96% of the way to the maximum potential a F2P user could achieve! I can't even score past low AA on most of the free 9+ beyonds! Literally the only thing that's boosting my potential is that I have a WHOLE lot of those 9s and 9+s unlocked. Even if you ARE a F2P player at that level of skill, the resources you DO have to increase ptt are really limited. There are like maybe 20 songs in the free pack that are a difficulty 9 on FTR, and four 9+ songs. All of the 9+ songs and all but around four or five of the 9s are only available through world mode. If you want to play beyond charts to boost your potential, not only do you need to unlock the song in world mode, but you also need to unlock the BYD chart in beyond mode. Since the potential gate for many boss songs (Saikyo Stronger, Aegleseeker, Arghena, etc) is 11, this all means that a F2P user who only bought that specific content would HAVE to be able to play at a higher level than a user with more paid content in order to even unlock **the songs they already paid for,** and they also have to jump through a lot more progression hoops to prove to the potential system that they play at that level. I get that potential gates are intended to communicate difficulty to a player, but it's a really flawed system in the way it exists now. Maybe a revamped ptt system might compare your scores to the number of songs that you have, instead of artificially capping at lower values if you have less owned songs... Great video! I recently started a second Arcaea account to build from the ground up for fun, and I've definitely been feeling a lot of these criticisms. (Unrelatedly, something that I don't really love that lowiro did was that rework to the 1f1e33 challenge for the Tempestissimo unlock, though. It used to be that you had to access a website that the fanbase found via a 1f1e33-based ARG and then enter a password from that site into your game, which was understandably a hassle, because it was literally impossible to do without looking it up. Now you just need to clear 1f1e33 on the intended difficulty level. While I feel like it's a much more intuitive unlock condition, it just doesn't have the same pizzazz that the password bit had. Unlocking songs through puzzles just seems cooler and more atmospheric, even if impractical.)
Potential is *NOT* a measure of skill/how well you do on difficult charts. The Arcaea mods themselves on the official Arcaea server say potential is a measure of your progress (things like how many charts you own and stuff). It was never meant to be a measurement of skill.
@@KPoWasTaken That is some grade A bullshit (I don't mean you're lying, I mean the statement itself is incorrect). The very way potential works flies in the face of that. If it's about progress, why can it decrease? How do you _lose_ progress? Also, even if it is true, that doesn't stop it getting used like it's a measure of skill (which it does, a lot).
@@Jono997 Yeah it doesn't really make sense but the mods themselves stated potential is a measure of progression and you're getting the idea of potential wrong if you consider it a measure of skill. And no, that won't stop people from using it as a measure of skill but I just wanted to point out claiming potential is supposed to be a measure of skill is false.
I’m gonna be honest, the hardest free thing that isn’t an event you can get is a 10.0, which severely limits how high your ptt can be. It combines all your best play ratings (in which chart constant effects). You can AA an 11 and that would be equal (play rating) or maybe even higher than EX-ing a 10 in the free pack. AA-ing Testify BYD is equal to (play rating) or more than PM-ing a 10.0 in the free pack (which is the hardest the free non event pack will offer) which sets your points here solidly
Might be just a me thing, but I really liked the grinding of really hard charts to unlock them. Yes it takes away from the reveal value, but I remember switching over to a training app to practice the parts of grievous lady that I lasted through (up till I died) and then getting better at those parts and coming back to retry the anomaly again, and progress to the next hard part. Dont know why but I had this "don't wanna get the song by pity" mindset and I just forced myself to actually hard clear the song before I fail-unlocked the song, which was really fun to me and it improved my skills a lot. I think most of the roadblocks Arcaea sets out is to help the player grow in terms of skill as the new charts are really nightmarish to deal with if you're new or you're just not used to the tricks they already use. Outside of that, the cryptic unlock conditions are really fun but annoying indeed for a catching up player trying to get content. But they're cool so why not
Didn't spend 40 minutes on the fragment stamina refresh time being just one hour too long. 0/10. Great video. Your points were all fair and reasonable (and very true).
Regarding wanting to use different partners in world mode, it’s actually encouraged to use other partners, because partners can only level up through world progression. It does get annoying sometimes when you have to level up a partner that has horrendous step so it barely goes that far, but I think it’s alr
23:20 actually you can unlock it on a lower difficulty and later on go to the higher difficulty version of the song and do the u lock requirements (if they arent already met, sometimes it automatically finished those requirements without playing the song) and youd be able to do the anomaly without seeing the cutscene
re: tempestissimo anomaly, I am a low future player (i am currently fighting through doing the earlier future 8s). Back when the end of arcaea's story was teased I fought my way furiously through tempestissimo past -> present anomaly and it was brutal, but for me, that's actually exactly the experience i wanted! the story presents tairitsu as going terminator mode in this bit and that's what it is, that's why she shows up in the background. It's a skill check that required dedication and pain for me, it's one of my favorite experiences and led to me improving my game substantially!
I like that on the Switch version you can pay fragments to get the straight up solutions needed for the Axiom of the End stuff but even with it I still had to look up a guide for a couple of them lolol
Trying to unlock all of the story two days after starting the game, Tempestissimo threw me for a loop. I had to learn to play a 9 at 6 ptt. Well i got it in 24 hours, but holy shit, even a month later into the game I can barely FR it. The difficulty progression was definitely mesnt for players playing over a long time and not people like me who fell head over heels into it.
I absolutely love the world of Arcaea and have bought all the packs. I've been stuck trying to unlock Tempest Tairitsu for months and I'm hard blocked continuing the story. This makes me really sad since I'd love to be hyped for the new main story they just announced, but I can't clear it. I don't know if it spoil things either. Really wish they've loosen this requirement so that players could continue going through the story without needing to be able to clear 9+ songs.
Very appreciative of this video as a brand new Arcaea player, since I unlocked the anomaly songs completely out of order (I went Grievous Lady, Tempestissimo, Fracture Ray). Thanks, man!
15:51: And the thing is, to get Tempest Tairitsu, you have to clear the Anomaly and to do so you have to: - Unlock BYD difficulty of Tempestissmo which can be done by successfully doing so or reach 100% progression through failing. - Other difficulties MUST clear Tempestissmo Anomaly at all cost. You CANNOT use the 100% progression. 16:21: Before 4.0, Archav can be unlocked without needing to clear Tempestissmo Anomaly. All you need to do after you get Tempestissmo is to play the following in succession (must clear): PRAGMATISM-> Fracture Ray -> Ringed Genesis to pull it off.
ngl as someone who wanted to play aegleseeker but didnt have enough PTT, having to grind for the potential to be able to do aegleseeker FTR really made me improve, since i was forced to actually grind out harder charts and just... get better. Yeah its a pain because im a fan of just playing hard content and getting destroyed by it but in terms of improvement that was one of my fastest improvement periods playing this game by far.
I think hard clear unlocks are a good gauge if you’re ready to surpass a skill ceiling of the game. I thought it was balanced because by the time I arrived at it, I could conveniently pass on around my 19th play if I really tried each attempt(spread out over some days with warmup prior). if I fail spammed it made it so I wasn’t content with half assing accuracy on charts with difficulty spikes, and let me know until I hard cleared said chart I shouldn’t move onto more difficult unlocks until I could. Plus the tension is crazy when you set a deadline that you must pass it before the meter is empty.
As a Arcaea Switch player I am so glad I don't have to deal with mobile World Mode and that Axium of the End comes with some hints... Now if only it came with some more updates and more DLC... It could be the best version of the game
the really funny thing about the switch version is that you have to AA songs to unlock them rather than just clearing them, which was definitely a weird decision to make, especially since you need to AA halcyon to unlock ether strike and of course the black fate songs
I am a beginner at Arcaea but… too proficient in rhythm games. I am 10PTT (I haven’t touched Arcaea in ages), and I have already sunk money when the game was giving sales. (I believe it’s about 40$? Definitely know I have every pack in main story except FV and couple of Side Packs) It’s actually so hard to get myself playing the game because of a chart suddenly just jumping 2-3 difficulties and the aforementioned World Mode grinding and some crucial charts just showing you ??? whenever you’re trying to unlock something you genuinely want to progress. After playing couple songs and being actually hooked in the game, you’re getting to a point where you just don’t want to grind anymore and want to play Phigros instead. Unfortunately I cannot play as much rhythm games as recently my left hand hurts dramatically after couple of tries in any game that requires fast hand movement (pretty much almost every single rhythm game) and it’s really sad I cannot fulfil my dream of actually playing and finishing EO. Great video, awesome channel, you definitely earned my subscription.
