VIP Total Eclipse of The Wallet

Let's talk about gacha games, those digital slot machines with video game elements. As you may or may not know, I've been playing gacha games ever since I can remember. Initially, I was playing simple anime rhythm games. I didn't spend a dime on those or cared about the story or characters. It didn't even matter that they were Japanese-only. They were just fun to play, despite my shitty scores.

Then the dark ages came, when I played a PVP mobile war game. That was when I started losing sleep and was spending upwards of $1000 a month. After about a year of that BS, I ragequit and never looked back. If you don't whale on those games, you'll be constantly buttfucked by the paypigs. And no matter how much you spend, there will always be some oil baron in some third-world country with incredibly unfair exchange rates who will be infinitely more powerful. Then those oil barons will form an alliance and rule the world until they get bored and turn on each other. It sounds fun at first, but then you'll realize that if you're not a spender, you're just an observer and cannon fodder.[/rant]

I then started doing research on gacha games with excellent music and stories, which first led me to Punishing: Gray Raven. That's when I realized playing action games on the phone was clunky as fuck. Even Genshin Impact was frustrating. So, I decided to steer clear of mobile action games.

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Honkai: Star Rail - If One Dreams At Midnight - If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking
Honkai: Star Rail - Then Wake to Weep - Will Stetson - Hope Is The Thing With Feathers (Robin Cover)
Honkai: Star Rail - Then Wake to Weep - Sway to My Beat in Cosmos

I went on to play Honkai: Star Rail on day 1 of release. It's so smooth and polished, and the gameplay was pretty solid for a turn-based RPG, so I stuck with it. But the lore-dumps. Oh Jeebus, the goddamn lore-dumps. I once compared the amount of fluff to Bethesda games, but I think the amount of exposition has been getting worse with the recently added world, with people comparing it to a visual novel. It's been cursed (or blessed) by the Eastern philosophical style of using a cacophony of cryptic idioms and metaphors to obfuscate one simple idea.

But who gives a shit about that? You're here for the VGMs! Well, I'm sad to say HSR's music is mostly ambient, but in a good way. It blends perfectly with the in-game scenes, but it might not be the type of music that one would typically enjoy outside of the game's context. The VIP is all about catchy tunes that stand out on their own. That being said, the tracks that do stand out in HSR are played during special moments, making them hit even harder. Oh, and shoutouts to Will Stetson for turning this track into an uplifting Christian rock anthem.

Soon after HSR was released...

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Goddess of Victory: Nikke - Goddess of Victory (Feat. Pernelle)
Goddess of Victory: Nikke - Reach for the Stars (Feat. Miori Celesta)
Goddess of Victory: Nikke - The Clarion Call (Feat. Pernelle)
Goddess of Victory: Nikke - Hold you tight (Feat. AKA)
Goddess of Victory: Nikke - GODDESS SQUAD READY

...a Nier Automata collab was announced for Nikke. Yes, that tits and ass game. As someone who's been a big fan of the Nier series for a long time, the announcement was irresistible. It seemed like a perfect match for both games, both being about superhuman android hotties fighting for mankind in a post-apocalyptic world against killer alien robots. Really, the similarities are astounding. The only difference is that in Nikke, the androids(which are called nikke) have human brains, and humanity still exists(spoilers for Automata? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). BTW, it turns out Shift Up's CEO is also a big fan of Nier.

But seriously, Nikke is not just a T&A game. It also has every other fetish. But seriously, it's one of those harem scenarios where the protagonist is an aromantic asexual (having no romantic or sexual feelings for any of the characters)(unless you count the side stories, which should be non-canon, because then it would make the protagonist seem like a total man-whore). Most of these nikke are down bad for him, and for good reason. Not only is he a hot guy - he's also uniquely among the few humans who see nikke as actual people rather than mere death machines.

