Leaving a gacha/mobile game behind... a long post.
Originally, I was going to make this post private to my subscribers on my WordPress, but decided to make it public. Be prepared as this is a long one. If you don't want to read this post, that's fine. Not a lot of people really interact with my posts here or that they care about me sharing my art.
Let's talk about a mobile game that I've been playing since 2021... 5 years. And it's my first gacha game and only gacha that I currently play: Dragon Ball Legends. More like, "Greedy Ball Legend(ary maintenance)". I wish I never hopped on. I fell in the gacha trap. For those who don't know what a gacha game is, look it up or click this link. It's basically virtual gambling with getting fictional characters and you don't know if you will get that rare, stronger unit or not.
This game... has left a bad sour taste in my mouth since last year with so many changes the app has made. The UI update took me a lot of getting used to, more stronger units just kept getting added such as Ultras and Legends Limited (some I didn't even care about) that it left the older characters in the dust, I had bad luck with some banners such as the Android 13 banner from last year and I nearly had bad luck with the Legends Limited Super Saiyan 2 Gohan (Youth) banner during Legends Fest. And let's not forget: the supporters. When they added them to the game, I knew that this game was really going downhill. I'll get to them later on in this post. And with what happened most recently with the addition of Legend Super Vegito (Legend is a new rarity added to the game that I've heard will be replacing LL meaning that Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta Mini will be the last LL character), I just had thoughts of quitting this game.
Let's rewind to when I discovered this game: I remember seeing it on the App Store when it released and I didn't really care about it. Then around 2021, a user on Twitter tagged me in a quote tweeted post from the official Legends account: Launch was added to the game. I was happy that my favorite Dragon Ball character of all time was finally playable... but in a mobile game. Well actually, this isn't her first time that she's playable as she's playable in Dokkan Battle, another mobile game. I told myself that I wouldn't download the game just because she got added. But, I changed my mind and downloaded DBL on my iPad. Took me a lot of getting used to with the controls, played a lot of story mode. I used to care about the story, but later just skipped it just so I can grind for chrono crystals (one of the currencies in the game) and that it's too long with so many parts. Once I had enough CCs and Launch's banner dropped, I tried my luck at it and lo and behold, I managed to get her on the fourth try. I still have that screenshot on my iPad on when I first pulled her in the game on January 30th, 2021:
After that satisfaction, I would use her in a couple of some story mode fights sometimes pairing her with Tien and Chiaotzu until one part of a chapter that made her useless against Zamasu (I think it's Merged Zamasu) despite her having an elemental advantage against him. I watched him beat her down badly and I stopped story mode right there. One downside about Launch in Legends is that she doesn't have an Ultimate Blast Arts card, while some other original Dragon Ball characters like Wasteland Bandit Yamcha have one. I found myself playing the game less and refusing to play PvP because I don't like those types of games (later on as I played Legends more, one of the daily missions required you to play Hyperdimensional Co-Op or PVP, which made me quit daily missions at the time), but I still did the summons and remembering how I got lucky with a banner that had a Legends Limited Super Saiyan Rose Goku Black in it and I believe a Trunks and Mai (Assist)... I think I was lucky getting those two in one summon. Around last year, when Launch finally gotten a Zenkai Awaken, I wanted to max her out badly since I was happy about it. This is where I felt more addicted to the game and I felt the FOMO with it. The missions to get her Zenki'd required you to play Co-Op raids, Tournament of Power, and PvP. I had despised doing this for years until now. The Co-Op raids were fun, but PvP on the other hand wasn't. ToP is forgettable and not great.
Now, I didn't care about ranking matches in PvP, I only did the free battle thing (I forgot what it's called in the game), where it doesn't matter if you win or lose and you don't get ranked up or down. I would grind through that and a lot of my opponents wouldn't even fight me back that I would win in a lot of them (except one where I was watching my characters get beat up badly that I forfeited). Of course, I would bring Launch in some of them. The Co-Op raids took me a lot of learning such as certain characters getting battle bonus effects and I would get the hang of them as more raids rolled out. I would also participate in my first Raid Boss fight (I can't remember which one), which I would learn that it was just Hyperdimensional Co-Op, except that you use one character instead of two. But, it does have some issues such as lag, freezing where my character wouldn't move or react when I tapped the cards at the bottom of the screen (I have great internet connection by the way), and getting a good or bad buddy for the co-op raids. I have encountered a lot of buddies that either had weaker characters, I would press the disband button if they didn't bring in an elemental advantage against the boss, wouldn't help me if I was stunned during the raid, some had poor connection, or simply disbanded/let the timer run out before the raid began (maybe because they saw my characters as "weak" and they had stronger characters). As for the Tournament of Power, it wasn't fun for me... just felt boring and is an unnecessary addition to the game. I just did the ToP because I wanted to complete some of the Zenkai Awakening missions for Launch.
