Arknights

To celebrate Arknights topping the iOS app store and the announcement of Arknights international, I thought it would be appropriate to write a review on it to detail all my thoughts about this game thus far. I’ll preface by saying that this game is still only available in China and the only way to download it is through creating a bilibili account and then downloading the .apk file onto your phone or emulator. That being said, this game is so well made and I highly recommend that you give it a try when it goes international.

The Characters

Originally what captivated me were the characters. As many of you know I am a deep Girls’ Frontline fan girl and these two games share a lot of overlap in terms of aesthetic, world design, and character design. Both take place in a sort of post-apocalyptic world, and the aesthetics of the character centralize on men and women hardened by war and conflict. As far as I know, many of the artists that have worked on Girls’ Frontline girls are also now working on Arknights, and the overlap really shows. You have girls like Zima who just start off with an incredible aesthetic like this.

The main character on the other hand is a cinnamon roll that reminds me of a certain other protagonist from a very similar game.

Other characters like Texas have a more traditional appeal but are still insanely cute.

Lappland on the other hand is clearly a more risky character design, but her half-demented half-insane appeal is captivating.

Probably my most favorite girl is Grani. She’s an event character so you might miss her if you start now since the event ends in a few weeks. Her food pins are the CUTEST thing in the world.

The personalities of each character really shines through, for instance Grani has a sort of height-complex and also uses “boku” as her preferred pronoun rather than “watashi” (all voiced characters have Japanese VAs). Exusiai probably has the most well-fleshed out and bombastic personality out of my favorite characters though.

She’s a very happy-go-lucky girl with a very upbeat personality. It really shows since she raves about parties and rock and roll, but even more so when she’s in combat. One of her lines when she uses her skill is her simply shouting “Apple Pie!” as her war cry. The game does feature a few male characters, but they’re a small minority.

Of course, these characters start out as only rookies. As you level them up they rise in rank, with 4 star and up units able to reach Elite2. Elite2 units all have special art tied to them, and these once simple characters now have a much more menacing, veteran look to them.

And of course, my favorite Elite2, Amiya’s.

I wonder what other cinnamon roll protagonist becomes so menacing. It wouldn’t be you, M4?

Most of the characters also have some sort of relationship with one another that you can view in their individual files and lore map. Here you can see that Exu is related to Texas (the two are bffs), but also lower down you see that Texas also has some sort of relationship with Lappland.

All of this is still in Chinese, but the amount of love, work, and effort put into the characters and the world really shows. Whether its through their design, the lore of the game, or their personalities, the characters in Arknights have a depth richer than many other video games and deserves praise for the amount of dedication this studio has put in in making them come alive.

Gameplay

The allure of tower defense comes from a well designed defense system that can hold off hoards of units. Your defenses ought to have variety in class or structure that lets them perform certain roles that complement one another. The enemies should also have a large amount of diversity to promote different strategies and different tactics. Lastly, the maps themselves must also be fun as they are crucial to your enjoyment of a level.

Arknights fulfills all of those criteria masterfully. If you prefer to see this in action, you can click here to see one of my vods explaining to people the general basics of the game.

In terms of your defenses, you have your characters. Each character has a unique class out of the current eight in the game. These roles fulfill overarching niches that you need to complete levels successfully. For instance, Vanguards like Zima are deployed first as they’re cost-effective, cheap, and can hold the line against weaker enemies in the beginning of the level. However, a sniper like Exu focuses on anti-air but also has significant dps against unarmored enemies. Then you have casters like Amiya that are slower than snipers, but will ignore armor and thus have an invaluable role in your party as well. Some casters will also do AoE damage, which makes them useful for dealing with larger packs.

Each character further has their own set of unique skills. Each operator can only take one skill at a time into a level, and many gain a new skill upon reaching Elite1. For instance, while Zima and Texas are both vanguards, Zima’s second skill significantly raises the atk and def of all vanguards deployed. Texas’s second skill on the other hand is a potent aoe stun that strikes twice.

Enemies come in a variety of different ways, for instance you have three different types here.

The red slug is a basic enemy that functions as early cannon fodder, but it is a fair way sturdier than the yellow slug (which isn’t on the map). The dog is fast but also relatively weak, but since melees can only hold a certain amount of units, they can be overwhelming in numbers. The two humanoids are sturdier and hit harder than either of the other enemies and often need a dps (like Exu) to help out if they’re in packs.

In the same screenshot, we also have Myrrh, the pink-ish cat girl, as a healer. Her skill allows her to heal two targets at the same time, which makes her very useful for allowing the melees to hold the line.

Other enemies include the sniper in the back, which will target operators standing on surfaces rather than the ground. This can kill them if they lack a healer. However, if a Defender is in the area, they will prioritize them rather than your ranged units.

Next we have enemies like the big butcher that are fat, and do a lot of damage. You generally need a strong healer or a Defender to hold them off. Here Texas is also activating her skill, stunning several of the enemies there.

