Is Arknights Dying? CN Drama and related Issues

My take on the current situation in regards to CN

Note these are entirely my personal opinions. You are free to agree and disagree with any of my points, I could have made it longer with more information but I prefer to keep things short and get to the point rather than wasting people's time.

In regards to the CN Community, obviously, not everyone will think like that, I myself being an example, Kyo and 25thNight too etc. There are many different kinds of people and its up to how each person feel personally, as we're all allowed to have our own opinion.

If you are upset or saddened by this video I apologize, you are also free to hate me for this I don't mind

Note the recent Limited Ash Banner on Rainbow Six was actually really good, with only needing 120 pulls. If all the other limited banners were like this it would have been really good changes for the community and longevity of the game

There's still the 2.5 Anni Stream coming up eventually, let's hope they address these issues soon.

In regards to comments saying I don't care about the game. Obviously, I do, otherwise, I would have never spent this much on the game (5k+, mainly to support the game and for the anime), nor would I make this much videos in the first place to promote the game (250+). As well as all the animations and Greenscreens that I provide for the Community. So seeing comments saying I don't care about arknights at all does hurt quite a bit

Not only that I already explained that living off from Youtube is insanely hard and tough, this month for example I only made close to 125$ off YT. How much I earn is obviously much lower than of a Minimum Wage Worker Full Time but it's fine. I'll still do my best as I still enjoy making videos for Arknights so I would continue doing so to help promote the game as well as for my hobby and personal needs. And for those that like my content

And way earlier youtube Marked the video Made for Kids for some reason all comments were turned off, I did not do that, thanks to the ppl mention this on Discord so it should be fine now.

Timestamps, I've tried to keep the video as short as I can
0:00 - Intro
0:26 - Normal Banners and Pity System
0:56 - Limited Spark System
1:32 - Limited Operators
1:49 - L2D issues
2:07 - Limited Banners Timing
2:14 - Negative Reviews from CN
2:44 - Arknights Revenue and why it's not doing well
2:55 - PVE aspects
3:15 - People quitting the game
3:29 - CN Players being angry and Chen's Art
3:38 - Why Creators like me is being affected by this
3:50 - CN Talk
4:20 - Platinum VA and Ai Kayano Incident and CN players response
4:45 - Conclusion

Kukiikaze's video on the situation

I didn't mention anything in regards to Modules due to the system is still new and I'm just waiting it out before I can make a judgement on it. Stuff like that is similar to Exclusive Equipment on other games where it increases a set amount of bonus/ damage etc

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[dr.taskdesk]

Timestamps, I've tried to keep the video as short as I can
0:00 - Intro
0:26 - Normal Banners and Pity System
0:56 - Limited Spark System
1:32 - Limited Operators
1:49 - L2D issues
2:07 - Limited Banners Timing
2:14 - Negative Reviews from CN
2:44 - Arknights Revenue and why it's not doing well
2:55 - PVE aspects
3:15 - People quitting the game
3:29 - CN Players being angry and Chen's Art
3:38 - Why Creators like me is being affected by this
3:50 - CN Talk
4:20 - Platinum VA and Ai Kayano Incident and CN players response
4:45 - Conclusion



Kukiikaze's video on the situation

[neardarkroad]

One benefit of playing fgo, it makes other gacha games feels like angels with their pity rates.

[CarrollLiddell]

The Ash pity system/ratio. is probably perfect. They clearly had a mind to do it for the Rainbow 6 event, why not other events.

[brans]

So at the end of the day only Arknights can kill itself

[ritwikg.]

IMO they should reduce the spark system to 150 pulls which is still a LOT for the average player

[Yuusamu]

HG really needs to make changes by listening to fans if they want a healthy playerbase. A healthy playerbase goes a long way and can protentionally benefit them lots but it depends on how they approach it as well.

[ResearcherReasearchingResearch]

It sucks that the game is going through this so early in it's life. I really love this game and I would like for it to continue for a long time like FGO has, to be able to complete the story that it set out for itself.

