Whats's the new player experience like?

[sniddy]

So, we're past the 2 year mark

Some of us have been hear since the 1st event, and I suspect many of the regulars are year+ vets at least

Now I've joined games late and had to play catch up, and TBH the catch up killed one game but it was PvP heavy and any PvP game that places that heavy a burden on old unavailable or rarely available and often at high price content will suffer.

I joined that game (Marval Avengers Alliance for the curious) maybe 20 months into it's life and was on the back foot from day one, I got up to speed and fought tooth and nail to hold onto a top ranking PvP streak, game closed after a little over 4 years as numbers declined

The reason was player retention a newbie joining had too much to do, and it wasn't like they had options and the game refused to allow escalators to help newer players 'catch up' or split the player base to allow tiers

Now, FKG doesn't have a PvP element, this works in it's favour BUT what does a new player see

Dozens of events
Nearly a dozen whale ship events
120 missions
1st affection, 2nd affections
Evolution, Blooming
A Live timing out event and revival - maybe with mini events like swan races
3 levels of equipment
Character quests
Forging
Training skills

This isn't helped by their nor being an 'official' community (I consider this it and I feel lucky to have found it - but in game there's nothing but the Discord and I hate Discord)

I can see a newer player feeling overwhelmed and just not knowing where to turn turning away - so how many of you are fresh - how is it - what do you feel needs tweaking?

[A Time to Screw]

Everything can be accrued with time, and events will return later down the line, eventually as permanent reissues too. There's no real pressure or rush.

The one thing I can see new players missing out on permanently is old Event Equips, since those don't seem to return in permanent reissues.

But IMO this game doesn't have as strong a "forced to play now" feeling like I see in other gacha games. You don't feel like it's a big deal to "fall behind" since it isn't a competitive game in any way. You don't need to be really powerful to clear basic events, so you don't need to keep grinding to become more powerful to keep up with events either. It's a pretty chill game, which I think is its strength for what it offers. So they can take the time to take on all these "overwhelming" quests and mechanics as they discover them, rather than feel the need to read an entire wiki to know how everything works from the get go (although we still have a useful one).

Not to say there isn't more they could do to try and bring in new players. Core gameplay is mostly outside of Nutaku dev's hands and they can only bring in DMM updates as they come (they could speed things up though). Outside of that, I feel like they haven't been trying any new exposure on the internet lately. Back in early Nutaku days, they had even tried their hands on their own serial codes at a convention (for a free Chocolate Cosmos as an example). Nowadays, I can't even seem to notice any "Flower Knight Girl" ads anymore. All I see is stuff for Kamihime or those Western dev games like...Booty Calls or whatever.

And yeah the only community linked officially is the discord one and that has its own issues.

If anything, I think the bigger problem is veteran player retention right now. They're slowly dropping like flies from constant dissatisfaction :smirk:

[sniddy]

Not much to be dissatisfied amount , content comes on time , rates are as they've always been....but yeh I keep having 150+ level players leave which concerns me

[FriendlyFacez]

As someone who joined in October and who’s level 88 now:

First few months we had terrible updates with shoddy content, but there were lots of relatively decent one-time gachas and opportunities to collect 5* and 6* tickets. Had I joined a few months later I would have been disappointed at the cost to get my team of preferred 5* and 6* gals on my squad but I was fortunate to join at a time where it was relatively less expensive to get the girls I wanted.

Last couple months have been the flip-side of the first few months: Much better updating schedule with new blooms, 2nd affections and CSQs weekly from the new team, but crappy, *crappy* deals. The daily deals have actually been okay, I’ve just personally been unlucky with the 6* characters they’ve offered deals for. The weekly one-time gachas have been downright offensive. Borderline criminal.

Game would be boring as sin if I had to play ‘naturally’ and only relied on FG premium rolls. Even by gacha game standards, the odds of rolling 6* characters — or even the 5* characters you actually want — are abysmal. In all my ‘free’ rolls I’ve gotten two 6* characters so far, and only one of those two is a welcome addition to my team.

Evolution dragons have been easy to collect, even the rare LV 100s. But blooming materials and gold have been painful to harvest at times.

For the first six weeks or so, I actually didn’t understand the event quests and just stuck to the story quests for the most part. For a while I just spent all my stamina on the presents and gold standing quests. There really needs to be a better resource to rely on as an in-game guide or tutorial. Without one, I eventually learned most mechanics from this Wiki and by asking questions here.

I wish building up relationships with characters was less “Give then presents, get H-scenes” and more a Persona style system with Social or Romance link levels. And the funny thing is, the perfect system is partially in place already with the CSQs. Expand the CSQs, flesh them out a bit, and have them required to advance link levels at certain thresholds with gift giving, like every 20% increase in affection you unlock a new stage and learn more about your Waifu. That’d work great and be much more immersive if the CSQs were actually decently written.

