Honestly I'm surprised, entire Narja banner has felt half-dead to me, especially without seasonal runs and daily grinding time cut down I can barely be bothered to do bare minimum. Not saying game is dead but a lull like this having that high revenue doesn't feel correct?
Most of the players are also waiting for the massive QoL on deck building. I, for one stop farming chaos runs because of that since Season 2 is coming anyway.
I mean all of the trauma code story imo have been good even haru's and renoa's since season 1. The only problem is only the main story that started dark with rei getting crushed but suddenly became discount HSR space opera with slice of life. The event story wasnt that terrible tho but its still a low bar
The devs listened cope is insane over there. They are literally nerfing 2 best f2p units into near unplayability to avoid them competing wth new 5*, after the devs already said there will be no nerf in the game btw. And the worst part is the czn sub is celebrating this behavior
As for the gameplay, the sts roguelite core keeps getting neglected patch after patch, the more you play the more you realize how much the roguelite is sidelined for your typical hoyo style endgame content. They even have a mode with fucking turn limits to simulate the stupid timer is hoyo games, absolute travesty for any card game player.
The QoLs, good as they are, directly caused the issue above as the game focuses more on building the perfect deck and the main gameplay shifts away from actually doing the chaos runs. There is no roguelite in the game anymore, instead of playing sround rng and crafting a deck that can win, players aim only for the perfect deck and just quit a run if anything deviates. A deck that can beat a chaos run is meaningless if it isnt also good in the arbitrary non-roguelite modes, all of which are terrible
For what its worth the pvp is actually not that bad, there is a minimum cumulative score needed for all the renewable rewards so those who dont like pvp can just ignore it
The balance for enemies is still a mess but thats a whole different can of worms that i wont go into
People are ok with the nerfs in CZN because the combo is understood to be broken, in the long run people know it's healthier that these 4 star units are reworked rather than leaving them in their state, the combo also becomes cumbersome on the game after hours so people understand it, we've yet to even test out the rework since it isn't a straight up nerf rather than changing the whole unit and giving them a new playstyle.
Everyone is ok with the other two paragraphs because Smilegate gave people a whole road map detailing QoL and content that either fixes or introduces modes to appease what is lacking and theyve yet to deviate, we're supposed to be getting a batch of said QoL alongside a new season in 2 days
The fact that people know things will change and have been changing is enough to appease people for now considering the game has a good content loop and is actually fun
They are nerfing the 2 best f2p characters in the game you are aware of that yes? This happened not out of a desire to balance the game but purely due to their greed. The living proof of this is sereniel, an absolutely broken unit even stronger than tressa yet she received no nerf. Remember, the devs consciously made sereniel and announced her in the exact same stream where they announced the tressa and cass nerf
Nothing is less healthy for a gacha game than devs nerfing characters to sell stronger units, complete and utter bs in my book. Not to mention they straight up lied, this nerf is coming after the devs themselves said there wont be any nerf in the game and they dont intend to let powercreep get out of hand
It is also a massive nerf to both tressa and cassius, any card game player can tell you that since the reworked cards are public. This is not up to debate and there is no theorizing here, the nerf is a fact. The only thing we cant be certain is how detrimental it will actually be but, again, any card game player can make an educated guess
Im not okay with their roadmap because they explicitly stated that they will be making more gamemodes (as if this game didnt take enough time already) instead of fixing issues with existing ones. This means the garbage non-roguelite endgame content wont get better whatsoever, the same frustrating issues are still there but they will make yet another rotating endgame mode to add onto the pile. The core roguelite gamemode (chaos) is not getting any improvement, instead they will make a second roguelite mode
Instead of fixing the issue of save data discouraging players from playing the game like a roguelite (an issue they acknowledged mind you), the devs introduced stopgap measures in the form of "QoL" items that remove rng. This not only doesnt fix anything but also piles the problem up until it becomes too much and the whole system becomes unbearable
