The Gotcha Game
I downloaded Elora’s Raid by Eyougame(USS) and quickly realized I was playing another click-and-point-adventure. I was lured in by the gacha demons with the title’s adorable anime characters and charming aesthetics. I love a good RPG. However, idle games were never really my cup of tea, but I thought, “maybe this one will be different!” But boy was I wrong. I was trapped, but not for long.
Get Ready For The Grind
Elora’s Raid is nothing more than an average gacha game: you summon heroes, click a few buttons, level them up, open loot boxes and fail to win the best cards. You get my point. It’s exactly what you’d expect. The core gameplay consists of optimizing your team of heroes to be unbeatable, whether for PVP matches or PVE. But of course, you have to summon the best heroes to do that. You get to summon two heroes a day, and then after that, it will cost you something, whether it be scrolls, gems or cash. And here we are, back in the classic grind and repeat cycle that every gacha game offers. You must battle bosses or other players to complete daily quests and get that loot you’re craving.
Now despite what I said before, I don’t particularly mind grinding in a game. And in Elora’s Raid, you can grind for everything that you need without breaking your wallet. However, if the gameplay is going to be all grind, it must also be engaging. Unfortunately, that’s where Elora’s Raid failed me. As a player, you just kind of sit there—watching your heroes throw fireballs, swinging a sword and yelling something in Japanese without subtitles. The only real control the player has is when building their actual party, which can be fun. However, they have no control over the character’s actions. I can’t tell you how many times Druid (my healer) would cast an AOE heal when my party was at full health instead of doing something useful like buffing them. Although it’s amusing at times, it’s not my definition of fun.
Copycat
There are a multitude of games just like Elora’s Raid, and this is where it gets rather bizarre. Smashing away at my phone screen, a feeling of deja vu washed over me. Then I realized something. Elora’s raid is an exact replica of the android and iOS game Tales of Radiance developed Reality Squared Games. When I say exact replica, I mean exact character models, art, layout, gameplay, arenas, bosses—everything is precisely the same. Just Google both titles and you’ll see what I mean. It baffled me. What is the point of this game existing? How is Eyougame allowed to do this? Intrigued by this, I began researching to see if the two developers collaborated, but I couldn’t find any credible sources. In fact, it seems as if no one else has noticed. I guess that’s the curse of click-bait adventures. Nonetheless, saying Elora’s Raid is just like other gacha games is an understatement. It doesn’t have an ounce of uniqueness.
Well, This Is Awkward
I’m not going to lie, I felt a little bit betrayed when I found out Elora’s Raid is a blatant rip-off. Developers take inspiration from one another all the time, but this game’s shameless copying and pasting seems criminal. And although I couldn’t find out the circumstances behind this phenomenon, I can’t really think of a situation where most players would be okay with this. Elora’s Raid wasn’t a terrible game. It has basic elements that a lot of gamers gravitate towards. It’s grindy, sure, but the game allowed players to farm for what they wanted instead of forcing them into the “pay to win” path that so many gacha games fall into. I can forgive tedious gameplay, but I can’t forgive obvious fraud.
Hardcore?
Not really.
Elora’s Raid can be fun for those gacha game addicts out there, but if you asked me what this game could offer you I’d tell you, “nothing.”