[ThoseTentacle]

I'm waiting for Arknight to release console counterpart. so even if the game died, at least i still have some kind of souvenir

[mercamia]

would be really good if you can either keep or convert the spark manually when you want to buy materials

[Mephiidross]

In regards to the limited operators, the reason why I'm unhappy about them is twofold. First, I started Arknights because it was a game without any limited units. It was a breath of fresh air after all the other gachas, and especially FGO. I already was unhappy when they introduced Nian, but at least it was reasonable with it being an anniversary unit. Then came the R6S collab, and again, kinda understandable, even if I wish they weren't limited. However, now we got a limited summer unit. Which is the second point: it's a worrying trend. What will be next? Limited christmas unit? Limited halloween? Perhaps two limited units on the anniversary?

Of course, you don't need to get every single unit in the game. However, locking units behind arbitrary reasons is never a good thing. Too many people just accept the fact that you can just never get something. Call me old, but I much prefer everything in a game being accessible, even if it takes time and effort to obtain. Limited units are nothing more than a cash grab by utilizing FOMO, and it should be called out as the scummy move it is.

[dr.taskdesk]

Youtube is being dumb and marked the video for made for Kids and i did not turn off the comments, I never do that, its re-enabled now, thanks for the ppl who reminds me this on Discord

[Tsurugi_AKR]

Well detailed.

No games are perfect. But I'm still sticking with Arknights, and I'm proud to be a part of the community, albeit as a small content creator.

[mikoya]

3:15 - People quitting the game

in my case

my friends don't like arknights because finding materials is so difficult, but my friends play GI which in my opinion is more difficult, especially for primogems, what else do you have to travel around the world to find materials?, but i can't compare too much because arknights it's mobile games and GI it's PC/Console/Mobile games

For anyone who likes plants versus zombies, Arknight is a highly recommended game

One of the reasons I'm still playing arknights is that the ingredients for the gacha can be made by the arknights feature itself.

Players 1-7 Forever XD

[kyonejay]

The voice actors cancelation should tell to those CN community, not to us global players.
Although generally the limited banner are suck.

[GreatRusio]

I honestly agree with a lot of "feedback" Cn is giving hypergryph the last few weeks. Some people here are defending the game on the basis that its not as bad as FGO, Genshin or some other gacha you play even though thats really naive imo. We have problems that are gradually diminishing why the arknights consumer treatment was wayyy better than other games yet people are still defending AK like nothing is wrong....

Also if Hypergryph actually listens to the fanbase then this will be a great change for once. It really isnt that hard for them to make changes unless they have already planned a shit ton of things we wouldnt like ahead of schedule and they are too lazy to fix it all. Remember this is the same game that makes millions yet it took them 2 damn years to add A CLAIM ALL BUTTON of all things.

I def wont quit the game since I just love so much about it but with games like alchemy stars coming out where the devs actually make huge changes quickly based on community feedback its hard not to get pissed at hypergryph.

[jintaozhang]

As a Chinese player (but mainly plays on Global server), a few insight from my point of view: The issue about this Limited banner on CN (Ch'en) have 3 different aspects (in my view): 1. Arknight has not produced any quality story/playstyle for the last 6 months on the CN server (that means no new storyline, no new mechanisms, AND no in-depth discussion such as Chapter 7/8, or even events like "The Children of Ursus"). 2. The sketching of the new Ch'en does not look good, and it looks more of skin rather than another operator. 3. There is absolutely no forecast of this limited banner. Usually, players expect 2-3 limited banners per year where one of them can be in collaboration with other games. But this announcement was made less than a month before it comes out and has no impact on the story. Other issues such as the spark system, negative reviews, are there from the beginning of the game and just get amplified during this event. On the issue of Ai Kayano/ Yasukuni incident - it's basically like speaking of the Nazi in public when we talked about the Yasukuni Shirne, so I would hold my different opinion on that. And finally - I like your production and contribution to the community as always, keep up the good work!