I do like the Whale stages, though it took me months to realize how they actually work. In general I still wish there were more things to do at high-level. I’m at about 480K strength for my team (I think? A bit below the big 500 threshold for my top four teams) and everything aside from the highest level finale Whale missions are cakewalks.

[sniddy]

480k so soon is pretty impressive but maybe 2nd affection and blooming rally helped, but yeh some more challenge would not hurt

I remeber 400k being a milestone, 450k something to shoot for now 500k is just 'Good'

[FriendlyFacez]

I actually haven’t bloomed a single character yet, just invested in a lot of 6*s and 2nd Affections (even with characters who don’t have 2nd H-scenes yet.)

Saffron is ready to be bloomed (and Kerria? I forget if she’s gotten her bloom form yet) but she’s not a part of my A-team. I’m saving all my bloom resources for when my five team-1 characters get their blooms. So far, Victoria Bride, Madonna, Anemone, Ardisia and Cactace have not been favored by the powers that be.

[MagicSpice]

i'm not fresh (joined around the last halloween event), but gotta say that it was easy to pick up when you realize how to set up teams and know what the "recommended power levels mean"

but events are freaking brutal past the 20 stam ones until you level your girls... or have a strong friend to just steamroll...

also, i'm level 116 and climbing... i quickly learned that events feed you 5* girls (some of which can even bloom), so I actually did the 11 pull gacha only 2 times since I started...

some do say not to use flower gems on refills but... i tend to do that a ton since i honestly don't like how fast your stamina can drain in later stages or the ones giving you grind worthy items. not too hard to get more flower gems though, as i NEVER bought extra flower gems... EVER and I never ran out...


i'm currently at 448k team power and only fully leveled girls is my first team (lv80 lycoris, lv70 helenium, lv70 iberis, lv70 scotchbroom, and lv80 sakura). i spread my attention out so much that i kinda stop around lv55ish when evolved to help others since i'm more focused on whaleship power now...

[twilightdream]

I have no any problem of catch up, back in Feb 2017 when I'm fresh in Nutaku side.
I use only about nearly 2 months to boost myself from zero to 400k TP.
From that day until now, I didn't see any change much in the game.

Event that player can easy complete.
Story mode that player can play when they have free time.
Re-issue that player can skip.
This game don't have any real competitive content, player can freely develop themself as they want.

I do agree with A Time to Screw, about old player retention.
I have 22 ally left since my last login during X-mas.
Less than 10 still login in this past week, other gone for at least 3 months.
Severals ally gone for 280+ days.

[Unregistered]

I'm a 'since first event' player. I only do the events now. I never did the expanded main storyline, I only did whaleship/nation battles a couple of times. Never got second affection on or bloomed any girls. I still like the game, but the time to do everything isn't really available for me anymore, and the events are the only thing that I would truly miss out on if I didn't play at all, so for me the rest of the game is on hold.

[MagicSpice]

I only do the events now.

unless i need flower gems or sun metals to get bloom items, this is me now...

unless i can farm stuff to get this higher anyway:

10056

[Tomitain]

I've been playing since July 2016 (a few days before the end of Lechenaultia's initial release event) and outside of a two week period last year I've been logging in daily. The game was much simpler back then which probably helped keep me from getting overwhelmed. Back then there were active event missions and that was it; by the time Lavender's event became a permanent reissue my squads were strong enough to survive 80 stamina stages without getting TOO beat up. Granted, having helper squads that could seal the deal in case Astra Galus and Friends got wiped out didn't hurt.

Nation battles were way off in the future along with whale battles too so after logging in it was again mostly a matter of chipping away in whatever the current event was, maybe with some manyu or dragon collecting depending on what day it was. I might have burned a flower gem or six on reissued events to collect the event Knights I'd missed out on the first time around (Lavender to Leche).

[Zandel]

I've been playing since Day 1 tho I have missed a few days here and there I have managed to get a copy of each and every event girl at the time of the events. I just hit 727 days login if that helps get a sense for how long that is. For me right now it's all about the blooms and Life Crystals, those petals are the only thing holding me back right now.

[phob]

If any new players read this:

Get 6* Dendrobium and get 5* Cymbidium. level them up . Add any girl you get to fill team.
This is your daily sweeper team that will beat 99% of what is there.

Farm the reprint events and get all the girls with 1.2 Skill activation.
Get Kerria, level her, and put those girls on the team.
This will beat anything.:grin:

Good Luck.

[smr]

Dendrobium is amazing for the whale missions since all the enemies on the ultimate stages hit like a truck. Dont just use her for Hit stages, use her on your first squad for every attribute mission.