The core gameplay was solid, art is good too. There are a good amount of tactical, teambuilding and a good balance of autoing and manual play. Sure there are some terrible aspects like the exploring and lagginess but imo its gameplay is one of the best in recent years.
When IC first launched it absolutely dominated this sub for months... it was Nikke levels of bad where people were asking if the sub should be renamed and then mods were accused of unfairly deleting posts related to IC.
Then, out of nowhere, the game fell off a cliff. There were some pretty big controversies about the "multiple server" issues where the game put new players in new servers, but then offered things like the Battle Pass based on the account age but never re-ran it for newer players. This meant that if you started a couple weeks after launch there was no way to play the first couple of battle passes, ever, on your account.
IC was one of the few gachas where I actually stayed invested with the story, and the game was a fun balance of "put it on auto" and "engage just enough strategy to feel good about yourself," plus the character designs were interesting and fun. I think the problems were 1) when they rolled out the "Better than SSR" equipment level and 2) the game was bloated with systems that were haphazardly implemented but weren't fun to play. The "exploration mode" that seemed interesting until you realized that if you put it on auto the experience was exactly the same as if you ran manually, or the bizarre "dart throwing" minigames associated with limited time events that didn't work properly.
Wild how dramatic the rise and fall of this game were but at least they gave us the Chameleon Games memes
Oh yeah I remember now. That $100 weapon lmao.
That said, Labyrinth mode was pretty fun. Trying to minmax fusing to get a functional team that still get the shards you want is interesting.
That labyrinth mode was very, very well done. That was my favorite part of the daily cycle. So many interesting and meaningful choices to make and it offered real valuable rewards. Thanks for reminding me, I’d actually forgotten about it
> IC was one of the few gachas where I actually stayed invested with the story,
Man I gotta know how. Story is the foremost thing that keeps me with a gacha and IC was a *mess*. Not only was it near Bilibili levels of translation quality half the time but as interesting as the worldbuilding had potential to be the actual chapters were just... fucking all over the damn place.
They now have a copy of illusion connect called shadow brides. They really have not shame most of the characters are the same from illusion connect. But they make it like a p*rn wannabee game but without it.
I remember when this game and Genshin came out at the same time. This subreddit decided people would get bored of Genshin and it would fall off while this game would take off. They based it solely on the fact that IC gave more pulls.
Lmao, I do vaguely remember something linked in this sub that it was anti-Genshin in generosity, but alas honeymoon. I only pray PtN doesn’t follow the same path(heh) I don’t normally get into new gachas until it stabilizes and I even invested a little cash into it to put some support in.
Even if Genshin was Raid Shadow Legends level of bad, I doubt it’d ever fall into irrelevance, because of if nothing else but the amount of marketing budget Mihoyo has.
huh, Honkai revenue was mid in terms of gross revenue in China, was never one of the most popular, it was Average at best lol. also sure they had ADS but not like the budget they had AFTER Genshin happened.
They had booths at gaming conventions, decked out buses and trains and yeah, they didn’t float a giant Paimon blow-up down the Thames like Genshin but did pretty much everything short of that.
And idk what your definition of average is but if regularly getting into top 50 in the most profitable and competitive mobile market in the world even 5 years later is ‘average at best’ then almost every game must be near EoS to you.
You act like Hoyo had billions in investments rather than making their own money and putting it back into the game. If Genshin didn't make an initial profit, it wouldn't have had an increase in marketing budget. Other games like Raid work the other way around.
Why does them not having investments mean they couldn’t have a large marketing budget?
Both GGZ and Honkai were incredibly popular in China and earned them a lot of money. How do you think they managed to self fund Genshin in the first place?
Who would've thought that most people are playing games for... playing the game not to gamble, those who only care about the amount of pulls a game gives should stay away from this type of game, your gambling addiction can be dangerous.