For someone who watched this video within the hour it released I sure took my time commenting on it lol. This was a really good video and it touches on a lot of stuff that I didn't really think about in regards to how hard it is to get into Arcaea (in hindsight, no wonder only one of my friends who I managed to get into it actually stuck around long term). I did have a couple of my own thoughts I wanted to add in regards to some stuff you mentioned. Feel free to read over them, but I totally get if you'd rather not. 15:43 - This is only half true. The Tempestissimo anomaly _does_ have a pity unlock, but only on Future (to unlock Beyond). If you're doing the anomaly on Past or Present, there is no pity, you *have* to clear the anomaly to get through it on those difficulties. This actually causes another issue since unless you unlocked Arcahv before 1.12.0, you need to complete the anomaly to unlock it, and thus gain access to Final Verdict. This means that in order to unlock Final Verdict (excluding veteran players), you need to be able to clear a Present 9 at minimum. If you've been exclusively playing on Past difficulty up until this point, you're basically fucked until you get good enough to to pass this skill wall that everything before and afterwards pales in comparison to, and once you're past that point, you're not gonna be touching the Past charts in Final Verdict, rendering the entire difficulty pointless. 16:32 - I think the reason they redid Arcahv's unlock method is because the old unlock method required you to own 3 song packs aside from Black Fate. Granted, they're all prior main story packs which you'd probably already own if you're going through the story, but that's still a lot to lock one song behind. Also, putting this here because I don't know where else to, but Tempestissimo and Arcahv's unlock methods used to be even more cryptic, with Tempestissimo requiring players to solve a mini-ARG to get a time-limited code from a website and put it in the game, and Arcahv's requiring you to play three specific songs, none of which are in Black Fate, in order, with Fracture Hikari. Further evidence that lowiro are open to rebalancing unlocks to some degree. 21:45 - Believe it or not, the Axiom of the End unlock requirements used to be even worse. Initially, you only saw the hints for the unlocks *after* you achieved them, the idea being that players collectively try stuff until someone eventually stumbles into unlocking it, gets the hint, and then try to figure out what they did to unlock it from there. At some point they updated it to show the hints right off the bat, presumably so that new players could then go through it solo, but as you explained it's not enough. 24:22 - This can also fuck players over if they plan on playing the higher difficulties at some point due to a bug that can cause higher difficulties to be permanently inaccessible if not unlocked before Testify, seemingly at complete random. This, unfortunately, means bashing your head against the wall by grinding out the unlocks on Beyond, regardless of your actual skill level, is the optimal method to progress through Final Verdict. And before someone pipes in saying they fixed it, no, they didn't, this is still happening to some players. 24:42 - I think the rationale behind why only some songs let you play them through without failing is because they're the grand finales of their respective packs (or in Testify's case, the story overall) and failing in the middle of that would just ruin the impact. In other words, the better unlock experience is just a bonus or side effect in lowiro's eyes. I do agree they should give all the songs that don't get unlocked like this that treatment, but this is why I think it's only for some songs. 26:00 - The map Maya's on is actually quite short imo. I was able to get her in one day on a completely fresh account (using nothing but Tairitsu, starting at level 1). 27:21 - To be slighlty pedantic, Arghena's unlock method does "delete the challenge" at some point. If you fail enough to the point you reach 999% maximum gauge, the game will just stop misses from dropping the gauge, allowing you to sleepwalk through the course, though you'd have to be really bad to not trigger this intentionally, to the point I've only seen this happen when people do it on purpose. 29:31 - You can't actually use Memories to boost on Legacy maps, that can only be done on non-legacy maps. 30:38 - I feel like since 4.0 they've actually taken some steps to addressing this, adding parters with skills that can give additional progression under certain circumstances. Hell, Kanae's Awakened skill has the potential to completely revolutionise the progression minmaxing meta (though she wasn't out at the time of writing). 30:44 - Omg yes please, I so wish they'd do that. They sort of already do this with the ability to favourite a specific partner, and doing so makes her show up as your current partner to your friends regardless of which partner you're currently using, but it doesn't show that change on your end. Making it that your favourited parter is who shows up on the results screen for instance would be such a good change. 32:27 - I'm personally in the camp of potential gates being bad for several reasons. For one, the potential system itself is somewhat flawed and a player's potential can often be an over/underestimation of a their actual skill. To give an example, I'm 12.2 potential and still can't clear most Beyond 11s, meanwhile someone I knew ran circles around me when they were at 8 potential (I was at 10ish at the time). Another reason I don't like potential gates is that a lot of the cases where they get used have additional requirements to clear certain charts with certain grades, which could absolutely serve the purpose of said potential gates: prove you're ready for this chart by getting an EX on this other chart. And this is all without going into the Singularity Challenge you do to unlock Luna's map, which actually locks you *out* of doing it on lower difficulties if your potential is too high, which is a whole other can of awful worms. 35:53 - Once upon a time, that was actually the case. In addition to the main story partners that are locked behind World Mode, at least one song per-pack was also locked behind World Mode, typically the penultimate song of the pack. This was changed back in 4.3.
unfortunately awakened kanae's skill isn't anything special. i presumed when i saw the description that it'd be winter kou for step, but instead, it makes her progression reduce to 0 and adds the progression you would've got with her onto the next play, meaning she's only really good for dodging restrict/random/fixed speed tiles
I agree with some of your points, especially about world mode being slightly tedious, and about the hints being very much unhelpful. I think hard gauge is usually fine, as at that point the correct thing to do is to turn back and play some easier stuff instead of brute forcing the chart. I do wish they'd let you see the entire thing once, even if that didn't unlock it. PTT gating is mostly fine IMO. I'm already past the 11ptt gates, but can't really play the songs that unlocks, so the gates are there for a good reason. I think the energy system is pretty fun during events, as it keeps us coming back throughout the duration of the event. It doesn't have the same effect when playing alone though. I've unlocked all the f2p world mode songs and I'm now working on the sceneries, so I'm past the bulk of it, but it makes recommending the game to new players difficult.
My take on the Hard gauge unlocks is simply that it's a skill gate to force the Hard clear. If you're not really good enough to get a decent score on an 11, the game clearly doesn't want you to bash your head against a wall. The lower difficulties are there for a reason, and accepting that you might only be able to unlock the PRS 9 charts at current is probably good enough, and as the player improves over time and gets better at handling harder charts, there's still some gameplay incentive of those unlocks to keep going. The reason why the gate makes sense to me is that many newer/lower level players think of a Normal clear as being a good enough play, but in reality, with Arcaea's 100% accuracy based scoring, you can only really say you've gotten good at a chart from EX onwards. Clearing a chart with 9.2m (A grade) with a chart that has a free ending that gives a ton of gauge really means nothing, while the Hard gauge forces sufficient consistency over the entire chart itself. Yes, it's probably frustrating for someone who just wants to get the story over with, but I don't think that the story progression should be the main focus of the game; it should almost always be about the rhythm game component itself.
Just as an example, I personally only recently hit 12.00 potential and started being able to handle 10+s somewhat. Previous to this, I had tried and completely failed to get even the FTR charts when I first went through at around 10.5 potential, so I went through on PRS first, and only went back to get FTR much later when I actually got better and could actually handle the charts. I only just managed to actually clear Infinite Strife on BYD, and I'm still not good enough to handle any of the rest, but since I am clearly not good enough to handle those charts, I'm more than content to let them be locked for now, until I improve to that point.
Thinking about that skill gating, while it is a good idea in theory, the implementation is iffy (heh). For the hard gauge unlocks, while the pity system is nice it heavily undermines that goal. While some will take the hint, I think most people are more likely to brute force as shown in this video. Players optimizing the fun out of a game when given the chance isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. Potential gated stuff has a different issue. It is very well known that potential is as much a measure of how much content a user has as it is for how good they are. It will inevitably allow some less skilled players in while keeping out some more skilled ones. The only system present that actually works is requiring some grade on the same difficulty of a previous song in the unlock chain. If that was applied across the board and particularly to boss songs, it would actually be effective at this goal.
honestly ive been playing since 2017 and I just got used to everything except for one thing : partner leveling If you're like me and aiming to max all partners this shit is just way too grindy but I decided I'm going to do it anyway cuz I just love the game :]
Getting to the anomalies section of the video and being like ?? oh that's not so bad??? only to remember I'm a Phigros player who can't read half the story and is too lazy to read the other half- EDIT: Nevermind!!! I see why it's a problem now lol
As someone who is very much an event player when it comes to mobile rhythm games and started playing arcaea in earnest when the latest WACCA event dropped, I've found it difficult enough to both progress in events and world mode simultaneously without already having partners with high stats for it or like setting alarms for myself reminding me to play Arcaea. It makes it super easy to make the grind to catch up feel more like a 2nd job than catching up on a game. It's certainly gotten better now that things are maxed but it's still a problem
One of the purposes Arcaea sets this barrier for unlocking songs is to discourage players from playing charts too difficult for them, i.e. if you have to fail a chart 20 times to unlock it, you're probably not ready for it and might develop bad habits while playing it.
As someone who tried to unlock all the free content before spending any money into the game, it’s really weird how it encourages short sessions in f2p by having an energy system, but then stops to care if you pay and then goes back on it and assumes you’ve been playing a bit of f2p before paying and that you’d be alright to go back in world mode…
This really highlights the best and the worst of Arcaea, which is really insightful. If there was something that lowiro would consider changing, I think this video is a good place to start. This is as constructive that critisicism can get👏 Banger video bro🔥
I might be an unopinion take but imo i like the 5%-15% anomaly system in a way that when i first start out getting low% told me that i should practice and get better at the game first before continuing the story I think it’s just me that think of it this way tho i have too much L take already xD
I found this game today, knew about araea from chuni in the arcade. Loved axium, fractured ray and grevious on it. But as a casual rhythm gamer. It looks like i got major skill issue before i can play this game 😂 Anyone know if i can play on phone or do i need a tablet? Cause i only got 2 fingers on phone 💀
playing on a phone is definitely doable and even as a thumb player, but i highly suggest buying anti slip mats cause you definitely having a better time playing with index than a thumb
5:38 This is the fact arcaea's world mode is so boring to do. I think they should add the possibility to recover stamina by fragments more than once.. by a higher price at least. Fragments are just "useless" besides that purpose imo. I always have more than 20k frags because i never use them smh
Came back after Absolute Nihil update. If you guys in the comment section said hard clear to unlock song is good or nothing to change, why this update let you just play Alter Ego to unlock it? (lowiro even auto unlock ETR difficulty even you select FTR to play for unlocking the song) Imagine lowiro can make you (skip the puzzle part after completely solved it then) do hard clear then you failed then repeat, like before, but they aren't. But still, World Mode, especially awakening map, are grindy and tedious as always.
2 year player but still suck. God damn back then I have to use memories to get certain characters to get through main story and I mean this happens before an update when those certain characters to get through the main story to get in world mode was updated to legacy instead of a normal world mode XD. Damn I am draining my money XD
The boss songs are obviously hard and you’re not supposed to touch them until you have reached a high enough skill. You should be VERY aware of this as a veteran rhythm game player. All this complaining about “Why doesn’t the game give the player the opportunity to clear it on normal” completely misses the point on demanding players to do *better* than normal clear to have an unlock shortcut. Allowing players to fail the song 20 times as an unlock is a failsafe, and that’s why the song PVs in final verdict still play upon returning attempts because otherwise you can unlock it by not engaging with the song for 10 minutes. Arcahv and Testify are special cases because they are rewards for completing the unlock systems. For world mode, the only thing worth grinding as f2p is free songs, beyond and awakening tairitsu, for 30 minute sessions every 6 hours it’s not a bad deal since the content for f2p is limited. Not mentioning it’s infinitely more cost efficient than spending whatever in arcades. For paid content, the only partners worth unlocking is grievous lady and tempest tai (maybe kou for fragments), no other partner have significant stats to be worth unlocking asap and are literally post game content (and increasing tempest tai’s stats). I don’t know what even is the complaint about using tempest tai, with risk comes reward. The beyond chapter is created for preventing tempest tai to breeze through the maps and encouraging people to level up their other partners, which is reasonable enough imo. The switch version is literally designed to be a more traditional single player experience, while mobile games generally demand you to interact with the community at some point. I don’t think it’s demanding to check the wiki because let’s not kid ourselves, even single player games require checking the wiki these days. And that’s only for the main story packs across 5 years of content which you were pretty much speedrunning through. They are supposed to be story elements that tie into the current situation, with ultra hard boss songs as the reward.
