HoYo is a company that looked at all the money gacha games could make with such little effort and said..."okay but what if we took all that money and used it to actually put in effort?" (yes there are a handful of other very high quality gacha games out there, it's not just HoYo)
Call me a shill or fanboy, idc. But for me Hoyo has set the bar for the quality (music, animation, and gameplay) of mobile games and gacha games ever since they released honkai impact 3rd, then going into genshin impact.
@@nevanV12yeah while their have been a few mobile action games around the time of hi3. None of them had the same amount of quality and effort. PGR was probably the first one i've noticed to compete with hi3 in terms of quality. Now a days though their is plenty of good action gachas.
Arknights comes into mind and they've been here longer than HoYo and they're still as stable as they ever been despite not getting the same boost as HoYoGames. There's just intense care put into the content of the game that even when HyperGryph had literally a hundred ways to overly monetize the game with premium shit and skins, they go, "Aight. How about we make OSTs for every 6 star character instead and also make banger themes for every story event that comes out in the game, how about that?"
@@nevanV12 Gacha games were almost ONLY regarded as a complete Joke before Hoyo and before Genshin. Even then Genshin was still regarded as BOTW rip off, laughably enough. They werent regarded as real games by the mass populace, because they largely weren't. They were money machines and almost nothing else. The stamina to progress in everything, the constant pop ups to get you to buy, trying to make things inconvenient at every turn. That changed with Genshin and Hoyo and forced the landscape to adapt to them. To the point where the Chinese government points to Genshin as an example of "Your games should be more like this instead and less shitty"
@@Law-of-EnTropy Incorrect. Hoyo started making Gachas long before Hypergryph the dudes who made Arknights came into being. Hoyo was made in 2012 13 feb and Hypergryph in january 2017. But yes Hypergryph puts a damn ton of effort into their characters.
9:55:12 Holy Quality take. It's rare to find someone actually say that and I entirely agree. Genshin's environments ended up being way more compelling than BOTW and too much of BOTW was just filler area that existed, then maybe had a chest with a dupe weapon that will break in 2 seconds or more often one of the thousand koroks. BOTW had like.. a handful of interesting well put together areas, and i've 100% that game, but i find it wayyy better to explore in Genshin. It's a lot more dense. Credit where credit is due, it makes sense for Nintendo to want to make a larger, more empty map rather than a smaller, dense one because its not an ongoing game and the map releases once.
@@StormierNik dude, i finally see somebody with the same take as me. botw felt so empty to me esp when there was barely any story. genshin has so much content, environmental storytelling, and lore in the open world
I don't give a damn, I still never get the urge to explore genshins world as much as in BotW. Idc that if you do the math, technically Genshin Impact has more to find, BotW world has much more attention to detail that makes the world much more alive, things like cutting trees and what not also adds to it, things like spotting dragons in the sky and trying to get to them, Genshin has none of these "wow" moments, atleast for me. I wont talk about all the parts that Zelda has over Genshin, due to genshin being an online mobile game, like stiff and robotic NPC's, because thatd take too long and should also be self-explanatory.
@@acreativename2781damn you sound so offended. They’re not attacking you. It’s the facts my guy. You can feel differently no one’s saying you can’t lol
Glad you're enjoying this, I was blown away by just the art and sound department: the level of care into every single nook and cranny in this game is insane for a f2p game. The gameplay itself has a very slow first 1-2 hours but then it opens up MASSIVELY beyond any expectation I had, it's looking really good.
It took like around 6h to meet my gameplay to story satisfactory ratio. Basically when ch1 ended. Still enjoyed every stupid joke and funny Billy interaction. And thx Fairy for reminding me to unalive myself in soldier 11quest. XD
watching this stream has made me feel so reassured. There's so much negativity surrounding hoyo games. All I hear from the community is complaints. But like, it's free. The fact that you get so much for free is insane, and i never understood how people don't appreciate that. Hearing Thor talk about star rail being free, quality content just makes me happy. People don't place a lot of emphasis on polish, but when you get something this good for absolutely nothing? There's no way I can be disappointed. Like 90% of the games I've actually bought haven't delivered as much as these games.
Absolutely, it's so nice to hear someone to express the sentiment that gacha is objectively bad, but at the same time, who cares just play the free parts of the game. Content creators either have this strangely overblown vitriol for anything gacha, or will straight up tell you they'll turn a blind eye to the gacha because the game is so good.
It's free, yes. But it betrayed player expectations and gave a completely different experience than what was advertised. It was advertised as a complex and in depth combat game, while it was actually just a story heavy game with simple combat that is barely 10% of the actual time spent playing.
@@kuratse205 Do you have any idea how insane you sound walking into a conversation of people expressing their enjoyment on a VOD also expressing positive things and telling them "ackshually it betrayed player expectations"? Your opinion is just as valid as anyone else's but we weren't even talking about player expectations or advertising, you had to turn the conversation into a completely different direction to push your agenda.
@@draaxus2969 blud they were talking about the "negativity around hoyo games", and I'm explaining WHY the negativity around ZZZ exists. Their argument is "it's free so the negativity shouldnt exist". While mine was the explanation that the negativity exists due to the experience differing from the player expectations. It's an echo chamber. Anyone you disagree with, are wrong. Anyone you agree with, reassures you and are right. I'm merely explaining why I think the negativity is so prevalent, yet you got this tribalistic. I like ZZZ, but also dislike some parts of it. It betrayed my expectations as well (even though I had low expectations), as the combat was mid and the pacing was terrible. But the characterisation and the vibe is great. It's a 10/10 casual game. But it's a 3/10 combat game.
