Not-so-popular Gacha Games
Tired of playing the same old few mainstream gacha games (hoyoverse and friends)?
Here are two really good games that just happen to be gacha games:
Tribe Nine
A pretty unique JRPG, exploration is similar to traditional old-school JRPGs (e.g. Chrono Trigger), with a pretty unique 2.5D-ish pixel art style.
Combat is in 3D, similar to the action style combat found in many modern gacha games (e.g. Zenless Zone Zero).
What stands out to me, is that the combat isn't as brain-dead as most contemporary gacha games, with bosses that actually punish you if you don't learn their patterns correctly.
Gacha
Despite being a great game that can stand on its own, it is still a live-service game after all, which means it comes with the usual bells and whistles associated with gacha games.
The game is however, very generous with its gacha drop rates, with a decent amount of currency being thrown your way through events and dailies. Honestly though, the game can be cleared without touching the gacha at all.
Visual Appeal
The main draw of this game, for me at least, is the kinda over-the-top story and setting, and the overall gorgeous visuals. I absolutely adore the art style of the characters, and their expressiveness during dialogue is a real breath of fresh air.
Characters
Tribe Nine offers a variety of characters with unique designs and personality. Notably, it doesn't lean heavily into fan-service territory, with a good mix of male and female characters. Husbandos and waifus for everyone!
Writing
In my humble opinion, the writing in this game is exceptional, the characters actually interact with each other at more than just the surface level, and the protaganist-glazing is kept to a minimum.
It's just nice to see characters have some actual depth to their relationships for a change, instead of focusing so heavily on the protaganist of the game.
I'm not a lore geek, but many elements of the level/world design, equipment, etc. all somehow manage to tie back into the background setting and lore of the game's world.
There's even an anime prequel to the game, watch it on YouTube here, all episodes are available for free on the official channel.
Combat
At first glance, combat seems to be your pretty typical action-rpg type, but play styles can vary greatly among characters, further enhanced or emphasized by the use of Tension Cards, which are equipment items that offer a diverse range of combat effects.
The effects of tension cards may only be activated when the player is at the corresponding tension phase or higher.
To put it simply, tension is the unique combat resource system of this game, which is generated when enemies are "broken" and chain attacks are executed. Enemies have tension too, which affects how deadly they are.
A party can have up to 3 members, but you can only control one at a time. Interestingly, there exist play styles that do not focus on the operating character, buffing the other party members instead.
Patimon
Aside from tension cards, characters can also equip "Compatible Monsters", a.k.a. Patimon, which are basically yet another artifact/relic system that boost character stats or skills and offer a set bonus.
These are mainly found by opening chests scattered throughout the world, in Rifts (which are like dungeons), or in the end-game Fractal Vice map. Mobs have a chance to drop these too.
Potential System
The "skill" system in this game is somewhat unique, in the fact that it allows you to freely allocate and redistribute skill levels whenever you want.
Whether you want to focus more on defense, offense, or certain passives, the potential system has got you covered.
Character Recommendation
The character that I use the most, Q, has an aggressive parry-dodge-focused playstyle. His abilities force the attention of enemies, allowing party members to operate undisturbed, while also allowing him to parry or dodge just about any attack, as long as you time it right.
Although he has a high skill-ceiling, he is fairly easy to pick up, and can get through most trivial battles by simply mashing the "Q" key.
Exploration
Exploration is a joy, the feedback you get from picking up random junk is incredibly satisfying, it somehow never gets old, and the world is filled with things to loot.
Levels are designed to flow smoothly into each other, with various places to unlock, simple puzzles to solve, and a ton of collectibles to collect. Side quests are written pretty well, with interesting, recurring, characters to interact with.
Dailies
Dailies can be done in less than 5 minutes, or even faster, depending on which you choose to accept.
Cosmetics
Tribe Nine offers a pretty decent variety of character skins, which players can actually slowly grind for free, or just purchase them with paid gacha currency.
These skins can also drop from random loot boxes, from playing the ranked XB mini-game, the battle pass, or doing the weekly end-game content.
Social Aspects
The one area where the game doesn't do much is in the social aspect.
While there is a follower/following system, there's not much you can do to interact with other players other than compare profiles, and exchange materials.
Funnily enough, the main way to find players to follow is to interact with their dead bodies (or outlines), which are spawned in the world when players are defeated by enemies; they also restore health.
Delivery Request
The material exchange system (a.k.a Delivery Request) has actually proven to be quite useful.
It incentivizes veteran players to offload their junk onto those that need it, while rewarding them with a small amount of gacha currency for doing so.
End Game
The end game offers a good amount of grinding, but not overly so, as the game gives the player a fair amount of control over RNG once you reach the later levels.
It feels incredibly rewarding to min-max your characters, and the end game bosses offer a real challenge that isn't simply a numbers game.
Mini Games
Tribe Nine offers this interesting ranked baseball-debate-inspired minigame called XB, there was also a brief period where there was a muse-dash-like rhythm game event, which may come back in the future.
Tribe Nine deserves more love
I highly suggest that any JRPG fan should give this a try, the combat may be tough at first, but it is so rewarding when you finally beat the crap out of that boss.
I also really want this game to survive, it deserves way more players.
The developers of this game show a clear passion for it, and have actually listened to player feedback and implemented it in the game.
Such a studio deserves support.
UPDATE: Tribe Nine has declared End of Service (EOS), scheduled for November 2025.
I can no longer in good conscience recommend this game if you intend to play it long term.
I would still highly recommend playing just for the story however.
Links
Wizardry Variants Daphne
A brutally grindy game, in my opinion, its stingy as hell, but that's also one of its charms. The game is a turn-based RPG, with dungeon-crawler-like exploration, enemies hit really hard and resource management is paramount to survive.
Once again, the visual presentation of this game is probably one of its biggest draws. This game has like peak japanese-fantasy-rpg style, it feels so fantasy, I can't think of another more fantasy game other than maybe the elder scrolls series.
The story is presented in a very organic way, and it somehow manages to be incredibly immersive even on mobile. In fact, the presentation is done so well for the mobile version that I'd suggest playing on mobile instead of on the desktop if possible.
The game is pretty stingy with currency though. On the bright side, the commitment to the game is fairly low, with easy dailies (so far) and a good-enough auto battle system.
I'd highly recommend this game to someone who needs a time waster on the go, or as a side-game when you get burnt out on other gachas.
I haven't played too far into the game (my protaganist is level 20, which is like grade 0 out of 12 or something), but I can already see the ridiculous amount of depth that the game offers, so I'll probably be playing this one for quite a while.