All the arguments you said, they can make it better for the game's flow and QoL purpose. Wouldn't it better if you don't need to waste half an hour to unlock the song you can't clear in hard gauge but can clear in normal gauge. Not everyone's free time is half a day, they have work to do. Someone wants to unlock a song and play it freely within their small free time but it turns out to let themselves waste their spare time to unlock it just one song. Wouldn't it better if they rework World Mode to be the same as Switch version in any permanent chapters then keep stamina the same to use it only in event chapter. Many mobile rhythm games also have a grind gate but everyone's ok because it not includes the time gate as a second barrier. Wouldn't it better if new players don't need to switch tab between the game and the wiki constantly to see how to unlock the certain part and give them a hint directly with the cost of currency. Imagine the scenario that you play a game without tutorial nor in-game guide but game dev put tutorial and guide in a book at the library miles away from you. I know it's not that extreme IRL but you know the point, right? The thing is, wouldn't it be better if they change those thing to attract more newcomer to play their game? A lot of my friends that I represent Arcaea to them, said the similar thing, they quit it because they don't like the complex unlocking method with little helping hand in the game and a weird grindfest of the whole game even they already bought the song pack they want to play a specific song.
@@Erixacalibur "Wouldn't it better if you don't need to waste half an hour to unlock the song you can't clear in hard gauge but can clear in normal gauge." The lower difficulties exist to allow casual players to progress through the story. Hammering yourself into playing charts that are clearly out of your skill level is bad practice and that's one of the reasons why hard charts are gatekept. "Wouldn't it better if they rework World Mode to be the same as Switch version in any permanent chapters then keep stamina the same to use it only in event chapter." Time gates provides motivation to return to the game. Plus, this is a mobile game and the switch version is a different package. If you want the switch experience, buy the switch version. "Wouldn't it better if new players don't need to switch tab between the game and the wiki constantly to see how to unlock the certain part and give them a hint directly with the cost of currency." Like I said, as a mobile game, you are expected to interact with the community at some point. Checking the wiki takes 30 seconds, and it only applies to the main story across 5 years of content. Finding an appropriate pace is important in maintaining a healthy relationship with the game. "The thing is, wouldn't it be better if they change those thing to attract more newcomer to play their game?" The complexly unlocked songs are arguably some of the best songs to grace the rhythm game scene. In my opinion, the tedious unlocks can't not even compare to how resource intensive arcade unlocks are.
@@kilometersperminute4113 First, like Losermanwins said, some songs for some people when they play lower difficulty is too easy and too hard if play in hard gauge. This is not SEGA rhythm games that have 5 difficulties to choose their comfort level to play hard gauge. Second, as far as I know, this is only game that take too much time to experience the whole content compared to other mobile rhythm games, even Deemo or Cytus II don't have this level of grinding. How could people happy when they bought something but they can fully use it 2 or 3 days later. This game is not a gacha game that encourage you to login every day to claim daily reward for FOMO. Third, Candy Crush Saga is also a mobile but you don't need to interact with community to clear the stage (I'm so proud of my mom who get through stage 5000+ without any single item use). Just admit it there's plenty of people who wanted to finish their playthrough without any outsource guide. Or you mean people who play Arcaea Switch is the introvert one, the community-less type, because they already have in-game hints so they no need to open the wiki, no need to interact with community even Arcaea wiki/Discord have Switch section, eh? Fourth, I already said what I learnt from my friends. You felt good with complex unlock, congratulations. But what about the others? If it is that good, why this video exists? Why many people told the similar things as mine in this video's comment section? I will stop my argument here. If you still think this Arcaea progression is good enough for all players, then I won't argue you anymore. Hope lowiro don't change anything to keep fulfilling your dignity with the game.
@@Erixacalibur 1. The actual way to unlock hard charts is to improve your skill level. If you insist to play a chart that is out of your skill level, you fail 20 times to unlock it. It's as simple as that. Hard clear usually requires 9.5M (AA) score or above, while normal clear is way more lenient (as low as ~6M). Both are not comparable to each other. 2. Arcaea operates more like an arcade rhythm game with updates more frequent than Rayark's games. (In fact most mobile RGs switched to frequent updates with fomo content, eg. Rotaeno, Lanota) 3. Mobile and console gaming are different experiences made for different markets. People expect mobile games to operate like console games without understanding the meta. Candy Crush is a 2012 game while Arcaea is released in 2018 with a dramatically different mobile game landscape. 4. I already explained multiple times that the complex unlocks in the main story is 5 years' worth of content. Getting fatigue from speedrunning complex unlocks is not worth it, that's why I kept saying it's important to play at your own pace. Have a good day. Muting this.
Is kinda fair now, a few years ago was a little bit painful. But when you get better, % unlocking based song are pretty easy, even if they are level 10
me playing arcaea for a full year and having unlocked 99% of its content is definitely worth it, even though i haven't fully read all of its story and sucked at playing the hardest charts there also, try playing geometry dash (not a dedicated rhythm game, more of a platformer but does have some rhythm elements to it), my recommendation of a very good game for a very cheap price (pls, if can do)
Honestly I like worldmode. It's. Totally fine if you aren't doing it for competition. I'm doing it to lvl my characters and sometimes get a new song. :)
Newer Arcaea player here (since March 2023), PTT 11.27. I caught up to all the main content and most of Beyond in about 6 months, which I would say is decent. I only play once or twice a day, unlocks in Arcaea is much more about consistent playing rather than paying money to get it now. I never used memories and maybe once or twice used fragments to get what I needed. Overall, it just requires time, which I can respect, since Arcaea is very dense, and they don’t want you to play through everything too quickly. I do agree with the old unlock methods. They are too cryptic and I also had to look them up on the wiki to figure it out. But that's part of the fun. The rest of this video is very whiny, and lacks any real thought behind the statements presented. Sure, potential gating might prevent players from reaching content, but the game also wants its players to be prepared to play these harder charts with a high score. If you fail at it, then you should practice more or try an easier difficulty and move on. Not every chart is going to be exactly at your level, and so easier ones can help you warm up, while harder ones allow you to slowly but surely get better. Simply put, if you played this game at a slower, more realistic pace, a lot of your problems would not be as severe.
The way I see it, unlocking anomalies should be score based if I'm being honest. As I've seen people just drop cares about acc entirely in order to clear songs, I'm guilty of it back in like 2018 or 2019, can't remember. Doing this really screws over your muscle memory and acc. You tend to develop mindblock on patterns due to cheesing or the type of mindblock you'll get is certain sections you always get way too many fars on. But the next best thing is to force hard clears as it'd be too unfair to expect the devs to just create a whole new survival system (especially back when GL and FR were the only anomalies and the game was still new). A normal clear ISN'T good enough in a scoring system that's tied 100% to accuracy. This design is to force you to actually play consistently across the whole chart rather than clear a chart that has holds that give you free gauge at the end. Making sure a player knows their skill level and are actually playing charts to their skill level rather than rushing ahead is WAY more important than the story. At the end of the day, story is something you experience once and then rereading isn't the same excitement. But replaying charts is always gonna be something you do unless you literally can't improve score anymore (MAX PM) and even then you still sometimes replay them for fun. If you develop bad muscle memory early, it f**ks you over for a very long time. TL;DR the hard gauge in anomalies is a skill gate to prevent players from thinking they're better than they actually are Tempestissimo's anomaly "tempest gauge" is actually a severely nerfed version of tempest gauge. And it's supposed to represent Fracture Hikari bleeding out. So changing the gauge wouldn't really work as it'd break the connection to the story. I think Arcahv's changed unlocking system to World Mode is bad because it's supposed to be a terminal song yet it's unlocked in the most generic way possible. I guess the old unlock system was bullcrap and stupid to figure out with no hints but I feel they could've changed it in a better way to keep terminal songs uniqueness rather than just moving it to the world mode grind. And Lasting Eden's different unlock method seems to connect to the fact it's an iruption song rather than an anomaly song or a terminal song. I do really like this unlock system. I do agree that the hints in FV are not good. And I'm pretty sure everyone agrees the world mode system is trash (on mobile).
If you wanna invest yourself in this game... why even bother with the mobile version? The switch version seems like an actual game. The only problem is if it'd be updated as regularly as the mobile version.
@@yol_nExcluding all the packs the switch doesn't have, it isn't cheaper to buy a whole switch and the switch version of Arcaea compred to the microtransactions in the mobile version. Not to mention not all of us are gonna buy every single song/chart in the game, we're more likely to buy only the ones we'll play. At certain points of the game you tend to ignore lower diffs entirely so if packs only have lower diff songs you ain't gonna buy them, not to mention the high amount of low diff Memory Archive songs that you aren't gonna buy. Even so it doesn't matter as that's only one of the 11 potential reasons for playing on mobile that I gave... and there are more reasons too AND IT SEEMS TH-cam REMOVED MY LIST OF REASONS TO PLAY ON MOBILE BRUH
...yeah, I ain't gonna invest into a game with such overly unnecessary complexity and hostility towards the player. Bro just wants to tap some notes. That's unfortunate. Awesome video, as always.
![The Futility of Arcaea's Worldbuilding [or, "How I Found Value In Rhythm Game Stories"]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5SygLt_bVQ4/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Futility of Arcaea's Worldbuilding [or, "How I Found Value In Rhythm Game Stories"]](/img/tr.png)
They recently announced some changes that are going to help with progression in the new 6.0 update!:
-World mode maps that were playable worth 1 stamina will now be playable without using any!
-World mode maps from Final Verdict and from chapter 1-5 will now be playable with only 1 stamina (excluding scenary maps)
-There will be hints for main story anomalies
Honestly, this is pretty nice, since my brother didn't want to waste Frags and Memories (especially that) for this!