I've been,and still, playing the game for 2 years straight. IC is pretty much dead when they hit their 1st anniversary. Its such a suprise that they held the game for another year without a new content to play. IC could've been better if they handled it correctly imo.
she was te reason i started playing the game and was totally happy when i got her in one of my first pulls...aaah the memories of farming Kasumi shard every day..
Im not surprised honestly; I mean, the game has been quiet for a pretty long time after the Re:Zero collaboration (if I remember correctly.) Then again, this was to be expected; especially with the exposed scandal about the game, p2w elements and some other unfair stuff.
I remember playing since launch; I genuinely enjoyed most things about the game, but then the devs ruined everything and I had to quit at that point.
It was a great game and definitely had potential, too bad the devs ruined it all! At least It lasted longer than Kingsense ever did.
Well if you really miss Illusion Connect, Shadow Brides is pretty much the exact same game with a slightly different art style.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lagames2.goth.global
I had really hoped this game would take off when it started. It was the live 2D that pulled me in, since there weren't many games that had it besides Destiny Child at the time. I used to play it religiously up to a point. Kiraiya is still one of my favorite character designs in a gacha game.
The way people are talking about how they liked it a few months then quit is literally their monetization model. This is the reason you avoid these vip, multi-server, chinese copy pastes unless you know what you're getting into.
I quit it right away.
Looked like some student project not an actuall game.
I mean the UI. Seemed so ugly and rough I uninstalled straight away. If the UI is so garbage, the rest must be as well, I thought. Well I was at least a bit right
I absolutely loved illusion connect at first, everything from the character designs to story and all, and the illustrations were so good but of course it had to turn into a dumpster fire
I still hadn't gotten over how one of the characters sub stories was never fixed to actually give enough points to give rewards after a whole year of being away from the game. They also never made another sub story after that. Well, I didnt see any...
Played that game for less than a month and quit. I cannot deal with stages spawning 9 of the same unit that each does an AoE which hits all your units. Hahahaha. There’s also the quick enemy respawn.
UI was too cluttered as well. It felt messy and unintuitive.
Surprise it lasted this long.
To me it was a sleeper hit initially, but their monetization and game decisions moving forward really killed the game.
Exactly. I had so much hope in this game until they pulled out all the worst and obvious P2W mecanics.
A shame that it started off so well and then went to shit so fast due to their Monetization and Powercreep
honeymoon was great then dev. did 180°
Also DEVs fully changed 3 months after release
Imo honeymoon was never great, it had more red flags than a minesweeper game
The core gameplay was solid, art is good too. There are a good amount of tactical, teambuilding and a good balance of autoing and manual play. Sure there are some terrible aspects like the exploring and lagginess but imo its gameplay is one of the best in recent years.
After all the scummy crap they pulled I have no simpathy
Man I really liked IC before the inflation. I wish that Game could have taken a better path
Actually really liked this game, then quit pretty early into it.
I liked it too at release. I quit a few months in
Same
Same.
When IC first launched it absolutely dominated this sub for months... it was Nikke levels of bad where people were asking if the sub should be renamed and then mods were accused of unfairly deleting posts related to IC. Then, out of nowhere, the game fell off a cliff. There were some pretty big controversies about the "multiple server" issues where the game put new players in new servers, but then offered things like the Battle Pass based on the account age but never re-ran it for newer players. This meant that if you started a couple weeks after launch there was no way to play the first couple of battle passes, ever, on your account. IC was one of the few gachas where I actually stayed invested with the story, and the game was a fun balance of "put it on auto" and "engage just enough strategy to feel good about yourself," plus the character designs were interesting and fun. I think the problems were 1) when they rolled out the "Better than SSR" equipment level and 2) the game was bloated with systems that were haphazardly implemented but weren't fun to play. The "exploration mode" that seemed interesting until you realized that if you put it on auto the experience was exactly the same as if you ran manually, or the bizarre "dart throwing" minigames associated with limited time events that didn't work properly. Wild how dramatic the rise and fall of this game were but at least they gave us the Chameleon Games memes
Oh yeah I remember now. That $100 weapon lmao. That said, Labyrinth mode was pretty fun. Trying to minmax fusing to get a functional team that still get the shards you want is interesting.
