Updated review @ ~800hrs, 8th Aug 2025

NEXON took the WORST mechanics/system from Destiny 2, Warframe and Genshin Impact; Everything you know negatively from these said 3 games to create The First Desecendant. still the same

Game's UI and the HUD needs ALOT of improvement and there's a lack of UI/HUD customisation. (That's why none of their screenshots in the store page shows any HUDs. It's horrible) they improved the function of some interaction but still not customisation of HUD

The micro-transaction is horrible. It feels like greedy NEXON is trying to create a quick CASH GRAB game.
$150 for a Ultimate descendant bundle that provide less than what Warframe's bundle gives is crazy.
70 cents for a slot expansion?? and everything has limited slots! Granted you get some slots if you ranked up your Mastery Rank, it's still insufficient. does bikini bundles worth $120? and the dev doesn't update bundle skin on new descendant, kind of predatory imo

The scale of the economy in-game is outright horrendous. (Why do i need 1.4mil credits to max rank a simple +HP mod?) dev did not do anything about this yet

Limited (5) amount of active research at any given time, Warframe does not suffer from this, though the duration of the research are (JUST) slightly shorter than Warframe. they increased the amount of active research to 7. SEVEN. yay? (/s)

Enhancing / Leveling gears/substats gives me Genshin Impact PTSD. Void erosion purge should burn in hell, shoving up another big ass dildo to casual players again

Grinding / Farming for client-sided loots/drops gives me Destiny 2 or Division 2 PTSD. theres still alot of layers of rng in this game which makes the grind extremely boring after 10+ repeated runs, yes there's targeted loot function that increases your chance to get a targeted loot but holy sh!t i never seen such stingy % chance of increment. positive thing so far is they have now completely removed fusion shards

The weapons and descendant Modding mechanics is WORSE than Warframe.
You need at least 8 catalyst you need 11 catalysts now

The devs here couldn't be arsed to implement (a small but subtle jiggle) physics. In a game where their selling point is cosmetics and extremely curvy female model. Is UE5 that hard to implement physics on? There's cloth physics, there's environment physics. Literally everything has physics except them Tiddies and Ass. They included an half arsed jiggle physics now thats a W i guess

Unreal Engine 5 isn't a bad game engine, but ALL bad games uses Unreal Engine 5. This shows that the devs are half-arsing this.
Both my CPU and my GPU ( 5800x + 6900XT ) are constantly at 100% usage right from the start at main menu. Everything in the graphic settings is on LOW. Bad optimisation from UE? Or Nexon rigged the game with Bitcoin mining malware?? 9950X3D + 6900XT now and my CPU is at 60% usage while GPU is constant 100%

Typical lazy developers couldn't be ARSED to include an option to completely turn off Anti-Aliasing. TAA is always on, why the f'k would i need TAA if i play in native resolution? apparently it's a UE5 problem but this complaint still stands. also shout out to r/f**ktaa

Mouse sensitivity is trash in game. X & Y axis is horrible, I felt like I'm controlling an Analog D-pad (NOT A JOYSTICK, A D-PAD!) with a mouse. ( Update : They *KINDA* fixed the input lag/delay, and made some interaction more instant. )
Awkward & weird delay when Aiming Down Sights. ADS scoped weapons is so bad I began to learn how to hip fire them instead.
NO CROUCH MECHANICS, despite One of the store page's picture shows Freyna IS CROUCHING!! no improvement on this section so far..

h3]Story lore, dialogue[/h3]
The quests are cringey af. I felt like a 15 year old has written the stories.
The English & Korean Voice lines sounds like it's made from AI. (I'm having "Kay-Shun-Ja" PTSD lmao iykyk) still cringe

I'm sure given enough time We'll see NEXON will open up Item tradings and then a huge sudden influx of China botters will overwhelm the game and NEXON won't give 2 sh!ts about it.
OH LETS HOPE NEXON DOESN'T DO GEAR SUNSETTING WHEN THE SEASON ENDS EH?
Vote with your wallet and most importantly vote with your time.
(I think I'll try to farm for Sharen or just play up till 200 hours.)
farmed and grinded for all gears in game, for a game's contend that isn't as big, it's a pretty telling signs on how grindy it is. Note: i've yet to start the grind on trying to build up non-meta descendants or firearm optimisation

TLDR:

Get lured in by nice ASSets, leaves disappointed and fustrated. Wished this game dies a horrible death like Anthem and Outriders. Anthem is now dead. RIP(not)

I guess the dev loves casually screwing casual players who don't play and grind this game 20 hours a day. Either that or you pay up $150 per ultimate. Them greedy fcuks

