March 31 Crunchyroll Games announced the end of support (End of Service; EoS) for the global English-language mobile game server Princess Connect! Re: dive. The project was immediately removed from stores, internal purchases were disabled, and on April 30 the server finally left this world. The global launch occurred on January 19, 2021, almost three years behind the Japanese one. As is customary in such cases, the reasons for the closure were not commented on.
This text is a collection of memories about the path that I walked with Princess Connect! Re: dive from the first to the last day. As befits memoirs, the contents of the text will rarely be detailed and accurate, and even true. In addition, I will try to avoid detailed descriptions of the game’s internals, but the story cannot do without general overview parts: what is it about Princess Connect! , what makes it stand out and why is it gone?. I don’t promise anything positive, but I guarantee sincerity.
Part one. Acquaintance
Before meeting Princess Connect! the list of games on my phone looked something like this. No, really. Not a single game. Of course, in school times, Angry Birds with Bad Piggies, Cut the Rope, and even the first Dead Trigger flashed there; I saw the dawn of this zombie shooter. After the year 14, mobile gaming no longer attracted. This was partly influenced by hardware: a smartphone with Android 2.3 and a simple 10-inch tablet simply couldn’t handle modern games. And part of the reason was the completely uninteresting gameplay of those games: after an hour and a half, the next project became uninteresting, and the donat raising its head finally cut off curiosity.
However, I first became acquainted with the concept of Japanese gachas in the second half of the 1990s, when they began to appear in RuNet gaming discussions. It seems like it was yesterday, but five years have passed… At that time, anime and other things related to it were rapidly gaining popularity, and the concept that began to flicker in the gaming RuNet gacha (not to be confused with you-know-what) deposited on the subcortex. True, not as a genre, but rather as a synonym for a virtual casino: merciless and generally pointless, with insanely low success rates. This fit perfectly with the perception of mobile games as a hellish donation sucking machine.
Among the long-time fans of Princess Connect! I can’t help but mention comic artist GreenTeaNeko. Karin – a character in the game – periodically appears in regular strips
Getting to know Princess Connect itself! Re: dive started the same way as probably most global players: with anime adaptations. The story about her should be divided into two parts; keep that in mind. Now it’s worth focusing on the perception of anime “from the outside,” as it was for me three years ago.
As a rule, anime adaptations of games that have already been released rather than upcoming ones are difficult for a stranger to perceive. Of course, such projects are first and foremost advertising. In an effort to show as many tricks as possible, which will then have to be knocked out in the gacha, studios forget about the rest. Well, you know, genre affiliation, for example. Or quality storytelling. Or at least something that will catch your attention when watching. The anime, released in the summer of 2020, was a pleasant revelation because it turned out to be a good comedy. Director’s talent Konosuba Takaomi Kanasaki and responsible approach Cygames Pictures – the internal development team, by the way – came together perfectly. Re: Dive was just a pleasure to watch. I think that most of the viewers did not know anything about any game while watching. Moreover, they showed plenty of characters, each episode introducing two or three new ones at once. Here, of course, the general division of the heroes of the world of Prikonna into guilds helps, but talking about this will become an unnecessary in-depth.
Some pieces of the franchise can also be found in relatively ordinary memes. Kyaru shines in this more often than others
About a couple of months after the end of the first season Crunchyroll Games announces the launch of the Princess Connect mobile gacha! Re: dive around the world. Then I didn’t even understand: this game release was timed to coincide with the release of the anime, or vice versa – the anime was prepared as a promotion for the global release; this doesn’t change the essence, but that was the question. For pre-registration on Google Play, as I remember, they promised useful goodies on the first day of launch. “Since you don’t have to pay anything, and you’re hooked on the anime, why not give it a try,” I thought then.
Where has the old perception of mobile games in general and gacha in particular gone?? Who knows, really. It did not disappear as such, but in this case the era intervened. The second half of 2020 is the time when the nervous system has already returned to normal after the start of the coronapocalypse, but the surrounding reality has not. And the design engineer sitting remotely has a lot of time that has nowhere to go: everything is closed. The reinvention of hobbies and the invention of new ones began: I bought Wii and started writing on SG blogs again. The game of Japanese gacha fits perfectly into this series, so the invitation turned out to be timely.
On January 19, the notification was sent to my email, and I downloaded the client. I launched it and… started downloading the game itself, weighing 5 gigabytes. So yes, the real start was still somewhere on the 21st, because I was too lazy to download more.
Part two. Interest
The game begins exactly the same as the anime: with the still incomprehensible expositional monologues of the semi-mechanical fairy and the elf Kokkoro. Partly, this beginning gave rise to bewilderment: is this the same thing to watch a second time??! But after 10 minutes the plot stops imposing itself, letting you go into free play. By the way, I never read the main story beyond the prologue.
As probably befits a mobile free-to-play game, at first the game throws resources at you: the stamina necessary for battles does not run out. A three-star fighter is required to be awarded in the first round of the gacha. In general, they regularly add the necessary resources, and as a result, by the end of the third day, when the fountain of generosity begins to tighten, a good initial pool accumulates.