Months pass, new fighters get added, I try my luck at some of them, use them if I do pull them, put them aside, rinse repeat. I'm already seeing the pattern with this game. I used to have some good luck with these banners. I remembering wanting Garlic Jr. when he was added to the game and it took me a lot of tries until I got him... but I never used him. Shin's banner was close to ending and I wanted him badly, and I did get him, but again, never used him. The 7th anniversary banners from last year I had great luck with them (when the banner that had Tien/Chiaotzu in it dropped, I wanted them badly and nearly had bad luck but I did get them, sadly I did not get the Kaioken Goku from the banner). But, since this is a gacha game, bad luck can happen (or as they like to call it, shafting). I remember experiencing my first bad luck when Gohan Beast was first added to Legends. I never got him and when I was scrolling on Twitter, I would watch people who have him show him off which made me feel jealous. I felt much worse when LL Android 13's banner came out and I never got him, and I felt that jealously when I hopped on a co-op raid and see someone with him. Then Legends Fest 2025 comes around. This is when I felt much worse.
I didn't care as much for part one's units, but part 2 drops this really cool Legends Limited Super Saiyan 2 Gohan (Youth) and I wanted him. He was my next worst experience with a banner. I did get him... before the New Year's started and I wasn't too satisfied with that pull because I believe there were these events that lets you limit break (meaning make your character stronger) your fighter if you've pulled them from the recent banner and I missed that event with LL SSJ2 Gohan. I've already felt that jealousy when I saw people using him in some co-op raids I've joined.
And then part 3. Part 3 drops this Ultra Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Goku. And as someone who loves that Goku transformation, I HAD to get him. You know where this is going. I try to summon when his banner dropped. Never got him, but instead a lot of useless Hero and Extreme units (I'll come back to the Hero and Extremes later). The FOMO was hitting me badly that I actually made my first in-app purchase. I've never done that before with mobile games and as a free-to-play player of this game for years. It wasn't good. Luckily, I believe it was $3.99 (?) plus tax for 1,000 chrono crystals. And guess what happens after I use them? I don't get him. "Oh my god", I said to myself. I felt a bit of buyer's remorse, but also told myself, it's just four dollars. So, I came back to story mode, grinded through the story for some chrono crystals, tried the banner again because of my anxiety and FOMO and I got him. But, I started using him less because newer characters would get added and they were just stronger than the previous unit, leaving them behind. It happens every time I get a new character that I start to slowly use them less. I also learned about power creeping and what it meant. This is what the game is doing: leaving the older characters in the dust while the newer, powerful characters are much stronger (Ultras and Legends Limited units), especially in PvP; as I had said earlier in this post.
Besides the issues I had with the summons, when Legends dropped the supporters, this is where I just saw the game going downhill. I saw it as an unnecessary addition to the game and if you want to max out said supporter, which gives you better results than a lower level, you had to either: pull them 111x in the banner they were in or head on over to the shop and spend your hard earned chrono crystals to get them. It was ridiculous. I don't use them as much except the Dende supporter, which heals you and the two free supporters you could get in an event and in the shop, you could level those two up for 0 chrono crystals. And if you didn't have the supporter from the banner, you can't get them anymore (unless they come back in a future banner or if there is a way to get them in a future event). You can't even buy a supporter you don't have in the shop. For example, one of the supporters in the game is Puar. I don't have the Puar supporter in the game and the banner Puar was in ended and I can't get that supporter in the shop. Other issues I have with the game:
- The events aren't even fun anymore. It's the same thing. Very lacking and empty. When I joined the game, I saw some good events and I really miss Legends Road. I remember having way too much fun with the baseball Yamcha event.
- Why are the April Fools events better than the events in the actual game? The Raditz vs. Farmer event was fun! Sadly, these events are short since it's an April Fools joke.
