How would you even make WHB 12+ without severely butchering the story and premise of the base game? Like just off the top of my head, the things they'll have to either heavily censor or alter include:
The entire "need sex and human essence to survive" clause
The Secret Club segments
All the H scenes and portions of L card stories where they're having sex
Any explicit references to sex and kinks
Asmodeus. Just...Asmodeus.
At this point, just rework the entire story from the ground-up and get rid of the Secret Club segments. Which would actually kill off the selling points of the game.
I said this several times but it bears repeating: I understand PB wanting to reach a wider audience, but this is not it.
I return to WHB Tumblr to see how the game us doing and I see the fandom in shambles, damn. And after scrolling through the tag for a bit, I have...questions.
Yo how big is WHB now even? I stopped playing shortly after they introduced the paywalled Gabriel and that's one of the things I've seen several people complain about...
Like I understand the rest of the complaints - it's mostly the same complaints I've been having about the game prior to me quitting. Multiple decisions that seem to reinforce the idea that this game is heading down the P2W path, very anti-F2P practices in general, outrageous prices for the paid Nightmare Pass, no pity system on launch, the disaster that was the implementation of the Solomon's Seals gacha, the many bugs on launch especially, the small amount of farmable premium currency, and the list goes on...the pancake shop rework not only seems to be in line with the trajectory PB seems to be taking in terms of game decisions, but is also the straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of players.
But, uh, storage? Wasn't it like 2 GB tops on launch? That was reasonable I think, because Arknights was around that size on launch and back then, there was so little additional content. Only JP dubbing, no L2D E2 art or skins (the only L2D we had back then was Closure, the SHOPKEEP), 5 story chapters (which translated to 92 stages, in which around half have a Challenge Mode variant and with a large majority being unique maps), and no additional game modes.
For additional context, currently Arknights is ~6-7 GB on a fresh account with all language dubbing, and it gets bloated if you don't delete unused event data (it's ~9.7 GB for me and I have Arknights on my current phone ever since Near Light first hit Global, so just over 2 years now). Keep in mind Arknights is close to 4.5 years old in Global, and CN just celebrated their 5th anniversary a few months back.
Talking about storage, I don't think comparing WHB to older games and non-tower defense is fair either, since:
Older games in general are much easier on your device in terms of storage to content ratio and performance, mostly due to device limitations of the past requiring less sophisticated game mechanics and the devs sticking to these simpler mechanics even as time passes and technology gets more advanced. Gentle reminder that FGO is ~7 years old in NA, ~9 years old in JP, and ALSO doesn't download everything initially - afaik there's an option for that in the settings menu which bumps the total size up significantly (the wiki lists it as around 9-10 GB total).
Different genres and graphics mean different storage requirements. Anything 3D or open world will almost always have higher storage requirements compared to anything else. Path to Nowhere is around the same size as Arknights despite being younger due to the former using 3D models for their battle sprites, compared to the 2D chibis Arknights uses. Love and Deepspace, a ~5 months game, is huge because of how they do the cutscenes AND the stage-based action gameplay, but Wuthering Waves is closing the gap on size quickly despite being only ~1.5 months because it's an open world action RPG.
What I will say, though, is that WHB is not optimized well. Now I may be very unfair by comparing WHB to Punishing: Gray Raven, a game by the optimization gods known as Kurogames (people ran the PC PGR client on 2GB RAM laptops and my 4GB RAM laptop can run WuWa despite it using UE4 - an engine notorious for chugging on low end devices - albeit with lag spikes in the open world map), but when a 2D tower defense game fails to run as smoothly as a 3D action game with stylish and fast-paced combat, then we have a problem. For context, my 4GB RAM phone only has minor lag when I use a skill that has a lot of visual effects like Lee Hyperreal's Hypermatrix, but back when I played WHB I still experienced lag spikes when deploying units.
Again this all boils down to PB just not being used to the game format. Which is all well and good, Arknights was a huge departure from Girls Frontline too - a good portion of Arknights' devs worked on Girls Frontline before splitting off to work on Arknights. But what made Arknights succeed is how accessible and F2P friendly the game was, with smooth and solid gameplay as well as an engaging plot that discusses themes such as racism, discrimination, and the fragility of hope.
