Neural Cloud is out and the game has been a blast from the very start. Literally. Available for both Android and iOS, the game is all about strategy where the biggest brain will be the one to emerge victorious.

Time to Strategize Myself

Neural Cloud is not for the small brain to say the least. It plays like an auto chess and you can deploy a total of 5 characters on the field with backup slots unlocked as you progress into the game.

The characters, also known as Dolls, are separated into 5 different classes. Guard, Sniper, Warrior, Specialist and Medic. They each have their own specialties and you are never restricted in how you want to build your team.

Remember how I mention this game is not for the small brain? Each Dolls have their own unique skills and they can do things much differently from the rest even if they belong to the same class.

Take Fresnel and Hubble for example. They are both Snipers but Fresnel has a more defensive kit while Hubble is pure on DPS, two completely different playstyles.

So, if you are planning on min maxing for the game, you have to take into account what each Dolls do and how they fit into the situation thrown at you.

I am someone who rolls for Chen Alter in Arknights just so I can monkey brain most stages and I sure as heck am going to build my team just stacking with top tier characters. Assuming the gacha is forgiving that is.

There’s more to the gameplay like the rogue-like elements and Tactical skills but as for the basis, being able to understand team building should get you through the early parts of the game.

Good old Lore from the Story

The game is supposedly the prequel to the already existing Girls Frontline and seeing just how torn the world on that game is, you know stuff is about to go down in Neural Cloud.

Much like every other game of this archetype, the story is presented in the visual novel style where you have the sprite of the characters appearing on the screen and their dialogue at the bottom.

Understandably enough, at the beginning of the game you are given exposition to the setting of the game and boy was there a lot of text. Luckily enough, you can opt to skip them and they would give a summary of the key events in that chapter. Bless whoever introduces this feature.

The Future of User Interface

The UI is really clean. While they do eat up a lot of the screen, they don’t really feel that intrusive and if you are familiar with Girls Frontline, it looks exactly much the same but more polished.

The transitions between the screens are also smooth and they even give the option to lower the graphics quality for increased performance. What is even more amazing is that the feature does not affect the UI so you can still get those clean UIs at lower graphics settings. This is a blessing for all lower end phones that want to try it out.

Gacha, Gacha Never Changes

For a prequel of Girls Frontline, you would figure the gacha are for skins and despite how horrendous those are, most of the Dolls are available through manufacturing.

Neural Code is completely different in that aspect.

You get Dolls through gacha and the rate is pretty fair when you compare it to other gacha games. The highest rarity at the moment, 3-Star, comes with a 3% rate. There are currently 10 3-star so the pool isn’t that inflated like Nikke with their whopping 40+ SSRs at launch so aiming for your desired Doll would not be as harsh.

What I like about the gacha is the animation when you pull. You have this sick animation of neurons branching out and the rarity you get depends on where the spots land. If it branches out further into the orange territory, congratulations, you have gotten yourself 3 stars.

The Woes of a Professor

If there is one thing that a lot of gacha games seem to be doing terribly is locking content behind progressions. I have no qualms if you locked contents like challenge mode or limit breaking your characters behind progression since it would help new players from getting overwhelmed.

What I do not agree with is locking basic Quality of Life features like increased battle speed and auto battle behind it. I can still tolerate auto battles since they want you to at least try out the gameplay but having to go through the early parts at normal speed is just a crime.

There’s also a matter of the energy usage in this game. I’ve always been iffy with gacha games that have an energy system to it. The recovery rate for the energy feels a bit slow so you might as well play it like a side game. You log in, spend the energy and then log out. 

There’s not much you can do without any energy.

Did I mention how you need to use the energy to claim the stage rewards as well? It’s a rough world here but they do give you the option to choose how much energy you are willing to spend for rewards.

Uploading Thoughts

To be frank? I can seriously find myself actually investing into this game. Sure, the game will definitely need lots of thinking as you progress deeper but I like the process of trying out different kinds of strategies even if they fail.

For those that enjoy Arknights, I can assure you this could be a great side game to relieve your stress that has been building up thanks to the god forsaken Seaborn. While there is no deployment shtick in Neural Cloud, the planning and executing your plans feel all the same.

For anyone new to the genre, it wouldn’t hurt to try out this game as well since it also comes with a simple mode that pretty much does what it says. If the numbers and stats scare you, simple mode takes that away and explains the mechanics of the game as simple as it can get.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go upload myself and save the world together with my Dolls.