@@kuratse205 What level did you make it to? Anything below lvl 35 is tutorial lol, and at this point in time only people who have been spending money have reached high above it. Been playing every day f2p and grinding only to recently hit 35. It's getting to a point where I need to double parry consistently for anomaly/daze/energy management.
I'm not sure why Thor never struck as a Hoyo game fan type of person to me, but seeing him play Zenless made me so incredibly happy. I wasn't aware that he played HSR before, but that just made it even better. He stated so, so, SO MANY things that I have always needed to hear. The fact that Hoyo goes out of there way make a Gacha game that requires effort really goes underappreciated. And what Thor said about letting a game earn your respect and then supporting the game, oh my GOD did I need to hear that. Some of my friends don't particularly like Hoyo games or straight up dislike them. And with the norm of hating Genshin still being around (in certain parts) makes me so happy that Thor is making these statements. I wish more people sees this so they're not just riding on a bandwagon to hate on Hoyo because they made "The BOTW copy".
I’m so glad an actual person i know is playing this game, it’s too bad i lost my 50/50 for ellen and i wont be able to get her anymore without going into debt!
I've grinded the game F2P for about 2 days now, and I eventually got Ellen after failing the 50/50 the first time. I'd say you're basically guaranteed to get her if you keep playing, so don't worry ;) Additionally, I'm actually only missing 4 agents, and I'll be getting a guaranteed S in 10 pulls.
Keep playing! The game still has enough polychrome right now for another soft pity. I lost my 50/50 to Lycaon and it was a hard pity, then squeezed the hell outta every content in the game and accumulated 7 multis
Im curious what kind of mobile games are you playing? I played some of high profile gacha games besides Hoyoverse, none of them had ads. Having no ads is not exclusive to Hoyoverse.
@@newbnooby6438 I don't really play mobile games anymore but I still remember most of them having ads every couple levels/minutes. Also I don't just mean ads, I mean that you constantly get pop-ups for micro transactions.
Ok something you mention during your ZZZ portion when you started pulling. You said your built up pulls towards a 5 star. Your pity as it's called won't reset. In all 3 games it doesn't reset even on limited banner. If you are 15 pulls from a 5 star on limited and the banner end. The next banner you will be 15 pulls away still. If you lose a 50 50 (you don't get the banner character) your next character WILL be the banner character. Even if you wait 10 months and 20 banners pass by your pity stays the same untill a character is hit.
Glad to see someone liking the TV lol It feels necessary in a game like this, combat all the time is going to be repetitive and boring (plus it’ll hurt my hand to click the mouse so much) so the TVs are both a good break and pretty immersive since that’s kind of a representative of what we’re seeing as Phaethon It’s also nice to get the option to avoid enemies, I usually swap between TV and combat so that I don’t get burnt out on either.
Outside of the gacha mechanics, I'm really enjoying it. A little bit of DMC, a little bit of Persona, a little bit of a Puzzler Bomberman, easy but fun to play. About 20 hours deep atm.
That's an extremely funny coincidence, I also got Alexandrina on my very first pull in this game. As a game dev streamer (alt account) I think I just *am* Thor sometimes.
i like this game way too much i think. i thought this will be something i'll uninstall within an hour like all their other games - but this one got me hooked hard bro. the chill 'puzzle' gameplay mixed with simple but very responsive combat is my jam i guess
Hey Thor, as another old guy who misses his old mouse with a ball, the closest I've found is Redragon M711 Cobra Gaming Mouse it has a button or two extra but It's fairly weighty, though not perfect...
That comment about "Undertale was the first bullet hell" hurts me physically, and reminds me of the time I heard a Beach Boys song playing in a store, and some teenager around me, totally unironically, asked "Who the hell are these old guys and why are they singing stuff ftom Glee Club?"
Honestly the thing I don't like mihoyo games isn't the core Gacha for characters and weapons, cause despite everything they do a good job about making 4 stars valid characters for most of the content. No it's the random elements that needlessly take your time away, fucking gear grinding. You have to take your time and fuel to roll a redo the same challenge, that's effectively a slot machine, to get gear randomly, with random stats. Except MOST of those stats are hidden until you fully upgrade the gear, so you have to use like 3-5 times the upgrade materials to get a find a decent full set. And everything cost fuel, exp for characters, ascension materials for characters, exp and ascension materials for weapon, rolling for gear and their exp. And you can buy fuel, but honestly the reason is so obtuse isn't even cause they want people to buy fuel, it's cause they want to pad out the play time for player retention. And people say Warframe is a grind. At least in Warframe high level players actually get to use their existing resources on new frames. Getting a new character in a Mihoyo game means a bunch of cores to complete before they can compete in your current level content.
@@UltravioletNomad its funny cause even early weapons in Warframe are moddable to the point of being endgame beasts, given how easily customizable everything is
but different from Warframe it's a single-player game your not actually competing with anyone and you would have to go out of your way to do so, and on top of that 99% of the content is extremely easy, these games are only as hard as you want them to be.
i dunno man, Warframe grind destroyed my soul, and that was just for a rare mod that didn't do much in the end. So when you talk about grinding that is just padding out the play time, then warframe is absolutely, massively guilty of this. Or at least, we have a very different perspective on this.