Of course you can argue that Arknights is a tower defense first, visual novel second. Unlike WHB, which is an otome game first, tower defense second. And I would agree, but only to a certain extent. Once you step into the realm of having Actual Combat Gameplay Elements then I believe it's your duty to make progression as reasonable as possible. Including a power gate is fine, but nothing too excessive - and certainly do not hold any significantly strong unit behind a paywall.
Because fun fact - in Arknights' entire runtime, there were only a handful of completely paywalled content:
Player icons from promotional packs for large events, particularly the Ambience Synesthesia concerts
Character skins from promotional packs, like the Exusiai and Guard Ch'en skins during the anime release
Purestream, a B4 Therapist Medic who was released as a WWF collab, where all sales from her $1 pack were donated to the WWF. Even then, she eventually became available for everyone, as she was later added to the Recruitment pool (use a resource obtained from Dailies for a chance to get units, some unique to the pool like Purestream). She was a decent healer, and her Module made her a good budget medic. Even then you're more likely using the Medics you've already built by then - for B4 budget options, Perfumer is usually better for multi-target healing and a party HP regen passive, while Sussurro is your go-to for strong single-target healing.
And guess what? None of these had any direct impact on gameplay during their paywalled period. Purestream wasn't even a B5 or B6 unit, yo. There are many better options for healers. I STILL USE THE B3 ANSEL AND HIBISCUS IN INTEGRATED STRATEGIES.
I'm just...PB's choices baffle me, and I do wish they can improve not just on the game performance standpoint, but in how they treat their playerbase in terms of in-game purchases. I hope I made that abundantly clear...
Been playing a little bit too much of Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary when I suddenly remembered this game's Satan is such a softie he couldn't turn down Lidelle calling him 'big brother' lmao.
Now I kinda need a WHB version of this with WHB Satan in Puyo Puyo Satan's place but who would be in Lidelle's spot lmfao
I'm just gonna go ahead and say it despite my fear of getring backlash:
I am not a fan with how WHB handles the usage of Solomon's Tears.
(Rant post, feel free to skip over, rest under the cut. I just needed to get this out of my chest.)
Thank god they've made a statement about the availability of Tears, but in my opinion, their way of handling this is the equivalent of slapping a bandaid on a gaping wound - it fails to address the root of the issue that's making Tears such a necessary material in the first place, it being several aspects of the game design.
There have been several design choices that confuse me when it comes to WHB, which I would chalk up to WHB being PB's very first game that purely isn't otome. But these design choices often involve game balancing issues, which for me personally directly impacts my enjoyment of the game. And it is these design choices that immediately impact the need for Tears, and why the initial update changing the availability of these Tears sparked so much controversy.
But before that, I have some menial complaints that can be chalked up to me being spoiled by other games. First of all, the large amounts of filler stages, while normal for a gacha, still doesn't make it a fun experience to play through - especially when there are barely any changes to the stage layouts. The only reason why Plants vs Zombies were able to do this is because of the way their stages are set up:
Stages 1, 3, 6, and 8 introduce a new mechanic/zombie
Stages 2, 4, 7, and 9 are harder stages that test what you knew from the previous stage
Stage 5 is a minigame stage
Stage 10 is a conveyor belt boss stage
Every stage gives you a new plant, oftentimes one that is relevant to the new mechanic/zombie at play/about to be introduced (for example, Puff Shrooms upon ending 1-10, a 0 Sun plant with shorter range that helps in earlygame because the next world is nighttime, which means no Sun from the sky)
As for the other TD games in the market? Arknights has different maps for each story stage. So does Path to Nowhere, from what I recall. If there are filler stages, they're very few and far in between. It's why Granblue Fantasy changed their story chapters to no longer have a solo battle at each segment - it hinders the storytelling.
One of the most baffling things in my opinion is the fact that the game has the same upgrade requirements for all units regardless of rarity. This is such a weird design choice for me because in most games, lower rarities are cheaper when it comes to upgrade costs.
For comparison's sake, some screenshots I took for promoting S and A+ ranks.
Belial, an S-rank Marksman, requires 22k Gold, 22k Books, 10 Tears, and 22 Fire Jellybeans.
