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Time Defenders has more or less, kinda, launched globally, at least in an assumed soft-launch state and presently only appearing to be for Android users. Since I am freshly literate, I decided to give the game another go. You can check my initial impressions of the Japanese release here for further context.
For better or worse, this “launch” hasn’t changed up that much from all those months ago.
PRESENTATION
The font choice by no means is the best, but it is at least legible compared to how tiny Arknights‘ English localization can get. However, my problem with visual clarity in general remains. I know playing around with camera angles make it look more “cinematic”, but this is a strategy game. Positioning, timing, etc. is important, and being able to actually see would be nice.
GAMEPLAY
You know the drill: put down units, and stop them from reaching the objective.
I sorely miss the consistency I can expect from, god help, Arknights, when it comes to the classes. I know I can see the skill icons to see if a unit does ranged or melee attacks, but like, each map can have different deployment limits, slots… knowing what I can expect a unit to do instantly without needing to read the tooltip can help in faster decision making for lineups.
Levelling up feels more clunky and a chore than it needs to be, since skills need to be levelled up individually. There’s 3 each per character. Their levels are also capped at to their current level, which in turn is dependent on your account level. Now that I know how it works, oh boy, what a grind! Fortunately, you can just dispatch a squad to auto run maps in the background.
There’s a little town / base area thing with upgradable areas / buildings. Very eloquent, I know. Your units have vitality which I assume gets raised as they do more of the same task repeatedly, capable of speeding up building upgrades, crafting, or training units of the same class. It’s another layer of busy work that I don’t find very engaging.
At the very least, here’s also where you can upgrade the shards you need for your SSR characters. Joy.
GACHA
The rates themselves have not changed, but it looks like they removed the equipment gacha. Or at least, I don’t see it here. The game allows you to reroll your first 10-roll up to 30 times, and there’s a spark system that takes into consideration the +1 you get per 1200 gems for a 10+1 pull. Neat.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Unfortunately, I’m still not very impressed with Time Defenders. Again, the core systems haven’t changed that much, and the level of grind really sinks in with an understanding of the language.
It’s Fine. Really.