@@jackengels5077 If were talking Mastery, focus, and Tau Shards then yeah, but me and a friend busted out the whole star chart and mid tier builds on fresh files in like a week or two (like 4-5 hour sessions, not even every night) When a new Prime drops most groups can pull all the pieces in under 3 play session. But from my core argument, this is about mods vs gear, and how fast a player can get a fresh character up to fighting fit. My point is you only need to farm a mod once, and upgrade it once. I does the same thing on every frame, and can be equipped on every frame, at the same time. The farther you are in game, your mastery level gives a fresh frame more mod points to start with, and you're likely busting out content that gives xp WAY faster than what a new player would. So the point of my thesis is that Warframe has long term goals that once fulfilled rewards the player with permanent progress that makes farming and building new characters easier. Every character in a Mihoyo game feels like I have to do a complete new set of busy work that doesn't go any faster despite my overall time investment into the game. Like something I neglected to mention with Genshin in particular, character ascension materials that are new time limited drops found on the overworld that you have to collect as opposed to warframe, whose new resources are ALWAYS tied to killing enemies in whatever new mission type they've dropped (and likely the source of the blueprint parts anyway) And even just comparing Mastery to Adventure/Trailblaze ranks. More mastery in Warframe means quicker building of a new frame. More Rank in a Mihoyo game means EVERY enemy in every map now jumps another 10 levels and I now have to get the XP and Ascension materials to raise my hopefully competent team another 10 levels (and probably replace my 4 star gear with 5 star, and level up all their talents). Its almost like a punishment to unlock whatever new, higher tier game modes they've just dropped. And sure a higher world rank means more material drops from enemies, but ever character ascension takes EXPONENTIALLY more materials. (like a blue material is worth 3 green of the same type, which is worth 3 of the base level. and higher WL means now that mission gives you 1 (2 if you're lucky) greens and 3 blues instead of just 4 blues) And I'm saying this as an avid player of now three of Mihoyo's games, This is me nitpicking perfectly fine F2P games, and the assertion that you don't need that god tier gear roll is accurate... but I DO need to spend time and resources getting this stuff when I just want to pull for a new character and then... use them in the content they dropped with, and you pull for cool 5 stars to see them do cool shit, but then the pre-requisite to getting YOUR version of Archeron to actually do that cool shit is "Oh, you need decent crit gear, and this weapon that specifically buffs their ult, and to always pair her with another fully built debuff character." Warframe on the other had is "Load that new frame with the same power strength you've always had, pair it with whatever weapon with viral and faction mods, and watch the sparks fly" What mod were you grinding anyway?
@@Sam_Hue yes the future isnt death by ai killing us conventualy but with p0rn making everyone addicted and by doing so ruiing our inteligence and sosial skills so no one will reproduce and all humans die out without caring
Or just don’t spend money when you don’t want to spend money? Predatory gambling mechanics=\= physically reaching into your wallet and forcing you to spend money
4:01:30 "Hackers is a perfect movie." One million times yes. Where most people go wrong though is by treating it as anything but an interactive experience. You can't just sit and passively watch it. One of these years, there'll be another scheduled showing of it at DEF CON, and I absolutely intend to get some friends together to Rocky Horror it again and make the nerds mad. Again.
So how im understanding it so far is Companion Hollows are like the game cubes from Reboot, they appear somewhat at random and eventually disappear on their own, with only the Big Serious ones being at all permanent.
Thor's commentary about the currency is important (how a typical gacha might start you off with just not enough to do a 10 pull and make you pay to get enough). BUT, even if that were the case here, Mihoyo would still technically be better than most gachas by technically having three levels of currency. The first level (as far as character/item pulls are concerned) are the ones that you directly spend to do the pulls. The game does hand out some of them here and there - most often through login bonuses and passes, so they are obtainable on their own. There's generally two of them - one for the standard, permanent banner (Acquaint Fate in Genshin, Star Rail Pass in Star Rail, Master Tape in Z3) and one for the event banners (Intertwined Fate in Genshin, Star Rail Special Pass in Star Rail, and Encrypted Master Tape in Z3). The second level is a currency you spend to get more of your pull currency, at a rate of 160:1. This currency is earned in game very frequently, mainly through achievements, but also through first-time runs of content and character trials. It's generally pretty easy to keep a steady supply of this currency going. For Genshin, it's Primogems; for Star Rail, it's Stellar Jade; for Z3, it's Polychrome. If you don't have enough of the secondary currency to convert into your pull tickets, that's where the actual money comes in with a currency you can pay real money to get, which is pretty consistent in pricing (0.99 USD for 60 of this currency at the smallest bundle, with bigger purchases throwing in larger amounts of bonus currency, as is typical of paid currencies in video games). These exchange for the second-level currency at a 1:1 ratio, and this is its sole purpose, so you can avoid these currencies entirely if you wish, but paying will allow you to pump out more pulls. For Genshin, it's Genesis Crystals; for Star Rail, it's Oneiric Shards; for Z3, it's Monochrome.
