AFK Arena is a great gacha game that's been consuming my time since probably 2019. It's an easy app to put on and just let run, but also has time consuming activities that can keep you busy for a few hours and these minigames, let's say, change from every week to every month meaning that there's always something new. Now, don't get me wrong, it has it's faults. Namely, pull rates can feel insanely unfair sometimes, especially with the amount of characters you can pull. In a game where leveling your characters relies on pulling them again and again, this can be infuriating. They've since added ways to at least skew the odds in your favor, but it can still be rough. There's also a lot going on here that can be intimidating for newcomers and even long-time players. That said, I've still given years of my life to this game without even realizing it.
Within the last few days, Lilith Games, the creators of AFK Arena, released their highly anticipated second game AFK Journey. It features a lot of the same characters, though with reprised models and dialogue but with a different gameplay mechanic. Rather than clicking from one fight to the next, Journey lets you go on, surprise surprise, an actual journey. Your character, Merlin, is a supporting character for your pulls, and an active player in the grand scheme of things. I've taken some time to play through a good chunk of it, and by some time I mean more hours than I'm willing to admit, and I'm here to tell you whether it's worth the download.
Let's start with the positives. AFK Journey, while it can feel like a lot, slowly introduces the player to the world and the mechanics, giving them time to adjust to everything that's happening. It does this in a very welcoming way and, even though it's very different from Arena and not what I was expecting, I found myself quickly finding my footing.
The game brings back some characters from Arena and adds some new ones as well. This was a nice treat because I've put a lot of time into the other app and seeing them come to life with lively and colorful designs really added to the experience. This is just something for longtime players, either. The character motions and designs are lively and almost exaggerated, making them feel more real than their 2d counterparts in Arena.
There's enough variety in what you can do that I'm always interested in something. If I get bored of exploring, I can turn to the arena and take my time fighting other players. If that gets boring, I can try the Arcane Labyrinth or an Honor duel. The point is, there's a lot to do if you get bored of something. I keep telling myself that I'll log out after I finish this but then I have to do something else and so on.
I really cannot stress how much I love the characters in this and I don't just mean design wise. While I'm sure Lilith Games will come out with new characters as time goes on, because they seem to be unable to stop themselves, the release included only a modest bunch. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Since this is also a gacha game, I've been able to start building up a team. The character upgrades, equipment, and so on are all pretty streamlined. It feels like they took things that people
struggled with in Arena and used Journey as the chance to fix them and I really appreciate that.
That does, however, lead us to the bad things. This is a gacha game which means, at the end of the day they're really pushing for you to buy more pulls. Now, anyone who's been playing knows that AFK Arena and now Journey can be pretty generous in how much they let you pull. Almost weekly I've managed to pull at least twenty heroes in Arena, and I think I've pulled around one hundred in Journey, but only when I actually sit down and play. I've actually managed some good pulls, but that brings us to the pull rates. They're not great. But, keep in mind, I say this as someone who absolutely refuses to pay for anything else (though I did give $0.99 for a celebration/starter bundle). There are microtransactions, this is a free gacha app, and they don't necessarily give you a lot for what you pay for. Just like Arena. But, just like Arena, I don't imagine it'll be too hard to keep playing, if a bit time consuming and only if you have a decent idea of what you're doing.
I don't blame Lilith Games for adding microtransactions to a free game. They need to make money and keep going somehow. This is just something to keep in mind.
As mentioned above, the story can also be a bit slow in places. Because there's a lot to do, it's not delete the app bad. I just kept getting distracted by other, more interesting features, and had a bit of trouble progressing for a minute. I wouldn't call it bad, but it's definitely not attention-grabbing. There is, however, plenty of room for growth going forward, and I get that all I've played so far was around three areas. I hope to get more out of it going forward.
The last thing that got me was the voice acting. Again, I wouldn't call it bad. I didn't expect these characters to be as flushed out as they were, especially in a gacha app. But there are moments. Some sound pretty good while others are just rough. It's a small complaint, but I think that just goes to show how much Lilith Games managed to do right here.
All-in-all, I won't be deleting AFK Journey anytime soon. I really enjoy playing, especially considering it's free. I'm excited to see what characters and content they add going forward and may even consider writing another blog based on what happens next!
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