- If you don't have the most recent character from the banner, you felt weak and useless in PvP and Co-op raids. You were most likely to be destroyed if your character wasn't strong enough. Expect a lot of gacha whale (a gacha whale is basically a person who has spent way too much money on the game for stronger characters and greater benefits versus a free-to-play player) encounters which I've seen a lot of in PvP matches I've done just to complete a mission.
- The equipment system sucks. It takes up too many resources, why are 999 slot removers the maximum limit, and if you're aiming for Godly equipment, good luck with that. There's a video out there that talks about the problems with the equipment system in this game.
- Arts boosting. I'm not a fan of it. The only character I've maxed out on all arts is Launch. This system has a failure rate too... you will see that failure screen a lot. I got more frustrated seeing it too much when I was trying to arts boost my Ultra Buu Absorbed Gohan (Buuhan for short) after getting him on the 5th try in his banner. It makes me miss soul boosting a lot because it was one button and bam, your characters are maxed out with no success/failure rate. It was also an easier way to grind for chrono crystals via the missions tab.
- Speaking of chrono crystals... this game gives out less of them. From a couple of YouTube videos I've seen, the boss raids used to give out 700, now they give out 500. The missions give out less of them sometimes. Even some of the codes and gifts wouldn't give out much.
- Not an issue for me, but with other players: when Daima first dropped in Legends last year, a lot of people in PvP were frustrated with that tag. I was confused on why until I watched a video.
- The story updates are SLOW.
- The dynamic area battles, which is a new battle system in the game that lets you fight on the ground and in the sky, and also adding new mechanics. I'm not a fan. It even carries over to PvP. Just why?
- Annoying pop-ups: notably, the game telling you to do one of the missions listed in the dailys when you first hop on. I swear, the game used to not do this. Another annoying pop up is this orange box at the bottom of the screen. One of the times that pop-up usually shows up is when you get one of those zenkai awakening things for a character you don't have in the missions tab and the game is like, "Even if you don't have this character...".
And this is where I really want to give up playing Legends. To move on with my life after this. This is recent, but, the game introduced a new rarity known as the Legend rarity during the tournament (unfortunately, I didn't watch it, but the champion that won I sadly didn't vote for in-game meaning I didn't get the 1,000 chrono crystals), with Super Vegito being the first one. At first, I thought it was unnecessary to be adding another rarity that will have worse pull rates, but turns out, this rarity is replacing Legends Limited. I saw this as the game going downhill. I learned more about the Legend rarity. If you want cooler artwork of this Legend Super Vegito, you needed to have a certain amount of stars. This is where I was like, "okay, the game is getting too greedy with this" because you would have to get lucky with his banner and spend way too much money if you want to max him out at 14 stars, just for the illustration change.
We all wait for the anticipated and hyped release of this Super Vegito. And then Wednesday hits.
Game is under maintenance. It's 2am. Why hasn't the game gotten out of maintenance. I check Google and turns out, they extended it. I was mad, so I get 2 hours of rest. Those two hours? Wasted as I learn that they extended the maintenance again. I wait until 5pm my time. They did it again. Okay, this isn't getting funny anymore. And then 10pm my time. They did it again and I was upset that I went to bed with an alarm set to 1am which unfortunately, I didn't hear. Had a nightmare that I didn't get the Legend Super Vegito from the banner. Woke up, checked my iPad, game is under maintenance and the official account didn't announce what time it would end.
I was already losing hope with this game. I found myself scrolling on the Dragon Ball Legends subreddit, seeing posts complain about the game being down for hours, but laughed at some of the memes that were made about it. I despise Reddit because of the toxic nature of it (I used to be active on it but not anymore), but, I was absorbing the negativity like a sponge. This isn't the first time the game went down for long; apparently, this happened during the 1 year anniversary of this game and guess which character it is? Super Vegito. I wasn't there when this happened, though; correct me if I'm wrong. For a mobile game that has a Guinness World Record for the "most playable characters of player vs player action game" (a lot of them are unusable by the way because of power creep and most of them are the same character, notably Goku and Vegeta), how about we give Legends a new Guinness World Record for the longest maintenance?
I would watch YouTubers who play this game complain. I hopped back on Twitter, a bit mad about it in my posts. And I never done that as I had stopped using that site for weeks due to the Grok controversies and all of that. Actually, I hopped back on Twitter because I wanted to follow some people who I made friends with in a free voice acting class I took on Wednesday and a lot of them had Twitter. I had to un-private my account so they could follow me back without me approving a follower in the notifications (I refuse to check my notifs). I would also read the negative, toxic comments on the Dragon Ball Legends Facebook page. It wasn't healthy for me.