The changes to Act I progression go much, much farther than that: now the VL/LS anomalies are with no-fail on, the BF anomaly now uses a very heavily nerfed gauge and the pity percent unlock system for the FV terminal songs now gives a LOT more percentage on failure (for example, before the max % you could get on PRS was 25% for failing near the end, now I got 30% for failing in the middle of the chart)
It should be important to say that maps with 0 stamina won’t level up partners, as their leveling is based on the amount of stamina you use. For example using 6 stamina on a 1 map, you can see how much the partner levels up
@@smokebomb024 Actually, for non-special 0 stamina maps the EXP calculation is done as if you had spent 1 stamina
@ wow really? That’s interesting i didn’t notice that because I already completed every map except for the new Compassion one
As a long time player, I personally didn't have problems with the unlock system until recently (thanks to me getting busier). World Mode even after 6 years is still one of the worst unlock system I have ever experienced in a game ever. Although I hope it can be rework (probably like the switch version) I don't think it will happen anytime soon. Very good video Jack, you touch on problems that I didn't even realize were problem since I was basically stockholm'd in to Arcaea and thought it was fine lol.
On the other hand tho, I hope someone from lowiro or (in the best case) Guy watches the video because it is still valid criticism and I want to see some changes to the unlock system like maybe giving a choice of attempting the chart on normal gauge but you have to clear it twice or something like that.
Arcaea is my first rhythm game so I thought that's just how all rhythm games are
You either pay or you're screwed
@@Riley26first 2 anomalies cant be failed now with 6.0 also a bunch of changes to anomaly unlocks and world mode
For World Mode, I recently introduced a friend to Arcaea. They actually haven't been bothered by World Mode, since they're so new to the game that they're taking a while to get used to the game's mechanics and the default charts, and they just casually play once or twice a day to drain their energy to slowly unlock more content to digest.
It's pretty clearly meant to be a system to encourage (or force) players to stay active, which does help in improving player skill over time. It's also quite indicative that this is the same model as many other mobile rhythm games...
As someone currently working on a video analysing/discussing Arcaea's story mode in relation to similar titles in the genre, this video nails some of the problems that I think the game has with nailing a balance between the story's artistic intent and really vague unlock requirements that clash with the game being much easier to "get into" compared to arcade games.
While the story is incredibly ambitious (and very well-done considering stories in rhythm games weren't as much of a central/primary focus at the time of the main story's completion), it feels like Arcaea is split in two - you have the mobile gameplay progression on one hand, a non-linear narrative on the other, and they're awkwardly blended together in a way that can definitely take you out of the intended experience if you're not prepared with a guide to make progression more seamless as a whole.
I definitely agree with many of the points offered in the video that Arcaea does create a divide between its existing and new audiences through integrating the core gameplay experience into the story - while I can't offer any suggestions as to how they could streamline that process other than making unlock hints less obtuse, the game does feel like it's in need of smoothing out the early-life curve so more people can enjoy the full intended experience.
This was a good video! Very awesome to hear your insights as always ^^
the balance between artistic intent and actual mechanical progression was something I wanted to highlight more but was hard to fit into the scope, so ill be curious to see your video!
The tempest anomaly uses a tuned, much easier variant of the tempest gauge, which is arguably not much harder than the regular hard gauge.
As an used-to-be avid Arcaea players for years at this point, the cryptic unlock requirements are my second biggest issue with this game. I love solving puzzles, but Arcaea puzzles are simply not reasonable to work through on your own, as you pointed out very well in the video.
I experienced two phases of my Arcaea journey. When I was super active in the community around when Black Fate was released, solving the challenges along with my friends was the most fun experience I've had. The reveal of the 4th difficulty, the epic transition, everything was cool.
But I also appreciate the other side of the argument. In that, how the hell is it reasonable to work through these cryptic requirements? Despite someone who enjoys solving puzzles, I've never solved a single unlock requirement on my own, I simply asked my friends how to do it. It really sucks because I feel like I'm missing out on what could be a very interesting experience. I would like to solve the puzzles, but the design of the game simply does not incentivise thinking on your own. I think it's lowiro's deliberate decision that you're supposed to solve the puzzle with the community, or just see the wiki. I wish this wasn't the case though...
It's interesting that you find the hard gauge clear requirement annoying. Personally I've found it okay, even when I had to slog through multiple tries to clear Pentiment BYD. My skill level was enough that clearing with hard gauge was an exciting challenge for me. Honestly I would not complain one bit if they changed the gauge to normal like you suggest so, I agree regardless.
The gauge requirement should be changed to a grade/score requirement if I'm being honest. The hard gauge works as sort of a skill gate to force you to be consistent across the whole chart. It's supposed to discourage you from playing the chart until you're better at the game as people can, will, and have rushed through to 11's too early and messed up their muscle memory. A clear caused by free gauge at the end via holds isn't exactly meaningful in any way. Hard gauge requires you to be consistent across the whole chart rather than just have a certain amount of gauge at the end... but unfortunately it doesn't help encourage accuracy. Hard gauge is still very nice to have over normal gauge though as a normal clear actually means/says literally nothing about your skill level. A hard clear shows across the whole chart you are able to play decently - no parts that you play is noticably worse than the rest of the chart. The hard gauge is pretty eye opening to your actual skill level. But a score/grade based gauge would be more eye opening to your actual skill level. Though it does kinda get the check consistency issue again, it checks your acc and that's something I tend to see way too neglected by newer players. And it makes sense why it's neglected - the gauge design doesn't punish you for bad acc so long as you don't miss much. They tend to focus on whether they can clear rather than whether they can get good scores and that's a massive issue.
He found the hard clear requirement annoying because he thought normal clearing was good enough when it really isn't. I do think his GL score being an AA meant yes in this case the hard requirement was kinda stupid. But on some other ones where he said he was able to immediately clear I saw mid/low A rank clears. He didn't care that his score was fairly low, he only cared about the fact he cleared and that isn't a good thing. So it should be score or grade based unlocks
24:46 thats because testify is the final final final boss of arcaea and a VERY special song :) also because of the chart breaking at the end, it adds to the story experience and it wouldnt make sense if you could just fail the song 20 times cuz then you wouldnt see the chart break and everything that happens after you played testify for the first time (tbh i forgot what happens after because i unlocked testify after the epilogue released) but i hope my explanation makes sense
Considering Silent Answer "optional" is crazy😭
Especially when your tais are gone and you're left with fatalis hikari
Yeah, it feel like torture for that week that unlock Testify and no Silent Answer in my case
@RhoGamingYT that's why it's called "silent answer"
As someone who is still sitting in the 10ptt, I can agree that having unlock requirements as reaching X ptt level or being able to clear a hard chart with hard gauge is way too strict for someone who just want to know about the story. Thats why I havent unlocked Tempestisimo and Aegleseeker, and the thing is that i havent thought about what you said in the video: THAT'S CONTENT YOU ARE PAYING FOR. You shouldn't be restricted to access it just because you are, not saying a beginner, but a less skilled player than the rest. Is like they exclude you from enjoying the content or marginalizing you to play lower and way too easier difficulties.
Good video man, really nice to see some criticism over something i love
But thats literally what past and present are for? No one is forcing you to do the anomalies on future, especially not if u just want the story
@@TPMaster1 My issue with Final Verdict and it being locked behind the Tempestissimo anomaly is that it forces you to play half of a hard level 9 song with tempest gauge even on Past.
That’s way harder than anything else on that difficulty. Even the hardest final verdict song is just a 7+ there.
In my case I just blindly bought it when I was still mainly playing Present difficulty charts (probably around 7.5ptt back then) to see the end of the main story, but got hit by a wall for multiple months because I couldn’t get through that anomaly.
It definitely forced me to get better in the game but it was also super frustrating to not be able to play songs I already paid for.
It's supposed to be a challenge. I agree that the tempestissimo challenge is quite hard for a new player, but I vividly remember bashing my head against that anomaly for 2 days straight and then finally getting it. Very few games have given me that feeling of complete satisfaction. One of my fondest memories of playing the game for these past 2 years. The final verdict lock I agree makes very little sense, I literally didn't even know that was a thing until recently. If they locked it behind a ex+ or something of tempestissimo on the difficulty you are trying to play FV in would make more sense. Ig they just wanted to keep newer players from bashing their head against FV to unlock the beyonds @@Niruja
i made a bunch of notes while i was watching this because i had a feeling some of them were going to be brought up later [i was right!]
here they are:
a) i think arcaea is getting better about "hard clear fail interrupting the reveal" given lasting eden seems to be going towards the idea of the challenge being songs you've already seen [addendum: this was mentioned. figures]
b) in the switch ver they actually added additional hints to axiom of the end that you can pay fragments to see, obviously because it came out 9 months after. they should really implement this into mobile but i guess it isnt a huge priority [addendum: this was also mentioned! unsurprisingly]
c) you don't actually have to replay the intro movie over and over again. it's dumb and unintuitive but if you unlock it on a lower difficulty you can hop right into the chart by selecting it on a higher difficulty on the song wheel
d) i think it's a common misconception that you HAVE to play high difficulties in world mode. you don't! you can play present charts and get nearly the exact same world progress because you score better anyway. STEP stat matters waaay more than your progression, and the calculation for it tapers out past a certain point anyway, meaning playing anything above 9+ won't get you much more progression and is just for fun. i think world mode sucks for a lot of people but for what it is i still think it's designed relatively fairly, as long as you have tempest tairitsu and are fine playing easier charts you can progress just as fast as anyone else
e) potential gates should probably have an alternate method to get past them if you REALLY want to. i think they're good in the sense that it gives the player encouragement to improve [when i hit 11 ptt i felt a burst of dopamine being able to finally unlock aegle] but i get not everybody wants to improve and kinda just wants to throw themselves at the wall which. you paid for it you do what you want i guess
good ass video! i think it airs a lot of my own greivances with the game and while i don't mind them now given i'm 12.3ptt with a maxed out tempest tai they were absolutely pretty discouraging when getting into the game. hopefully with act 2 they start designing their content to be more friendly to new players
i already wrote a long response to this on the discord server, but i just wanna come here and acknowledge (again) how this video has made a lot of solid points, most of which i haven't seen being brought up in conversations that are being critical of the game. while i share different views and opinions on the progression system, i now have a better understanding of how this system could affect players' experiences, and i hope it can be improved in fhe future.
