I tend to not see things as black and white, as reality is usually a lot more complicated than that. But a lot of people see monetization of games in black and white terms, where anything but a one-time purchase is considered a thing of evil. So they might consider Sword of Convallaria as a Gacha game with a Pay2Win mechanic into which whales can put hundreds or even thousands of dollars, where free players will constantly run out of energy, and be severely limited to how much they can play. But weirdly enough, Sword of Convallaria also has a near completely separate part, which is a pure single-player game, which is free, has no monetization, and you can play for as long as you like without any need for energy or similar resources. You only need to play the Gacha part of the game for a bit, short enough to not encounter any paywalls or energy problems, in order to unlock the single-player part, and gather a few keys to unlock the chapters in it. So what is it? An evil monetization scheme, or a great Final Fantasy Tactics like game that provides a ton of good content for absolutely free? Well, it's both!

The single-player part of Sword of Convallaria, called Spiral of Destinies, is a rather good game. It has a turn-based tactical combat part, and a worker placement / village management part, with the two parts working well together. While you can take 3 characters from the Gacha part and import them into the single-player part, within the single-player part characters only level up by fighting or training, and only get gear and talents from in-game activities. There is no way to Pay2Win in this part. There are also no paywalls, no resources like energy which would limit you to how much you can play every day, and next to zero monetization. "Next to zero" because every few hours you'll finish a chapter and will need a key to unlock the next chapter, but those keys are really plentiful and easy to get in the Gacha part of the game. In fact there is an event in the Gacha part that transforms your achievements from the single-player part into rewards, and that includes a bunch of keys. I still have 11 of those Keys of Destiny in reserve, without even especially trying to get them, and have been gaining them faster than I can spend them. I also got nearly 6,000 luxite saved up, and instead of doing 40 summons with that, I could buy another 60 Keys of Destiny. That would allow me to play the single-player part through several times, to all of the many different endings, which would take probably a hundred hours. If you don't really like Gacha games, but can survive playing a tiny bit of it to get to the single-player part, Spiral of Destinies is a very good game for the low, low price of absolutely free.

Of course the idea is that by bringing players into contact with the Gacha part of the game, some will prefer that part of the game called The Fool's Journey and Crossing Worlds. And that part is monetized, allowing you to spend as much as $100 at once for a single purchase of game currency. Now you can play this part for free as well, at least for a good while. You get enough summons for free at the start to get a decent team, and the early events and activities all give you a bunch of that game currency. The 6,000 luxite I am sitting on? All earned in game, although I have to say that I did spend money on the battle pass (called Cornucopia) and the Blessing of Hope, which is the system by which you get some luxite every day for a month for just $5. Sword of Convallaria works like every other Gacha game, so that the first $50 or so you spend give you rather large benefits, while there is strongly decreasing returns when you spend hundreds of dollars. That is why I tend to spend around that much, and then stop spending money, except if I keep playing the game for longer and need another battle pass.

My experience with the Gacha part of Sword of Convallaria was rather pleasant. The explanation for that I was able to find in the small print. In Sword of Convallaria, when you summon those Gacha characters, you have a 2% chance of finding a legendary one, the highest rarity. That compares rather positively to other mass market Gacha games, like Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail, in which that legendary drop rate is only 0.6%. While Sword of Convallaria has a "pity system", which gives you an automatic legendary if you didn't randomly get one in 100 pulls, you have an 87% chance of finding a legendary before that pity system kicks in (while in Genshin Impact the chance is only 42%). As a result I already have 6 legendary characters, including two of the characters that people on the internet say you "must have", Gloria and Beryl. As you don't need more than 6 characters in the Gacha part of the game, there isn't really much motivation for me to use my luxite on more summons.

In summary, Sword of Convallaria has room for whales, and some players might not like that. But the game is unusually generous to people who spend either just a little, or nothing at all, far more generous than the competition. The tactical combat game is quite good in both parts of the game, and I do enjoy the overall package of the single-player part a lot. Unless you are really, really allergic against all attempts of monetization, or are somebody who can't control his spending at all, I would recommend checking out Sword of Convallaria if you liked games like Final Fantasy Tactics, or Tactics Ogre. Between buying Tactics Ogre for $50 and playing Sword of Convallaria with $50 or less of spending, that would actually be a hard choice.

- posted by Tobold @ 1:39 PM Permanent Link