And 2/12, 6am my time. I wake up. The game is back. I was happy. I wanted to try my luck on the Legend Super Vegito banner. 13,000 chrono crystals saved up, they actually gave us great rewards as compensation (2,000 CCs is surprising). What could go wrong?
Oh. It went wrong alright.
All those hard earned chrono crystals? Down the drain. I didn't get him at all. That nightmare I mentioned? Came true. I went from 13k to 65. Instead, I got a sparking Nappa/Saibamen unit, two Legend Limited units I didn't ask for, and way too many hero and extreme units that give me Z2 Medals (which I mostly use to buy alt colors for characters). Oh, and I did pull Launch from that banner, but I already have her maxed out at 14 stars. What a joke. Did I get the new sparking Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta unit? Nope. Not that either. Even after grinding hours in story mode that morning was a waste of my time. I was afraid to check my socials (especially Twitter). I didn't want to hop on the subreddit seeing people show off the new Legend Super Vegito. And I didn't want to check YouTube either. I could just hear Vegito taunting me on the dang title screen in my head, laughing at me with his smirk. I know that the hype is gonna die down and another Legend rarity character will take the throne and the hype will die down for that unit... like I said earlier, the cycle repeats. Speaking of hero and extreme units, they're useless. The only extreme units I wanted were Yajirobe and Yurin, but I never used them at all.
I vented about this on my socials. This was just the final straw for me. You know, if I actually pull him, cool. I know that this doesn't end till March and I have enough time. The maintenance issues, the overhype from this account, the new summon animation for pulling a Legend rarity I'm not a fan of (the Ultra summon animation looks better than that), and also I saw a weird thing during hyperdimensional co-op where there were these glitched images or something on the HUD, why didn't they fix that during the update? All of those issues I listed really affected my experience with this game after 5 years of playing. I've also heard that the producer of this game, Toshi (who now is producer on the most recent Dragon Ball game, Gekishin Squadra), left last year and was replaced by Tani and all of these changes made by him just ruined the fun for me and for a couple of others. This is what I had to say on my main Tumblr blog that no one really saw:
As someone who loves the Dragon Ball franchise and to see this game go downhill is sad. At the end of the day, it's just Super Vegito with better animations and attacks and I don't really care about him as much - I just wanted to try my luck at this banner and maybe I regret it. This game makes me think that my favorite character, SP Launch (fully Zenkai Awakened) is useless now with the additions of the newer Ultras, Legends Limited, and Legends rarity (I heard it's replacing LL) as the game keeps adding them.
I also want to add, this feels like Funko Pops and how they would drop these announcements like every week. This happened to me last year when back-to-back, my favorite characters would get Funko Pops and I had the FOMO of them selling out: Launch, Super Saiyan 4 Goku (two of them), Slappy Squirrel, a Wonder Woman in her classic design, and another Shinobu Kocho. I got tired of it that I've been buying Funkos less. I'm not a big Funko POP collector, I just buy POPs of my favorites. My most recent purchase is a pre-order on Entertainment Earth for the exclusive Sumi Ink Shinobu Pop, which I have secured and I'm waiting on. Why the Funko Pop comparison? Well, all I have to say is, this game will announce new characters early like every two weeks, I think? If I think they're cool, I try to pull them from the banner. There were times where after a couple of days of trying to get the character I want from the banner, I would get them, but Legends would drop a new fighter days later and I would just be broke on chrono crystals; basically, poor timing.
This year feels like the end of an era for me playing this game. This used to be building a team of your favorite characters (I would use Launch a lot and an extreme (?) Future Mai unit), kinda like Pokémon where you built a team of your favorite mons. Now, with the removal of a lot of stuff, Ultras being behind money hungry summons (they used to be free when they were first added), the power creep with this game, and of course, the legendary maintenance (they call it legendary maintenance because in the game, Legends Limited and now the Legend rarities will have a special screen that says "Legendary Finish") with the Legend Super Vegito breaking the game, it feels like a race on whoever gets the character first and to have the stronger characters in the game. It feels like flexing or showing off.