9:56:09 i personally don't like genshin bc i prefer turn based games (especially bc imo genshin's controls were kinda janky), but star rail has been a big hyperfixation for me this summer. i'm technically ftp, but my twin insisted on buying me a few pulls for boothill's banner as a birthday gift (bc i always lose the 50/50s at near-max pity, and collecting all those stellar jades takes so long)
Bro i was playing ZZZ when ewatching this and 2 back to back s rank characters on limited banner and standard banner and i just want to thank you pirate software for gifting me your streamer luck 🙏🙏😁
Was this a sponsored stream? Wild to see him play a gatcha game lol EDIT: ah it was sponsored but Thor is a legit hoyo fan, surprised tbh. But of any gatcha company, hoyo would probably be the best to support (although all gatcha has their issues)
the main thing about hoyo is that, you can spend a total of 0 dollars to enjoy pretty much 80% of the whole game the 20% is the characters you wont get maybe. and spending or pulling is not required to progress and enjoy. a gacha game where the gacha is optional
@@vanexrexa9473 I agree, Im a day 1 player in genshin/hsr/zzz and ive only spent maybe a total of $100 in genshin only for monthly passes (much of which was with store credits). But you can make that claim about a lot of gatchas. Hoyo still knows exactly how to poke and prod at players to make them just frustrated enough to want to pull but not enough to quit because the game is unfair without pulling. It absolutely is still a dangerous game for those lacking self control
Legitamately think that billy and anby are role reversal for typical Autism and ADHD archetypes. robots are typically coded autistic by association, so having them be a human and robot while having each others expected traits actually makes for some pretty good subversion while giving a short demonstration of how advanced AI can get in this world. Edit: NO WAY THOR GETS THE S ON THE LITERAL FIRST 10 PULL
He mentioned this at some point that he wanted to play it more but the game was too vast and at the time he didn't have time to explore and really get into it.
i'd think at least its better if he waits until the main story concluded first lol tons of hours of content, basically free, no investment really needed to just enjoy the game
Looks fun but of course its not on xbox. Just like genshin which i would love to try as well. And no I'm not an Xbox fan I just don't have the money to spend on a pc
After 3rd impact and star rail feeling like slightly more sophisticated reskins of Raid and Genshin feeling shallow beyond the graphics as soon as you got a hang of the combat system, I'm curious if this is better. The ads I've seen so far certainly didn't give the best impression so far tho
Played for days. I hate this game with a passion now. Why? Because it can be good, and its NOT. Its like having crappy internet. You take so long to get to where you want to be, and you keep wishing it will get there, and when it does, you need to wait for more. You cant stop because you hope that it gets better. I wish we can go to the combat aspect faster. WAY FASTER.
is it because of the TV? if it is, that would invalidate your opinion. it's not a bad game, you just don't like the gameplay. and that's okay. that just means the game is not for you. I don't like open-world RPG games like Genshin, WuWa, Nier, etc. because run around doing telephone game for side quest is too much for me, Does that mean that a bad design? I don't think so. some love it, I would feel closed-minded if I said that a bad design. that goes the same for the TVs gameplay. it's just classic dungeon crawling gameplay, like the classic Zelda, Dragon Quest, and Digimon World 2 but the map is CRT's TV. I found that really unique. and I appreciate the art direction they took for the game. maybe you can try to enjoy the TV part, that now you can see it as dungeon crawling session. later on there will be Rally mission that more focussed on Combat if you are looking for that. cheers👍
uhh... did you no-life the game within the first couple weeks of release? Then are you complaining that things take too long or that there's nothing else left? Seems like you've never played an MMO, or a gacha game, or any game with monthly cycles of content and plot. No shit there's not much, because when the majority of the playerbase approaches the end of current content, the devs release updates. After so many years, Genshin now has much more story and content than BOTW has, because ZZZ isn't a one-and-done game that you only pay $60 for. That $60 only gives you a hundred hours of content, max
I love how he pauses so the ads can pass, no one is missing out.
always does and it's awesome!
Thor is one hell of a guy. Truly kick ass
Except the people on CZcams. He pauses it for Twitch ads.
@@lordpain1128 well yeah, the CZcams ads are skippable and also you can just rewind the stream if you missed out due to the ads
HoYo is a company that looked at all the money gacha games could make with such little effort and said..."okay but what if we took all that money and used it to actually put in effort?" (yes there are a handful of other very high quality gacha games out there, it's not just HoYo)
Call me a shill or fanboy, idc. But for me Hoyo has set the bar for the quality (music, animation, and gameplay) of mobile games and gacha games ever since they released honkai impact 3rd, then going into genshin impact.
@@nevanV12yeah while their have been a few mobile action games around the time of hi3. None of them had the same amount of quality and effort. PGR was probably the first one i've noticed to compete with hi3 in terms of quality. Now a days though their is plenty of good action gachas.
Arknights comes into mind and they've been here longer than HoYo and they're still as stable as they ever been despite not getting the same boost as HoYoGames. There's just intense care put into the content of the game that even when HyperGryph had literally a hundred ways to overly monetize the game with premium shit and skins, they go, "Aight. How about we make OSTs for every 6 star character instead and also make banger themes for every story event that comes out in the game, how about that?"
@@nevanV12 Gacha games were almost ONLY regarded as a complete Joke before Hoyo and before Genshin. Even then Genshin was still regarded as BOTW rip off, laughably enough. They werent regarded as real games by the mass populace, because they largely weren't. They were money machines and almost nothing else. The stamina to progress in everything, the constant pop ups to get you to buy, trying to make things inconvenient at every turn.
That changed with Genshin and Hoyo and forced the landscape to adapt to them. To the point where the Chinese government points to Genshin as an example of "Your games should be more like this instead and less shitty"
@@Law-of-EnTropy Incorrect. Hoyo started making Gachas long before Hypergryph the dudes who made Arknights came into being. Hoyo was made in 2012 13 feb and Hypergryph in january 2017. But yes Hypergryph puts a damn ton of effort into their characters.
9:55:12 Holy Quality take. It's rare to find someone actually say that and I entirely agree. Genshin's environments ended up being way more compelling than BOTW and too much of BOTW was just filler area that existed, then maybe had a chest with a dupe weapon that will break in 2 seconds or more often one of the thousand koroks. BOTW had like.. a handful of interesting well put together areas, and i've 100% that game, but i find it wayyy better to explore in Genshin. It's a lot more dense.