Bosses such as this guy also exist, and will have special abilities that they can use. This one in particular can slam the ground with his sword to deal damage to two operators next to one another.

Each map comes with its own unique challenges and terrain. In several areas you can push enemies off a cliff with units that can push, and other maps you can pull them to their doom with other operators. Then certain other maps you can place blocks that will prevent enemies from going around that direction. Arknights thrives in its creativity, adding more and more threats for you to deal with while also adding more and more tools to each level. Lastly, there’s even a challenge mode that pits you against hundreds of enemies on the same map, forcing you to survive with the same team on that map.

In the gameplay department, the developers have hit the ball out of the park while remaining faithful to traditional tower defense games.

Progression

Progression is the area of the game that I have some issues with. While some qualities I enjoy, such as exp cards being the primary way to level up your characters, where the game really trips up is its sanity system and the amount of mats needed to elite an operator.

The sanity system is like any other stamina system in games, and I don’t think I know anyone that enjoys stamina systems. It’s clearly a way to hinder the progress of the player due to the early stage of the game, and also as a way to get you to pay for sanity refills. While I understand the reasoning for their sanity system currently, I would strongly want them to steer away from this system as the game matures.

As for materials needed to level up your operators, the amount of materials is very daunting. You need a variety of drops from various different levels. These in turn allow you to level up your operator’s skill level or elite them. The sheer amount of them is the only problematic part of it, as you can craft these materials into higher level materials. Since higher level materials are rarer, you often can’t grind for them directly so you’re left to grind for the lower level materials to craft them up. This kind of system is inherently grindy and I do enjoy it, but the amount of it was a bit daunting for me to understand at first. Everything also uses the in game currency in the game, so that often becomes your primary bottleneck after a while.

There are a few other progression systems like your infrastructure complex, which is this giant thing.

Zoom in and you’ll find dorms, power plants, production areas, and other things you can build. This also needs its own set of mats, but its another indication of the level of detail and love that was put into this game.

The game constantly adds another layer to an older layer you learned earlier in the game, and that sense of progression keeps the game interesting even as the grind may get annoying. Like, these miniature chibis resemble the Girls’ Frontline dorms, but in reality this system is much more complex. Each operator has their own infrastructure skill in addition to their combat skill, which makes them more adept at managing certain facilities. Eventually they will get tired and have to return to the dorm. This ensure that every operator can still have a use even if they don’t have a role on your current combat roster.

The progression in this game has a number of issues that come with implementing a stamina system and a comprehensive crafting system. I don’t support some of their design choices, especially with regards to stamina, but I do acknowledge the amount of work and effort they have put into their exp and elite systems. The depth of this game exceeds many poorly put together AAA games, and that certainly says something about a mobile game released by an indie developer.

Recruitment/Gacha

Speaking of rosters, let’s talk about recruitment and gacha. Arknights run based off of two gacha systems. The first is gacha banners like above that every mobage player is familiar with. The second is standard recruitment.

Standard recruitment is different in that you’re allowed to set a time from 1:00 – 9:00 hours, which will alter the pool of operators. Secondly, you can then pick out of five tags available tochoose an operator with that tag. These tags can include classes like Vanguard or Sniper, or other things such as Slow, Protection, or Splash. These tags are random, but can be controlled to a limited extent by a facility in the infrastructure complex.

Arknights as a whole has a large variety of units, and even basic 3 stars can hold their own in fighting so rerolling isn’t so beneficial as other games. You do want 4 star and up units ideally, but the game gives you ample 3 star units to start you on your way.

Dupes in recruitment can be used for Talents, hidden abilities that can only be activated via a medallion or a dupe of an operator. These talents are very minor so its more of a way to make dupes worth something.

Lastly, every pull will also earn you exchange tickets you can exchange at the shop. Greens are from 3 stars or below, and yellows are from 4 stars and up.

There are other items in the shop that you can earn through other various means, but the cash options are largely gold orbs (which can be spent on sanity refills or gacha) and other loot packs you can purchase. Costumes exist as well, which cost gold orbs to buy. Sometimes they’re also available through events.

While the gacha system and shops are nothing new to the mobage scene, standard recruitment is. It functionally acts like any free recruitment, but it makes higher rarity units much more accessible to free to play players.

Sound

Lastly, I want to pay mention to Arknights’s OST. Sound isn’t a big factor for mobage, but I do want to mention it since the soundtrack for Arknights is absolutely superb. Do yourself a favor and go on Youtube to listen to anything from this game–you will enjoy it.

Conclusion

Arknights is a game that any fan of tower defense and mobage should play. It taps into an aesthetic and genre that has not been explored in mobage before. Furthermore while the game does get grindy and the stamina system is limiting, the overall progression through the game with your characters is rewarding and fun. Arknights takes its stride in introducing new concepts and ideas into mobage, and this sort of theme permeates every part of their game from their characters, progression, and recruitment systems. The amount of work the developers have put in the game shows and I can’t wait to see more.

Overall rating: 9/10