Dragalia Lost
Dragalia Lost presents a very familiar gacha-RPG structure, but with fairly unique g for what it is. The summoning, team-building, upgrading, and just about everything else you do while you aren't playing through the stages, is ripped straight from the genre playbook. I actually had to double-check that it wasn't developed by the same studio as Pokémon Masters EX, since the two games share so many elements verbatim. No, the reason Dragalia Lost stood out to me was the fact that it was an action-RPG akin to the gameplay of Pokémon Rumble, but with complexity closer to that of the first Kingdom Hearts. I'm used to games like this looking and feeling more like a traditional JRPG while you're actually in a stage, so Dragalia Lost was somewhat refreshing and a lot more intriguing than I expected. Strangely enough, that still didn't end up being why I stuck around. Honestly, I was so invested in other parts of the game that I started exclusively using the game's, "auto" mechanic to fight for me while I was completing stages.
The real hooks for me were, in fact, the story and the kingdom-builder. I'll admit that I never did end up finishing the story, but it was a great motivator to keep playing, and I don't think I would've stayed as engaged with the game if it wasn't there. The story mode is presented to you in chapters, with each chapter consisting of a blend of regular stages, boss battles, and story sequences. I may have let the game automatically run through the stages and boss fights for me, but I was all in when it was time for the actual narrative. The story sequences are presented as slightly animated dialogue scenes between the characters, with the occasional interjection of beautiful, detailed artwork for the most important events. Visually, it's not usually very striking, but the characters were fun, the straightforward plot giving away to a developing mystery was engaging, and the bite-sized delivery made it easy to come back to throughout the day. It also didn't hurt that you could unlock new challenge stages, party upgrades, and kingdom facilities as you progressed through the campaign, with my favorite of these being the facilities.
While it's a staple of war and development sims, like Clash of Clans, the kingdom-building mechanic actually fits incredibly well into Dragalia Lost. Unlocked a few chapters into the story mode, it acts as the perfect reward for success in nearly every other part of the game. Completing stages will earn you resources that you can use to build and upgrade facilities in your kingdom, with each facility either passively earning you currency and valuable upgrade items, or permanently increasing the power of your heroes. Each time your kingdom reaches a development milestone, you can upgrade your castle to open up even more land to build new facilities on, ultimately making your teams even stronger. While I was still invested in the story, I often found myself spending much more time completing events and grinding resources so I could earn special facilities and upgrade my kingdom even further.
It felt so rewarding to watch the land fill up with all of the colorful buildings and to see them actually have an effect on the strength of my teams. Playing after Dragalia was announced to be in its end-of-life meant that I had access to almost all of the game's limited-time events at the same time, as well as an extremely generous helping of the premium currency, both of which making it much easier to grow my kingdom quickly. Without those boons, I'm sure I still would've appreciated the feature, but a lot of my dedication came from how easy it was to speed through dozens of upgrades on multiple facilities, which probably could not have happened while the game was being actively supported. Still, that's where I found a lot of my fun while I was playing.
While I never did end up finishing the story, and my kingdom stands with upgrades yet to complete, I somehow feel content with my time in Dragalia Lost. It offered far more than I was expecting a brand new mobile-only IP, and I feel almost like I stole something, having taken advantage of the developers' generosity with resources and event access at the end of the game's life, even though I was a new player. While that probably makes my experience much different from all of the game's other patrons, and despite the fact that it's going to be impossible to play soon, I'm going to say that Dragalia Lost was more than worth the time I gave it. As a relatively new IP in Nintendo's back pocket, I hope we'll eventually see other titles in the franchise down the road, although preferably not a predatory free-to-play game next time.
The game is available for Android here (as of 11/17/22): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nintendo.zaga&hl=en_US&gl=US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 11/17/22): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dragalia-lost/id1352230941