The weird thing about final verdict is that on the switch version you can use fragment to reveal different levels of hints for each unlock requirement. I don't get why this isn't on the mobile version
edit : oh you talked about it in the video lmao
So... they actually added this into the mobile version with the 6.0 update.
Hello, long time arcaea player here! (Ptt 12.35)
Awesome video, very consise! I've bought every single song in the entire game (my wallet is crying) and have all partners/event partners except one (rip Stellights), but I'm not even close to finishing everything world mode has to offer. It's definitely up there as my favourite game of all time, but i can't deny that world mode is Arcaea's Achilles heel.
As you said, I'd love to see more updates focusing on better user experience for both new and veteran players, as it's very lacking at the moment.
Keep on the good work!
I really wanted to get into Arcaea about a year or so ago but saw how much of a grind world mode is and the energy system to it,, thats why I brought the game on switch so I didn't have to experience that and play the story when I wanted too and not after 6 hours for my energy to come back. Its a shame that the switch version barely gets any updates on it but im hopeful that lowrio will drop another massive content update for it again like last year.
Something I will say is that another switch port of a rhythm game, Muse Dash also got the same treatment, it got a massive update after being left behind for like years and now its almost at sync with the pc/mobile release,, just getting the Miku collab on it
When I was really into the game, I bought all the content up to current (at the time) during the anniversary sale. Suffice it to say that actually unlocking everything took months. Looking back, I don’t know how I made it through the slog.
a video hooks me so hard when it starts with bookmaker hitting as a background song
Personally, I don’t remember having to sit through the final verdict animations every attempt, I’m fairly certain you can skip it. Also, I think you’d be really happy with the unlock system for the most recent pack, absolute nihil. From making it a little bit easier each time you fail to genuinely being a fun memory puzzle where you have to remember a bunch of digits while playing maps on hard gauge, I think it’s probably one of the better unlock systems-the first one I didn’t have to use the wiki for. I am glad they’re moving torwards these kinds of unlock systems.
The unlock conditions for Magnolia are also kinda neat, if a bit odd.
Also the unlock for Tempestissimo used to be way different. Back when I unlocked it there was this whole ARG thing where you had to go to a privately owned web page by lowiro to get a code…I think they changed the unlock method after they stopped paying for the domain though, I don’t think the site is up anymore.
The Switch version fixes the progression system in world mode. And gives hints to FV unlocks.
But at the cost of only having yearly updates.
24:40 I think the reason why they do that is because, they want to show the Crack part at the end of the song LOL
And it will kill the mood if you got a track lost when you first try/play this song
It kills the mood in every song where you don't just unlock it and can fail after meeting the access requirements.
@@Jono997 I understand that
I just started playing Arcaea recently and holy hell, the lore is deep.
I definitely did always find it strange that arcaea's anomaly unlocks forced the use of more difficult gauges. It makes me wonder if a weaker form of hard gauge would have been more suitable, keeping the stress and tension of clearing with a bar that will fail out when hitting zero, but while not being much more difficult, if at all, than a normal gauge clear. Something like permissive rate from SDVX's dan courses perhaps. Spamming the pity unlock percentages was never fun though.. I remember back when I brute forced the unlock of Grievous Lady as a new player and had bad muscle memory/mindblock on the start of that chart for literal years as a result of it
I will say, I was able to participate in the large community gathering that surrounded the search for Final Verdict's unlock requirements at launch, and I think it was one of the most fun and unique rhythm game experiences I've had to this day. That being said, once that time window passes, the magic is lost and most players are left just looking up requirements in a wiki. It'd be wonderful to be able to give that experience for people playing through the pack after the fact, but I just don't really see a way in which that could reasonably happen.
The cipher style for Arghena's unlock accomplished this a lot better I think. I ended up playing through Severed Eden a few weeks later than release, but I was still able to reasonably deduce the unlock requirements from the information given, and I had a great time doing it. Not to mention, the cipher and the course really help in building hype for when you're able to play the absolutely wild chart that is Arghena, especially with the amazing full background video.
oh, and as someone who's taken the time to fully clear out world mode and the beyond chapter, holy shit that takes far too much time and is so obnoxious. even now as the world extend event goes on allowing you to unlock songs for free by playing a bit of world mode, i find myself skipping out just due to lack of interest, even though it'd be saving me money in the long term (tbf I am on a hiatus with the game right now, but I feel like that's still saying something, especially given the short length of the world extend maps and the length of time they're available)
I kinda just freewrote this without much direction as I watched the video to write down my thoughts as they came to me, so I don't think I really have an overarching point here, but I very much agree with much of everything you've listed out. Even as a veteran player who doesn't really have to deal with these problems anymore, it's been quite challenging to get some of my friends into this amazing game just because of the grindy unlock systems. I very much enjoyed the video, keep up the great work!
I actually absolutely love how the game forces hard gauge. It means you have to be consistent across the whole chart and actually be able to get decent score on the chart. New players tend to think normal clears are good enough... they really aren't. A normal clear doesn't mean jack in a game where score is 100% based on accuracy. Grievous Lady especially needs hard gauge because it has 4 holds that gives free gauge at the end. If the requirement was normal clear, players would think they're good enough to play the chart but the truth is they probably most likely cleared due to the free gauge or they don't have consistency across the chart. Using hard gauge usually makes new players realise they aren't good enough for the chart. And it has caused players to go back, try a lower diff and leave the anomaly as something to try when they get better. It is very eye opening to your skill level if you aren't stubborn.
I do think hard gauge is a little too punishing but at the time these story packs were made it was a good choice. It would be unreasonable to expect the devs to create an entirely new gauge (such as a nerfed version of hard gauge) that's exclusive to the anomaly especially since at the time they were still experimenting.
I'm in the same boat where while I really love the game overall, but...
The frustration I have with the Tempestissimo anomaly has left me unsure that I'll ever finish Act 1 for myself. Personally, even the PRS9 chart is already a bit close to my skill ceiling and that is the minimum difficulty that can be set in the anomaly. I can clear the PRS chart, albeit with a low-A on an easy gauge. The one time I finished the anomaly chart through to the end (on a fluke run)? Still a track lost because the anomaly gauge's bleed persists past the last note before leveling out and I had missed too much of the burst trills near the end. And unlike the Beyond chart unlock or even other anomalies, the >PRS and >FTR versions of the Tempest anomaly don't have the pity system to fall back on.
A fun fact: Arcahv's original unlock only required to have acquired Tempestissimo normally (NOT anomaly), and then play PRAGMATISM, Fracture Ray and Ringed Genesis-- EDIT: with Fracture Hikari-- in order w/o fail or retry. The game doesn't hint at this, nor does it display in the song list at all until you unlock it. Arcahv was considered the most expensive song in the game since you needed to also buy the three previous packs (EC/LS/AV) in order to access the unlock method and the song itself-- the main reason why it was changed in the lead-up to Final Verdict to the World map that exists now (which only requires the anomaly).
I had unlocked Arcahv in the old way and was "caught up on the story" prior to v4.0.0, so I was able to purchase and access Final Verdict on launch... only to then be met with needing Tempest Tairitsu (content from a previous pack) in order to unlock the first song in the Axiom. So, I essentially spent $5 on... just Defection? Not a bad song, but... just feels a little ironic.
I feel like something that could bridge the gap between 3.0 and 4.0 content for casual/lower-skill players is to have Tempest Tairitsu work like Lagrange: where the base partner is unlocked (separately from the anomaly) so it can be used for story progress, but have the gauge skill and stat boost locked behind the anomaly so it's still a reward for besting the challenge?
Thanks for the video!
That pre-patched Arcahv unlock had me flashbacks on Cytus 2 when you need both xenon and conner to unlock floor of lava (that was patched too).
Another thing with the potential system - since it's essentially a measure of how well you do on more difficult charts, it's more difficult to raise it to high levels without owning many higher-level charts. Because you only get so many songs in the base pack, if you're a F2P user, you have to score much better on the songs you do have than you would if you had a lot of paid content.
According to the misc trivia page on Arcaea wiki, as of the Arghena update discussed in the video, the maximum potential for a F2P user was 11.67, while the maximum for a 100% content user was 13.60. For context, I'm a person who buys Arcaea original content packs, and my ptt is 11.27... but I pretty much only play 9s and 9+s. And that's 96% of the way to the maximum potential a F2P user could achieve! I can't even score past low AA on most of the free 9+ beyonds! Literally the only thing that's boosting my potential is that I have a WHOLE lot of those 9s and 9+s unlocked.
Even if you ARE a F2P player at that level of skill, the resources you DO have to increase ptt are really limited. There are like maybe 20 songs in the free pack that are a difficulty 9 on FTR, and four 9+ songs. All of the 9+ songs and all but around four or five of the 9s are only available through world mode. If you want to play beyond charts to boost your potential, not only do you need to unlock the song in world mode, but you also need to unlock the BYD chart in beyond mode.
Since the potential gate for many boss songs (Saikyo Stronger, Aegleseeker, Arghena, etc) is 11, this all means that a F2P user who only bought that specific content would HAVE to be able to play at a higher level than a user with more paid content in order to even unlock **the songs they already paid for,** and they also have to jump through a lot more progression hoops to prove to the potential system that they play at that level. I get that potential gates are intended to communicate difficulty to a player, but it's a really flawed system in the way it exists now. Maybe a revamped ptt system might compare your scores to the number of songs that you have, instead of artificially capping at lower values if you have less owned songs...
Great video! I recently started a second Arcaea account to build from the ground up for fun, and I've definitely been feeling a lot of these criticisms.
(Unrelatedly, something that I don't really love that lowiro did was that rework to the 1f1e33 challenge for the Tempestissimo unlock, though. It used to be that you had to access a website that the fanbase found via a 1f1e33-based ARG and then enter a password from that site into your game, which was understandably a hassle, because it was literally impossible to do without looking it up. Now you just need to clear 1f1e33 on the intended difficulty level. While I feel like it's a much more intuitive unlock condition, it just doesn't have the same pizzazz that the password bit had. Unlocking songs through puzzles just seems cooler and more atmospheric, even if impractical.)
Potential is *NOT* a measure of skill/how well you do on difficult charts. The Arcaea mods themselves on the official Arcaea server say potential is a measure of your progress (things like how many charts you own and stuff). It was never meant to be a measurement of skill.