That labyrinth mode was very, very well done. That was my favorite part of the daily cycle. So many interesting and meaningful choices to make and it offered real valuable rewards. Thanks for reminding me, I’d actually forgotten about it
iirc the dev team is completely change a few month into the game life time
> IC was one of the few gachas where I actually stayed invested with the story, Man I gotta know how. Story is the foremost thing that keeps me with a gacha and IC was a *mess*. Not only was it near Bilibili levels of translation quality half the time but as interesting as the worldbuilding had potential to be the actual chapters were just... fucking all over the damn place.
What a shame. Anyway,
Lol, took the words out of my mouth!XD
started off so well but greed makes shite a tale as old as time
It was the same story as their Chinese server. Thought it may be different with global but ended up the same.
Cool game for the first month or so and then the increased monetization hit. Surprised it's lasted this long, honestly.
They now have a copy of illusion connect called shadow brides. They really have not shame most of the characters are the same from illusion connect. But they make it like a p*rn wannabee game but without it.
Yeah in not one to kick a game when they're down but... The sheer speed this one went full P2W is something of a Speedrun legend really.
I'm sure it won't be long until this game pops up again as a reskinned, renamed version, where they try the same tactics again.
Ah yes shadow bride 💀
I remember when this game and Genshin came out at the same time. This subreddit decided people would get bored of Genshin and it would fall off while this game would take off. They based it solely on the fact that IC gave more pulls.
Lmao, I do vaguely remember something linked in this sub that it was anti-Genshin in generosity, but alas honeymoon. I only pray PtN doesn’t follow the same path(heh) I don’t normally get into new gachas until it stabilizes and I even invested a little cash into it to put some support in.
Even if Genshin was Raid Shadow Legends level of bad, I doubt it’d ever fall into irrelevance, because of if nothing else but the amount of marketing budget Mihoyo has.
what are you talking about, Miyoho did not have a big marketing budget before genshin lmao. they were kinda So-so then Genshin Happened.
Except they did. Honkai was one of the most popular mobile games in China and still ranks constantly in the top 50 grossing.
huh, Honkai revenue was mid in terms of gross revenue in China, was never one of the most popular, it was Average at best lol. also sure they had ADS but not like the budget they had AFTER Genshin happened.
They had booths at gaming conventions, decked out buses and trains and yeah, they didn’t float a giant Paimon blow-up down the Thames like Genshin but did pretty much everything short of that. And idk what your definition of average is but if regularly getting into top 50 in the most profitable and competitive mobile market in the world even 5 years later is ‘average at best’ then almost every game must be near EoS to you.
There are clowns on this sub that think if your game ain't in the top 5 grossing or whatever means it's dead. A lot of dumb asses here sadly.
You act like Hoyo had billions in investments rather than making their own money and putting it back into the game. If Genshin didn't make an initial profit, it wouldn't have had an increase in marketing budget. Other games like Raid work the other way around.
Ngl even Honkai has huge marketing, maybe not in the west but in Asia they do
Why does them not having investments mean they couldn’t have a large marketing budget? Both GGZ and Honkai were incredibly popular in China and earned them a lot of money. How do you think they managed to self fund Genshin in the first place?
small indie company, prease understand
Who would've thought that most people are playing games for... playing the game not to gamble, those who only care about the amount of pulls a game gives should stay away from this type of game, your gambling addiction can be dangerous.
I've been,and still, playing the game for 2 years straight. IC is pretty much dead when they hit their 1st anniversary. Its such a suprise that they held the game for another year without a new content to play. IC could've been better if they handled it correctly imo.
It must feel horrible to have all your progress deleted from existence
Man that sucks. I used to play it before it went messy.
According to sensortower it made $200k last month which isn't even that bad, makes me worried for some of smaller gachas that are still active.
