Okay, now let’s talk about the things in this Tempest Trials that were really bad, the ugly parts. These things can cause players to quit and don’t want to continue playing.
What are those?
The Ugly
Rewards
Sure there are quite some rewards available in tempest trials. However, the rewards are not that appealing. There are only 4 unique rewards, crystals and orbs. In addition, the score requirement to get them is ridiculously high.
There are an estimated of about 500,000 accounts that tried the tempest trials during the event. By the end of the event, tt’s estimated about 1-2% of those accounts managed to get all of the rewards, and between 10-15% got the Phantom Spd 1 seal. These numbers suggest that most people consider the rewards are not worth their time. I don’t think it’s worth it either. But I went for it anyway because I’m more of a completionist type of a player.
Even though the developer lowered the difficulty of the second tempest trials, the results are about the same for the first Tempest Trials. This event results in poor player engagement.
Developers needs to rethink their plan here. If only about 15% of user base considered the reward to be worth it, then something is not right. They need to change it: lower the requirement or make the reward more appealing.
Phantom Spd 1 seal currently has very limited uses. It can only be used effectively with the watersweep and windsweep skills, which only come from Soren and Alm. I currently do not have any Sorens or Alms, so this seal is useless to me. The developers need to add more heroes or skills that compare speed to make this seal actually useful.
Too Grindy
Let’s do some calculations a little. Assuming that we can get 705 max score every single time we play the trials (assuming best case scenario), in 2 weeks, we need to play at least:
- 9 times to get 4 stars Tobin
- 29 times to get Resistance +1 seal
- 43 times to get 5 stars Tobin
- 57 times to get Phantom Spd 1 seal
- 142 times to get all rewards
- Lots more times to get in rank 1-1,000 for 10,000 feathers
Of course, we can’t always get the perfect results. So, expect that we need to play about 10-20% more than the best case scenario.
Time Consuming
It really depends on the heroes we choose to play the game. If we use the most optimal heroes, we can finish the hardest trials (7 stages) in about 14 minutes on average (assuming about 2-3 turns per stage and about 2 minutes per stage).
So, the math says, in 2 weeks, we need to play at least:
- ~2.1 hours to get 4 stars Robin
- ~6.7 hours to get Resistance +1 seal
- ~10.1 hours to get 5 stars Robin
- ~13.3 hours to get Phanton Spd 1 seal
- ~33.2 hours to get all rewards
Although some people can finish it in less than 10 minutes/trials, it’s still requires lots of time to obtain all rewards.
Too Repetitive
With the combination mentioned previously: speed, inflated stats, extremely high requirement for rewards, it makes the trials too repetitive and boring. It’s more like a chore than an enjoyment. I can’t wait for it to end. When it ended, there’s a sigh of relieve. When players have to play the same thing more than 142 times in 2 weeks (more than 10 times per day or about 2.5 hours per day), it’s simply too much. Phone game is supposed to be a quick game. This can cause players to burn out and quit the game altogether. Even though the map and enemies are randomize, since only few maps available, we’re seeing the same map too many times. Many people actually resort to using auto battle to play this mode. Where’s the fun in that?
Final Thoughts
I find Tempest Trials – Resonating Fangs is pretty enjoyable at the beginning, during the trial and error mode to find the right heroes and strategy to defeat it. It has somethings I like. But, in the end, I don’t really like it as it’s simply too repetitive and offers very little in rewards.
The developers need to change the mode and find an acceptable middle ground. Otherwise, players may get burned out and quit the game. Number of game play needed to get all the rewards must be reduced. More than 10 tempest games/day or about 2.5 hours/day is ridiculously high. 2-3 tempest games/day or 1 hours of gameplay/day is more acceptable and more enjoyable to most people.
After 2 tempest trials, the developers can help make this game mode more acceptable to players by making these minimal changes:
- Get rid of the speed bonus and change the scoring mechanism
- Reduce the maximum rewards to 30,000
- Increase variety of rewards with 500-1,000 score increments, rather than 10,000 point increments
- Offer more/better rewards for reaching the highest tiers
- Keep the event for 2 weeks
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