But seriously, Nikke is not just a harem story starring a voluntary celibate. It has a similarly depressing storyline as Nier Automata, if you dig deeper into the lore. I'm surprised the game doesn't have a mature rating with its graphic descriptions of violence, torture, massacre, and gratuitous sexual innuendos; but I guess it doesn't really count in textual format.

The music is pretty much god tier - there are some gloriously epic tracks. Cosmograph truly carries this game.

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Destiny Child - RAGNA BREAKERS
Destiny Child - Power of Glasses
Destiny Child - Pathos Refrain

Destiny Child was the precursor to Nikke, and it was even more sexually explicit, if you can believe it. In fact, while Nikke was rated for teens, Destiny Child had a more mature rating. It was just one nipple slip away from being a Nutaku game. The game was shut down around the same time that Nikke was released.

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Arknights - To Dahuang
Arknights - Operation Dawnseeker
Arknights - Ain't Seen Nothing Like This
Arknights - Stultifer Cantus (Song of Fools)

I just randomly decided to start playing Arknights for research purposes. I tell you what, this game is part puzzle, part tactics, and part tower defense. It's not just about picking the right combination of units with very specific skills, but also knowing when to tactically swap 'em out. This ain't no AFK game - you have to use your thinking muscles for this one.

It's crazy to think that a music company could create such a successful tower defense game to promote their music . As expected of a music company, there are a variety of pop-y sounding tracks, many of which have amassed notable viewership numbers. However, the sheer fuckton of Arknights music is a tad overwhelming, especially since the game's only been out for 4 years. While there are many tracks used in trailers, MVs, and PVs, I focus solely on the tracks specifically created for in-game usage. Luckily, the Arknights wiki has information on every piece of music.

On a lore note, the way originium works is almost the same as Aersian adamorium. Both are crystals being used as a conduits for magic and are somewhat radioactive. Those motherfuckers stole the idea straight from my head!

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Kyoto Kotoba RPG: Kotodaman - Trial: Song of the Resurrected Shrine Maiden
Kyoto Kotoba RPG: Kotodaman - Tree of Words: Song of Beginnings
Kyoto Kotoba RPG: Kotodaman - Annihilation: Song of the Silent Evil God

TBH, I haven't a clue how I stumbled upon this strange Japanese game. Kotodaman is a puzzle game where you put letters together to make words in RPG-style battles. Despite not appearing in any of the monthly top revenue charts for Japanese mobile games, it's still going strong after 6 years.

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Sin Chronicle - With the Sacred Prism
Sin Chronicle - The Light of Dawn
Sin Chronicle - Battle with Our Ties
Sin Chronicle - Answer ~beyond choices~
Rakugaki Kingdom - IXTL
Rakugaki Kingdom - Crimson Calamity
Rakugaki Kingdom - Sunny Days Battle

And now we're at the long block of dead gacha games. Imagine investing so much time, effort, and sometimes a significant amount of money into these virtual worlds, now gone forever.

Here are a couple of games with 2 things in common. They both have an impressive number of renowned guest composers (Hiroki Kikuta, Kenji Ito, Yuzo Koshiro, Motoi Sakuraba, just to name a few). And both games were online for just around one year before shutting down. Not even a footnote in gacha history. But at least they knew what to put their budget into. Hopefully, it was good practice for Hiroki Kikuta for Visions of Mana.

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RARAMAGI - Arisa Eloise Beau-Regard's Theme
RARAMAGI - Uzuki Manaka's Theme
RARAMAGI - Cold Oath

Raramagi sounds like Rakugaki, but no, this schoolgirl RPG lasted 3 years. It's from the same devs as Another Eden.

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SINoALICE - Banquet of Massacre
SINoALICE - Battle Chorus
SINoALICE - Death's Feast

Ah, SINoALICE, Yoko Taro's pet project after Nier Automata. However, despite Yoko Taro's involvement and Keiichi Okabe's music, it received generally unfavorable reviews, with comments on the mixed-bag story, bland gameplay, and outrageous gacha rates. Still, it managed to last 7 years, which is 3 years longer than Nier Reincarnation, which was shut down just recently. And somehow, SINoALICE had better music.

