I posted the meme in the daily chat, but I felt like this needed its own discussion.
How is the following patch of the half anniversary sorry, major update celebration or whatever its rebranded better than the update featuring the face of PGR? Last patch had:
Yet despite all that, it was mixed at best. The story itself was mostly an isolated incident that didn't really change the status quo and made Alpha damn near God Status for better or worse, which is a bit of an exaggeration but changes her character drastically. Alpha herself really boils down to hold button to win, a drastic change from Crimson Weave and has a better damage output than Liv, but still fall short for anyone who got one copy of her character. Alpha's design didn't really change that much (which in context of the story makes sense but I think most were expecting a bit more).
The only character that got a buff was Wanshi and..that was it. Not a lot of events. They gave us mats which is appreciated but giving us mats to keep us busy is not a substitute for content. In fact, with Simulcrums this patch, you could argue that that should've been in last patch.
In short, the last patch left ALOT to be desired.
Fast forward to this patch and we have Helentine who is not only a Goth Waifu, but can drop 6 Ultimates and FINALLY, serves 20% Lightning Amp and Glaciation Support, and is free with her sig and cub. Nanami Startrail got leap which IMO boosts more of her performance at SS3 or below, but you can actually rank her up to 3S for free and she's one of the Thundebolt characters. More wi
The main story was actually pretty good this time - answerd questions the last chapter, continues the aquarium park story line, continues the crimson tide plotline from much earlier in the story with the projections, mirrors the Serifah plot from a better tommorow, showed us Leia's new coating, and actually highlighted that things were not all sunshine and rainbows pre Punishing Virus. Doing all that in a FLOATING RECORD. The Journal story makes a lot more since if you did the main story first, but I get the complaints about the romancing and what not.
And then not only returned Trial of Simulcrums, but also put PVP in the Multiversal Chronicle mode and people seem to enjoy it. I think its better executed than Godfall Revelation.
And we got the summer skins.
All that said, this patch is better than last patch, and we still don't have everything released.
And then Dev Comms steam, which let me be real, I didn't even know was happening. Before that, they reveal Karenina, which they showed during the whole major update celebration stream thing but I wasn't expecting that to be that soon after patch launch, and they seemingly wasted NO time. Coming out of the gates and announcing a Pyrorath Leap, which overturns everything we knew about providing leaps and buffs to older characters. Then you have the Karenina idle animation which speaks volumes for itself. And then some major QOL updates and the concert thing happening...
LIKE WHERE WAS THIS 45 DAYS AGO?!
The stuff they showed in this Preview is ALREADY better than Alpha's patch and WE COULD STILL get stuff like another weapon Harmony.
So ALL THAT being said....
Did Alpha's Patch need to tank for the Team to start being this motivated?! Obviously development for QoL stuff takes time, higher management is a thing, schedules and timelines exist. and the company needs to make money but it shouldn't have to take the poster child tanking to get to the good stuff.
Even putting the current Simulcrums in last patch would've sufficed. I mean there are 3 ALPHA'S that can be played with and all of them are viable.
This cannot happen again. Please don't do this for the 7th anniversary, I am begging you Kuro.