Millistar Raiders Review

Idle Adventures

I certainly can’t deny that Millistar Raiders has its charms. Published by Super Planet, it is a quaint little idle gacha game with some charming character designs. Unfortunately, however, the game feels light on content even by idle game standards and offers little to make it stand out.

Super Planet‘s Millistar Raiders spells out its story in the game’s short opening cutscene. Two years ago, the forces of the Devildom invaded the Kingdom of Pigland. However, their invasion was defeated by 13 heroes who banished the demons and saved the world. Peace was short-lived, however, and the Devildom is back for revenge. Players take the role of the captain of the titular Millistar Raiders and must lead them to victory over the demon hordes. There are some little bits of backstory for the different heroes and a few short stories about different groups of characters. However, Millistar Raiders doesn’t really have a story beyond the intro.

Heroes of Pigland

Now, 13 heroes might not seem like enough to base a whole gacha game around. However, Millistar Raiders also features five increasingly powerful variants of each. For example, the starting character Chun-Mil initially just has a wooden sword, wooden shield and a nervous expression. However, he looks like a proper knight in his Royal Guardian form, and gets better equipped with each level of rarity. Each level of rarity has the same basic attack and unique ability but a new sprite and improved stats. He also never quite looks like he wants to be there.

The sprites in question are cute and showcase a lot of visual personality. My favorite was the baker, who hits people with a baguette and carries a hot cross bun as a shield. I personally would have preferred more visual cohesion with the designs, which alternate between medieval and modern attire. That’s my preference, however, rather than a flaw necessarily. Millistar Raiders also takes a similar approach to enemies. The four types are skeletons, ogres, witches and knights, and each has 20 different costumes depending on where players encounter them. While I still might have preferred more different enemy types, the costumes were fun and varied enough that enemies feel diverse.

Nose to the Grindstone

Millistar Raiders is part of the subgenre of idle games where characters progress through a side-scrolling adventure collecting resources. Players assign five heroes to the party and then decide how to spend the Gold and Experience Points they pick up. There are some other things for players to manage, but it all comes down to maximizing stats.

Party composition doesn’t matter too much in the standard grinding. However, it’s more critical in Adventure modes. These offer players a way to get special upgrade resources, but most require tickets to enter. Each is a little different but can be more or less neatly divided into endless vs. stages and waves vs. bosses. Players upgrade their heroes during an Adventure, though the upgrades are incremental enough that it probably wouldn’t matter anyway.

My reals complaint is that the game offers so little for the player to do. Yes, it’s an idle game, but good idle games usually give players something to do while playing. I find myself thinking of games like Immortal: Reborn and Alter Ego, the former of which I was pretty hard on. However, both offered actual gameplay and a story in which players could get invested. They were also unique, whereas there are dozens, possibly hundreds of idle games exactly like Millistar Raiders.

And ultimately, that’s the real problem with Millistar Raiders. It’s fine, but it’s only fine and doesn’t offer anything unique. Players have little to actually do, there’s not much visual spectacle, little story, and it plays like every other idle game of its kind. Immortal: Reborn may have been a mixed bug, but I still remember it years later. Meanwhile, I’m not sure I’ll remember Millistar Raiders exists in a month or two.