Reverse: 1999 - Initial thoughts

Whew. This game is drop dead gorgeous. The UI itself is sleek and minimalist, bringing to my mind gold gilding and leaf. It's definitely a wonderful change of pace from other Gacha games I've seen, with more dense UI to promote banners. It feels slow and calm, which feels refreshing paired paired with how fast other games and even social media feel like. The sound design is also very elegant, pairing with the game's aesthetic even further.
This minimalism (with personality) carries into the battle layout. The text isn't overwhelming (and can be hidden if needed!), and the card art has this wonderful bold pop without being detracting. Pairing this with the simplicity of the gameplay makes for a relaxing experience that gives you the time to play your cards without feeling stressed. The special effects used by the characters are all very flashy and snappy, and seeing your moves play out quickly and with grace gives me a sort of confidence and pride, especially when I win.

To the artwork itself, again, just gorgeous. The backgrounds are stunning and painterly, rich with detail and personality. The character art as well just oozes so much charm and personality. Typically, I don't find myself enjoying Live2D animation on character portraits, but R:1999 manages to add a level of dynamism to it that it doesn't feel too jarring or odd. The painting style feels almost liquid and soft, and I adore it a lot. :)

I would say that the art style and visual presentation are its strongest hooks when bringing in new players- It's definitely the thing that hooked me, personally (along with my lovely friends talking about it with me, of course!)

Character Design

The character design in this game is actually quite incredible, at least in variety- I've honestly never seen such a diverse set of characters within a Gacha game. A skeletal hand holding a ship-in-a-bottle, a sentient piece of armor, a deer centaur, The Damn Sputnik Satellite - There's already so many incredibly out-of-pocket design picks that I'd never imagine would be playable characters, nevertheless playable characters within a Gacha game. This game focuses on appeal at the rawest sense, in intrigue and not in attractiveness, which I applaud tremendously. That's not to say that there aren't characters who lean further into more 'fanservice-y' tropes, but I honestly do not mind it at all! (The problem comes when all appeal and diversity is lost JUST to push the fan-service.) The color palettes are all very gorgeous as well, and there's a focus on demonstrating historical fashion, both simplistic and complex. The characters feel both standout and also have a certain weight to them that makes them feel like real, living people, which I think lends itself to their position in the story as Arcanists.

Story

At the moment, I'm very, very surface level into the story, but I will have to say I do enjoy its more grounded approach to commenting on real world issues rather than hiding behind a 'fictionalized discrimination' approach. Schnider's story really struck me as compelling despite me as a reader not being very familiar with her, and the concept of the Storm and the reversing through eras deal has made me plenty intrigued. Again, I don't think I'm in deep enough into the story to really comment further at the moment, but this game has been commended for its storytelling, so I'll be waiting for that with bated breath. It manages to carry both heavy and silly tones with grace, which is especially necessary given its subject matter.

The writing itself... While I understand what the characters are saying, the way they speak (within the English language patch, which I use) ends up sounding very stilted and overly-formal. I can only assume this is on the lack of a proper translator, and it is pretty ignorable for me because I'm enjoying myself pretty well, but it does strike me as jarring and it dulls down some of the humor at times. I have heard it gets better with time, but it leaves me wondering how long it'd take.

Closing Thoughts

Ultimately, I feel like I'm definitely singing its praises a little TOO loud at the moment, given that I'm so early into enjoying this game. However, a lot of these opinions probably won't change in the future because I'm mostly commenting on aesthetics - As I progress through the game further and meet new characters + read more stories, I'll make more posts about my thoughts and how they change. Consider this less of a formal review and more of me just saying things aloud- There will be typos, there will be weird wordings, but that's just the small price to pay to write out my unfettered thoughts.

I can't comment on the pulling system at the moment either, because I don't have the experience with Gacha to be able to deem if something is fair or not. I also tend to be very averse to pulling in general, and I tough out on weaker units (which may explain why I'm a little bad at these games.. I'm stingy.) However, from my perspective, it seems rather unobtrusive and I've been playing pretty stellar without worrying about the Gacha system. 

This game seems promising! I will continue to play, and I might write another journal afterwards on my thoughts about the story once I complete more of it proper.

Thank you so much for reading my first journal! I would say more, but honestly, this is getting way too lengthy and wordy. I do hope you enjoyed hearing my initial thoughts on this game, though! I love talking to people about whatever I'm into, so if you wanna talk about your experience with this game with me, I'm super down! Feel free to recommend other games to me as well, if you'd think I'd find anything interesting based on this quick rundown. Thank you once again for reading my blog post!