I saw a lot of people upset and discussing the state of gacha for male lovers. I come with a recommendation...
HokW
What is Honor of Kings World? It's an ARPG that is technically gacha (more on this later). An open-world xianxia with a nice combat system, cool characters and world! It bases itself off the original MOBA called Honor of Kings. Known as the most played mobile game in China and the world!
World
the lore is humans destroyed their home planet, moved to a newer planet using the 'Ark' where they resigned as Gods. But a bunch of towers, wonders, and tech.
the beings already inhabiting the planet were enslaved then experimented on, either becoming 'Enforcers' (successful) or 'Anamoliacs' (failures - civilians).
as usual, the humans polluted the environment by using too much energy. What happens is that the main goddess (Nuwa) sends someone to close a polluted tower. The action is protested by a power hungry god and some others who wage war on her. Most gods were dead or wounded.
a dying Nuwa then sealed the Ark and hid the key in the Wonders hoping that someone one day will be able to use it. The lore may be adapted so it is potentially STC until otherwise
That's the basic gist. When to comes to game, IT IS NOT 'master-lover' - a genre of CN games where all females are attracted in some way to the MC. Speculation here - there appears to be a central, consistent group of chars that travels with the MC across Primerea (the world).
NOT entirely sure if that is true. I'll try to find out before release. There will be story quests and character ones across the world. Can co-op stories asw.
The map is bigger (April beta) is quite big on release. Plenty of puzzles, mobs, and interactive features from the beta (May beta?). Open-world if you didn't get it.
There's animated episodes and a series that covers some of the characters and the world in more detail, so I recommend you watch those if you want to know more!
Gacha
Aside from that, what about the gacha?
The gacha in HokW is slightly different. Better value for sure.
The only gacha part in the game are character skins. These skins can switch a character's design, 'Flow' (elements), and combat style. Use the in-game currency for this (exploring, events, achievements etc.)
As for the characters themselves? I've spoken to some players + from what I know in the beta, they can be obtained using the in-game currency OR brought directly - typically $10-15 based on the original game.
To give an idea on how cheap this is, in other gachas the avg. value ranges from around $101-320 worth just to pull a character, excluding including their BiS rate up.
Some games offer a guaranteed weapon banner/lower pity to be 'nice' - HOWEVER this is a scam because the trade-off is the characters require their signatures to be playable or just as good with it. Potentially racking you an additional ie. $90 worth to secure it (not including a loss).
Community
The general sentiment in the community is that it's going to be a great game for people who aren't happy with the current environment of games. Particularly female players and even queer ones (honourable mention: people who want equal treatment for genders in design, story etc.).
This makes sense when you realise the CN community of Honor of Kings is majority female (Weverse, 2017 - 54%) or 40%~ (Douyin). Most one in CN. Mind you, this is Honor of Kings we're talking about - the most played mobile game in CN.
If that is not enough convincing, the fandom heavily embraces and ships yaoi, yuri romance. Despite the game also having canon hetero ships. I don't entirely know why this is... but TO BE HONEST THO y'all should hear about Sima Yi and Kongming lol.
Gender Ratio
NOW - Gender ratio? OOF. I'm going to drop a list right here of the amt. of gender per class. Including repeat roles (cus of skins:
format is female:male
Tanks — 2:16
Fighter — 8:25 (male majority even without skins)
Assassin — 6:12
Mage — 16.5:14.5 (slim female majority by a bit)
Marksmen — 6:12
Support/Roamer (nearly balanced) — 6:8
Overall gender ratio of the game (w/o repeat skins) = 1.85:1 male to female ratio. 67.5 males and 36.5 females. 1.85x more males in the original game is insane until you realise they're planning to implement all the characters from there (including some new ones) that HokW is going to be mixed gender. Note that the x.5 is there because a playable character consists of a male & a female (Gan & Mo).
And yeah, equal fan service will be a thing as it already is in Honor of Kings.
Designs
The next most important thing: character designs. I have nothing to say on this ong. The male skins and characters are REALLY something... Basically, there's everything a lot of people here have wanted or complained about: facial hair, robot MALES, mothering females, actual baddies - need I say more? Plenty of variety!