For each battle, the player places five fighters, usually divided into tanks/damage dealers/healers and other supports. However, when arranging, girls are also divided into three lines: which is logical, front, middle and far. The player does not participate in the battle as such: attacks and abilities operate on a cooldown, and we are only free to use the “ultimate” of each fighter after it is charged. However, this too is put on cooldown, and then you don’t need to do anything at all. As you might guess, combat quickly ceases to be the main part of the gameplay.
The main charm lies in the very arrangement of fighters. If at first this is a banal distribution of roles, then soon questions arise like: “Shouldn’t we abandon the healer and tank here in favor of additional damage dealers?”?“In addition, each (or more precisely, “each”) has to be pumped in six directions at once, some of which are tied to others. Immersion in the intricacies of group management is addictive. In general, I was drawn in.
And here comes another turn of www.dailyspinscasino.uk events, which was proposed by Re:dive and ignored by my past mobile games: a variety of modes. As you progress through the chain of tasks, the game opens up other modes: tasks for farming resources, online arenas, dungeons… This does not happen all at once, but quickly, which is additionally addictive and arouses interest, and in addition diversifies the gameplay. They also give you a house that you need to furnish yourself, after which you can move characters there and upgrade some furniture. Yes, even the furniture is upgraded. Looking ahead, I will say that this house, as you complete the story missions, expands by two floors.
Generally speaking, the abundance of modes and subtleties formed the initial interest in delving into the game.
Part three. Attachment
How to maintain interest in an online game when the novelty of the initial attractions evaporates? A common solution is seasonal events. Priconn also professes it; however, in its own way, launching monthly story events in March.
Local events are a kind of “game within a game”: a temporary set of quests and boss battles, seasoned with a short, sweet story. For example, in the last New Year’s event, Santa chose his successor from the three characters least suitable for this role. And the first such story revolved around the desire of the elf Hatsune to give a gift to her younger sister (who, by the way, is a beast-man. The question “how” leads to a spoiler for everything Prikonna). One event lasted about two and a half weeks, and during these days it attracted the main attention. The local gacha generously shared resources for leveling up, and at times the event even threw in free characters. Useless, but free; I don’t remember using any of them.
The above hints at the grind that plagues similar and not only games. To paraphrase a joke, I responsibly declare: Princess Connect! doesn’t suffer from grinding, she does enjoys. Firstly, you don’t feel the need to repeat the same battles for a long time. Progress through the plot is progressing confidently. The slowdown is not due to difficulty, but to other modes that also require attention. Due to this, a real grindwall arises in the eighth or ninth month of a quiet game. Then you really have to go through the same places over and over again. Why is this here? For the sake of clothes, without which the characters cannot go further. What stands out are the events that turn into concentrated grinding already on the second day, but I admit: I didn’t understand their logic on the first try and at first I made do with a one-time playthrough.
Secondly, when introducing grind, the developers added a couple of simplification mechanics to it. The main one – skip tickets – allow you to get resources for a battle without starting it, if you have previously mastered it at least once for the maximum result. There are tons of these tickets, they never run out. For the last year and a half, I have been replaying battles only using these tickets, and by the time I switched off, I had accumulated almost 13 thousand. So the grind here was more of another detail of character management than actual grinding.
The loading screen was always accompanied by a funny comic strip. True, most often I did not have time to read it
There was also a donation in the game. For rubles you can buy local resources and, of course, currency for gacha. The prices were unorthodox: one spin of a top-end gacha cost several thousand rubles. But why is it needed, I still don’t understand. Unlike classic mobile phones, the player’s development is not stifled here, so it’s worth turning to donation only for the sake of multiplayer. Or if you liked the character.
Characters… Yes… This is probably the main non-game reason that holds Princess Connect! It’s not for nothing that “Princesses” are included in the title of the game. The girls here are presented for every taste and not only, both working out each type and deconstructing. For example, the usual anime magical girls are found here in duplicate, and with the themed event they bring two more. And everyone sticks out different sides of the image.
Diversity is supported by the game at the meta level as well. As development progresses, some fighters become stronger, then others. For the first year and a half, Hatsune, already mentioned today, burned out opponents susceptible to magic and was indispensable in almost any party, but as the player developed, she began to give up leadership to others. Of course, it can’t do without the 100% best, most iconic characters; I remember three Game Changers. But they won’t give results alone – choose a balanced team.
Also, the characters aren’t just idiots (oh my god, I sound like an otaku). These are zhipegs with voice acting, and often also with animation. This doesn’t make them real, but it does create an extra dimension. Animated plot inserts made Priconn stand out from other gachas.
Most of the story is told in visual novel format. And the way Re:dive conveys actions should be an example for some “big” VNs
Part four. Delight
And after the same eight or nine months after the start of the game, when the grindwall began to feel, I decided to rewatch the anime. Not so much to see with a new eye, but to remember the plot events. What happened, however, was just to “take a fresh look”.