[b][i] Updated review @ ~800hrs, 8th Aug 2025 [/i][/b] [h3] Introduction [/h3] NEXON took the [b]WORST[/b] mechanics/system from Destiny 2, Warframe and Genshin Impact; Everything you know negatively from these said 3 games to create The First Desecendant. [b][i] still the same [/i][/b] [h3]Interaction Menu[/h3] Game's UI and the HUD needs ALOT of improvement and there's a lack of UI/HUD customisation. (That's why none of their screenshots in the store page shows any HUDs. It's horrible) [b][i] they improved the function of some interaction but still not customisation of HUD [/i][/b] [h3]$$$$transaction[/h3] The micro-transaction is horrible. It feels like greedy NEXON is trying to create a quick CASH GRAB game. $150 for a Ultimate descendant bundle that provide less than what Warframe's bundle gives is crazy. 70 cents for a slot expansion?? and everything has limited slots! Granted you get some slots if you ranked up your Mastery Rank, it's still insufficient. [b][i] does bikini bundles worth $120? and the dev doesn't update bundle skin on new descendant, kind of predatory imo [/i][/b] [h3]Gameplay[/h3] The scale of the economy in-game is outright horrendous. (Why do i need 1.4mil credits to max rank a simple +HP mod?) [b][i] dev did not do anything about this yet [/i][/b] Limited (5) amount of active research at any given time, Warframe does not suffer from this, though the duration of the research are (JUST) slightly shorter than Warframe. [b][i] they increased the amount of active research to 7. SEVEN. yay? (/s) [/i][/b] Enhancing / Leveling gears/substats gives me Genshin Impact PTSD. [b][i] Void erosion purge should burn in hell, shoving up another big ass dildo to casual players again [/i][/b] Grinding / Farming for client-sided loots/drops gives me Destiny 2 or Division 2 PTSD. [b][i] theres still alot of layers of rng in this game which makes the grind extremely boring after 10+ repeated runs, yes there's targeted loot function that increases your chance to get a targeted loot but holy sh!t i never seen such stingy % chance of increment. positive thing so far is they have now completely removed fusion shards [/i][/b] The weapons and descendant Modding mechanics is WORSE than Warframe. You need at least 8 catalyst [b][i] you need 11 catalysts now[/i][/b] [h3]Game Engine[/h3] The devs here couldn't be arsed to implement (a small but subtle jiggle) physics. In a game where their selling point is cosmetics and extremely curvy female model. Is UE5 that hard to implement physics on? There's cloth physics, there's environment physics. Literally everything has physics except them Tiddies and Ass. [b][i] They included an half arsed jiggle physics now thats a W i guess [/i][/b] Unreal Engine 5 isn't a bad game engine, but ALL bad games uses Unreal Engine 5. This shows that the devs are half-arsing this. Both my CPU and my GPU ( 5800x + 6900XT ) are constantly at 100% usage right from the start at main menu. Everything in the graphic settings is on LOW. Bad optimisation from UE? Or Nexon rigged the game with Bitcoin mining malware?? [b][i] 9950X3D + 6900XT now and my CPU is at 60% usage while GPU is constant 100% [/i][/b] Typical lazy developers couldn't be ARSED to include an option to completely turn off Anti-Aliasing. TAA is always on, why the f'k would i need TAA if i play in native resolution? [b][i] apparently it's a UE5 problem but this complaint still stands. also shout out to r/f**ktaa [/i][/b] [h3]Movement mechanics[/h3] Mouse sensitivity is trash in game. X & Y axis is horrible, I felt like I'm controlling an Analog D-pad (NOT A JOYSTICK, A D-PAD!) with a mouse. ( Update : They *KINDA* fixed the input lag/delay, and made some interaction more instant. ) Awkward & weird delay when Aiming Down Sights. ADS scoped weapons is so bad I began to learn how to hip fire them instead. NO CROUCH MECHANICS, despite One of the store page's picture shows Freyna IS CROUCHING!! [b][i] no improvement on this section so far.. [/i][/b] h3]Story lore, dialogue[/h3] The quests are cringey af. I felt like a 15 year old has written the stories. The English & Korean Voice lines sounds like it's made from AI. (I'm having "Kay-Shun-Ja" PTSD lmao iykyk) [b][i] still cringe [/i][/b] [h3]This game has no future[/h3] I'm sure given enough time We'll see NEXON will open up Item tradings and then a huge sudden influx of China botters will overwhelm the game and NEXON won't give 2 sh!ts about it. OH LETS HOPE NEXON DOESN'T DO GEAR SUNSETTING WHEN THE SEASON ENDS EH? Vote with your wallet and most importantly vote with your time. (I think I'll try to farm for Sharen or just play up till 200 hours.) [b][i] farmed and grinded for all gears in game, for a game's contend that isn't as big, it's a pretty telling signs on how grindy it is. Note: i've yet to start the grind on trying to build up non-meta descendants or firearm optimisation [/i][b] [h3]TLDR:[/h3] Get lured in by nice ASSets, leaves disappointed and fustrated. Wished this game dies a horrible death like Anthem and Outriders. [b][i] Anthem is now dead. RIP(not) [/i][/b] [h1]I guess the dev loves casually screwing casual players who don't play and grind this game 20 hours a day. Either that or you pay up $150 per ultimate. Them greedy fcuks[/h1]