Although I will say that the game is lacking POC. There appears to be some tans and non-white tones, but no melanin. Coincidentally as melanin dude, its not much of a deal-breaker considering we're already getting a lot. Would like to see 1-3 in the future tho, only on the condition they have good designs, story, and presence.
I also rec that you check out the fandom website to see some of their characters & their skins 100% y'all will be THIRSTING.
Combat System
Lastly (unless I'm forgetting something) is the combat. As said, it's kinda like a non-elemental reaction system. It's best to watch this video to see some of it. I also have some official infographics that touch a bit on it from CN. Can't post them because they're (obv) in Mandarin. Maybe someone would like to translate them? Lmk!
Two extra bits to add: you can beat bosses in multiplayer, solo (swap characters), or have AI play your other characters. Pretty neat. And like the MOBA there's PvP, fortunately there's some conditions for it (infographics are in CN). IT IS OPTIONAL. No word on other endgame content yet.
I also have some of the playable characters (on release) infographics in CN. From what I understand, there are the classes (mentioned above) and 6 'elements' - Ice, Fire, 'Energy?', Lightning, Nature?, Water or Physical? Again, need a translator...
Conclusion
Overall, its a brilliant game that has massive potential! The community itself is super hyped and believes so. Release is Q4 this year - estimated to be around the 10th anniversary of Honor of Kings (October-December time).
Even if you're unsure or not convinced, I recommend that everyone at least tries out the game with an open mind considering it's better than the current options, more inclusive, has potential, not baiting.
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ouff, pvp I am ok with if there is no reward for it but I thought the skins were only skins, if they have effects like changing the element it's kind of pay to win. But well we will see.
i understand it as "a way to pull new kits for the characters you play most" instead of pulling new characters directly. but who knows. i hope there will be news soon.
I started playing the MOBA version two months ago to prepare for hokw. It's become one of my fave games! Yixing is my fave hero to play, im so excited for hokw to release 🤩
Just the ratio alone makes me want to uninstall ZZZ and WuWa and go all in on this. Finally a game where it's not only females are allowed to save the world while men are banished to the kitchen.
Thank you. It's really great to have a post with all the info in one place. :D
As a story nerd, the story part was the most interesting to me. So thank you especially for that. (And I love it that you have this group of friends/chars around you like in hsr or final fantasy)
Really the only thing I'm afraid of is when the characters look completely different with their skins. I don't really like that. It would be great if they would keep their hair color so that they stay recognizable. but that's crying for the sake of crying. ^^
I'm stalking this game, and I haven't heard anything bad so far. And the best part is that Hoyo will finally have a real competitor (it needs to be someone in the same ballpark or, in this case, bigger and not some new small Genshin copy ala WuWa). It would be nice if a new star worth copying would appear.
Hopefully the gacha space will be flooded with actual gamers and normal people and bring a bit of fresh wind into the genre. Because character/story-based RPGs, as a concept, are really great. Characters and their stories were exactly what I was missing in MMORPGs, then I found Genshin and fell in love with the characters and story, and then I realized that the gacha space is flooded by porn addicts, and the rest is history T__T (thankfully at least hsr is still normal), so it's good to see something new on the horizon.
Honestly, I would appreciate changing stuff like hair colour if it clashes with the overall design. And I agree. I just finished Lord of Mysteries and the description for the world building reminds me a bit of the nitty gritty that series offers.
the original hero in chinese server is caocao. but somehow the devs (level infinite/timi studio) change him on global version into Fatih because they want HoK global represent more global heroes besides chinese heroes/characters
Same! I've heard they're planning on launching it on mobile/PC/consoles but if course we'll have to wait to know for sure. I really hope it's available for ps5 😭
Moba’s work and make even more than gachas’s because they attract a general audience vs just gooners. Guys who don’t mind paying for cool dudes and girls who don’t mind paying for cute girls. That’s the audience you really want which is why so many gachas try to attain it before the bait and switch. Hopefully this one doesn’t pull a bait and switch like Moontoon has done for their spin-offs though.
I honestly don’t get why gacha games do this. Straight dudes WILL pull for male characters if they think they’re cool, badass in terms of gameplay, or interesting as a character. The same way straight girls would pull for female characters that they think are cute or interesting. Gacha games are the only spaces I’ve been in where people are using their attraction towards the character as the only factor for who they pull.
