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.