It's the same for the A+ Healer Morax, save for the elemental jelly beans which is changed to his element, Light. And this is the same amount needed for upgrading L characters as well.
This design choice isn't particularly good, in my opinion. It bottlenecks players and puts them in a mindset position of "upgrading anything apart from Ls and some choice S/A+ ranks is a resource sink". It makes people think that building anything except the strongest of units isn't worth it, which in turn renders the existence of lower rarity/weaker units moot, especially considering the scarcity of the Tears in the first place. Because why would you raise them if you're going to gain more of an advantage from building these high-rarity units? You're going to get a more immediate and significant power boost by upgrading Ls in the first place.
This is even more pronounced in WHB specifically because in most gachas, lower rarity units tend to require less to upgrade. Take a look at the E2 requirements of three Tactician Vanguards in Arknights, in which Elite upgrades are the closest approximation to promotion in WHB.
Beanstalk is the lowest rarity of the archetype at 4*, and her E2 material requirements consist of two types of tier 3 materials (Coagulating Gel and Manganese Ore, both with blue borders), Vanguard Chip Packs, and LMD.
Then you have the 5* Blacknight, whose material requirements now include a tier 4 material (Incandescent Alloy Block, with a pink border) in addition to a tier 3 material (Loxic Kohl), Vanguard Dualchips (crafted from Vanguard Chip Packs and Chip Catalysts, both of which are farmable regardless), and more LMD.
And finally, the 6* Vigil, whose material requirements are now a tier 5 material (Crystalline Electronic Unit, with a yellow border) and a tier 4 material (Optimized Device), more Vanguard Dualchips (4 to Blacknight's 3), and even more LMD.
Yet in other games, I don't mind raising lower rarity units - for several reasons, depending on the game. In Granblue Fantasy (despite my complaints about how quickly the meta evolves and how lim-centric it is), SR units serve as the stopgap for party comps until you can fill out your roster with SSR characters, and some of these SR characters still see use like Lyria. In other games like Fire Emblem Heroes, Memento Mori, and Princess Connect: ReDive, all units gain the potential to hit the highest rarity - I have a Yukari (originally a 1* unit) ready to hit 6* in PriConne, while I have a +9 merged 5* Fallen Takumi (farmable unit at 3*/4* base) in FEH. Arknights' case is more nuanced, where it's partly the same case as GBF, but also the fact that lower rarity units can fit into niches that high rarity units don't fill.
With these other games, I never feel like raising a lower rarity unit is a waste of resources. The costs of uncapping characters in general is negligible in GBF, except for the Eternals and the Evokers - those of which are reasonably time-gated because of their sheer meta impact and how strong they are compared to all other characters. Except for particularly egregious cases like Tsukinogi, every single Arknights Operator has their uses, and they often see use in Integrated Strategies.
And let's not get into the debacle that are skill levels, because of course you need more materials for that. I don't mind having high costs for optimizing skills - Masteries in Arknights works like that, after all. Pictured below is the cost of M3-ing Bagpipe's third skill.
That's right - a tier 5 (Bipolar Nanoflake) and tier 4 (Oriron Block) material. And luckily, you can farm for all of these skill upgrade materials outside of events, crafting the higher tiers as necessary. There is less opportunity cost for me to E2 my 4* and 5* units because I can just farm the materials again anyways - and even then I some Masteries on these units are amazing. S1M3 Myrtle (4*) is probably the best DP generator in the game, while S2M3 Lappland (5*) also helps with her skill uptime.
Then you go back to WHB's skill upgrades, which mind you is also the same cost between rarities, and guess what else you need?
Yep. Tears. A ludicrous amount of it, considering its availability. And let's not even get into the Tears required for the Unholy Board, if that matters to you (and it does, because it also gives buffs for your L units).
This skews the game balance towards the L units even more. Ideally you'd be raising skill levels once your units reach high levels, because everything is percentage based and the lower your base stats, the lower effect these skill levels have on your skills. But that just means you'll still need Tears because, well, you still need to promote. And remember the opportunity cost again, because all rarities have the same skill upgrade cost, further incentivizing you building Ls and ignoring everything else.
It's ridiculous.
