And allow the option for Echoes to be empowered with non premium currency, as well as caches to be unlocked in the same manner. Make the premium currency 100% optional to those who wish to tip the developers, that would be acceptable. As is this phrase : You won't ever encounter a point in the game that requires you to pay additional money to get to extra or exclusive gameplay content that is unavailable elsewhere. Is actually misleading as it stands. I've already proven that with the vanity portraits and enhanced abilities given by empowered echoes.
Look, I get it Hobbes. You're mad. It happens. But you and I are just pointlessly going in circles at this point. If you want to pass up a great game because you're angry about vanity avatars that are in no way required to play the game, that's entirely your choice. I'm sorry you won't be joining our community of players, but you're well within your right to make your own choices there, obviously. I'm just here to offer information about how the game works to the folks in this thread, and I'll continue to answer anyone's questions about it. To everyone else, I hope you'll give the game a shot. It's a lot of fun, especially as you get to some of the more hectic higher levels. Add me on GameCenter (SixOkay) and maybe we can share Echoes.
Please don't attempt to shift the discussion from the game to me as a person. I'm not mad, either in the sanity or angry sense. And I'd appreciate you refrain from making personal comments or implied ad hominem that you cannot back up in future Whereas I can verifiably backup my claims of your implementation of "Gatcha" gambling mechanics (cache unlocks) and at this point can at least partially backup my claims that some of the content is essentially tied up behind a premium currency wall (echo empowers). Back to you.
Fair enough. Didn't mean to imply a personal slight. Yes, you will need to spend Emblems to get the vanity avatars for Echoes. I respectfully disagree with your assertions about the Caches, but we've already been down that road, and my explanation about them is on previous pages. Everyone else can make up their own minds, I'm sure. Have a great evening.
It is already out, and I just downloaded it...Robot hasn't led me astray yet, and I can't wait to fire this one up. Hero Academy and Orcs Must Die have kept a permanent home on my phone and laptop, so I'm excited to try this new one out...
I don't understand why there is negativity around this game. To be FAIR, there seems to be one single forum member who is playing that has some concerns. To me, any concerns seemed to be linked to people who NEED to complete and obtain absolutely everything, or perhaps people with obsessive tendencies. None of which should hinder others from enjoying the game. I'm not sure how much saving face is going on here either. I would like to be corrected here if I'm misjudging a perspective. Please don't misunderstand me though, I don't want a game to manipulate a player into purchasing IAP or pay walls as much as the next person. They ruin games. I just have a hard time understanding why this isn't receiving massive amounts of attention. I mean, an action RPG in a Sci-Fi universe? Yes please! I'm about 20 minutes in and I'm really enjoying it. That said, I'm only 20 minutes in. I'll give my completely honest opinion a bit later once I have time to play more.
My major problem is that what the game does is try to have it's cake and eat it. Yes, the concept is excellent, there's no denying it. And I won't deny I was genuinely excited, it's been an age since we've HAD such a game to get amped up about. BUT Premium price point? Fine. Go the route of Infinity Blade - Make *everything* attainable via Virtual Currency, even if it's expensive, then give people the option to speed things up by buying the virtual currency itself. That I can understand and get behind. OR Free to play with monetisation via emblems. Fair enough, it's possibly not always the solution we'd all want or desire, but commercial realities being what they are, that's something we've come to accept, there are some games that do very well with such a model and that's more power to them. Where I've got disagreeable, and what I'm specifically highlighting as something of a bait-and-switch on the part of the developer in this case is that there's an up front fee consistent with a more premium offering (hell, another couple of quid and we'd be level with infinity blade and co), yet at the same time there's a very definite and consistent needling involved because several actions designed to be conducted and exclusively with premium currency. Are those actions entirely mandatory to complete the game? No, much like other F2P offerings, you "can" get by without them, but does it potentially damage your enjoyment or impact your entertainment, that I leave as an exercise to each of you.
I think I understand your concerns with the game. I wouldn't call this game a bait and switch. Basically you pay a price, you get an excellent experience, and you have the option to spend real money on currency. On to my personal impressions. My impression after a couple hours are extremely good. This game is freaking fantastic. If you're in the market for a quality action RPG in a Sci-Fi setting, this is the game for you. This game really reminds me of Phantasy Star Online. A ton of different weapons and armor types with various attributes. The two basic attacks and numerous skills to obtain and level up make for a fantastic experience. Currency is plentiful and I've been able to freely buy new items in the shop. The skills and the way they work is quite unique and fun to gain and use. I would not hesitate to pick this game up.
A 5$ free to play game is something new, this will be interesting, saleswise. somehow a bit dissapointed since hero academy was pretty much a prime example how to create fair iap content. not sure if it worked out financially with the title tho, if the next one is like this. hmm.. anyway back to the game.. can somebody say a bit more about the actual levels and the variety? i actualy don't mind grinding here and there as long as the canvas changes regular.