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Final Fantasy Grandmasters - Boundless Curiosity
Final Fantasy Grandmasters - Clash of Wills (2023 OST Mix)

The Nanaa Mihgo's have been one of my favorite FF arrangers ever since I heard them in an FFXIV livestream. And they happen to be one of Square's in-house bands. They've been composing for a few FF-related games since then. One of them is the FFXI-related Final Fantasy Grandmasters, an MMORPG spin-off of FFXI set in Vana'diel. It should have or could have been FFXI-2, if not for the fact that it's a Japan-only mobile game with gacha shit. It was killed after 4 years.

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Princess Connect! Re:Dive - Fragments of a Fleeting Memory
Princess Connect! Re:Dive - Path of Storms
Princess Connect! Re:Dive - Summer Homework
Princess Connect! Re:Dive - Princess Knight
Princess Connect! Re:Dive - Itadakimasu☆ in a New World

PriconneR is some kind of fantasy action RPG with lots of anime cutscenes. It's been online in Japan for upwards of 6 years, but the American version got the axe after just 2, causing a big hullabaloo against Crunchyroll. I don't know why the American version kicked the can other than the fact that Crunchyroll published it, and it wasn't their first big rug-pull. Let me tell you, though, the music is phenomenal - some top-tier anime shit. It's even got tracks from Yasunori Nishiki, composer of the Octopath games.

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Terra Battle - Normal Battle: Arachnobot's Tale
Terra Battle 2 - High Sky (Remix)
Terra Battle 2 - Queen of Darkness
Terra Wars - Tactics

Let's go revisit Terra Battle, Mistwalker's mobile game lovechild. I bet you didn't know Yoko Taro had a collab shortly after releasing Nier Automata. The collab event presented a wholesome story about a spider bot who slowly turns into a little girl. I'm adding a track from that event to confuse people who might think it comes from a Nier game, when in fact, it's from a moderately successful mobile game that no one can play anymore. It had a good 6-year run.

Terra Battle 2 was shut down in less than a year. Terra Wars was shut down after just 6 months.

Gacha games, just like your loved ones, inevitably kick the bucket sooner or later, but you'll never know when your favorites are going to the shitter. In fact, most mobile games shut down before their 3rd anniversary.. Talk about mass infanticide. Even after 10 years, when you feel a tinge of nostalgia, you won't be able to replay any of them. But at least you have your health. Oh, who am I kidding? Us gamers are always dying of something, whether it's insomnia, depression, obesity, or porn addiction. But in the end, maybe the real gacha is the friends we made along the way. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Protip: Only spend below your means.

As a side note, this update has been months in the making. Just when I thought I was finished, I discovered a new soundtrack and ended up sifting through it for tracks to add. Also, you may have noticed the addition of subtitles to the HSR tracks. This is because it's an ongoing live service game, and I’m treating the content updates like sort of expansions or DLC. It's also a way to circumvent my own rule of limiting tracks per game. For a game that has been ongoing for years with numerous content updates and loads of soundtracks released annually, limiting it to just 3-5 tracks isn’t really fair. Besides, IGDB lists each update as a separate entry... for Hoyoverse games, that is. On the other hand, the updates for other gacha games I submitted... were rejected. They aren't considered significant enough to warrant their own page, unlike Hoyoverse updates. These updates are being categorized as "timed events," which, according to the IGDB Contribution Guidelines, are shorter than a season and currently not accepted (yet). As you all may know, I aim to match the game titles with IGDB. To do this my way, I have to add new code to the playlist to separate the game title from the subtitle for updates not listed in IGDB. I'm thinking about making a case with IGDB to add the major major updates, but that’s for another time. This time, I just wanted to get this damn update out.

This is important.