[h3]Majula Frontier is an autobattler based on the EF Universe franchise. Essentially, a gameplay loop of pushing numbers higher by exp grinding, item and gear crafting, and character draws via gacha. The game requires online servers, and as such, will become unplayable sometime soon in 2024.[/h3]
[i]This review is intended to be informational, but since steam forces a rating, selecting positive because of continued developer support and assistance in making completion readily available before retirement.[/i]
Familiarity with the Majula universe is not needed, although the events of the game appear to follow after the self-titled Frontier game. [i]Offense[/i] contains the same cheeky writing and cast of characters, who get in a few lines once in a while as your town level increases.
Briefly, the game roughly follows the following sequence:
[olist][*]Acquire characters via daily gacha. You get two free, then two for 4 mission wins, then 2 more for daily arena participation. What you pull is completely random, not only in which character, but also in nature, skill, and weapon affinity.
[*]Complete missions to level up said characters, selecting your party composition primarily based on what skills you want to support your progress.
[*]Use collected materials to craft better gear and items to push stats higher. Both characters and gear can be further boosted by items but only to specific limits.
[*]Complete missions to unlock higher difficulties, granting more xp, more items, and better workshop rewards (a passive, timed feature that drops hard-to-obtain resources)
[*]Repeat all of the above[/olist]
In this explanation, we're leaving out nuances like merging character cards to boost core rare levels, transferring natures (buff and debuff stat pairs), character skills that provide conditional boosts or resource drop rate, and the types of upgrades available, as well as crafting recipes that require unlocks. And the reason is simple - ultimately, none really seem to matter. My experience with the game is that although you're given an initially overwhelming number of options to strengthen your characters, even if you stick to starter gear and give no attention to party composition, you can still succeed.
That's the biggest criticism of the game. Ignoring the gacha element which may restrict what you have access to, it ultimately doesn't really matter who or what you use. Autobattlers do their job best when strategy is paramount to success. Whether its positioning, synergies, or turn sequence, various games in this category have found ways to be simple yet challenging. MF:TO doesn't really provide any of this. It feels a lot more like a "numbers go up" game than a proper autobattler. But that's okay, as it's a free title that's meant to be casual, not something that requires serious focus. And to be fair, autobattlers are really hard to design and balance properly, possibly right up there with TCG's.
Monetization in this game came by way of premium currency to buy stronger in-battle items, character draws, extra arena battles, and extra autobattles. That's right, an autobattler that required purchasing its core feature. There was no limit on the number of battles you could participate in, as long as you played them manually. While this is a valid point of complaint, it also served to curb player progression in an attempt to avoid huge arena imbalances, so it's understandable.
Big thanks to the developer for supporting this game right up to the end. As of right now, your daily allowance of autobattles have been upped to 5000, a number you'll never reach. Likewise, extra character draws and arena caps were increased, giving everyone a last push to completion. As someone who routinely caps games near their expiry, we don't get enough assistance like this, and it is greatly appreciated. Cheers.
[quote]
[u]Achievement Hunters[/u]: Pure grind achievements. ~150 hrs to 100%
[list][*]Mission clears are scriptable. Crafting will depend on resources, but you'll have more than enough by mission completion.
[*]Secrets refer to the unlock store. Daily chests can drop the recipes, but the primary source of unlocks come from Mystery Chests which are found randomly on missions. I strongly recommend buying the mystery key recipe to unlock these early, and trade in duplicates for more tickets as you go. Spend your tickets at the end to reach 30 needed, if you don't reach it already.
[*]Arena battles are very easy as many in the arena who've finished have set their parties to weak ones. Find one and spam it.
[*]Town upgrades might be problematic. Magic gems come from scrapping unwanted characters. Depending on when you start, this could become your bottleneck. Thankfully, the developer has given everyone extra character draws daily to help speed this along. Prioritize the scrapping upgrades to maximize the number of gems ASAP. You don't need every upgrade to complete this, so avoid the most expensive ones.[/quote]