I don't understand the issues with the optional IAP in this game. There are tons of premium games with IAP. You don't need any of it, just the initial price. If you like what you see in the trailer, download. It seems extremely fair in currency rewards. If your experience with this developers past games were good/fair, why would you expect it to be different now? I'm still really enjoying the heck out of it. For level descriptions, I'd say watch the trailer to get a good idea.
The majority of casual gamers won't pay 5 bucks for this "double currency freemium" title, so this one will get free very fast.
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/Echo+Prime/review.asp?c=54762 8/10 with a quick explanation about the IAP currency.
3 pages and very little on the actual game.. sigh.. Played for an hour last night and really enjoyed the game. A lot of great mechanics and not once did I feel the IAP or that it wanted me to pay.. There was the tab in the store to spend real money but that is so standard in games now its 100% expected. I never felt like I couldn't do anything because of currency. Very polished and fun. I wish the actual levels had a bit more variety to the layout. And I'm still not quite clear on the "double echo bonus" for characters and when you actually get that. Seems like it wants you to use all your characters each day but not clear how that affects the bonus. Anyone know if there is cloud saving for progress so I can play on the iphone on the go and ipad at home? Fun game. Well made. So frustrating that mobile game discussions are only ever about the iap or cost.
Nice entertainment of the robot.Robot is only work on the base of laser no doubt that laser technology give to you very easy life... southoceansensor.com
There is supposed to be cloud saving, but it's busted at the moment. We're working right now to get a patch submitted to Apple ASAP. For the moment, stick to one device. We'll get it fixed soon.
Wow guys, chill. The only thing I have to say is to just relax a little bit and don't get your hackles up over how the payment system works. I fully trust SixOkay and the dev team that they aren't out to screw us, having been a HUGE Hero Academy fan before in the past, and very active on their forums. Seriously, go check out the forums, this team is very open to their community and have changed their game many numerous times based on community feedback. Go over to their forums if you want to see real discussions on this and how it really works. I actually hold these guys up as the way a DEV team SHOULD work when it comes to community management and feedback, in addition to changing to better suit their player bases desires.
Alright, in the spirit of being willing to hear SixOkay out, I've a few fairly specific questions which I'd like straightforward answers to, I've tried to keep them as concise as I can: 1: What was the design decision behind implementing two tiers of currency, and what was the intended goal of having two distinct tiers of currency? 2: What guided the exchange rate of 0.60 GBP (1 USD) / 5 emblems, what data was used to arrive at this particular price point? 2: Why was a gambling mechanic for virtual goods using exclusively premium currency (known in Japan as "Gatcha") implemented? What data was used to arrive at the price point of 3 emblems (0.6 USD) per crate? 3: Why are boosters premium currency exclusive, and particularly what data was used to arrive at the price point of ten emblems (2 USD) for five missions for a single booster? 4 : Why are Echo empowers premium currency exclusive, and what data was used to arrive at the price point of five (1 USD) emblems per empower? Was it considered that the overall cost to empower the entire set of echoes might exceed 50 USD? 5 : What data was used to determine the inflow rate of "Free" emblems at the rate of 1 emblem per level and 1 emblem per new echo discovered?
It's not just the gatcha. I've highlighted several areas which are of concern, if anything the cost of the boosters is even more troubling (2 USD for a consumable that lasts 5 missions? That's excessive, to put it diplomatically). Still, in the spirit of being constructive, I'll fire back with proposed solutions, and a suggestion that would in turn improve the value of the game that would mean it could be priced closer to infinity blade. In answer to each, in order : 1: Strip out the premium currency, it's not needed in this game, and it's definitely designed to lay the foundation for some iffy business practices, not least it leaves the door open to move the game to "Free-to-play" down the line, which means everyone who picks it up now is going to end up short changed. 2: Replace the purchase with virtual currency or a minigame, either a simple skill or simple luck system that means that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but it keeps an element of mystery and means that on occasion you win the "bonus box" when completing a level. 3: Switch to virtual currency, but set the level high enough that boosters are reserved for higher level characters (this seems to be where they are aimed at anyways). 4: Given that Robot Entertainment has managed to design a branching story system that adapts and is able to work remarkably well with a sortof procedural system, why not include missions that empower your echoes within the story itself, write up a little back story and include some content to help further expand the lore of the universe? This is the single biggest step that technically would not need major reworks of the game, but at the same time would allow them to add significant value to how the game plays. 5 : Would no longer matter if 1 through 4 were applied. (Also, as an addendum, for the sake of being thorough, I just poked the game at a higher level, and found that cache unlocks are not fixed cost. They go up. At level 15 or so they jump to 5 emblems. Lolwut?).
