Managed to Beat Misuzu's N.I.A scenario in Gakumas

it's nearly not as bad as Uma Musume but it sucks how RNG Gakumas can be

I think the game is gentler too as even without the best SSR idols and SSR Supporters you'll eventually, in the short term, manage to beat everything. I'm planning to never ever spend anything on the game, and got generally bad luck on my pulls, but I'm playing since release (most of the time just doing dailies since it takes 2minutes). So after a year now I have at least one SSR idol of each character now. But yeah even with only SRs only, it gets easier as you play as you'll unlock stronger and stronger cards as your Producer Level levels up.

BTW if you're still reading this and never played Gakumas, its gacha system itself is extremely bad and it's one of the reasons the game makes so much money. There's a new banner pretty much every 10 days, pity isn't shared between banners, and the amount of free gems we get is ridiculously low. Some banners also have 2-3 new SSRs so you can end up never getting the one you want till hitting pity. I feel that sadly a lot of JP players don't mind that much though and easily get pushed into spending.

But yeah it's typically the type of game you shouldn't play if you're easily swayed by gacha or if you aren't an anime boomer like me and find 90% of sociage chara unattractive. The best strat as f2p is to pick ONE favorite character, two at most if you really can't help it, and save to hit pity for one of their SSRs every 5-6 months. And if you're lucky with the free pulls every now and then you'll get something good too.

Lastly, some SSRs are "Another", meaning that they share upgrades and Limit Break/dupe pieces with the character's first ever SSR, so it makes things a little bit less ruthless. However, getting an "Another" SSR unlocks a new outfit and song for that character, just like with normal SSRs, but doesn't unlock a new playstyle of that character to produce in runs. Because Another SSRs are always the same type of playstyle (Sense, Logic, or Anomaly) as the character's first SSR. Dunno if I'm explaining this well at all. Anyway I wasn't planning to write a review so Let's Move On Now.

It's true Gakumas can be extremely frustrating when you retry an audition 3 times and for 3 times straight you always get the worst luck possible, the worst Turn order possible, and are pulling the worst cards at the worst moment. But it feels really good when you win.

I don't like roguelites, but I don't consider Gakumas as one, and I don't like the comparisons with Slay the Spire.

Furthermore, Gakumas is utterly unbalanced. Your runs vary wildly depending on whether the idol you play is Sense-based, Logic-based, or Anomaly.

Sense-based characters are the hardest to play by far. It's much more luck based. If you don't have the right card at the right moment you're screwed. In particular, when you reach Producer Level 47 and unlock the card 魅惑のパフォーマンス (Miwaku no Performance) it can make your deck much better, as it guarantees points for two turns & gives you the very powerful 絶好調 (Zekkouchou) buff.

I remember getting really lucky on my first ever Master Mode N.I.A run with Sumika and clearing it first try:

With Logic-based characters, you can rack up points every turn regardless of luck, and they have access to the most powerful card in the game, 私がスター (Watashi ga Star), which gives you an extra final Turn. Like, playing as Hiro is ultra easy mode and boring. I still remember how I easily beat Finale Audition on my very first Hiro N.I.A run on Master difficulty:

I do like Hiro herself but playing as her is giga lame. (I like her but she's not among my favorites characters (Mao, Reiwa Gyaru Sumika, Sena, Misuzu, Tsubame). And it also kind of irks me people only interpret her as "haha funny girl who always faints", or as "thin loli" (she isn't even a loli, nor is China. There isn't any lolichara in Gakumas). And don't know about what actually makes her appealing and how I need to continue my fanfic that starts with her doing blackface thinking she'll get to experience racism.)

Lastly, Anomaly characters like Misuzu are extremely strong but you actually need to use your brain, unlike with Logic chara, so they're really fun. It's my favorite mode by far.

This was only my 10th Misuzu run in total since she was made playable. (I didn't count, I just coincidentally got the "10 runs finished" achievement when finishing this one).

Clearing Sense Sumika N.I.A Pro difficulty, before unlocking Master, probably took me over 10 runs.

As always I skipped all story so I actually don't know much about Misuzu yet. Insha Allah I'll have the time to stream and record and translate her story soon. I started with Gakumas storylines translations vids with China even though she's not one of my favorites, so I'm planning to do a vid for one of my favorites next, either Mao, Sumika, Sena, or Misuzu.

(Btw, I already read all of the Step 1 stories of Temari, Kotone, Mao, Sumika, but I didn't record myself so I'll have to do them again. Haven't read the other characters' stories at all. And I barely watched Hatsuboshi Commu and all the events so far. In the long run I wanna do vids for everything and then write paywalled posts with in-depth impressions.)

Not sure when I'll have the time to do a new vid. I wanna finish my Heaven Burns Red latest stream summary, catch up on Genshin main story before the 6.0/ Luna 1 update on September 10, etc.

Anyway thanks for reading. Looking forward to doing Misuzu N.I.A Master difficulty runs now that I've unlocked it. Being able to Customize two cards at each Special Lesson with Asari sensei instead of one means you can do really interesting Anomaly decks. And can't wait to see how crazy strong Temari must be at Finale audition Master difficulty.

Remember to check and share fundraisings for Palestinians.