@@KPoWasTaken That is some grade A bullshit (I don't mean you're lying, I mean the statement itself is incorrect). The very way potential works flies in the face of that. If it's about progress, why can it decrease? How do you _lose_ progress?
Also, even if it is true, that doesn't stop it getting used like it's a measure of skill (which it does, a lot).
@@Jono997 Yeah it doesn't really make sense but the mods themselves stated potential is a measure of progression and you're getting the idea of potential wrong if you consider it a measure of skill.
And no, that won't stop people from using it as a measure of skill but I just wanted to point out claiming potential is supposed to be a measure of skill is false.
I’m gonna be honest, the hardest free thing that isn’t an event you can get is a 10.0, which severely limits how high your ptt can be. It combines all your best play ratings (in which chart constant effects). You can AA an 11 and that would be equal (play rating) or maybe even higher than EX-ing a 10 in the free pack. AA-ing Testify BYD is equal to (play rating) or more than PM-ing a 10.0 in the free pack (which is the hardest the free non event pack will offer) which sets your points here solidly
Might be just a me thing, but I really liked the grinding of really hard charts to unlock them. Yes it takes away from the reveal value, but I remember switching over to a training app to practice the parts of grievous lady that I lasted through (up till I died) and then getting better at those parts and coming back to retry the anomaly again, and progress to the next hard part. Dont know why but I had this "don't wanna get the song by pity" mindset and I just forced myself to actually hard clear the song before I fail-unlocked the song, which was really fun to me and it improved my skills a lot. I think most of the roadblocks Arcaea sets out is to help the player grow in terms of skill as the new charts are really nightmarish to deal with if you're new or you're just not used to the tricks they already use. Outside of that, the cryptic unlock conditions are really fun but annoying indeed for a catching up player trying to get content. But they're cool so why not
Didn't spend 40 minutes on the fragment stamina refresh time being just one hour too long. 0/10.
Great video. Your points were all fair and reasonable (and very true).
they finally fixed world mode
@@losermanwins4338The game is flawless and perfect now!
Regarding wanting to use different partners in world mode, it’s actually encouraged to use other partners, because partners can only level up through world progression. It does get annoying sometimes when you have to level up a partner that has horrendous step so it barely goes that far, but I think it’s alr
23:20 actually you can unlock it on a lower difficulty and later on go to the higher difficulty version of the song and do the u lock requirements (if they arent already met, sometimes it automatically finished those requirements without playing the song) and youd be able to do the anomaly without seeing the cutscene
re: tempestissimo anomaly,
I am a low future player (i am currently fighting through doing the earlier future 8s). Back when the end of arcaea's story was teased I fought my way furiously through tempestissimo past -> present anomaly and it was brutal, but for me, that's actually exactly the experience i wanted! the story presents tairitsu as going terminator mode in this bit and that's what it is, that's why she shows up in the background. It's a skill check that required dedication and pain for me, it's one of my favorite experiences and led to me improving my game substantially!
I like that on the Switch version you can pay fragments to get the straight up solutions needed for the Axiom of the End stuff but even with it I still had to look up a guide for a couple of them lolol
Trying to unlock all of the story two days after starting the game, Tempestissimo threw me for a loop. I had to learn to play a 9 at 6 ptt. Well i got it in 24 hours, but holy shit, even a month later into the game I can barely FR it. The difficulty progression was definitely mesnt for players playing over a long time and not people like me who fell head over heels into it.
I absolutely love the world of Arcaea and have bought all the packs. I've been stuck trying to unlock Tempest Tairitsu for months and I'm hard blocked continuing the story. This makes me really sad since I'd love to be hyped for the new main story they just announced, but I can't clear it. I don't know if it spoil things either. Really wish they've loosen this requirement so that players could continue going through the story without needing to be able to clear 9+ songs.
Very appreciative of this video as a brand new Arcaea player, since I unlocked the anomaly songs completely out of order (I went Grievous Lady, Tempestissimo, Fracture Ray). Thanks, man!
Okay the light and conflict side gave me a giggle, cuz every light side one has a light track and every conflict side has a dark track
15:51: And the thing is, to get Tempest Tairitsu, you have to clear the Anomaly and to do so you have to:
- Unlock BYD difficulty of Tempestissmo which can be done by successfully doing so or reach 100% progression through failing.
- Other difficulties MUST clear Tempestissmo Anomaly at all cost. You CANNOT use the 100% progression.
16:21: Before 4.0, Archav can be unlocked without needing to clear Tempestissmo Anomaly. All you need to do after you get Tempestissmo is to play the following in succession (must clear): PRAGMATISM-> Fracture Ray -> Ringed Genesis to pull it off.
ngl as someone who wanted to play aegleseeker but didnt have enough PTT, having to grind for the potential to be able to do aegleseeker FTR really made me improve, since i was forced to actually grind out harder charts and just... get better. Yeah its a pain because im a fan of just playing hard content and getting destroyed by it but in terms of improvement that was one of my fastest improvement periods playing this game by far.
Coming back to this video and realizing 90% of people complaining about the game are bad at the game
I think hard clear unlocks are a good gauge if you’re ready to surpass a skill ceiling of the game. I thought it was balanced because by the time I arrived at it, I could conveniently pass on around my 19th play if I really tried each attempt(spread out over some days with warmup prior). if I fail spammed it made it so I wasn’t content with half assing accuracy on charts with difficulty spikes, and let me know until I hard cleared said chart I shouldn’t move onto more difficult unlocks until I could. Plus the tension is crazy when you set a deadline that you must pass it before the meter is empty.
24:29 and that's why eventhough my fave chuni pack song is world vanquisher, its the least played.
As a Arcaea Switch player I am so glad I don't have to deal with mobile World Mode and that Axium of the End comes with some hints... Now if only it came with some more updates and more DLC... It could be the best version of the game
They should add a fragment to memory convert (even if it is like 2000 fragments to 50 memories or smth)
2:10 is when peak starts
the really funny thing about the switch version is that you have to AA songs to unlock them rather than just clearing them, which was definitely a weird decision to make, especially since you need to AA halcyon to unlock ether strike and of course the black fate songs
I am a beginner at Arcaea but… too proficient in rhythm games. I am 10PTT (I haven’t touched Arcaea in ages), and I have already sunk money when the game was giving sales. (I believe it’s about 40$? Definitely know I have every pack in main story except FV and couple of Side Packs)
It’s actually so hard to get myself playing the game because of a chart suddenly just jumping 2-3 difficulties and the aforementioned World Mode grinding and some crucial charts just showing you ??? whenever you’re trying to unlock something you genuinely want to progress. After playing couple songs and being actually hooked in the game, you’re getting to a point where you just don’t want to grind anymore and want to play Phigros instead.
Unfortunately I cannot play as much rhythm games as recently my left hand hurts dramatically after couple of tries in any game that requires fast hand movement (pretty much almost every single rhythm game) and it’s really sad I cannot fulfil my dream of actually playing and finishing EO.
Great video, awesome channel, you definitely earned my subscription.
For someone who watched this video within the hour it released I sure took my time commenting on it lol. This was a really good video and it touches on a lot of stuff that I didn't really think about in regards to how hard it is to get into Arcaea (in hindsight, no wonder only one of my friends who I managed to get into it actually stuck around long term). I did have a couple of my own thoughts I wanted to add in regards to some stuff you mentioned. Feel free to read over them, but I totally get if you'd rather not.
15:43 - This is only half true. The Tempestissimo anomaly _does_ have a pity unlock, but only on Future (to unlock Beyond). If you're doing the anomaly on Past or Present, there is no pity, you *have* to clear the anomaly to get through it on those difficulties.
This actually causes another issue since unless you unlocked Arcahv before 1.12.0, you need to complete the anomaly to unlock it, and thus gain access to Final Verdict. This means that in order to unlock Final Verdict (excluding veteran players), you need to be able to clear a Present 9 at minimum. If you've been exclusively playing on Past difficulty up until this point, you're basically fucked until you get good enough to to pass this skill wall that everything before and afterwards pales in comparison to, and once you're past that point, you're not gonna be touching the Past charts in Final Verdict, rendering the entire difficulty pointless.
16:32 - I think the reason they redid Arcahv's unlock method is because the old unlock method required you to own 3 song packs aside from Black Fate. Granted, they're all prior main story packs which you'd probably already own if you're going through the story, but that's still a lot to lock one song behind.
Also, putting this here because I don't know where else to, but Tempestissimo and Arcahv's unlock methods used to be even more cryptic, with Tempestissimo requiring players to solve a mini-ARG to get a time-limited code from a website and put it in the game, and Arcahv's requiring you to play three specific songs, none of which are in Black Fate, in order, with Fracture Hikari. Further evidence that lowiro are open to rebalancing unlocks to some degree.
21:45 - Believe it or not, the Axiom of the End unlock requirements used to be even worse. Initially, you only saw the hints for the unlocks *after* you achieved them, the idea being that players collectively try stuff until someone eventually stumbles into unlocking it, gets the hint, and then try to figure out what they did to unlock it from there. At some point they updated it to show the hints right off the bat, presumably so that new players could then go through it solo, but as you explained it's not enough.
24:22 - This can also fuck players over if they plan on playing the higher difficulties at some point due to a bug that can cause higher difficulties to be permanently inaccessible if not unlocked before Testify, seemingly at complete random. This, unfortunately, means bashing your head against the wall by grinding out the unlocks on Beyond, regardless of your actual skill level, is the optimal method to progress through Final Verdict. And before someone pipes in saying they fixed it, no, they didn't, this is still happening to some players.
24:42 - I think the rationale behind why only some songs let you play them through without failing is because they're the grand finales of their respective packs (or in Testify's case, the story overall) and failing in the middle of that would just ruin the impact. In other words, the better unlock experience is just a bonus or side effect in lowiro's eyes. I do agree they should give all the songs that don't get unlocked like this that treatment, but this is why I think it's only for some songs.
26:00 - The map Maya's on is actually quite short imo. I was able to get her in one day on a completely fresh account (using nothing but Tairitsu, starting at level 1).
27:21 - To be slighlty pedantic, Arghena's unlock method does "delete the challenge" at some point. If you fail enough to the point you reach 999% maximum gauge, the game will just stop misses from dropping the gauge, allowing you to sleepwalk through the course, though you'd have to be really bad to not trigger this intentionally, to the point I've only seen this happen when people do it on purpose.