The devs are too blinded by greed to the point where their product suffers majorly for it. At first it was the story and design (im sure you know the drama so i wont bother you with it again), then its the hoyo-style endgame content and most recently the nerfs. They are acting as if this is a typical deckbuilder and you just pick a deck then go kill ebemies in arbitrarily difficult modes. Which is fine if thats what they wanted but they have always been trying to sell it as a sts-style roguelite (and you can see the obvious inspiration). The actual roguelite experience of the game has seen exactly 0 improvement since release, with each update only serving to further diminish that experience
If i have to guess, the reason so many people on the czn sub seem to not mind the issues i listed is because they are not fans of roguelites in general or sts in particular. Reading the complaints over there you will see how little they seem to know about card games and how much they dont care for roguelites. The mere fact that someone can complain that its too difficult to get the ideal deck yet not seeing it as an issue with the save data system and non-roguelite content should tell you enough
It looks like czn being a gacha actually attracted a lot of mainstream gacha fans and the devs dont have the spine to stick to their creative vision, assuming their vision was to make a sts-style game that is. Look no further than endfield to see what having a backbone means, imagine if endfield neutered the factorio aspect just to cater to the general public, that would be what czn feels like
The only reason why im being so critical is because i love card games and roguelites, sts is one of my favorite games ever. Czn has the potential to be at elast half as good and the devs are ruining it, worse theyre lying while doing so
You are comparing a limited 5 star unit to a 4 star unit that is given for free at the start of the game, that doesnt share the same mechanics as the limited 5 star unit, if it had been a 5 star character that goes into the standard banner being nerfed for a limited 5 star character that has the exact same mechanic being released that isn't going into the standard banner then you could claim theyre just trying to sell the stronger unit but that's not what's happening here.
People understand that the Tressa Cassius combo was not healthy and a nerf would be strictly lowering damage amount/card creations and leaving it at that, that's not what Smilegate did since they reworked almost the entire kit and how they play. So far they've only buffed and reworked cards/units, it's not the strict nerf you are implying since they play completely different now and have different strengths now that we have yet to play with or seen how it interacts with new content, like Cassius being a waaay better stress reliever coming into content that seem to be a harder roguelite experience.
They are both adding QoL to the existing chaos modes like letting you reroll epiphanies with credits and allowing you to choose which character gets to copy a card WHILE adding content that gives you items to edit your save data, the save data mode is getting QoL while the mode that doesn't allow save data gives you items to edit your already saved save data, that is a HUGE improvement to what we previously had and changes how save data runs were played to begin with completely. Nowhere are they saying they're completely abandoning chaos runs im not sure why youre making it out to be as if they arent adding any QoL to the existing game mode when we see QoL that is specifically being added to the mode that let's you save decks.
Endfield just released I'm not sure it's a good example just yet of where they will go with the factory stuff.
I also play and love roguelite deckbuilding card games and admittedly I haven't gone back to pick one up since CZN (I still have deaths howl waiting), my personal belief is that if CZN was an actual paid game and removed the gacha aspects, it would be one of the better games that I have bought in a long time, but it's a gacha game and as much as you believe they are strafing away from being a sts-style game, this is the way it has to be for a live service gacha game that will continue to expand.
A lot of your complaints are still just things that are already being worked on or will be worked on, Smilegate has been doing a good job at fixing issues and adding QoL so far and i don't see a reason to believe they will stop and ignore certain content because they have not done so, they've constantly mentioned themselves that they see people want a more roguelite experience to begin with, which by your view is something majority of people aren't a fan of, and we are seeing that being given to us little by little. They've done enough for me to believe even if something is amiss they won't just ignore it.