Credit where credit is due, it makes sense for Nintendo to want to make a larger, more empty map rather than a smaller, dense one because its not an ongoing game and the map releases once.
@@StormierNik dude, i finally see somebody with the same take as me. botw felt so empty to me esp when there was barely any story. genshin has so much content, environmental storytelling, and lore in the open world
I don't give a damn, I still never get the urge to explore genshins world as much as in BotW. Idc that if you do the math, technically Genshin Impact has more to find, BotW world has much more attention to detail that makes the world much more alive, things like cutting trees and what not also adds to it, things like spotting dragons in the sky and trying to get to them, Genshin has none of these "wow" moments, atleast for me. I wont talk about all the parts that Zelda has over Genshin, due to genshin being an online mobile game, like stiff and robotic NPC's, because thatd take too long and should also be self-explanatory.
@@acreativename2781damn you sound so offended. They’re not attacking you. It’s the facts my guy. You can feel differently no one’s saying you can’t lol
Looks like ZZZ game starts at 7:03:00
Tnx lol
Much appreciated
Many thanks.
Getting an S rank not only on the first ten pull but THE FIRST PULL is absolutely insane
I got the Lycon first pull sadly
@@zacharysutton6891 but he's really good what you mean sadly?
@@kwhitepearl he is?
@@zacharysutton6891 Extremely good, I'm very jealous, good for you
@@zacharysutton6891 Really good stunner
Some ppl were saying wish CZcams Ad were cool as ZZZ ads lol I agree
Glad you're enjoying this, I was blown away by just the art and sound department: the level of care into every single nook and cranny in this game is insane for a f2p game. The gameplay itself has a very slow first 1-2 hours but then it opens up MASSIVELY beyond any expectation I had, it's looking really good.
It took like around 6h to meet my gameplay to story satisfactory ratio. Basically when ch1 ended. Still enjoyed every stupid joke and funny Billy interaction. And thx Fairy for reminding me to unalive myself in soldier 11quest. XD
@@vinniegret4841 the "pretending to be myself" search result? Hahahah
watching this stream has made me feel so reassured. There's so much negativity surrounding hoyo games. All I hear from the community is complaints. But like, it's free. The fact that you get so much for free is insane, and i never understood how people don't appreciate that. Hearing Thor talk about star rail being free, quality content just makes me happy. People don't place a lot of emphasis on polish, but when you get something this good for absolutely nothing? There's no way I can be disappointed. Like 90% of the games I've actually bought haven't delivered as much as these games.
Absolutely, it's so nice to hear someone to express the sentiment that gacha is objectively bad, but at the same time, who cares just play the free parts of the game. Content creators either have this strangely overblown vitriol for anything gacha, or will straight up tell you they'll turn a blind eye to the gacha because the game is so good.
It's free, yes. But it betrayed player expectations and gave a completely different experience than what was advertised. It was advertised as a complex and in depth combat game, while it was actually just a story heavy game with simple combat that is barely 10% of the actual time spent playing.
@@kuratse205 Do you have any idea how insane you sound walking into a conversation of people expressing their enjoyment on a VOD also expressing positive things and telling them "ackshually it betrayed player expectations"?
Your opinion is just as valid as anyone else's but we weren't even talking about player expectations or advertising, you had to turn the conversation into a completely different direction to push your agenda.
@@draaxus2969 blud they were talking about the "negativity around hoyo games", and I'm explaining WHY the negativity around ZZZ exists.
Their argument is "it's free so the negativity shouldnt exist". While mine was the explanation that the negativity exists due to the experience differing from the player expectations.
It's an echo chamber. Anyone you disagree with, are wrong. Anyone you agree with, reassures you and are right. I'm merely explaining why I think the negativity is so prevalent, yet you got this tribalistic.
I like ZZZ, but also dislike some parts of it. It betrayed my expectations as well (even though I had low expectations), as the combat was mid and the pacing was terrible. But the characterisation and the vibe is great. It's a 10/10 casual game. But it's a 3/10 combat game.
@@kuratse205 What level did you make it to? Anything below lvl 35 is tutorial lol, and at this point in time only people who have been spending money have reached high above it. Been playing every day f2p and grinding only to recently hit 35. It's getting to a point where I need to double parry consistently for anomaly/daze/energy management.
I'm not sure why Thor never struck as a Hoyo game fan type of person to me, but seeing him play Zenless made me so incredibly happy. I wasn't aware that he played HSR before, but that just made it even better.
He stated so, so, SO MANY things that I have always needed to hear. The fact that Hoyo goes out of there way make a Gacha game that requires effort really goes underappreciated. And what Thor said about letting a game earn your respect and then supporting the game, oh my GOD did I need to hear that.
Some of my friends don't particularly like Hoyo games or straight up dislike them. And with the norm of hating Genshin still being around (in certain parts) makes me so happy that Thor is making these statements. I wish more people sees this so they're not just riding on a bandwagon to hate on Hoyo because they made "The BOTW copy".
I’m so glad an actual person i know is playing this game, it’s too bad i lost my 50/50 for ellen and i wont be able to get her anymore without going into debt!
May you get her without too much debt!
I've grinded the game F2P for about 2 days now, and I eventually got Ellen after failing the 50/50 the first time. I'd say you're basically guaranteed to get her if you keep playing, so don't worry ;) Additionally, I'm actually only missing 4 agents, and I'll be getting a guaranteed S in 10 pulls.
