As the modern era of gaming progresses, we see more gacha games franchises getting into the open world model. First, it was Hoyoverse entering with Genshin Impact, and Paper Games entering with Infinity Nikki last year. Now Arknights fans are finally preparing for Arknights: Endfields, a new entry in the series.
The events in the series seem to be disconnected from the Arknights, which also allowed me to understand the story better in the new beta test. Endfields seems to target both old and new audiences with its gameplay designs. The intro started off strongly with amazing visuals and cutscenes. It really captured the intensity of the important events going on. Sadly the game couldn’t keep up this momentum, and the remainder half of the intro was full of drawn-out conversations that couldn’t keep me as hooked as I was at the start. The events lead to the protagonist losing their memory which, if you ask me, is a fairy repeated troupe in the Chinese gacha games industry, as this is also seen in Wuthering Waves, Honkai: Star Rail, and Genshin Impact . However, instead of finding out about who you are, your partners in the Endfield Industry would spell it out for you. However, not everything is mentioned, and if more backstory is revealed as we progress, it would give the players an incentive to keep playing.
Endfields also features a wide variety of characters, however, I wish that more of their personalities were developed through the main story itself. The characters barely introduce themselves and the long conversations fail to give some substance to their personalities. If players won’t like them, they probably wouldn’t spend huge amounts of money trying to obtain these characters. The character design itself is mature despite having some fan-service and they match the atmosphere of the world design. Endfield was very generous during the beta test, so I also got to try multiple characters during combat.
The gacha mechanics are also generous as you can obtain 5-star characters very early in Endfield. There are also some excellent four-star units who work well in the team. However, you won’t be able to get six stars that easily in event banners. The guaranteed pull rate for them is around 90 draws, so it will take you a while to get there, if the game doesn’t give you a lot of chances to earn the currency in the actual game.
The exploration and the world design itself is great. You won’t be climbing mountains slowly with your characters. In fact, you will be more engaged with the world. There are many mechanics in the open world to get to various places. Such as moving and placing boxes which you can climb on, or directly using long poles to get to higher places. You can also cause an explosion to unlock areas.
Another ambitious feature of Endfield was the combination of building simulation elements in an action game. This may cause fans to be divisive, but tower-building does pay a nice homage to the previous game in the franchise. You would also need to collect materials in the open world, and you can track them around. So, there is an incentive for you to go and enjoy the open world. This also adds a nice break in between if you are tired of combat. Once you set up things, you can also farm them automatically which makes collecting materials less tedious.
The combat itself is engaging, you will need to build your characters with the correct gear and weapons. On field, you will be relying on all of your teammates for total damage. You can use the skills of any character in the party during the battle for some combos.
Arknights: Endfield may slightly put you off with the story and character development. However, the game does show good promise. The story feels like it will get more interesting with some work in the future. There are some ambitious elements in open-world exploration which feel like a breath of fresh air.
Rabiya played the Arknights: Endfield closed beta on PC
