OVERALL IMPRESSION (Reviewed on PC and updated since launch):
Many people are going to be caught off guard by this game. There will be those that totally miss out on it because of the headlines about the gacha and there will be those that try it out but it won’t be for them. And then there will be the target audience: those resonate with the story and they’ll be hooked. For this target audience there is something special here. Much of this goes back to what I learned during my playthrough and review of Wuthering Waves. The more you know who you are as a gamer and your preferences, the more you can evaluate if a game is for you or not.
Tribe Nine is primarily a story driven adventure with a baseball theme. It’s much more akin to a visual novel with some exploration and combat, but the narrative is the main course. The world is rendered in a retro 2D pixel aesthetic while combat takes place with a modern 3D look. This mixing of styles gives the game old school vibes with a modern flare. The pace of combat is more strategic in that you’ll need to be more thoughtful about your actions, reactions and positioning compared to other action games as some fights can actually be challenging. Since the initial release, there have been patches that have sped up combat changing it to be less challenging and more action oriented. It’s still a work in progress to smooth out combat, but overall it has shown much improvement. The characters, art design and story are well executed for it’s genre with over the top personalities, stories and larger than life super villains that you expect in an anime. Players that connect with the cast, the story and the retro aesthetics and combat will find a hidden gem here. On top of that there’s no energy system. Yes, a gacha game with no energy (there are certain currencies that can limit specific game modes, but overall I did not find any more issues).
It’s not all positive though. As you may have read there are some concerns with being able to acquire premium currency as a free to play player. Much of this has been addressed in follow up patches. The development team has taken seriously the concerns that have been put forward and responded quickly. I’ve never seen such a quick turn around and response from a development team like this. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s a great sign that they do listen to the player base. Overall, there’s a lot potential and some challenges to be still be addressed. Altogether, there’s a lot on offer here and those that vibe with the characters, story and gameplay will find a satisfying retro style RPG with a modern twist.
GAMEPLAY:
Most of this game is about the narrative and you’ll spend just as much time in a cut scene as you do exploring the world. The basic gameplay loop revolves around watching cutscenes, exploring the world for resources, optional side quests and combat encounters.
Combat:
The combat style is also likely to be a dividing point among players. Much of the original criticisms have been addressed and it is still a work in progress with much promise. The reason for this is that the rhythm of combat is slower and can be a bit clunky especially being in the action RPG genre. In addition, it takes sometime to understand it and utilize the right team. Similar to most RPGs, characters take fill the role of tank, support or attacker. The main combat system in place is called tension. As you perform actions, you can build up tension. For example, as you use skills that have a break value (primary/secondary attack, strategy skill, counter attack), you will eventually put enemies into a break state. This then allows you to perform special chain attacks with your party that will then give you tension. Each unit also has a rating on their break ability. Characters with higher breaking ability can more easily put enemies into a break state and therefore more easily increase your tension gauge. Both counter attacks and strategy skills usually will have higher break values and with enough hits can put an enemy into a break state. In order the make the most out of combat you’ll need to select the appropriate team, time your counter attacks and strategy skills to increase tension and then pull off special chain attacks.
Adding to all of this is the fact that you fight with your team against a group of enemies. You’ll be piloting one character while the AI controls your teammates, but you can swap between characters at any time. Another surprising factor is that certain encounters can be challenging. This goes back to more classic games when you didn’t fully understand everything and had to learn through trial and error to understand the combat mechanics of the encounter. The game seems to have been made easier after the open beta, but this is actually one game where I think the challenge and difficulty matches the overall tone, pacing and genre that Tribe Nine brings to the table.
Overall, this means that it takes some time and practice to understand the system. Prioritizing character’s with greater break potential allows you to interact more often with the tension system. In addition, from my playthrough ranged units seem to be much easier to use while you are learning as getting the timing on a parry/counteract can be more challenging compared to a melee unit especially when multiple enemies are around you. Whereas, by piloting a ranged unit you can more safely navigate at a distance and land attacks.
Progression:
Things that you expect in an RPG progression system are present here. This includes the ability to level characters, unlock additional traits (via character duplicates), gear (with stat and set bonuses) and a card system. The card system is the unique gear feature in Tribe Nine. Cards introduce different mechanics to gameplay. They can increase damage of specific attacks, ultimates, give critical rates/critical damage or even give you unique abilities like being able to auto revive a character. You can mix and match cards creating different synergies and augment your teams fighting style to power them up or bolster weaknesses. It’s an interesting system and a nice way to allow the player to customize their teams.