29:31 - You can't actually use Memories to boost on Legacy maps, that can only be done on non-legacy maps.
30:38 - I feel like since 4.0 they've actually taken some steps to addressing this, adding parters with skills that can give additional progression under certain circumstances. Hell, Kanae's Awakened skill has the potential to completely revolutionise the progression minmaxing meta (though she wasn't out at the time of writing).
30:44 - Omg yes please, I so wish they'd do that. They sort of already do this with the ability to favourite a specific partner, and doing so makes her show up as your current partner to your friends regardless of which partner you're currently using, but it doesn't show that change on your end. Making it that your favourited parter is who shows up on the results screen for instance would be such a good change.
32:27 - I'm personally in the camp of potential gates being bad for several reasons. For one, the potential system itself is somewhat flawed and a player's potential can often be an over/underestimation of a their actual skill. To give an example, I'm 12.2 potential and still can't clear most Beyond 11s, meanwhile someone I knew ran circles around me when they were at 8 potential (I was at 10ish at the time).
Another reason I don't like potential gates is that a lot of the cases where they get used have additional requirements to clear certain charts with certain grades, which could absolutely serve the purpose of said potential gates: prove you're ready for this chart by getting an EX on this other chart.
And this is all without going into the Singularity Challenge you do to unlock Luna's map, which actually locks you *out* of doing it on lower difficulties if your potential is too high, which is a whole other can of awful worms.
35:53 - Once upon a time, that was actually the case. In addition to the main story partners that are locked behind World Mode, at least one song per-pack was also locked behind World Mode, typically the penultimate song of the pack. This was changed back in 4.3.
unfortunately awakened kanae's skill isn't anything special. i presumed when i saw the description that it'd be winter kou for step, but instead, it makes her progression reduce to 0 and adds the progression you would've got with her onto the next play, meaning she's only really good for dodging restrict/random/fixed speed tiles
I’ve cleared the tempest anomaly 💪
I didn’t ever pass Pentiment on the hard gauge tho so I played it 4000 times till I got it
I agree with some of your points, especially about world mode being slightly tedious, and about the hints being very much unhelpful. I think hard gauge is usually fine, as at that point the correct thing to do is to turn back and play some easier stuff instead of brute forcing the chart. I do wish they'd let you see the entire thing once, even if that didn't unlock it.
PTT gating is mostly fine IMO. I'm already past the 11ptt gates, but can't really play the songs that unlocks, so the gates are there for a good reason.
I think the energy system is pretty fun during events, as it keeps us coming back throughout the duration of the event. It doesn't have the same effect when playing alone though. I've unlocked all the f2p world mode songs and I'm now working on the sceneries, so I'm past the bulk of it, but it makes recommending the game to new players difficult.
15:33
as a tryhard scorer, for me that is the fun of it.
My take on the Hard gauge unlocks is simply that it's a skill gate to force the Hard clear. If you're not really good enough to get a decent score on an 11, the game clearly doesn't want you to bash your head against a wall. The lower difficulties are there for a reason, and accepting that you might only be able to unlock the PRS 9 charts at current is probably good enough, and as the player improves over time and gets better at handling harder charts, there's still some gameplay incentive of those unlocks to keep going.
The reason why the gate makes sense to me is that many newer/lower level players think of a Normal clear as being a good enough play, but in reality, with Arcaea's 100% accuracy based scoring, you can only really say you've gotten good at a chart from EX onwards. Clearing a chart with 9.2m (A grade) with a chart that has a free ending that gives a ton of gauge really means nothing, while the Hard gauge forces sufficient consistency over the entire chart itself.
Yes, it's probably frustrating for someone who just wants to get the story over with, but I don't think that the story progression should be the main focus of the game; it should almost always be about the rhythm game component itself.
Just as an example, I personally only recently hit 12.00 potential and started being able to handle 10+s somewhat. Previous to this, I had tried and completely failed to get even the FTR charts when I first went through at around 10.5 potential, so I went through on PRS first, and only went back to get FTR much later when I actually got better and could actually handle the charts. I only just managed to actually clear Infinite Strife on BYD, and I'm still not good enough to handle any of the rest, but since I am clearly not good enough to handle those charts, I'm more than content to let them be locked for now, until I improve to that point.
Massively agree
(12.92 ptt player that has EX+'d all 11's and has a 9'866 on Testify)
Thinking about that skill gating, while it is a good idea in theory, the implementation is iffy (heh). For the hard gauge unlocks, while the pity system is nice it heavily undermines that goal. While some will take the hint, I think most people are more likely to brute force as shown in this video. Players optimizing the fun out of a game when given the chance isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. Potential gated stuff has a different issue. It is very well known that potential is as much a measure of how much content a user has as it is for how good they are. It will inevitably allow some less skilled players in while keeping out some more skilled ones. The only system present that actually works is requiring some grade on the same difficulty of a previous song in the unlock chain. If that was applied across the board and particularly to boss songs, it would actually be effective at this goal.
honestly ive been playing since 2017 and I just got used to everything except for one thing : partner leveling
If you're like me and aiming to max all partners this shit is just way too grindy
but I decided I'm going to do it anyway cuz I just love the game :]
Getting to the anomalies section of the video and being like ?? oh that's not so bad??? only to remember I'm a Phigros player who can't read half the story and is too lazy to read the other half-
EDIT: Nevermind!!! I see why it's a problem now lol
Oh ya btw the pity system for tempestissimo anomaly no longer exist j spent 10 hours to unlock the anomaly honestly my skill improved alot though
As someone who is very much an event player when it comes to mobile rhythm games and started playing arcaea in earnest when the latest WACCA event dropped, I've found it difficult enough to both progress in events and world mode simultaneously without already having partners with high stats for it or like setting alarms for myself reminding me to play Arcaea. It makes it super easy to make the grind to catch up feel more like a 2nd job than catching up on a game.
It's certainly gotten better now that things are maxed but it's still a problem
One of the purposes Arcaea sets this barrier for unlocking songs is to discourage players from playing charts too difficult for them, i.e. if you have to fail a chart 20 times to unlock it, you're probably not ready for it and might develop bad habits while playing it.
Let’s hope that the beyond reborn announced has a better progression
I don’t play arc that much anymore, but O knew I wasn’t crazy for hating world mode’s mechanics.
After I unlocked every song I don’t do world mode any more. Not much point besides unlocking new characters with mid abilities.
As someone who tried to unlock all the free content before spending any money into the game, it’s really weird how it encourages short sessions in f2p by having an energy system, but then stops to care if you pay and then goes back on it and assumes you’ve been playing a bit of f2p before paying and that you’d be alright to go back in world mode…
This really highlights the best and the worst of Arcaea, which is really insightful. If there was something that lowiro would consider changing, I think this video is a good place to start. This is as constructive that critisicism can get👏
Banger video bro🔥
Se puede desbloquear la historia sin pagar?
What's the song playing at 23:12
???
arcana Eden
I might be an unopinion take but imo i like the 5%-15% anomaly system in a way that when i first start out getting low% told me that i should practice and get better at the game first before continuing the story
I think it’s just me that think of it this way tho i have too much L take already xD
I found this game today, knew about araea from chuni in the arcade. Loved axium, fractured ray and grevious on it. But as a casual rhythm gamer. It looks like i got major skill issue before i can play this game 😂
Anyone know if i can play on phone or do i need a tablet? Cause i only got 2 fingers on phone 💀
Yes you can play on phone, it's available for android and ios so there shouldn't much of a problem! (I also play on a phone too)
playing on a phone is definitely doable and even as a thumb player, but i highly suggest buying anti slip mats cause you definitely having a better time playing with index than a thumb
14:44 Gayge
nah but fr amazing video u pointed out some good points that would like probably literally make it perfect
15:43 I’ve cleared it teeheee
Also yes im rewatching this video because i like it
5:38 This is the fact arcaea's world mode is so boring to do. I think they should add the possibility to recover stamina by fragments more than once.. by a higher price at least. Fragments are just "useless" besides that purpose imo. I always have more than 20k frags because i never use them smh
Came back after Absolute Nihil update.
If you guys in the comment section said hard clear to unlock song is good or nothing to change, why this update let you just play Alter Ego to unlock it? (lowiro even auto unlock ETR difficulty even you select FTR to play for unlocking the song) Imagine lowiro can make you (skip the puzzle part after completely solved it then) do hard clear then you failed then repeat, like before, but they aren't.
But still, World Mode, especially awakening map, are grindy and tedious as always.
divorce rates among arcaea players are high because it requires switching partners to progress
if you recently got into rhytm game, arcaea is not for you, is suggest something lighter and more f2p friendly like cytus
2 year player but still suck. God damn back then I have to use memories to get certain characters to get through main story and I mean this happens before an update when those certain characters to get through the main story to get in world mode was updated to legacy instead of a normal world mode XD. Damn I am draining my money XD
The boss songs are obviously hard and you’re not supposed to touch them until you have reached a high enough skill. You should be VERY aware of this as a veteran rhythm game player.
All this complaining about “Why doesn’t the game give the player the opportunity to clear it on normal” completely misses the point on demanding players to do *better* than normal clear to have an unlock shortcut. Allowing players to fail the song 20 times as an unlock is a failsafe, and that’s why the song PVs in final verdict still play upon returning attempts because otherwise you can unlock it by not engaging with the song for 10 minutes. Arcahv and Testify are special cases because they are rewards for completing the unlock systems.
For world mode, the only thing worth grinding as f2p is free songs, beyond and awakening tairitsu, for 30 minute sessions every 6 hours it’s not a bad deal since the content for f2p is limited. Not mentioning it’s infinitely more cost efficient than spending whatever in arcades. For paid content, the only partners worth unlocking is grievous lady and tempest tai (maybe kou for fragments), no other partner have significant stats to be worth unlocking asap and are literally post game content (and increasing tempest tai’s stats). I don’t know what even is the complaint about using tempest tai, with risk comes reward. The beyond chapter is created for preventing tempest tai to breeze through the maps and encouraging people to level up their other partners, which is reasonable enough imo.
