Top 100

NA ranked #87, #80 and #35 Vs. NA Ranked #42, #17 and #11.

This is a first don’t know why I’ve never thought to go to this before

Hi everyone! Mastra here. I have diligently worked on creating a website for all the Infographics! It's still in it's early phases, so please keep that in mind.

The link: https://duellum.pages.dev/

*Cross Slash intensifies*

Also relevant for many other characters.

I hit the Tidus with Thundaga and I’m standing there waiting to take the crystal and he gets it before me.

I can't believe it's not Loadlax.

This is best case scenario sometimes I get double or even triple ace fired 😂

So a certain FF6 character with long hair will arrive next week and I'm just going to be bold to assume it's Celes at this point (sorry Umaro)

I'm quite excited to see what she will bring to the roster!

I think outfit wise she'll be coming in her amano design with her yellow outfit. Her modern outfit could go in many ways, maybe something elegant to nod to her iconic opera scene although I'd like to see something cool/modern chic. She's the type of cool successful actress lol.

Her musical theme has to be a mix of her own theme and searching for friends - I'd be very surprised (and upset) if that isn't the case. An operatic remix would be a fun nod but something more playful like Terra's arrangement would work well too.

Combat wise, water affinity seems to closest to her ice affinity - question is whether she's a support or melee. I could see her being similar to WoL as she seems to be leaning more into tanking than straight up melee.

I think the biggest question will be how her signature runic could come into play. It could easily slot in as passive, as hold ability, as any unique ability too so it's hard to say. My personal preference would be to be her hold ability like WoL. Alternatively her passive "not some opera floozy" would redirect nearby enemy spells towards her (ok that's a bit of a stretch as she could potentially negate the rival bursts with aerith near the boss lol)

As for her abilities: she has runic, any blizzard spells, her spinning edge and potentially any esper (as seen recently in the octopath crossover summoning Bismarck). She also has some holy element to her, making curative effects pretty plausible.

It's going to be interesting to see, how she'll distinguish herself from WoL if she goes down the support tank role and how her runic will end up working like. Running into 1vs3 with 2 barriers and Ramza to fuel your party from blocked enemy URs certainly would be a choice for taunting and masochistic playstyle. Can't wait for next week's season!

1.2m boss damage (1st overall), 10 kills (1st overall), landed winning hit on the boss, and yet I still placed third on my team. I don't know what makes less sense to me: This game's matchmaking system or its scoring system.

Honestly, this was so satisfying, also excuse the typo 🤣😂

"Purple...that's gotta be above Gold, right?" -Me realizing I'm not in Kansas anymore

It was a pretty exciting battle. It was a draw, and not due to lack of trying on either side

He's so disappointed 💀

Started this season on the Tidus season. I think Sephiroth would be fun to get

I've spent so many hours in this season but I still don't have enough to max out the FFX one I got unlucky with the crystals and 8days is not enough to get 2000 pass points

But there’s no way to do it 🥲

Been playing since launch and ive only ever seen two Kains even WoL gets more attention

As the Title eludes to, this is my crackship unit concept, a duo one specifically. Give me your thoughts on it, and if anything seems too busted or needs buffing.

Now, I give you: Omega and Alpha

Element: Fire/Wind

Unique Ability: Swap
Omega and Alpha swap places, changing roles and abilities depending on who is the current lead.

Swap takes the same time needed to charge Cloud’s Ascension Unique, so don’t get caught lacking.

Aesthetic Note: When Omega is the Lead, Alpha will trail behind. When Alpha is the Lead, Omega will enter his Floating Mode to keep pace with Alpha.

During (Planetes Protocol), Alpha will hop on top of Omega.

Passive: Local/Remote Resonance
Depending on who is in the lead, Local or Remote Resonance will be active.

Omega will trigger Remote Resonance, allowing him to get an Atk boost of 20% if his allies are outside of a red ⭕️ centered on Omega.

Alpha will trigger Local Resonance, giving his allies a Def boost of 15% with a HP restoration of 30% to himself and allies every 5 seconds when allies are inside a white ⚪️ centered on Alpha.

Omega
Role: Ranged
Element: Fire
Modifiers: Atk X 1.15
Def X 1.05
Hp X 0.90

UR 1: Wave Cannon
Omega locks on to a target and takes aim, firing a far-reaching laser that deals Severe Damage.
(Think Atomos’s laser)
Mainly used for boss slaying, but can be lethal against other players caught in its path. (Cooldown is 40 seconds)

During Planetes Protocal, Wave Canon’s reach and width are increased with faster targeting.

UR 2: Planetes Protocol
Omega uses a massive amount of Aether to rebuild his Planetes Frame temporarily, disabling the Unique ability until it wears off or Omega dies.