If for an outside viewer the adaptation of the game is just a good comedy, then for an avid Priconn player, the creators’ love for the details of the world and characters is revealed on top of the main layer. Cygames Pictures was not allowed to break the canon in any way, and therefore the studio weaved game characters into the story with care. Viewers who were attentive to the plot regularly received a portion of bonuses for their knowledge of the world. Sometimes these are references for the sake of it, but several episodes are taken directly from gaming events, which evokes warm memories of the past.
Cygames knows how to flirt with fans. This half-second frame from the opening of the second season still gives me goosebumps. But a year and a half has passed!
While thinking about this, I discovered the main charm of game adaptations, which even many creators have not reached. For an illustrative example, let’s take an episode from the end of the fifth episode: in the heat of battle, Hatsune (not my favorite character, honestly) casts his ultimate – the Shooting Star meteor shower. Let me remind you that in the game the ult is the only thing that the player himself is free to use. So, the launch process itself is shown pathetically and in detail. This pathos also works for you, because you have been using Shooting Star for the fourth month in a row and know its power. This synchronization of gaming skills and what is happening on the screen is inspiring and makes you look forward to the episode even more. And then enjoy it even more in the game. In this way, the anime involves the player-spectator in what is happening, making him a participant in the events. And this technique works because there is an interactive source.
This very moment can be seen here
Part five. Mutual love
The second year (and along with it the third) is a time of gradual development of the game. A set of not only muscles, but also new bones; sometimes appropriate, sometimes not quite. For example, “Unique equipment” did not turn into an additional mechanic, becoming an additional area of leveling. But the sixth stars for individual characters have changed the game meta, and it’s even difficult to say in which direction. At least the gameplay has sprung up.
Otherwise, since the end of 2021, the game has changed slightly, and the promotion process has become tangible and gradual. Yes, they added some nice tinsel to the events, like a mini-game with the masochist Kuuka launching into the air, and last year’s events began to be rolled out quickly for the second time. But these are small things. Although no, there was one event: in the fall of 2022 I reached the highest possible level. Nothing important, and the ceiling was raised every month, but there was a feeling of success from this.
Princess Connect Re: dive has become an enjoyable daily routine. In the evening – collect resources, run through the dungeon and read the story. In the morning on the subway – spend daily stamina. In our difficult times for cuckoos, this is a hook that holds onto reality, taking up very little time.
Part six. Feeling of death
This development is aptly described by the expression "Too Good". And when things are going too well, they like to suddenly turn catastrophic.
However, the word “suddenly” would be incorrect here. The financial performance of the global server fell with unenviable stability. Compared to the less populated Japanese version, the profit is completely ridiculous. The latest revenue data, published in early March, suggested pessimistic thoughts: the fall in February compared to January was almost doubled ($180k versus $300k). For comparison, the Japanese server has been bringing its creators 2 million possibly evergreens for several months in a row. April, by the way, is closed with the same indicator.
This is not the first time. The shutdown of English-language gacha servers is a close to ordinary event, and the global publisher already distinguished himself several years ago by disabling a popular mobile phone Overlord‘u. So it was worth it, hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst.
However, no matter how you prepare, such events are still sudden. Friday morning, March 31st, went as usual until I started the game on the subway as usual. And there, right on the main page, there was an “important announcement”. The publisher’s message read as follows: 1) the IRA will close on April 30; 2) store – today. There was enough tinsel and politeness there, but not a word about the reasons. However, I have already explained the situation.
Needless to say, the day was ruined?
Part seven. New old life
So. A month to go. What to do? The first thought that comes to mind is to try out colleagues in the genre. For example, a mobile phone based on the recent "Climbing in the Shadows" Painfully reminiscent of Re:dive in terms of interface and gameplay. But who can guarantee that tomorrow they won’t close it too?? Bad option.
The next idea is to switch to a Japanese server, which blooms and smells. There are exactly three problems here: the lunar interface; three years difference could not help but leave a mark on the meth; and also start promoting again. We can partially solve the language barrier, but the need to repeat more than two years of developing an account from scratch is not particularly motivating.
Why not just finish? Forget about gachas and send mobile games to the trash of consciousness again. But because it went. Characters came in with whom it was nice to spend a little routine time. There was a feeling of constant progress; albeit small, but not requiring a donation. And there is still hope for a third season of the anime adaptation. Where the journey with the princesses began.
So on April 26, a little over three days before the end of the global, I started promoting on the Japanese server. The difference in language was eaten up by a thorough knowledge of the interface and on-screen translators. And a month of waiting for closure smoothed out the problem of re-promotion in my head, making it bearable. At the same time, now you can avoid making previous mistakes and not waste time on weak fighters.
P.S. A few days after the closure of the global server, the following news appeared: the developer and Japanese publisher Priconna is creating European and North American “subsidiaries”. Hope dies last, as they say