#non-archival

[ranchive]

✨r✨/silly

HELP HOW DID WE NOT SEE THAT

[ironsagaarchive]

About Iron Saga and this blog

[ironsagaarchive]

Should you play Iron Saga?

No.

This is a bit of a personal post and less formal than what you can expect here, but if you see the images from this blog and think Iron Saga is a game you want to try I'd advise against it.

The Gameplay

The gameplay consists of building a team and deploying them to a partially-scrolling battlefield where they fight off enemies until one side is destroyed or time expires. You have minimal input, only able to direct one unit's movements every ten-seconds (with the ability to store up to three movements) and to activate their special ability once it is recharged assuming the necessary conditions are met. Not only does this make gameplay uninvolved, it also is unnecessarily hard as your units will not act optimally and may bunch up or move in ways that get them destroyed. There is a gamemode with direct controls but it has no narrative relevance, still requires for you to engage with the rest of the gameplay to build a suitable unit, and the controls themselves are sluggish.

It should also be noted the game is quite poorly translated. Not unreadable, but definitely a very rough experience. I'm not usually one to harp on that kind of thing, learning a second language is hard and as an English speaker I certainly don't need to be catered to, but between what this game is and how much that poor translation impedes accessibility it's noteworthy, at least.

The Gacha

Iron Saga is a gacha game, so even if it was amazing in every other respect I'd still be cautious to recommend it. To buy enough premium currency for a single pull you need to spend at least 3 USD even when buying the largest bundle possible. There are all sorts of bundles and monthly passes and daily discounts but this is not meant to be a cheap game or have an understandable monetary system.

It should also be noted that in usual gacha fashion you require lots of duplicates to max out your units' potentials, something that is necessary as explained in the gameplay section. This is made even more frustrating than most gacha games as you inventory is very limited and can only be expanded with premium currency. This, combined with the usual stamina limitations and limited banners, means if you're not prepared to spend a lot of money you're going to feel and be very limited.

The Story and Characters

I think one of the biggest reasons not to play this game is the narrative. I struggle to think of a game that is quite as gross as this, and I played Nikke for a moment. The protagonist, Becas, is an uninteresting nonce, remarking on every woman, girl, or effeminate character regardless of age and is fully supported by the narration that clumsily tries to describe their appearances. When he's not leering over the various women who cross his path he's stumbling between major world events with complete apathy, only stopping to care when it's meant to subvert our expectations or show how great he is. Basically, if you've seen any anime that has an aloof protagonist who doesn't flaunt his power level (but is still nearly undefeatable) and has a harem you know exactly what Becas is like and can guess what he'll do at any given time. The other characters are also painfully played-out archetypes and from the moment they're introduced you know exactly what their deal is and how they'll be treated by the narrative.

There's a lot I could say about the attitudes this game has about women and people from the global south, but smarter people than me have said the exact same stuff about other similar media, so I'll leave it unsaid here.

So why make this blog?

As you can tell I don't like this game. At all. But a lot of artists worked hard on the art featured in it and it'd be a shame if when the servers eventually go down it'd be lost. Archival, even of bad stuff, is a good thing because it lets us learn from the past and improve on what comes next. I can't understate how much I wanted to love this game. The amount of mecha-related games I've played and tried to find the good in is too high to count, and this is one in particular that started me down the path of making one myself. So I'd like to see other people get inspired and be driven, but also given them the opportunity to do so without wasting their time on that game.

[ironsagaarchive]

About Iron Saga

"Iron Saga" is an RPG gacha game for mobile devices developed by GameDuchy and released in 2017. It primarily consists of collecting and upgrading pilots and vehicles, building a team around them, and completing missions to advance the story and earn rewards.

Should you play it?

About this blog

This blog is for uploading art from the game for archival and reference purposes, namely mecha, character, and key art. This art is owned by GameDuchy and thus while uploading it in this capacity is protected by the USA's fair use laws other uses may not be protected. This blog is not a wiki and will not provide combat statistic and other information related to most gameplay. You may send asks or messages if you have questions and especially if you have info on any of the artists.

About uploads and tags

This blog will regularly upload the pilots and vehicles from the game. Posts will consist of the unit's name and key-art along with a corrected in-game description. Additional images and a verbatim copy of the in-game description will be posted below the cut.

Pilots will be tagged "#pilot" along with their name, gender, affiliation, personality, and personal mecha. Included will also be an image of their affinity gift(s). As a gacha game much of the character art may not be entirely suitable for work, though there is no nudity present in the game and all images comply with both Tumblr and Apple's Terms of Service. Posts that contain overly-suggestive imagery will be tagged "#suggestive" and have those images limited to below the cut. Certain characters may not have all their outfits featured or be shared at all at my discretion, though I will make it explicit when images are missing.

Mecha will be tagged "#mecha" along with their role, rank, colour, production conditions, manufacturer, and model line. Wheeled vehicles, tanks, and aircraft will be tagged respectively along with "#vehicle" and will not be tagged as mecha. Non-humanoid mecha will still be tagged as mecha but will also have the tag "#non-humanoid". Mecha that share most of their images will be included in the same posts even if their in-game models are different.

Non-archival posts, such as announcements, will be tagged as "#non-archival".

[rtfarchive]

Thanks for following, Charley! @strongchad

[thingsondesk]

the faint barely audible whisper heard says "no no you don't need anymore sh!%."

but my gut screams "yes yes take any and all unwanted museum thangs.  who cares if you can/can't use it later"