[nad]

I agree with most of your points except about the frequent limited banner. It's true that other games have frequent limited banners but I don't think that's a valid reason to shrug it off. One of the reasons I like playing Arknights is because even though I didn't get the character I want in a banner I still can get spooked by them. But if they revamp the pity system and reduce the requirements to 120-150 getting frequent limited banner can be much more bearable

[mayonotes]

The problem I have is how rushed the limited banners are and how much pulls you need for the spark system to work. 300 is just absolutely dumb.

[alan]

first time playing : "wow, arknights is so F2P friendly, the gacha is so generous, 2% for a 6*?? that sick"
after become veteran : "why you should put double 6* in one banner?? why the limited banner's spark is 300?? it sucks"

yeah, you can clear every single content as a F2P even with low rarity squad. F2P and whales are going together, the game progress & achievement, even i think this game is pay to lose because with maxed level squad you can easily bruteforce beat the game, that's why now some people are trying to enjoy the game like silvergun with 4* squad, 25thnight clearing the stage with no guard and defender, japanese yugioh guy clearing the stage with operator that only shown in the story, etc.
After become endgame player, you only think about gacha and some hard content like CC, and that's when you realize about the gacha system because you start wanting to get a specific operator especially in the limited banners.
IMO, the only problem is the double 6* in the banner. The spark system is a bit high but it's ok, it's limited banner and they can't just giving it easily to players that didn't save up (free 10x and 1x everyday are already good). Make everything too F2P friendly is also not good so yeah, thanks to all whaler that keep supporting the game so they can make good updates, musics, PV, artworks, VA, and most importantly keep the server alive.
Why there's limited banner rerun?? they want to give a chance to new players
why only limited ops that have L2D?? maybe bcs they're limited so HG wants them to have an advantage that only reserved to them. Also AK is known for its size so even potato phone can play the game.
The problem is HG releasing limited banners every 3 months (idc about chen art tbh), i know when i said about players saving up for limited banners but they also want to pull on other banners (nonlimited banner). And iirc HG still doesn't make any information/clarification about this situation.
About platinum VA, it's just CN thing that makes everything is politic. Just don't bring it to global server and it's good.

I love Arknights, the only gacha game i've played for 1.5 years and still enjoying it. I hope HG will more open to the community.

[antisaltknight]

You forgot to mention a huge element which is what setted off the community and was objectively HG poor handling:

The way HG handles balance aka how they used promise of buff to calm down player but then said buff were pretty much insignificant for most.

For those unaware, when Ch'alter was first announced, HG followed it by the long awaited buff for the bad archetype of arknight, the intent was obvious, this was to calm down player and it was the first time HG litteraly made a section for buff.

However when the buff were actually revealed, aside of chain caster being decent buff, everything else was basically lips-service, aka did not fix any issue and was just there to give player a bone to chew on.

It is an old tactic, to use the promise of a carrot, a reward next to a bad new so that overtime people digest the bad news and move on, so that even if the promise is underwhelming people already moved on from the bad news.

However HG over-abused of said technique and the fact that Ch'alter is broken as Heck, didn't help whatsoever.

And when you abuse of said technique, people realize that you tried to manipulate them and took them for idiots which is where a lot of people drew the line.

For my part the biggest issue show that HG absolutely does not care about keeping older unit relevant or even make one that were supposed to be relevant, actually relevant.

The reason being is that they only showed this buff because they knew ch'alter would cause a riot but even knowing those buff were necessary to regain some good faith, even then they were absolutely unable to even bother about making actual relevant buff.

Like, know before buff, Surtr dps was 3 times higher than skadi, now is slightly less than 3 times higher with her 8% atk buff.

HG had the perfect opportunity to stop most of the complaint by showing that they actually listened with decent buff with actual thought put into them.

Like we talk about fgo, feh and co, but even those game do a better job about buff (and the bar is pretty low as feh is terrible at buffing units).

But it is not the only buffing issue, as module which was a big part of the new announcement, were also terrible for half of them and nearly all of them uninspired copypasted module .

Finally, another issue is HG complete refusal to even answer why they take this approach for buffing and module and went completely silent instead which is a scummy way of just letting thing die down rather than face criticism.

HG being completely silent and deaf tone about buff and balance is what really allowed people frustration to ramp this much.