Keep playing! The game still has enough polychrome right now for another soft pity. I lost my 50/50 to Lycaon and it was a hard pity, then squeezed the hell outta every content in the game and accumulated 7 multis
Grinded for almost 2 weeks and got her eventually. You just gotta push through as a f2p.
Counterpoint: now you have a guarantee on Zhu Yuan and her whole-a--buttocks (heh) bakery.
That is one thing I always liked about Genshin: They never have ads in-game unlike every single other mobile game. Same for zzz and star rail
Im curious what kind of mobile games are you playing? I played some of high profile gacha games besides Hoyoverse, none of them had ads. Having no ads is not exclusive to Hoyoverse.
@@newbnooby6438 I don't really play mobile games anymore but I still remember most of them having ads every couple levels/minutes. Also I don't just mean ads, I mean that you constantly get pop-ups for micro transactions.
Ok something you mention during your ZZZ portion when you started pulling. You said your built up pulls towards a 5 star. Your pity as it's called won't reset. In all 3 games it doesn't reset even on limited banner. If you are 15 pulls from a 5 star on limited and the banner end. The next banner you will be 15 pulls away still. If you lose a 50 50 (you don't get the banner character) your next character WILL be the banner character. Even if you wait 10 months and 20 banners pass by your pity stays the same untill a character is hit.
Glad to see someone liking the TV lol
It feels necessary in a game like this, combat all the time is going to be repetitive and boring (plus it’ll hurt my hand to click the mouse so much) so the TVs are both a good break and pretty immersive since that’s kind of a representative of what we’re seeing as Phaethon
It’s also nice to get the option to avoid enemies, I usually swap between TV and combat so that I don’t get burnt out on either.
ZZZ has been super fun so far, especially the satisfying, crunchy parries. I love it on unlimited FPS.
Outside of the gacha mechanics, I'm really enjoying it. A little bit of DMC, a little bit of Persona, a little bit of a Puzzler Bomberman, easy but fun to play. About 20 hours deep atm.
That's an extremely funny coincidence, I also got Alexandrina on my very first pull in this game. As a game dev streamer (alt account) I think I just *am* Thor sometimes.
i like this game way too much i think. i thought this will be something i'll uninstall within an hour like all their other games - but this one got me hooked hard bro. the chill 'puzzle' gameplay mixed with simple but very responsive combat is my jam i guess
I 100% agree dark and darker feels slow, also hate that with the bow i have to pump 3-5 arrows into a goblin to drop it
Hey Thor, as another old guy who misses his old mouse with a ball, the closest I've found is Redragon M711 Cobra Gaming Mouse it has a button or two extra but It's fairly weighty, though not perfect...
That comment about "Undertale was the first bullet hell" hurts me physically, and reminds me of the time I heard a Beach Boys song playing in a store, and some teenager around me, totally unironically, asked "Who the hell are these old guys and why are they singing stuff ftom Glee Club?"
W stream as always. Love this game and love to see you playing it.
Honestly the thing I don't like mihoyo games isn't the core Gacha for characters and weapons, cause despite everything they do a good job about making 4 stars valid characters for most of the content.
No it's the random elements that needlessly take your time away, fucking gear grinding. You have to take your time and fuel to roll a redo the same challenge, that's effectively a slot machine, to get gear randomly, with random stats. Except MOST of those stats are hidden until you fully upgrade the gear, so you have to use like 3-5 times the upgrade materials to get a find a decent full set.
And everything cost fuel, exp for characters, ascension materials for characters, exp and ascension materials for weapon, rolling for gear and their exp. And you can buy fuel, but honestly the reason is so obtuse isn't even cause they want people to buy fuel, it's cause they want to pad out the play time for player retention. And people say Warframe is a grind. At least in Warframe high level players actually get to use their existing resources on new frames. Getting a new character in a Mihoyo game means a bunch of cores to complete before they can compete in your current level content.
@@UltravioletNomad its funny cause even early weapons in Warframe are moddable to the point of being endgame beasts, given how easily customizable everything is
but different from Warframe it's a single-player game your not actually competing with anyone and you would have to go out of your way to do so, and on top of that 99% of the content is extremely easy, these games are only as hard as you want them to be.
i dunno man, Warframe grind destroyed my soul, and that was just for a rare mod that didn't do much in the end. So when you talk about grinding that is just padding out the play time, then warframe is absolutely, massively guilty of this. Or at least, we have a very different perspective on this.
Having perfect stats right off the bat would be extremely boring. I just don't get it.
@@jackengels5077 If were talking Mastery, focus, and Tau Shards then yeah, but me and a friend busted out the whole star chart and mid tier builds on fresh files in like a week or two (like 4-5 hour sessions, not even every night) When a new Prime drops most groups can pull all the pieces in under 3 play session.
But from my core argument, this is about mods vs gear, and how fast a player can get a fresh character up to fighting fit.
