As a long time fan of Kodaka's previous games, I was extremely disappointed by Rain Code, so I was approaching this game with cautious excitement. Thankfully, they seem to have bounced back up from it. Tribe Nine oozes polish and effort, and everything about it simply feels amazing. Great 2D-HD artstyle, fluid battles, awesome soundtrack as always, and an intriguing story setup.

So, there's an evil guy in power, but he's really bored of being the best at everything, so he's grooming the protag to become an ultimate adversary. You're forced to go around Neo Tokyo's cities, each one of which is under legal rule of a weird videogamey system (cause the bad guy likes games), and defeat the leader of the place. This time around, the equivalent of trials / mind palaces / etc are games of... Xtreme Baseball, and it's as ridiculous as it sounds. If it all feels familiar, it's because this is still very much a Kodaka game, in a good way.

The two main modes of play though is exploring surprisingly sprawling and complex locations, and enemy encounters. The battle system is standard action fighting, and it's hard not to compare it to Zenless Zone Zero, but it feels less mindless than ZZZ - using stronger moves and counters is a real tradeoff, since whiffs and overuse will leave you with no stamina to dodge future attacks. The basics are all the same, but the difference is in the subtle balancing of it all, turning "mashmashmash - push counter when you see a flash - mashmashmashmash" into something where you have to actually use a braincell or two.

Now for the elephant in the room. It's a gacha game, with Mihoyo-style pity. Rates are awful, so rerolling for a 3* is essential (thankfully they made rerolling an absolute breeze). A few changes shake up the formula, like the battle pass costing paid currency rather than being a direct purchase, and they seem to not be fans of slow-drip F2P income. It just launched though, so it's hard to say how generous or stingy it'll end up being in the long run - maybe the plan is to provide most of the currency as mails, or event rewards. Let's not jump to conclusions yet, okay? Plus, the rest of the game is pretty awesome. Give it a try.

EDIT:
Two weeks in, it's clear the devs want to make this game as good as it can get. You'll know about the gacha changes from other reviews, but the update schedule and notes so far paints a general picture of a team that listens to gameplay feedback as well. Much QoL is coming, with character moveset tweaks and tension card buffs fixing some of the biggest pain points and imbalances, while reaffirming that they're committed to keeping a high level of difficulty. This is a gem among gachas - a continuously polished experience that always requires skill, regardless if you spent $0 or more.

As a long time fan of Kodaka's previous games, I was extremely disappointed by Rain Code, so I was approaching this game with cautious excitement. Thankfully, they seem to have bounced back up from it. Tribe Nine oozes polish and effort, and everything about it simply feels amazing. Great 2D-HD artstyle, fluid battles, awesome soundtrack as always, and an intriguing story setup. So, there's an evil guy in power, but he's really bored of being the best at everything, so he's grooming the protag to become an ultimate adversary. You're forced to go around Neo Tokyo's cities, each one of which is under legal rule of a weird videogamey system (cause the bad guy likes games), and defeat the leader of the place. This time around, the equivalent of trials / mind palaces / etc are games of... Xtreme Baseball, and it's as ridiculous as it sounds. If it all feels familiar, it's because this is still very much a Kodaka game, in a good way. The two main modes of play though is exploring surprisingly sprawling and complex locations, and enemy encounters. The battle system is standard action fighting, and it's hard not to compare it to Zenless Zone Zero, but it feels less mindless than ZZZ - using stronger moves and counters is a real tradeoff, since whiffs and overuse will leave you with no stamina to dodge future attacks. The basics are all the same, but the difference is in the subtle balancing of it all, turning "mashmashmash - push counter when you see a flash - mashmashmashmash" into something where you have to actually use a braincell or two. Now for the elephant in the room. It's a gacha game, with Mihoyo-style pity. Rates are awful, so rerolling for a 3* is essential (thankfully they made rerolling an absolute breeze). A few changes shake up the formula, like the battle pass costing paid currency rather than being a direct purchase, and they seem to not be fans of slow-drip F2P income. It just launched though, so it's hard to say how generous or stingy it'll end up being in the long run - maybe the plan is to provide most of the currency as mails, or event rewards. Let's not jump to conclusions yet, okay? Plus, the rest of the game is pretty awesome. Give it a try. EDIT: Two weeks in, it's clear the devs want to make this game as good as it can get. You'll know about the gacha changes from other reviews, but the update schedule and notes so far paints a general picture of a team that listens to gameplay feedback as well. Much QoL is coming, with character moveset tweaks and tension card buffs fixing some of the biggest pain points and imbalances, while reaffirming that they're committed to keeping a high level of difficulty. This is a gem among gachas - a continuously polished experience that always requires skill, regardless if you spent $0 or more.