And the added nail in the coffin: the reduced rewards that basically halved the amount of Tears you get.
I seriously, genuinely hope they take the availability of Solomon's Tears as well as game balancing into consideration when performing the next balance patch. Because otherwise, I can't see this game being an enjoyable experience for me moving forward.
Unless, this was the intended way the game was designed, in which I just...I have no more words to say.
I feel like a lot of people seem to be struggling against a lot of the stages, most notably those before story segments. And as a chronic Arknights player who regularly plays high Surging/does ending 2 and ending 3 attempts regularly in IS3, I'd like to share some tips to potentially help with progression!
First and foremost, it does help to have a zone where you can concentrate all your damage at, then prepare blockers and DPS units at that specific area, along with potentially healers. Marbas is the go-to usually because his ult is a heal over time in a 3x3 area around him that lasts the entire stage, kinda like Bard Supporters in Arknights. This comes with enemy pathing and behaviour knowledge, however. Basically, identify a chokepoint to concentrate all your firepower at.
It's probably one of the things you have to get used to in Arknights ASAP if you want an easier time. Take a look at this early stage in IS3 - where you'll have to improvise on the fly based on the unit classes the game gives you.
In this stage (Precarious Defense - normal operation), I took the long straightway in front of Exusiai (the red-haired angel) as my main damage zone. It helps burst down the exploding spiders, as well as the enemies from the bottom spawn point. Gnosis and Steward, the other two ranged units near Exusiai (black and white hair respectively), help with DPS their own way. And I would plug the the leftmost lane as a chokepoint with Spot if I had a weaker sniper than Exusiai, like May or Kroos, but S3M3 Exusiai is more than enough to deal with the squishy units on left lane.
Other options I've used at other points for this stage include:
Using Mountain (S2), Thorns (S3), Lappland (S2), Mudrock (S2), or Saria (S1/S2) to solo lane the top left spawn point.
Using a combination of anything between Agent, Merchant, or Executor classes to deploy and redeploy for the leftmost lane.
If on Emergency (bottom lane spawns turn into Bonethrowers that inflict heavy physical ranged damage, but takes damage over time), focus down the leftmost spawn point with ranged units, and have a Defender/high defense melee unit with healer support near the blue base to tank the hits until the Bonethrowers die.
But there are times where you can't funnel everything into a single chokepoint. In situations like this, you're better off looking for several laneholding combinations while focusing your damage on the lane/area with the largest threats. And since I'm limited to one video on mobile, have this screenshot from one of my ending 3 clears on IS3 as an illustration!
It looks like there's a lot of things going on in this image, but I'll explain.
First of all, the concept. I want to spawn-kill the boss, Ishar'mla, who appears in the red box before making a loop around the map, and finally going to the top left blue base. In this run specifically I have a relic combination that allowed me to one-cycle this boss, which includes the ASPD boosting relics (increases attack speed based on the amount of ingots you have), the Old Fan (increases all Operators' attack by 10% based on the number of classes in your team, capping at 80%), and the chocolate sauce pasta (boosts attack by 100% one second after using a skill).
Two types of main zones to pay attention to: the spawn kill zone in blue and the laneholding zones in dark pink.
With the laneholding zones, you need units with DPS and blocking power - Mountain on S2 is a premiere laneholder on the rightmost area (2-block, attacks everyone he blocks, gives him an attack boost, and gives him HP regen), while a combination of Gnosis's damage (S3M3) and Spot's 3-block plus heal on skill takes care of the leftmost area.
As for the spawn kill zone, it uses both Mlynar and SilverAsh to deal damage. They deal immense physical damage, and considering their ranges somewhat overlap (yellow for Mlynar and light purple for SilverAsh), it helps burst down the boss ASAP.
Of course, to utilize these tips well, you need an understanding of enemy pathing and behaviour. Sadly enemy pathing really isn't exactly indicated by the game, and it's a QoL that I also want in WHB. It's the red line that appears before a wave of enemies spawns in Arknights. Here's some things I've noticed about enemy behaviours:
The enemies that look like fluffy angel doggos move faster than other enemy units.
Screamers/ranged attackers tend to attack the closest unit within their range, and stop moving when they're attacking until they or their targets die - like the Bonethrowers.