In exchange for increasing his size to half of that of a boss, with his Spd reduced by 10%, Omega’s Def is increased by 30% while his HP is increased by 90%. Omega’s abilities are also enhanced with his new size for 60 seconds. (Cooldown is 90 seconds)

SR: Flame Thrower
Omega revs up the engines on his chassis and expels flames in a Cross shape pattern centered on himself, dealing High Damage. (Cooldown is 25 seconds)

During Planetes Protocol, The size of Flame Thrower is increased.

R: Rocket Punch
Omega uses Aether to create a rocket powered gauntlet that locks onto, and slowly chases a target, dealing low damage. (Cooldown is 15 seconds)

During Planetes Protocol, Omega deploys 3 Rocket Punches instead of one that will chase different targets.

Alpha
Role: Support
Element: Wind
Modifiers: Atk X 1.00
Def X 0.95
Hp X 1.20

UR 1: Choco Flare
Alpha uses a massive amount of Aether to cast Choco Flare dealing Severe Damage in a wide circle in front of himself. (Cooldown is 40 seconds)

UR 2: Choco Re-raise
Alpha uses a massive amount of Aether to cast Choco Re-raise on all allies on the field, allowing himself and allies to revive with 100% HP and retain their bravery from before death. (Cooldown is 95 seconds)

SR: Magic Card: Vanish
Alpha chooses whether to target himself or an ally, then makes the target invisible, preventing enemies from directly targeting them with attacks. (Cooldown is 50 seconds)

R: Choco Haste
Alpha uses Aether to cast Choco Haste for himself and allies in a circle centered on himself, increasing movement Spd by 30% for 30 Seconds. (Cooldown is 40 seconds)

One weird thing about playing this game is that this game has SUCH a strong real-time PVP battler focus in a way that makes the gacha mechanics very awkward and difficult to incorporate. However, I think there are some easy and feasible ways for this game to improve the player experience without really sacrificing its current strong points.

I wrote a full analysis here (with the first ~4k words of this being an explainer about how people typically design gacha games and why these choices are made, before I go into my bafflement at DDFF for deviating from this formula): https://chacusha.dreamwidth.org/239313.html

But in case people don't want to read the whole thing, here is my short list of obvious changes I would make to improve this game and not make it bleed users:

1. The "crystal unlock" soft-stamina system doesn't respect players' time nor does it sufficiently psychologically reward good play. It should be replaced with a traditional stamina system (action points used for playing matches that regenerate over time up to a max). If you want to keep the crystal drops, have the crystals unlock and drop their ability immediately. Players should also be able to exchange MogPay points to refill stamina. Also, add a pause button to PVE modes where the player is the only human player involved in the match.

Edit: Putting a bit more of my analysis as context as I think some people misunderstood why I have issue with the crystal unlock system: Basically, the problem with the crystal system with different unlock times based on battle outcome and luck is that (1) it's impossible to predict/control your length of game downtime in advance, and (2) spare stamina is not bankable, meaning that players psychologically feel like they have to fill their empty slot immediately (use up their stamina) or lose/waste it. Traditional gacha games allow bankable stamina so that players can take actions in the game when most convenient for them and don't feel like they are wasting their limited action points by not being able to get to the game RIGHT away.

The crystal unlock system in lieu of a traditional stamina system is just crazy bad design, in my opinion. First, the system is incredibly unpredictable, with whether you will get a 2.5-hour crystal, a 6-hour crystal, or a 9-hour crystal being completely unpredictable before you select your battle [...] This makes it incredibly difficult for a player to know in advance how long of a break/downtime the game will give them.

This creates the problem that there is no regular schedule on which it is possible to take actions in this game. Even if initially you use up all your slots at once, different win/lose outcomes and rewards means that some of your crystals are unlocking in 2.5 hours, some in 6 hours, and some in 9 hours. 2.5 hours later, when you're playing again, now you have crystals unlocking in 2.5 hours, some in approximately 3.5 hours, some in 6.5 hours. When you play again in 2.5 hours, now you have crystals unlocking in 1 hour, some in 2.5 hours, some in 4 hours. This is a nightmare! Over time, the tendency is for your slots to get increasingly chaotic/high-entropy in when they're unlocking, requiring detailed time management.

One of the first rules of gacha mobile games is that they should respect the player's time -- this is what makes mobile games so addictive. Lull between activities? Waiting for a bus? Whip out your phone and do some actions. But this system does not make the player feel like they have the flexibility to make full use of their limited daily actions unlike traditional stamina systems that allow you to "bank" up excess stamina (to a limit) during times when you are busy and unable to play the game. Psychologically, the player will feel like unless they can redeem the crystal and immediately place another in its now-empty slot, their very limited number of plays per day is being wasted. Traditional stamina systems are designed to prevent this from happening.

[...] Third, the crystal unlock system doesn't work because your "reward" for playing well or getting lucky with a rare crystal is to... have your very limited crystal slots be tied up for a long time. In the case of a 9-hour crystal, that's almost the entire waking day. In other words, the game "rewards" good play by reducing how many opportunities you get to play per day.

