Naraka: Bladepoint Review (OopsYourDead)
To start off, Naraka is one of, if not the best Battle Royal I have played. From its precise timing needed for counters to overall gameplay, it is fun. I love the intricacy of the skins and map as it is immaculate. I have played this game for multiple years and always end up coming back to play. There are some problems though, mainly targeting the in-game purchases.
In battle royales that I have played across the many years, NARAKA by far has the most expensive in-game purchases. You are guaranteed an "Exclusive Item" after opening 100 chests in the Treasure Pavilion, which costs up to 184 USD (pretty insane just to obtain 1 skin or weapon skin with cool animation VE that you don't even have to option to choose which one!). This is just absurd as someone who is a student and plays this game wanting some cool cosmetic items from time to time. Plus, you are not even guaranteed a Legendary item after 10 boxes, it just resets this 10 box recurrent mechanism after receiving an epic item. So, you could just receive all epic items and not a single legendary after opening 50 boxes. Realistically, If you want to get a skin from the loot box system I suggest not to and to buy a bundle. Even Gatcha games which have immense effects on gameplay with a P2W system have cheaper bundles and prices. And if you do not spend any money in this game, it is still viable to receive an "Exclusive Item", but only within the Lotus or Immortal Treasures. And keep in mind that the threshold for opening boxes until obtaining an "Exclusive Item" is 100, and after this 100 it is not a recurrent mechanism. So, you can open 100 more boxes and receive nothing. This mechanism does say there still is a chance at receiving an "Exclusive Item" before opening 100 but have only seen this happen very few amount of times (the chance is 0.3% but I do not believe that). And as someone who indulges in these amazing skins and weapon skins, it is difficult to keep on playing if these items are just nearly impossible to obtain. At that point, it is just window shopping.
(And just want to state, that I love this game and the gameplay is on a whole other level. But the Purchases are not...)
I know that In-Game purchases are optional and you may be asking, "Then don't purchase anything if you are annoyed about the Treasure system". Well, Womp Womp; I still am going to. But it would be nice if NARAKA could maybe think about their player base (mostly young adults) and make a treasure system that favors those who play this game on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis. This game is a Chinese game so I have no idea about the market as far as in-game purchases for Chinese administrated games. But having a CHANCE, yes a CHANCE to obtain an exclusive skin that you can't even pick after 100 boxes later is ridiculous. Please at least take this post into consideration as I am sure half the player base feels the same.
Thoughts from other players on reddit:
"Yeah, I personally never got anything pass purple rarity levels from the free lootboxes they gave me. I've been playing for atleast 10 moths. I hate lootboxes in general, but this game and the way it "treated" my free lootboxes was a dead giveaway never to spend. It's a shame, I love one of the costumes from Ziping Yin (a ghostly tale one) but Id never buy for that, it's potentially too much and the odds are always against you." -Accomplishes-Big-219
"The design in skins in this game is very top tier. Like extremely high effort - not an excuse, but it makes sense why they’re so expensive. But yeah. I wouldn’t just throw money at the boxes. You’ll never get what you want when money is on the line. I’d just buy direct outfits you actually like to get them guaranteed and just play the game a lot to get the free boxes they give out. Luckily rn it’s anniversary so they’re giving out a lot of stuff and even OLDER chests!" - Full-Composer-404
"Yeah, the prices are absurd and generally, people who play for a long time would tell you to just avoid loot boxes here altogether. That being said, it's all just cosmetics, you'll get some along the way from events and just by playing the game. You DON'T need to spend a single penny." - seraphimax
Just want to shed some light on this issue that I think is occurring. And to the devs, thanks for all the hard work and dedication you all put into this game, making it amazing. But all games have their weakness that they need to work on or adapt to.