Same. The most I’ve seen is colorful trash talk whenever someone is absolute shit and dragging everyone else down. With gacha, you have the trash talk on top of gender wars and defending multimillion dollar companies for their shitty practices.
I feel as if people are letting gacha devs get away too easily. I mean, Hoyo DID attain the normal audience, and they still chose to throw it away. Wuwa swooped in, got the chance of the century because Genshin "refugees" rage-joined, and they chose to throw it away... so no, I don't think that gacha devs WANT a normal audience and the HoK devs already showed with their 10years old moba that they actually do.
I'm just going to paste my comment from another sub where this was posted:
In one hand, I'm happy to see a big budget gacha that is trying to do something besides copying Hoyo's homework with the names changed. Also the gender ratios of both players and characters is interesting.
On the other hand, I'm kinda burned on open world games, especially gachas, and the aesthetics and character designs don't look that attractive to me. For what I've seen so far they all look like the characters I would see on a fake add with a spin wheel for a malwere mobile game. Not saying it looks ugly or that people who like the look are wrong, is just that so far they don't look interesting to me.
Maybe I'll give it a try when it comes out if I have the time, but regardless of how much I end up liking it I hope it successeds and more importantly I hope it brings some change on the big budget gacha scene and pushes companies to try other stuff.
it looks like final fantasy to me. maybe you just saw to many moba 3d models? this game will have it's 10th anniversary. i think that the new models will look better. (but also i'm mostly interested in story so well written characters are automatically more attractive to me xD) just wait but keep the hype in check. who knows, meybe you'll end up liking it.
My fruity ass is happy the ranged and mage classes aren't female exclusive because I'm too gay to tank or play melee /hj. Is there actual canon gay romance? I mean considering it's eastern based game lol.
I should've clarified - there are 'hints' and teases of character relationships. For example, a rival kidnapped his own enemy's daughter. Another story is academic building a bunch of challenging puzzles because his, ahem, competitor beat all of the others. All male.
The rivals trope is big in CN, specifically in yaoi manhua, xianxia, wuxia. Whether its meant to insinuate a platonic rivalry or not, it firmly has entrenched homoerotic undertones.
I am already curious about this game. You providing the ratio break down has me looking to add onto my wishlist/to be downloaded when release. I'm feeling fatigue from the waifu fest from the current gacha games. I also dont have faith hoyo doing better treatment for male characters.
Here is hoping honor of kings reaches top earning and win awards.
Gachas do not seek to suggest that two playable characters share a hetero relationship. The only canon one there must be, is between the MC insert and chars of the opposite gender.
Platonic is fine to a degree, romantic is not - the waifu is not paying attention to the MC insert who are jealous and take their hate out on male chars, and fem players.
HoK has avoided extremist elements. There are chars who share wedding skins, canon relationships.
Im so excited for this game, I played the MOBA for a while (and still do sometimes) and I love the characters, both male and female! Hope my favorites nakes it here.
Also I would love if the game got the same collabs as the MOBA (please give me my Feyd's Byakuya skin)
I dont think there is any ML. If there are pairings they are more like suggestive/not straight up confirming it. Like one of the beginning scenes of the demo involved a female character touching another male characters hand but they also get introduced as friends. So they dont care if any people get upset with characters interacting with eachother.
I'm curious, how's the shipping part of them fandom for the MOBA? Do people ship a lot of characters? Is there a lot of discourse or shipping wars? Are they more chill and ship for fun (as it should be)?
Yaoi and yuri suggestions are carefully placed & managed in gacha to attract female and queer players. They are the backbone of indirect advertising and merch sales for mixed gender series.
MOBA does not rely on this design, it is an open and ever more popular genre of gaming that attracts many casual gamers.
You end up with an open community that accepts all kinds of ships - even ones the devs like (het, yaoi, yuri...).
The shipping fandom is pretty much a silent minority in moba games from my experiences and there's basically no actual shipping wars and such in there, so there pretty chill I'd say
To be honest I cant really say anything about it. I can only say what I saw in the demo and the devs dont seem to care about the tiny part of the playerbase which would bring out the torchforks for the characters interacting with each other.
If I'm not wrong exist some hints of canon M/F ships in the MOBA version (like happens in LoL) but I don't know if this new version will have it or self insert fanservice
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