As I said earlier, if you didn't have the stronger character in the game, you were obliterated, watching your HP go down very fast. Aside from those issues I mentioned here and earlier with the bullet points, the community is very toxic and not great for me to be absorbing. I want to add that I play the game every day at 10pm PST to complete my daily missions and one time, my neighborhood had a power outage for 1-2 days due to horrible weather that it left me worried and paranoid about missing my logins and dailys. Luckily, my phone has a hotspot, so I used that to play the game on my iPad at the cost of my phone's battery draining. With the maintenance, I was worried about my daily stamp resetting, but I later learned that the stamps don't reset anymore, thank goodness. This game is also a contributing reason on why I've been having a lack of sleep for some days.
Here's my screenshots of the old UI with my favorite character before the new UI update hit (so much nostalgia seeing this UI), the new UI update in black and white, and the recent update with the newer option of changing your character's illustration (and look at those sad 65 chrono crystals at the top right that I have regretted wasting on that stupid Legend Super Vegito banner when he dropped); since I use Launch and she's set on the home screen and I have her illustration defaulted to her manga illustration, it's showing her manga panel on the home screen. Also note that the gold behind Launch in the old and new UI (not the 2026 update) means she's Zenkai Awakened. I didn't really like it all all 😅.
If there are any Dragon Ball Legends players or gacha players that don't play DBL out there that feel the same way, let me know. Maybe I'll make a part two to this post as I had so much to say about this game and if I ever leave it behind, yes a part two will be about that and how I felt after leaving. It reminded me of how I vented last year about the Pokémon games going downhill and losing interest with it after Scarlet and Violet (that post is for my subscribers only now because I didn't want Google indexing that post). I was having some interest in trying Dokkan Battle, but changed my mind when I saw the game's size. The gameplay didn't look interesting to me either. Launch is in the game, but I bet she's pretty much useless. And it's another gacha game and that community is toxic. I have however, watched some people play the game on YouTube a little bit. I was gonna try Dragon Ball: The Breakers when Launch was added at the time but I backed out after finding out the game had microtransactions and that the game isn't free and not fun. And Gekishin Squadra? I'll pass since it's a MOBA game and I bet that game has its issues. Even if Launch gets added to that (which might be unlikely), I'll pass on it.
I had the worst week. Except Monday, where I was interviewed about my comic and Wednesday morning where my interview was posted, but after that I started feeling depressed when said interview didn't get the attention I had hoped. Also, during my free voice over class, I didn't talk as much. I felt afraid to speak up. Stress levels are higher and worse as I feel more headaches, my nose is twitching now, and shaky. I felt depressed Thursday morning after playing Legends, seeing my CCs all gone and wasted on the banner, and after checking social media and seeing less interactions on the clips of my interview that I shared (except Twitter), I was crying badly. I felt the depression hit me more. I also had a dentist appointment today. Not fun to have one on Friday the 13th. But, I have no cavities and everything was good during my cleaning.
I might just go back to playing my DS because I feel a lot of nostalgia playing that. I have a couple of Dragon Ball games that I got on eBay on there including a Japan exclusive fighting game that I love: Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden for the Nintendo DS. That game lets you customize your fighters in outfits (they did this first before Gekishin Squadra), so many playable characters including King Kai, and more. Also, Dragon Ball Devolution, a fan game that I love, has a lot of characters including Launch and I haven't played that in years. And it's free to play in your browser.
That's all I have to say. Thanks for reading. This was a long post and I had to look over it so many times for any errors.
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This Apple review I found basically sums up what I've been sayin':
Title: ⭐ 1 Star - Used to Be Amazing, Now It's Just a Cash Grab
I've been playing Dragon Ball Legends for years, and it's heartbreaking to see how far it's fallen. This used to be one of the best mobile games out there - exciting, rewarding, and actually fun for long-time fans. But now? Unless you pay, you don't get new characters. Period.
Even if you do spend money, your odds of pulling anything decent are insanely low. They release a new overpowered unit practically every week, which forces you to constantly buy more Chrono Crystals just to stay relevant. It's exhausting and unfair.
There's zero respect for veteran players. No meaningful loyalty rewards, no catch-up mechanics - just endless power creep and predatory monetization. This game doesn't care about its community anymore. It only wants your wallet.
Avoid unless you're ready to spend big and still get disappointed.
-TANK-JONES, June 3rd, 2025, 1 star.
https://wimbearn.neocities.org | linktr.ee/wimbearn
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If anyone wants to use my edit of Launch's Legends artwork with her alt battle colors from the game, you can use it if you want, no credit needed. If crediting me, credit me as wimbearn. Made this one last year.
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