Let’s face it, Gacha games have undoubtledly dominated the modern day gaming scene with juggernaut titles with Fate/Grand Order, Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail.

While it’s true that Gacha games can have complex mechanics, colourful worldbuilding and interesting story plots aside, characters also play a huge part in gacha games’ appeal. It’s the difference between having your game as just a thing you do, like taking your turns in Monopoly Go, or having it permeate your entire life- which seasonally happens to me with Blue Archive, a game I don’t even play.

Gacha Games are like a massive treasure trove of characters, putting even the most seasoned D&D player to shame. With all these RNG hotties, what makes them stand out head and shoulders above the rest? Let’s discuss.

Just Pick A Top Tier

There’s a certain primitive joy when it comes to seeing big numbers pop up on screen when dishing out damage against enemies. Let’s face it- a character a lot of people use is just going to be talked about more. I stand by this opinion for characters like Scarlet in NIKKE- if she wasn’t top tier she wouldn’t be nearly as dominant in the popularity polls as she was.

Look, I’m not saying that Scarlet is otherwise hideous- I’m just saying that unlike characters more specifically catering to a specific audience, fans of these characters are more drawn to the results than the physical appearance. It’s not just Scarlet either- Bennet from Genshin Impact may as well have his name changed to Fantastic Voyage, since the plucky adventurer is more of an obstacle to get to his F2P-friendly build.

The point is, utility leads to popularity. Also, Scarlet fans aren’t fully appreciating the sultry drunk girlfail in their party because they’re too obsessed with her massive DPS. Once Scarlet gets nerfed or powercrept we’ll all see who really sticks around for our walking liver failure goddess.

Dommy Mommies Save Games

Arguably one of the most powerful features, a good, charismatic character can escape gacha prison and make it into the mainstream. Now, it’s very hard to talk about these around hardcore fans because they have a tendency to get all defensive about how generic gacha waifu #53 totally has a good personality, you just need to play through Chapter 15-3 to get them.

Remember, this isn’t necessarily about the overall writing about the character. Rather, it’s about the character being able to have traits that make them instantly identifiable. You only need to look at characters like Kafka (Honkai Star Rail) or Nero Claudius (Fate/Grand Order)- these are characters who supercede their games and can be recognized for their traits.

It’s also one of the hardest ones for games to actually succeed at. Trying too hard to push a character can often lead to some cringe writing- many games will try to push a catch phrase often to very painful results. Still, the alternative is no personality at all- there are many games out there whose designs I quite adore- but outside of your usual moody anime girl story I know almost nothing about them.

The idea here is to just give tools for the community to work with. It’s part of why a lot of personality-type characters tend to be the more dominatrix mommy-archetypes: sex sells, and having your character speak in a sultry voice and innuendo is a good way to imply sexual ideas without affecting your age rating. It doesn’t just have to be them, though, since any character with a charming catchphrase like Nero Claudius (Umu) or Herta (Kuru kuru) will likely find popularity this way.

Fueled By Fanart

Admittedly, this does tie in to the personality angle a lot, but its important enough to be its own section. Some characters are just hard carried by their ability to generate fanart, leading to an ability to permeate even non-players like no other.

I really have to commend one title in particular for this, which is Blue Archive. While many games will require following official accounts to keep track of their events, I seem to know the current banner for Blue Archive just by what my favorite Japanese artists are drawing. Not only did I know that Toki would be having her own banner, but my favorite fanartists even let me know when her Bunny Girl alt was available in the game, bless their souls.

This isn’t simply a game of “Just make the character hot”. Making a fanart-fuel character means making design choices that inspire the community to draw as much as possible. You might do this through shipping, as is the case of Raiden Shogun and Yae Miko and their eternal quest to get a room. Alternatively you might also just go the route of interesting character design, such as Blue Archive with the inspired decision to have a character dressed in a bikini top, a boyfriend shirt, a garden hose and nothing else.

The challenge here is, of course, straddling the line between interesting and just pornography. Azur Lane’s St Louis has a skin that leaves very little to the imagination, but it’s that little bit that they left that made her so popular with artists. Meanwhile, not every swimsuit skin is going to be a guaranteed Pixiv hit- no matter how much you make the fabric fight for its life.

Closing Thoughts

Honestly, one of the greatest contributions Gacha games have given to society is the sheer massive sample size of character design to take apart. The sheer ask of needing to have a huge library of characters all be someone’s favorite means that we get to see a lot more ideas explored in new and inventive ways. I’ll admit there’s some oversimplifying we’ve done today- Kafka is just as much fanart bait as she is personality driven, but I think more people are in love with her domineering personality than her purple tights, so to speak. But the theory still stands that if you see a really popular gacha game character, chances are they’re in one of our three categories.

It ties into something I’d like to maybe explore in future, too- the fact that there’s so many ways to enjoy a gacha game beyond just doing your dailies. In that sense, maybe I am a Blue Archive player after all.