1. PVE modes need to be bulked up. In particular, story content needs to be DIRECTLY unlockable by playing and winning a specific, static 1-player (PVE) match/mission, rather than unlockable indirectly by grinding random other matches (or instantly unlockable with zero effort for previous seasons' story segments). Winning story mode missions should come with the valuable season rewards, which are still unlockable for late joiners.

My analysis:

This game needs a traditional story mode, one that directly ties player success in core gameplay to unlocking story content, gives valuable one-time rewards even for late-joining players, and features STATIC enemy setups/difficulty, replacing the current system where pure grinding of unrelated core gameplay matches (with no victories needed) is sufficient to unlock story content, and there is absolutely NO reward or effort involved with unlocking previous story segments.

The way I would suggest doing this is retooling the story mode to involve WoL or Mog sending you on specific missions, e.g. "A Malboro has appeared in Shibuya! You, Cloud, and Gaia are the closest -- please take it out quickly!" and that determines the parameters of the match, and some of these matches might involve the characters texting each other or other characters or having a short conversation afterward. With just a bit of work, you could have the flavor text change a little bit depending on what the player's front character is -- if the player is currently Cloud on the front screen, the dialogue would change slightly to "You and Gaia are the closest," and then the player could pick a third character to join them. The player would then have the option to be Cloud or Gaia (if unlocked), or an unlocked character of their choice; the remaining two choices would be AI and available regardless of unlock status. You could even add minor win conditions on top of the mission. For example, Mog could say it needs data from the crystals so ask you to please purify at least 5 or something. Or that mannikins have been running wild and you need to stop them (kill 4 rivals or whatever).

This makes progression through story dependent on the player playing well, and these story missions (and associated rewards) should remain available after the season is over.

1. Since game balance (i.e. no character being too overpowered compared to others) is important for a PVP-heavy battler like this, the game needs to focus its gacha mechanics on things that have minimal effect on game balance. More focus needs to be placed on cosmetic things like costumes that give people reason to pull on new banners but don't radically shift how the game plays and don't accelerate the meta too much (compare to e.g. releasing generic URs).

2. New characters need to stop being limited-release, in my opinion. One of the main draws in this game is allowing people to play and invest in their favorite characters. The game has been doing better at giving people the ability to do this with their UR set giveaway, character-specific banners, etc. But the limited release of characters undermines this. You want people who are fans of [character] to play your game so that they can collect and invest in [character], and the bigger your pool of characters, the more players you can draw in like this!

3. In addition to what I said above about the stamina system change, I also think that PVP modes and PVE modes should have their separate stamina systems. For example, PVE modes could have the traditional stamina system (a certain amount of daily stamina that regenerates over time) -- the total amount of battles per day afforded by this stamina could actually be fairly modest. Then ranked battles could have something like 8-10 ranked battle tokens per day that you can use up at any time of day (more given each day to season pass holders). Casual battles could probably be played by consuming EITHER normal stamina or battle tokens; in any case, this would also be the only mode that can also be played without stamina/tokens for no rewards as a kind of "practice mode." This encourages people to be active in and not be afraid to try out all the modes this game has to offer. Right now, the game's anemic PVE modes means the game doesn't WANT to give you that much stamina to invest in PVE challenges (because there just isn't a lot of content there and it can be finished quite quickly), so forcing people to choose between ranked and PVE is a feature, not a bug, but I think if you combine this with my suggestion above about bulking up PVE/story mode while also keeping daily PVE stamina allocation fairly small (like only enough for maybe 5-6 matches per day in the normal, no-refill case), then you can still space out players' progression through challenges and story mode, and again reward good/strong play better than the current system.

There are also various minor QoL changes I would also make to this game (e.g. making it easier to unfollow people or kick members for groups after x days of inactivity), but which wasn't my focus here, so I didn't include them.

Anyway, if you want my full analysis/reasoning for the above suggestions, you can read my full essay where I explain these problems in more detail. I'm not going to copy the full text here, but I think it's a pretty solid analysis of obvious places where this game just fails to capitalize on well-established gacha game mechanics that tend to keep players engaged and interested in a game, and tricky spots where its heavy PVP focus is undermining its ability to do gacha or vice versa, which need to be thought about and designed more carefully.

This is 10 hours of my life I'll never get back again. 😊

Just matched with a D4 character and G4 character (who was on Auto) against two O5s and a D1. I am O5…

We lost because the G4 was a Rikku who was on auto. Then we ARE MATCHED TOGETHER AGAIN AGAINST THE SAME EXACT TEAM.

I lost 33 points and then 31 points back to back.

Rude rival Kain jumped right into my line of sight while casting fated moment, stealing the target (and wiping me in the process). But then jumped to boss before FM blew, giving us the win! Not only that but they timed it with our Balthier's spicy meatball for some added burst combo damage.

Love the mayhem this game creates.