My point is you only need to farm a mod once, and upgrade it once. I does the same thing on every frame, and can be equipped on every frame, at the same time. The farther you are in game, your mastery level gives a fresh frame more mod points to start with, and you're likely busting out content that gives xp WAY faster than what a new player would. So the point of my thesis is that Warframe has long term goals that once fulfilled rewards the player with permanent progress that makes farming and building new characters easier. Every character in a Mihoyo game feels like I have to do a complete new set of busy work that doesn't go any faster despite my overall time investment into the game. Like something I neglected to mention with Genshin in particular, character ascension materials that are new time limited drops found on the overworld that you have to collect as opposed to warframe, whose new resources are ALWAYS tied to killing enemies in whatever new mission type they've dropped (and likely the source of the blueprint parts anyway)
And even just comparing Mastery to Adventure/Trailblaze ranks. More mastery in Warframe means quicker building of a new frame. More Rank in a Mihoyo game means EVERY enemy in every map now jumps another 10 levels and I now have to get the XP and Ascension materials to raise my hopefully competent team another 10 levels (and probably replace my 4 star gear with 5 star, and level up all their talents). Its almost like a punishment to unlock whatever new, higher tier game modes they've just dropped. And sure a higher world rank means more material drops from enemies, but ever character ascension takes EXPONENTIALLY more materials. (like a blue material is worth 3 green of the same type, which is worth 3 of the base level. and higher WL means now that mission gives you 1 (2 if you're lucky) greens and 3 blues instead of just 4 blues)
And I'm saying this as an avid player of now three of Mihoyo's games, This is me nitpicking perfectly fine F2P games, and the assertion that you don't need that god tier gear roll is accurate... but I DO need to spend time and resources getting this stuff when I just want to pull for a new character and then... use them in the content they dropped with, and you pull for cool 5 stars to see them do cool shit, but then the pre-requisite to getting YOUR version of Archeron to actually do that cool shit is "Oh, you need decent crit gear, and this weapon that specifically buffs their ult, and to always pair her with another fully built debuff character." Warframe on the other had is "Load that new frame with the same power strength you've always had, pair it with whatever weapon with viral and faction mods, and watch the sparks fly"
What mod were you grinding anyway?
The animations look so great in this game!
I Like how you predicted how much bill Nicole owes us >_>
I love world ends with you. that's how i got into pins 🤣.
CALLING SOMEONE IS CALLING🎶
Look at the bots man. Unsafe shitty internet
yea its a shame
When AI is evolving, this is the consequence.
There are bound to be stoned folks that are like this.
@@Sam_Hue yes the future isnt death by ai killing us conventualy but with p0rn making everyone addicted and by doing so ruiing our inteligence and sosial skills so no one will reproduce and all humans die out without caring
6:50:48 Thor talks about coding and ADHD
An actual mihoyo game that i enjoy. If it wasnt for the predatory gambling mechanics, of course.
Waiting until mihoyo releases a single player 60$ game
@@yeetuspatronus1050 given how fanboys spend that amount (minimum) to have the chance of getting a single character, I wouldn't set my hopes high.
Or just don’t spend money when you don’t want to spend money?
Predatory gambling mechanics=\= physically reaching into your wallet and forcing you to spend money
@@Djhinn I don't, but I think you're missing the point of what gambling is and what it does to people.
@@ok_listen Just because some people have an unhealthy relationship with gambling doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a game with gambling mechanics.
4:01:30 "Hackers is a perfect movie." One million times yes. Where most people go wrong though is by treating it as anything but an interactive experience. You can't just sit and passively watch it.
One of these years, there'll be another scheduled showing of it at DEF CON, and I absolutely intend to get some friends together to Rocky Horror it again and make the nerds mad. Again.
I was sleepy, so I couldn't chat, but I wanted to see you’re thoughts on a game called Kenshi
2:36 - we are back
7:56 - he exists
Dude lucky s on the first 10 pull, and even looks like the first pull.
So how im understanding it so far is Companion Hollows are like the game cubes from Reboot, they appear somewhat at random and eventually disappear on their own, with only the Big Serious ones being at all permanent.
Thor's commentary about the currency is important (how a typical gacha might start you off with just not enough to do a 10 pull and make you pay to get enough). BUT, even if that were the case here, Mihoyo would still technically be better than most gachas by technically having three levels of currency.
The first level (as far as character/item pulls are concerned) are the ones that you directly spend to do the pulls. The game does hand out some of them here and there - most often through login bonuses and passes, so they are obtainable on their own. There's generally two of them - one for the standard, permanent banner (Acquaint Fate in Genshin, Star Rail Pass in Star Rail, Master Tape in Z3) and one for the event banners (Intertwined Fate in Genshin, Star Rail Special Pass in Star Rail, and Encrypted Master Tape in Z3).
The second level is a currency you spend to get more of your pull currency, at a rate of 160:1. This currency is earned in game very frequently, mainly through achievements, but also through first-time runs of content and character trials. It's generally pretty easy to keep a steady supply of this currency going. For Genshin, it's Primogems; for Star Rail, it's Stellar Jade; for Z3, it's Polychrome.
If you don't have enough of the secondary currency to convert into your pull tickets, that's where the actual money comes in with a currency you can pay real money to get, which is pretty consistent in pricing (0.99 USD for 60 of this currency at the smallest bundle, with bigger purchases throwing in larger amounts of bonus currency, as is typical of paid currencies in video games). These exchange for the second-level currency at a 1:1 ratio, and this is its sole purpose, so you can avoid these currencies entirely if you wish, but paying will allow you to pump out more pulls. For Genshin, it's Genesis Crystals; for Star Rail, it's Oneiric Shards; for Z3, it's Monochrome.
You're the first person I heard mention World Ends with you when talking about this game lol.
When Thor says it's not hard...me at level 46: "Am I joke to you?!" lol. For real though it gets a lot more challenging in the best way.