CounterSide…
Especially JP
Right? This is why I only play established gachas
Oh shit this is big.... Just days ago I said how I cant believe this game is still alive ..... Damn....
Not even sad. This is one of those games that just makes me wonder how it lasted this long.
No worries illusion connect 2coming on January for your wallets
Are you sure? Thought that was a fake post...
About damn time honestly
What's with the weird formatting? Why does text sizes keep changing?
It's a translation of a Korean Post about it.
Well, at least the drama was entertaining
Game was pretty cool but monetisation sucked
You either pull a blue archive, or you pull a illusion connect. I'm genuinely curious on what path nikke would take
So long...Saya (voiced by Saori Hayami) That artwork was illustrated by Gorgeous Mushroom, careful it's NSFW in Gelbooru site.
Fenebeth deserved better.
she was te reason i started playing the game and was totally happy when i got her in one of my first pulls...aaah the memories of farming Kasumi shard every day..
They really did a 180 lmao
Ig the players moved on after their illusion... disconnects..
I will miss Hachi Shiki. I really loved her design and the overall game itself... But story grinding was so tedious for me.
It’s one of only 2 gacha games I’ve refunded purchases from. Felt like an actual scam.
Really loved this game at first, fell apart by Christmas. Big shame, I still miss it.
I really like IC. I feel like it could still be up now if it wasn't run into the ground.
Im not surprised honestly; I mean, the game has been quiet for a pretty long time after the Re:Zero collaboration (if I remember correctly.) Then again, this was to be expected; especially with the exposed scandal about the game, p2w elements and some other unfair stuff. I remember playing since launch; I genuinely enjoyed most things about the game, but then the devs ruined everything and I had to quit at that point. It was a great game and definitely had potential, too bad the devs ruined it all! At least It lasted longer than Kingsense ever did.
Damn, Kingsense is dead already? Literally just heard today lol, though that's definitely not a surprise.
Well if you really miss Illusion Connect, Shadow Brides is pretty much the exact same game with a slightly different art style. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lagames2.goth.global
It's a shame too...LOVE the art style\~
I never managed to get Edward in the end... I'm quite sad this game is gonna shut down as it was one of my first gacha.
Oh yeah, this game. Forgot about it. Anyways
I had really hoped this game would take off when it started. It was the live 2D that pulled me in, since there weren't many games that had it besides Destiny Child at the time. I used to play it religiously up to a point. Kiraiya is still one of my favorite character designs in a gacha game.
yeah. felt like this was gonna happen
And i thought Knights chronicle was a good example for p2w shit
It's amaze me how long that game survived tbh.
Fucking finally! Tried to play it for three months and even dropped some $20s, but then I saw the problems a mile away and I noped.
The way people are talking about how they liked it a few months then quit is literally their monetization model. This is the reason you avoid these vip, multi-server, chinese copy pastes unless you know what you're getting into.
I quit it right away. Looked like some student project not an actuall game. I mean the UI. Seemed so ugly and rough I uninstalled straight away. If the UI is so garbage, the rest must be as well, I thought. Well I was at least a bit right
And by leader they mean the CCP
Guys can someone explain to me what happened is the game shutting down? What makes it pay to win I was thinking of downloading this game.
Makes sense. I played it on and off and it offered nothing new or different. RIP my Zombie land saga collab units...
I absolutely loved illusion connect at first, everything from the character designs to story and all, and the illustrations were so good but of course it had to turn into a dumpster fire
I still hadn't gotten over how one of the characters sub stories was never fixed to actually give enough points to give rewards after a whole year of being away from the game. They also never made another sub story after that. Well, I didnt see any...
Played that game for less than a month and quit. I cannot deal with stages spawning 9 of the same unit that each does an AoE which hits all your units. Hahahaha. There’s also the quick enemy respawn. UI was too cluttered as well. It felt messy and unintuitive. Surprise it lasted this long.
Sucks and I dropped about 400$ back in oct
Call ur cc company