The blobs are your slugs. Squishy, easy to beat, weaker than most other units.
As for the other units (eyeballs, smiley faces, etc) I haven't managed to playtest enough, as skill cycling between my L cards (Bath Levi, Selfie Levi, and Selfie Bubs) is enough to kill most everything without issue.
If I have to split up my forces, I personally usually have Bubs and one Levi handle a weaker lane, then focus on the other lane with everything else. I get that moving units is a thing but if I can AFK...why not? Lol
Also, as an aside, I would love to see units with lower rarities gain viability in WHB. Believe it or not, some of the units I use in those Arknights examples aren't the top rarities. To wit:
In the video, I brought Exusiai (6* Marksman Sniper), Gnosis (6* Hexer Supporter), Mulberry (5* Wandering Medic), Cantabile (5* Agent Vanguard), Steward (3* Core Caster), Fang (3* Pioneer Vanguard), and Spot (3* Guardian Defender). Only Mulberry and the 3*s aren't at E2.
In the Ending 3 screenshot, I brought Mlynar (6* Liberator Guard), SilverAsh (6* Lord Guard), Mountain (6* Brawler Guard), Saria (6* Guardian Defender), Gnosis, Texas the Omertosa (6* Executioner Specialist), Mostima (6* Splash Caster), Guard Amiya (5* Arts Guard), Arene (4* Lord Guard), Myrtle (4* Flagbearer Vanguard), Ansel (3* Single-target Medic), and Spot. Only Saria and the 3*s aren't at Elite 2.
However, with how rare Solomon's Tears are and with how upgrade costs are the same across rarities, perhaps having only A+ ranks be viable is for the best. Sunk-cost fallacy and all that.
Is it just me or does both Ad Astra and Control's Wishes sound just the tiniest bit melancholic to me - especially Control's Wishes as the event's boss theme? Like, I get it hits most of the musical themes so often associated with space-related media, but these two themes just hits in the feels, somehow.
There's a sense of triumph, sure. One that promises great things from Kristen's research efforts. Promises of a new discovery, of something larger than life itself. A new beginning, an exploration. But, like the many times the event has touched upon, what happens next?
And what makes it hit harder I feel is the backstory behind this event, the circumstances of Rhine. How Saria and Kristen had a falling out. The unethical experiments - Ifrit, Rosmontis too. How Silence had seen it all. Research and technological advancements, constantly chasing after knowledge, but at what cost?
Control - or rather, Kristen - has a wish. One that she believes is a great one, yet the sacrifices to achieve said wish is insurmountable. As someone who hasn't had the time to sit down and properly read Lone Trail, that's the feeling I get from Control's Wishes.
I love how I'm using Arknights formation principles even now when doing stages in WHB.
Like, see a stage with three 'parallel' spawn points and one protection objective?
Time to pull out my rock hell aka 1-7 trust farm setup, adapted for WHB!
(Shalem is there just for moral support, Executor to help with the large wave of slugs in the middle lane)
Also using this opportunity to talk about some QoL I'd like to see from WHB. First is at least an auto-setup feature if not a full-blown auto clear for stages you've Perfect-cleared. Would cut down grinding times immensely.
Second, I'd like it if they clearly outlined which tiles are undeployable immediately at the start. In WHB, you'd occasionally find tiles that are undeployable despite there being no in-game indicator that it's the case, unless you hover your unit atop said tile. Compare that with Arknights, where one glance at this map (H7-4) tells you the three rightmost columns are undeployable, and the black ranged tiles are also undeployable - nevermind the Originium Altar at the bottom.
Also I experienced a bug a while back where ults don't charge properly at times if you run an aura type unit in the stage, as in they sometimes just....stop charging up again after use? And by this I mean the Asmo demons, where their skills are buffing autocast spells...
Skill multipliers also feel a little bit too small for my taste, but that may be because of scaling issues. They're all percentage based, with small percentage buffs with each skill level - which means they're pretty insignificant at lower levels. I'd recommend saving your Tears to uncap your units first before raising skill levels.
Anyways, that's all my rambling for now. I just went all out for Halloween Fallen Robin and I'm debating on also going for the Halloween Duo Sothis purely because I like the Byleth design there...