The switch version is literally designed to be a more traditional single player experience, while mobile games generally demand you to interact with the community at some point. I don’t think it’s demanding to check the wiki because let’s not kid ourselves, even single player games require checking the wiki these days. And that’s only for the main story packs across 5 years of content which you were pretty much speedrunning through. They are supposed to be story elements that tie into the current situation, with ultra hard boss songs as the reward.
All the arguments you said, they can make it better for the game's flow and QoL purpose.
Wouldn't it better if you don't need to waste half an hour to unlock the song you can't clear in hard gauge but can clear in normal gauge. Not everyone's free time is half a day, they have work to do. Someone wants to unlock a song and play it freely within their small free time but it turns out to let themselves waste their spare time to unlock it just one song.
Wouldn't it better if they rework World Mode to be the same as Switch version in any permanent chapters then keep stamina the same to use it only in event chapter. Many mobile rhythm games also have a grind gate but everyone's ok because it not includes the time gate as a second barrier.
Wouldn't it better if new players don't need to switch tab between the game and the wiki constantly to see how to unlock the certain part and give them a hint directly with the cost of currency. Imagine the scenario that you play a game without tutorial nor in-game guide but game dev put tutorial and guide in a book at the library miles away from you. I know it's not that extreme IRL but you know the point, right?
The thing is, wouldn't it be better if they change those thing to attract more newcomer to play their game? A lot of my friends that I represent Arcaea to them, said the similar thing, they quit it because they don't like the complex unlocking method with little helping hand in the game and a weird grindfest of the whole game even they already bought the song pack they want to play a specific song.
@@Erixacalibur "Wouldn't it better if you don't need to waste half an hour to unlock the song you can't clear in hard gauge but can clear in normal gauge." The lower difficulties exist to allow casual players to progress through the story. Hammering yourself into playing charts that are clearly out of your skill level is bad practice and that's one of the reasons why hard charts are gatekept.
"Wouldn't it better if they rework World Mode to be the same as Switch version in any permanent chapters then keep stamina the same to use it only in event chapter." Time gates provides motivation to return to the game. Plus, this is a mobile game and the switch version is a different package. If you want the switch experience, buy the switch version.
"Wouldn't it better if new players don't need to switch tab between the game and the wiki constantly to see how to unlock the certain part and give them a hint directly with the cost of currency." Like I said, as a mobile game, you are expected to interact with the community at some point. Checking the wiki takes 30 seconds, and it only applies to the main story across 5 years of content. Finding an appropriate pace is important in maintaining a healthy relationship with the game.
"The thing is, wouldn't it be better if they change those thing to attract more newcomer to play their game?" The complexly unlocked songs are arguably some of the best songs to grace the rhythm game scene. In my opinion, the tedious unlocks can't not even compare to how resource intensive arcade unlocks are.
@@kilometersperminute4113
First, like Losermanwins said, some songs for some people when they play lower difficulty is too easy and too hard if play in hard gauge. This is not SEGA rhythm games that have 5 difficulties to choose their comfort level to play hard gauge.
Second, as far as I know, this is only game that take too much time to experience the whole content compared to other mobile rhythm games, even Deemo or Cytus II don't have this level of grinding. How could people happy when they bought something but they can fully use it 2 or 3 days later. This game is not a gacha game that encourage you to login every day to claim daily reward for FOMO.
Third, Candy Crush Saga is also a mobile but you don't need to interact with community to clear the stage (I'm so proud of my mom who get through stage 5000+ without any single item use). Just admit it there's plenty of people who wanted to finish their playthrough without any outsource guide. Or you mean people who play Arcaea Switch is the introvert one, the community-less type, because they already have in-game hints so they no need to open the wiki, no need to interact with community even Arcaea wiki/Discord have Switch section, eh?
Fourth, I already said what I learnt from my friends. You felt good with complex unlock, congratulations. But what about the others? If it is that good, why this video exists? Why many people told the similar things as mine in this video's comment section?
I will stop my argument here. If you still think this Arcaea progression is good enough for all players, then I won't argue you anymore. Hope lowiro don't change anything to keep fulfilling your dignity with the game.
@@Erixacalibur 1. The actual way to unlock hard charts is to improve your skill level. If you insist to play a chart that is out of your skill level, you fail 20 times to unlock it. It's as simple as that. Hard clear usually requires 9.5M (AA) score or above, while normal clear is way more lenient (as low as ~6M). Both are not comparable to each other.
2. Arcaea operates more like an arcade rhythm game with updates more frequent than Rayark's games. (In fact most mobile RGs switched to frequent updates with fomo content, eg. Rotaeno, Lanota)
3. Mobile and console gaming are different experiences made for different markets. People expect mobile games to operate like console games without understanding the meta. Candy Crush is a 2012 game while Arcaea is released in 2018 with a dramatically different mobile game landscape.
4. I already explained multiple times that the complex unlocks in the main story is 5 years' worth of content. Getting fatigue from speedrunning complex unlocks is not worth it, that's why I kept saying it's important to play at your own pace.
Have a good day. Muting this.
Arcaea progression system : congratulations you got Stockholm Syndrome
Is kinda fair now, a few years ago was a little bit painful. But when you get better, % unlocking based song are pretty easy, even if they are level 10
me playing arcaea for a full year and having unlocked 99% of its content is definitely worth it, even though i haven't fully read all of its story and sucked at playing the hardest charts there
also, try playing geometry dash (not a dedicated rhythm game, more of a platformer but does have some rhythm elements to it), my recommendation of a very good game for a very cheap price (pls, if can do)
Honestly I like worldmode. It's. Totally fine if you aren't doing it for competition. I'm doing it to lvl my characters and sometimes get a new song. :)
Newer Arcaea player here (since March 2023), PTT 11.27. I caught up to all the main content and most of Beyond in about 6 months, which I would say is decent. I only play once or twice a day, unlocks in Arcaea is much more about consistent playing rather than paying money to get it now. I never used memories and maybe once or twice used fragments to get what I needed. Overall, it just requires time, which I can respect, since Arcaea is very dense, and they don’t want you to play through everything too quickly. I do agree with the old unlock methods. They are too cryptic and I also had to look them up on the wiki to figure it out. But that's part of the fun.
The rest of this video is very whiny, and lacks any real thought behind the statements presented. Sure, potential gating might prevent players from reaching content, but the game also wants its players to be prepared to play these harder charts with a high score. If you fail at it, then you should practice more or try an easier difficulty and move on. Not every chart is going to be exactly at your level, and so easier ones can help you warm up, while harder ones allow you to slowly but surely get better. Simply put, if you played this game at a slower, more realistic pace, a lot of your problems would not be as severe.
It would be great if lowiro rework World Mode to the same as Switch version in every permanent chapters while the event chapter remain the same.
Okay so long story shortest, arcaea is very casual unfriendly.
Ngl a lot of your complaints are what make me love thos game over ither rythm games
i think youre just not masochistic enough for this game
Damn right💀💀
The way I see it, unlocking anomalies should be score based if I'm being honest.
As I've seen people just drop cares about acc entirely in order to clear songs, I'm guilty of it back in like 2018 or 2019, can't remember. Doing this really screws over your muscle memory and acc. You tend to develop mindblock on patterns due to cheesing or the type of mindblock you'll get is certain sections you always get way too many fars on.
But the next best thing is to force hard clears as it'd be too unfair to expect the devs to just create a whole new survival system (especially back when GL and FR were the only anomalies and the game was still new). A normal clear ISN'T good enough in a scoring system that's tied 100% to accuracy. This design is to force you to actually play consistently across the whole chart rather than clear a chart that has holds that give you free gauge at the end. Making sure a player knows their skill level and are actually playing charts to their skill level rather than rushing ahead is WAY more important than the story. At the end of the day, story is something you experience once and then rereading isn't the same excitement. But replaying charts is always gonna be something you do unless you literally can't improve score anymore (MAX PM) and even then you still sometimes replay them for fun. If you develop bad muscle memory early, it f**ks you over for a very long time.
TL;DR the hard gauge in anomalies is a skill gate to prevent players from thinking they're better than they actually are
Tempestissimo's anomaly "tempest gauge" is actually a severely nerfed version of tempest gauge. And it's supposed to represent Fracture Hikari bleeding out. So changing the gauge wouldn't really work as it'd break the connection to the story.
I think Arcahv's changed unlocking system to World Mode is bad because it's supposed to be a terminal song yet it's unlocked in the most generic way possible. I guess the old unlock system was bullcrap and stupid to figure out with no hints but I feel they could've changed it in a better way to keep terminal songs uniqueness rather than just moving it to the world mode grind.
And Lasting Eden's different unlock method seems to connect to the fact it's an iruption song rather than an anomaly song or a terminal song. I do really like this unlock system.
I do agree that the hints in FV are not good.
And I'm pretty sure everyone agrees the world mode system is trash (on mobile).
If you wanna invest yourself in this game... why even bother with the mobile version? The switch version seems like an actual game. The only problem is if it'd be updated as regularly as the mobile version.
It seems to get updated once each year on March. Let's see if they'll continue updating it this year
@@KPoWasTaken yeah but if you keep buying the microtransactions isn't it actually cheaper at one point to get the switch?
@@yol_nExcluding all the packs the switch doesn't have, it isn't cheaper to buy a whole switch and the switch version of Arcaea compred to the microtransactions in the mobile version. Not to mention not all of us are gonna buy every single song/chart in the game, we're more likely to buy only the ones we'll play. At certain points of the game you tend to ignore lower diffs entirely so if packs only have lower diff songs you ain't gonna buy them, not to mention the high amount of low diff Memory Archive songs that you aren't gonna buy.
Even so it doesn't matter as that's only one of the 11 potential reasons for playing on mobile that I gave... and there are more reasons too
AND IT SEEMS TH-cam REMOVED MY LIST OF REASONS TO PLAY ON MOBILE BRUH
Because I don't want to spend 300€ for a switch ._.
...yeah, I ain't gonna invest into a game with such overly unnecessary complexity and hostility towards the player. Bro just wants to tap some notes. That's unfortunate.
Awesome video, as always.
Ar-geh-na
Low-ee-row
Fee-gros
You're welcome
-PS Tempestissimo unlock goated, L video-
Nah, bro is high thinking arcaea is the best rhytm game. Never recommend this video again 👎
It is definitely the best you can get and mobile and one of the best among rhythm games in general
it's the best on Mobile not rythm games in general
Geometry Dash is the best rhythm game