Exploration:
Some of the most fun I had during my playthrough is in the simple exploration. As you progress further into chapter 2 some of the areas are absolutely amazing. I have not seen these types of designs in a 2D pixel art format before. They are intricate, detailed, varied and for certain sections awe inspiring.
Maps offer plenty of resources to discover in the world along with simple puzzles. This makes navigating each new zone fun and interesting. You’ll also come across a variety of side quests. Each one I’ve encountered is also pretty straight forward and easy to complete. There’s nothing extraordinary or innovative here, but all of these details help add to the overall experience. There’s also something chill about just wandering around in this pixelated world, discovering things and fighting. New sections of the world open up a little bit at a time. This is important so that the player isn’t overwhelmed and they get to know specific areas. The basic gameplay loop of questing, exploring and fighting is enjoyable and when all of these factors are present it makes for the feeling of a full gaming experience.
Standout Feature:
One significant feature in Tribe Nine is that there is no traditional energy system that you see in many gacha games. The only other title that I’ve come across in the gacha space like this is Octopath Traveler COTC. That game is also a hidden gem with a heavy story focus. It’s one of my favourite titles because it feels like a complete experience. Tribe Nine also has similar vibes to feeling like a full experience with story, exploration and combat. So often a gacha game focuses so much on creating new characters and controlling a players playtime that it misses out on introducing new, interesting and impactful gameplay content. No energy is a step in the right direction. We need to see free to play games move in this direction because an energy system is at odds with good game design.
STORY:
The story reminds me a lot of what I love about old school RPGs: it’s all about the team. Everything you expect from an anime style RPG is here with over the top super villains, big stakes, mellow drama, exaggerated personalities, quirks and humor. It incorporates themes around youth coping in a dystopia with corrupt corporations ruling many of the cities. It’s not going to connect with everyone, but the true target audience for this game are those that do resonate with the large cast of characters and the ongoing drama. Although there are many cutscenes, if you are drawn to the narrative, most of it is executed well. This surprised me as there’s quite a lot of dialogue both in voice acted scenes but also in text messages. There’s a lot of focus on introducing you to the world with some very common cliches like the main protagonist not knowing their past. But there are also moments of character development with moral gray areas. This is best displayed in the scenes where the characters play XB (xtreme baseball). A brutal form of baseball that is often used to resolve disputes between tribes. During these encounters, you’ll need to select certain dialogue options that you think will help your team in the current scene and game of XB. This adds drama and tension to the narrative although I’m not exactly sure how much influence it has on the outcome as scenes seems to have pre-determined outcomes. Nevertheless, it’s a fun and interesting take that adds a certain level of drama to the story and matches well with the theme of baseball.
CHARACTERS & ART DIRECTION:
One of the standout features of Tribe Nine is the signature art style. You have the retro pixel look in the world, the anime 2D art in dialogue scenes and the modern 3D aesthetic in combat. There’s quite a lot going on here, but everything is also integrated quite well. It’s what gives the game a very unique feel. It’s both reminiscent of classic RPGs while also having some modern touches. Visually there are themes around sports, baseball, street wear and corporate culture sprinkled with touches of a high tech dystopian world. There’s quite a large cast of characters here both in your main team as well as in supporting cast members and villains. I like that there’s a variety in terms of both aesthetics and personality types. Altogether, there’s a visually distinct style with likeable protagonists and a large cast to keep things interesting.
MUSIC:
There’s a mix of upbeat, adrenaline producing, and chill electronic tracks with some jazz like undertones. Most of the music is a good match to the context of battle or for exploration and fit well with the overall vibe of the game having a mix of a retro-electro soundscape. Overall, this adds to the charm of the game and helps to establish the atmosphere and accentuate the more dramatic moments.
CHALLENGES:
The main challenges around this title involve the gacha and combat system. The central discourse at the launch of the game revolves around the ability to gain premium currency for banner pulls. I didn’t play the open beta, but it appears that much of the currency you can earn was removed. The developers did respond promptly to add premium currency to the daily activities. The overall gacha system is similar to many other games with a guaranteed pull at 80 (50% chance to get the featured character) and a pity system at 160 (guaranteed for the featured character). Although there have been changes to how much premium currency can be earned, it’s still too early to see how much you can save up before you feel the need to pull and the rate of release for units especially meta defining ones. I do think it’s a good sign that the developers have responded quite quickly and they are aware of the player’s concerns. We’ll still have to see how everything plays out. On the plus side, this is one of the games with the quickest and easiest re-roll system. After going through the tutorial section, you can then re-roll within 1-2 minutes per attempt. This allows you to do many re-rolls and get access to the featured banner character or the character of your choice. It’s something to consider if you do enjoy this game.
