Dear Travelers,
In today's discussion, we will delve into the gameplay, gameplay loop and monetization of gacha rhythm games. This sub-genre of gacha games focuses on playing songs with a group of idols. Among the popular titles are Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage, which includes mixed genders, Bang Dream, which features female characters, and Ensemble Stars, which highlights male characters.
What is a gacha rhythm game's gameplay cycle?
You play the game by tapping notes on the screen, and trying to tap them when they pass through a line at the bottom, which is called "Judgment Line".
Yoasobi is in so many games!
Surprisingly, rhythm games have one of the most unusual monetization model, and I'm going to guide you through it to have the most of the game.
Let's start with the main objective in the game, which is: collecting songs! More songs equals more fun, because you can try different tracks, making the challenge more interesting and varied while listening to your favorite pieces. To do that, you don't use the premium currency of the game: instead, you use a side currency that you can collect by playing the game's events, so reading - or skipping - the story, after unlocking it. To unlock the story, you just need to play songs and gather points.
This is where the premium currency comes into play. With it, you can pull new versions of the idols - which are the same characters you get at the start of the game, but with different artworks, stats, and skills. Skills are not too impactful - just quality of life for playing songs. Some give you some health back to avoid losing in case you're missing too many notes, others allow you to avoid missing the timing in some slices of the song track (a small part of it), while the last type allows you to get more points.
Points have two purposes: the first is giving a rank to the song you're playing. This does take into consideration your performance, but it's mostly about your team's stats. As long as you survive, getting the highest rank usually depends on that. The rewards of this are just a little letter besides the song, plus some premium currency.
The second purpose of points is allow you to unlock event stories faster, and, through that, get the side resource that allows you to get songs faster. This looks pretty useful, right?
As long as you have a strong set of idols - possibly, but not necessarily, from the same band - you're set: you will complete events very, very fast. You have stamina that makes your points much higher, and you need to play through your stamina gauge a couple times or three to have all the story pieces and associated rewards.
There is, though, another mid-game reason to have those cards: by getting points in an event, you're also ranked against other players. This gives you some premium currency at the end of an event, but not much at all. So here, the objective is just the leaderboard: you can collect titles that testify two things:
How long you played the event
How strong your cards are in that specific event.
How do events work in gacha rhythm games?
The amount of points you get depend on a few factors, that I will list from the least important to the most:
Playing songs fast: to do that, you need a group of five people to start them in a more organized, sequential way
Band strength: it defines how many points you get at the end of each song
Playtime: it's the core thing: the more songs you play, the more total points you get. There's no cap. Everything is additive.
Stamina will multiply the points at the end of the song, making it worth much more than playing it without the stamina.
So, the problem here is: there's no daily time cap for event points - for no reason - and therefore the player that has the best team and plays more gets the titles. Which, in turn, means that, in the world, there will always be a player that wants to play 24/7 - almost literally - to have the most points.
Of course, playing 22/6 - which is the actual number of hours and days you need to attempt getting the highest ranks - is very unhealthy, because of something pretty obvious: sleep deprivation and the stress that comes from repeating the songs all the time.
There are songs that give you the best points-to-time-spent ratio, so organized groups are led to repeat them over and over to get some edge. Which means that the stress that comes from repetition can be even stronger.
How was my experience with hardcore tiering?
I attempted this challenge once, and got third place in a very popular event. It was wery harsh, basically an esport, and it took everything I had to marathon to the end. I took one entire day break inside the event, that allowed my health to stay strong up until the event.
Another reason to rank is to collect little extras that only top ranks get: besides the titles, it can be flavor items, like stickers, for the top 1000 players, as in the English version of BanG Dream, in 2024.
This is the most hardcore part of the game. I thought it was just insane and unfun - up until I tried myself. And, I must admit, chasing a very harsh objective just with your own forces is thrilling - in a way. We humans love challenges, and pushing our limits. So did I. And I definitely did. But... was it worth it? And, most of all: why did I do that? Was it just for the challenge?
I asked myself this more than once, and came to the conclusion that there's indeed a second reason: the title you get, by being rare and shiny, is a way to show other players how much you care about the game. It's recognized by the communities that do this as a "sport" of sorts, as much as a cup would be recognized in a more traditional one.
So then: is it worth to try playing 22/6, for an event, to get this shiny item? My final answer is: only if it aligns with something that itches inside yourself. There are people that do this for many events, but this means being extremely dedicated to the game, and limits your possibilities in terms of exploration of other games - and, in general, it drains your energies so much that it impairs exploration at all in any other field, while you play the hardcore version of the event.
Today's talk questions!
We all take our own decisions, so I'm here to just help you take an informed one, and not ending up "tiering" - which means "ranking" - in those events without even noticing. Because, of course, this is where the game brings you, slowly, if you just play it.
What are the drawbacks of hardcore tiering?
You may end up burning out: it's an endeavor your body will feel, and feel strongly. It can also lead to health-related problems, and I can't really advise you risking this on the channel. It depends on many factors, like constitution, mental stability, and others, but it will take a toll on anyone.
You will spend money if you play the events like this often: there's no way out of it: top ranks are paid if you want to play many events a year, because you need the meta cards, and to refill stamina an incredible amount of times - and that requires premium currency too.
It will drain most of your time for that week: it may be incompatible with work, family and social life - as much as a hardcore sport would. If you do this often, it will drain a lot of time from your life in general.
Is lightcore tiering worth it?
Is it worth to get titles that are not that hard to get, like, for instance, top 1000 in BanG Dream, or top 10.000 in Colorful Stage. My answer here is... it depends again. If you like collecting titles that are recognized by a community, then go ahead, that's a way to approach it without being too hardcore. There are two things to keep in mind before going all-in, though:
Considering improvement is something naturally enjoyable and desirable, you'll end up wanting to push the bar upwards, with time, if you play the game a lot. This can lead to burnout, if you try too hard without being aware, or disappointment, if you feel like you're forced to drop something you wanted.
This may cost you some: to refill stamina, and get cards that make your climb faster, you may want to spend money to make the process faster.
This may lead you to want to collect the entire set of items, even when you don't feel like playing the game: this is a common problem in gacha games, and it applies in the same exact way. The reason why it is a problem is that FOMO - "Fear of Missing Out", is a psychological dangerous bias.
Which are Nero's decisions on gacha rhythm games?
And now, it's time to share my decisions, after I tried all the modes. What do I want to do with gacha rhythm games in general, and with BanG Dream, which is my favorite, in particular. I'm not saying these are the "right" decisions - just my decisions!
I will still play the songs! The songs are fun to complete, and improve upon.
I will still collect some cards! I don't need much money anyways, if I choose just a few. I may do that completely free-to-play, but I think my choice could be supporting the dev by buying the subscription on the rhythm game I'm focused on during that period. It's not required, and it doesn't change the results much, though.
I will not tier for high ranks again: it was meaningful, the one time I did, to prove myself, and get out of a difficult situation in my life. But it was a very peculiar situation, and I don't want it to become a habit - due to high costs in money and time, and health-related risks.
I will not tier for medium ranks again: I think if I get one item, I'll end up wanting all of them, and this would tightly bind me to the game. Plus, I may be tempted to tier higher, just because I'm doing it every day.
I will complete events for the rewards, and take my time reading their stories. I will do that by playing any song I like, and I'll do that in single player on all the events that allow that. I will probably skip multiplayer-only events, like vs-live.
This concludes my panorama about rhythm games, their monetization and gameplay loop! Let me know what you think about it down in the comments!
This is Nero Atlas, logging in!
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