Its the same kind of "logic" used in the czn sub lmao. The people screaming in defense of the nerf all said it was for balance and health of the game etc. Explain why then is sereniel excluded from the equation here? So balance is only an issue when its a 4* while 5* can be broken just fine? This line of argument is always disingenuous at best and down right contradictory at worst because the nerf was done purely out of greed, not a desire for balance
Just as a reminder, sereniel does the exact same thing that was called broken for tressa, they both have very high dmg output via card spam and they both rely on cass for the same reason. Their specific mechanics dont matter here as that is not what people complained about, nor is it relevant
Again if you play any card game or just sts then you could tell how this was strictly a nerf, i would say its a massive nerf but the real severity is debatable, not that i think its too different from my estimate. I wont explain why since its going to be way too long
I honestly cant see how you actually enjoy roguelite or sts-style games if you support what they current have or are planning. I clearly explained how the QoL is not a solution, adding ways to reroll epiphany is not a solution to the problem of epiphanies being disproportional in terms of power, this indirectly reduces build variety. Adding more ways to remove the rng is detrimental to the roguelite core. In czn you are discouraged from playing a proper roguelite run since it punishes you for doing so. The only way youre expected to play is to have 1 specific build in mind and reset if you dont get it.
In a roguelite or sts specifically, you are supposed to navigate your way through the rng by adapting your deck and strategy, beating the game should be a testament to that. In czn beating a chaos is meaningless if your deck isnt also super good. Chaos mode is piss easy if you just want to win and difficulty is just them arbitrarily increasing the enemies' stats. This is where real balancing should be impelmented, not nerfing characters for profit
Endgame modes are all non-roguelite and all have a stupid turn limit to try and mimic the hoyo timer, a completely terrible mechanic that should turn off anyone who is at all passionate about card games in general
I have argued with many people who started out with some insane logic only to innevitably cumulate into how "czn is a gacha game so xyz is expected". So basically they all realize that what the devs are doing is bad but still argued against me when i call them out for it. Its fine if you think the bad aspect of gacha is innevitable but please dont argue when someone calls it out. For example i play FGO, the gacha system over there sucks ass and everyone knows that, no one will argue with you when you call it dogshit even if by your logic its an innevitable part of a gacha game
The worst thing is how when czn first came out, there were many who spoke of the same issues in speaking right now, there were discussions everywhere and everyone chimed in on how the game could be improved. You will see many sts/card game playets drawn in by the similar gameplay, but now most of those are gone, the difference is day and night if you were there at launch
I want to state it again here that the QoL arent good for czn as a roguelite, they are great if you see czn as a normal deckbuilder with no roguelite element but thats not the case. New gamemodes are not a solution to anything since the old gamemodes with issues still remain, not to mention how time consuming they already are
Talk is cheap, devs have been saying many things and promising even more since day 1. Not a lot of thsoe things have been fulfilled while they straight up LIED about how there wont be nerfs. Powercreep is also absurd since sereniel is already better than tressa and she will soon have no competition when the nerf comes. Hp/atk inflation has been an issue ever since the first reset of basin but its managable for now, the pace means it wont be in the near future though. We did get some genuinely usefull QoL updates like sweep and adding event chaos to zero system but theyre just minor changes in the grand scheme of things
Edit: just wanna mention another exmaple of devs not actually improving anyhting. They mentioned how basin having a turn limit means shield and coutnerattack are practically useless, now ill give you 2 guesses as to what they did to fix this, is it.
Change basin so that it allows all builds to be viable.
Or.
Make a new mode where shield/counterattack is the same while punishing normal attacks and also giving an exclusive buff to a defensive unit
Who am i kidding ofc its #2. Thats it, thats their solution to a terrible endgame mode that undoubtedly made sts players quit (i would know quite a few)
This is a problem with the mode itself promoting a kind of gameplay that isnt compatible with the core sts gameplay leading to long, boring and repetitive fights. The lag is just due to poor choice of implementation for agony. They can just change how the animation plays and group agony stacks of the same duration together and voila, no more lag
Not even close, sereniel is already better than tressa and she was announced at the same time as the nerf. Balance was never the consideration here. Once again i can bring up sts, there are real infinite combos over there and yet we have absolutely no issue. The only reason why you think tressa is so strong is due to non-roguelite modes promoting the wrong kind of gameplay.
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u/CommitteePutrid6247 SUMMONER Feb 01 '26
Hmm CZN 5m in post honey moon must be great.