The real missed opportunity here is that since this is a niche title with no energy system they had the opportunity to also go with a monetization model that is different. So many free to play games fall into the same trap of trying to mimic the biggest players in the genre by copying their system, but those systems although financially successful are at odds with good game design. On top of that, those models don’t work the same for everyone. Those at the top benefit greatly while the fallout is steep for everyone else. Meaning there’s opportunity for more diverse financial models. These already exist for those that really know, but not many fully understand what’s available. In the end, compromising on game design elements because of financial decisions will always lead to a final experience that isn’t as great as it could be. As the free to play and mobile game space continues to evolve, I hope more developers are open to researching and exploring financing models that are in line with good game design that place the player experience at the forefront.
The other main challenge of this game is the overall rhythm and feel of combat. It’s much slower and clunky compared to what you would expect in an action RPG. I do believe it was designed like this on purpose, because initially the game was much more challenging and akin to a somewhat souls-like system with slower, more methodical and strategic combat choices. Even though the difficulty was scaled back the same slower paced of actions/animations is still in place. It’s not all negative. The slower pacing makes you have to consider you positioning and which actions to take during each moment of combat. You’ll need to be more aware of when to attack, when to dodge and when to counter attack. You also have to understand the tension/break system so you can actually utilize the special attacks. If you don’t have characters with high break ratings you won’t interact with the featured system as often making combat stale. So part of the challenge is the player understanding and learning the system.
However, the overall animations and fluidity of combat should be examined. There seems to be an overall slow motion/delay type effect in animations that makes it feel overall slightly unresponsive. It’s also much trickier playing melee while you are surrounded by multiple enemies and the timing window of a counter attack can be difficult to judge against certain enemy types. For some fights the enemies also seem to have too much health making a regular encounter feel too long. All of these details add up to a combat experience that feels like it needs some adjustments to smooth out the rough edges.
UPDATE:
Since the launch the development team has received a lot of feedback and in turn has also implement numerous changes to the overall experience. There are significant changes to the gacha system that include better base drop rates that are more in line with other games. This is quite noticeable as it is much easier to pull for and get a unit you want. In addition, there are some quality of life changes to base movement speed and the ability to automatically defeat lower level enemies by striking them on the map (instead of entering combat). These changes contribute a lot to the overall exploration experience. Lastly, there are also changes to combat with more updates still to come. Combat is noticeable more smooth. Future updates will address issues such as lack luster tension cards and buffing melee units.
Although significant strides have been made there continues to be some long term issues. For example, there are limited enemy types and numerous/repetitive basic encounters that really draw out the exploration. It isn’t as noticeable when you are starting the game, but it starts to wear you down as you progress further. This is due to a combination of simple combat, uninteresting regular enemies and an over abundance of unavoidable encounters. However, the developers quick response and action is a good sign that they know there is still work to be done. The changes that have been implemented are unlike anything I’ve seen from a developer so the future of the game is hopeful.
CLOSING THOUGHTS:
Underneath the discourse, for those that connect with the characters and narrative there’s a fun, unique and satisfying full RPG experience here. Although there are some concerns with the ability to acquire premium currency and the clunky combat experience, it’s still to early to fully evaluate the long term viability of the title. There’s a lot of potential and many things to like about Tribe Nine including the narrative, art style and characters. We’ll have to wait to see how the developers respond to the feedback on premium currency and what they do with the combat experience. This game isn’t for everyone, but those that enjoy a narrative focused RPG with retro vibes should check this out. Looking for a tier list and guide? Check out this post.
GAME DETAILS
PLATFORMS: iOS, Android, PC
RELEASE: 2025
DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER: Akatsuki Games Inc
GENRE/TAGS: Action RPG, Story Driven, RPG, Free to Play, PVE
TARGET AUDIENCE: Story driven RPG fans that enjoy a retro vibe
COVER IMAGE CREDIT: Tribe Nine
THANKS:
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