9:56:09 i personally don't like genshin bc i prefer turn based games (especially bc imo genshin's controls were kinda janky), but star rail has been a big hyperfixation for me this summer. i'm technically ftp, but my twin insisted on buying me a few pulls for boothill's banner as a birthday gift (bc i always lose the 50/50s at near-max pity, and collecting all those stellar jades takes so long)
Bro i was playing ZZZ when ewatching this and 2 back to back s rank characters on limited banner and standard banner and i just want to thank you pirate software for gifting me your streamer luck 🙏🙏😁
Was this a sponsored stream? Wild to see him play a gatcha game lol
EDIT: ah it was sponsored but Thor is a legit hoyo fan, surprised tbh. But of any gatcha company, hoyo would probably be the best to support (although all gatcha has their issues)
the main thing about hoyo is that, you can spend a total of 0 dollars to enjoy pretty much 80% of the whole game the 20% is the characters you wont get maybe. and spending or pulling is not required to progress and enjoy. a gacha game where the gacha is optional
@@vanexrexa9473 I agree, Im a day 1 player in genshin/hsr/zzz and ive only spent maybe a total of $100 in genshin only for monthly passes (much of which was with store credits). But you can make that claim about a lot of gatchas. Hoyo still knows exactly how to poke and prod at players to make them just frustrated enough to want to pull but not enough to quit because the game is unfair without pulling. It absolutely is still a dangerous game for those lacking self control
Yeah Hoyo's "Gacha" are only gacha by name, you're never pressured into spending any money
Logitech G403 is the wired version of the G603/G703. Comes with an extra weight to get it to 98g.
The only difference between male and female mains is a slight difference in a couple of dialogues. It’s negligible tbh.
no way 😂 I would not thought he would play zzz 😂
Legitamately think that billy and anby are role reversal for typical Autism and ADHD archetypes. robots are typically coded autistic by association, so having them be a human and robot while having each others expected traits actually makes for some pretty good subversion while giving a short demonstration of how advanced AI can get in this world.
Edit: NO WAY THOR GETS THE S ON THE LITERAL FIRST 10 PULL
"Who gave this bear a pillar?" 8:57:03
Freeware goes crazy in 2024
What does this mean (please don’t tell me this means what I think it means)
1:42:30 sent me rolling 🤣 I hope this bit gets turned into a short
The desing of the enemies remind me of Grime.
has Thor ever played Genshin? I feel he would like the gameplay in that
He mentioned this at some point that he wanted to play it more but the game was too vast and at the time he didn't have time to explore and really get into it.
Yeah I think he would like it.
i'd think at least its better if he waits until the main story concluded first lol
tons of hours of content, basically free, no investment really needed to just enjoy the game
9:55:12 He talks a bit about it here.
@pimpin3603 thank you
I didn’t even know you can hold the gun down for repeated fire
NGL Thor is the LAST person I expected to play ZZZ
Would love to see him play this some more!
It's no use prevaricating about the bush!
I thought this was a Q&A, that's why I added it to my watch later? :P
All I want is for this to be on console it would go so hard 🙏
This is on playstation
You are the last person i'd expect to be playing this game lmao
Looks fun but of course its not on xbox. Just like genshin which i would love to try as well. And no I'm not an Xbox fan I just don't have the money to spend on a pc
U can play on phone with xbox controller
@@mast3rbang yeah I tried that with genshin awhile back but my screen is cracked, and my battery overheats way to quick with bigger games.
What about mobile?
Phone can't handle big games like that. It will overheat just waiting for the resources to download after downloading the app.
You can thank that stupid duck from Microsoft that eject Hoyo. But they said they are open for Xbox port this time.
Streamer luck is 100% real.
What game is this?
even in your hoyo game F.O.E
9:14:40 this mofo got s on first pull
please try wuthering wavesss your gonna love it if u like this
After 3rd impact and star rail feeling like slightly more sophisticated reskins of Raid and Genshin feeling shallow beyond the graphics as soon as you got a hang of the combat system, I'm curious if this is better.
The ads I've seen so far certainly didn't give the best impression so far tho
If only the game wasn't 70% TV mini game, 10% food cutscene, and 20% gameplay
...It takes you that long to move through the funny TV dungeons?
@@mythosinfinite6736 its minigame, 2 minutes of game, minigame 2 minutes of game.
@@chronodis That is just the beginning when they are explaining everything, plus the tv zones have an advance forward button
Played for days. I hate this game with a passion now. Why? Because it can be good, and its NOT. Its like having crappy internet. You take so long to get to where you want to be, and you keep wishing it will get there, and when it does, you need to wait for more. You cant stop because you hope that it gets better. I wish we can go to the combat aspect faster. WAY FASTER.
is it because of the TV? if it is, that would invalidate your opinion. it's not a bad game, you just don't like the gameplay. and that's okay. that just means the game is not for you.
I don't like open-world RPG games like Genshin, WuWa, Nier, etc. because run around doing telephone game for side quest is too much for me, Does that mean that a bad design? I don't think so. some love it, I would feel closed-minded if I said that a bad design.
that goes the same for the TVs gameplay. it's just classic dungeon crawling gameplay, like the classic Zelda, Dragon Quest, and Digimon World 2 but the map is CRT's TV. I found that really unique. and I appreciate the art direction they took for the game.
maybe you can try to enjoy the TV part, that now you can see it as dungeon crawling session. later on there will be Rally mission that more focussed on Combat if you are looking for that. cheers👍
uhh... did you no-life the game within the first couple weeks of release? Then are you complaining that things take too long or that there's nothing else left?
Seems like you've never played an MMO, or a gacha game, or any game with monthly cycles of content and plot. No shit there's not much, because when the majority of the playerbase approaches the end of current content, the devs release updates. After so many years, Genshin now has much more story and content than BOTW has, because ZZZ isn't a one-and-done game that you only pay $60 for. That $60 only gives you a hundred hours of content, max
You da man bro 😂❤