Important takeaways
- Gacha mechanics seep into single-player games, pushing players towards moves for the main characters.
- Unique tactical gameplay in mobile games like Arknights and Honkai Star Rail disrupts traditional Gacha norms.
- Games like Another Eden offer generous Gacha systems, allowing players to enjoy fully fledged single player adventures.
When you think of the word “Gacha,” mobile games probably come to mind, along with the notions of incredibly predatory monetization. It is not an unfair, if slightly unfavorable, point of view. Many Gacha games rely on the social aspect, the need to show off your characters to other players to encourage them to do just One More Pull to get that really cool character.
However, some games have the ambition to incorporate Gacha mechanics into fully single-player games. Without multiplayer, these Gacha systems have to work harder to get you to use them. Sometimes this can be more predatory, sometimes less. If you want an experience that's a little more focused, check out these games.
9 Octopath Traveler: Champions Of The Continent
With the original Octopath Traveler, Square Enix knew it had a winner on its hands. Not only due to the games owning good merit, but the advent of the HD-2D art style, one that they would immediately benefit from. This resulted in Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent.
Although the game is far from free of loot, which makes you pull for characters that are the main draw of the game as well as having absurdly high costs, but the act of playing itself is completely free. No limits to how much you can play, how far you can progress. It's Octopath Traveler perfectly distilled into a mobile environment.
8 Arknights
Arknights occupies an area of gameplay rarely seen anywhere in mainstream gaming, let alone mobile. It is a variant of a tower defense game where the tactical placement of units are some of the only obstacles that prevent enemies from reaching your base. It's also played in full real-time, adding to the excitement of decision-making.
Outside of the levels, the game also features base building to maximize material and currency acquisition, with many players even tactically deciding which characters to acquire where they are in the game. This also means that there is no rush to get the “best” characters, with more common characters being just as useful in certain scenarios.
7 Honkai Star Rail
Hoyoverse already enjoyed a lot of popularity in China with their Honkai Impact series, although they reached international acclaim with the release of Genshin Impact. This led them to market their other series to a worldwide audience, eventually culminating in Honkai Star Rail.
In stark contrast to Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail is a turn-based game and focuses more on the tactics of party composition. With this added focus comes the removal of multiplayer mechanics altogether, with a few social features left in place. The gacha mechanics remain the same as their other games, though at least you can enjoy them more at your own leisure instead.
6 Another Eden
Another Eden is a game that has slipped under the radar for many people, despite the prestige behind it. Written by Masato Kato and composed by Yasunori Mitsuda who both previously worked on Chrono Cross. It's a Gacha game, yes, but one that's meant to evoke the style of older RPGs and the various features that come with it.
Another Eden is completely single-player, and its Gacha mechanics are relatively generous. You unlock new characters through it, although plenty of free currency can also be acquired to give you a few more draws on those characters. It's definitely worth a shot if you're looking for a rewarding single-player adventure without too much baggage.
Another Eden is also available on PC if you'd rather play it on a bigger screen.
5 The tears of the kingdom
Is it cruel to mention Tears of the Kingdom here? Perhaps. In fact, you're probably wondering how Tears of the Kingdom, a full-priced Nintendo game with no in-game microtransactions, is somehow a Gacha game. And it is based purely on a technicality.
In the Sky Islands, you'll come across a bunch of machines that, once you throw in some Zonai materials, will reward you with parts to build anything you want with. The thing is, these are literally Gacha machines. Like the actual capsule machines that the mechanic is named after. So there you go, Tears of the Kingdom is a Gacha game.
4 To punish Gray Raven
Character action games are a rare genre in and of themselves, and an even rarer one to find success and competence in. It's hard to create compelling characters and enemies that reward you for experimenting while being completable without expert-level talent. Interestingly, Punishing: Gray Raven toes that line quite well.
The game takes place in fairly short missions and primarily challenges you to defeat all the enemies within them as efficiently as possible, but also promotes high and fashionable combos. Many characters also come for free in the story, while the rest are acquired through the Gacha mechanic. However, it is a very stylish game and one you can find satisfaction in with any character.
3 Fire Emblem Heroes
Nintendo very rarely enters the mobile market, and even more rarely do they keep these games going for an extraordinarily long time. Fire Emblem Heroes is the exception to that rule, having gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2017. After all, there's a lot of Fire Emblem going for it.
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Like the console games, Fire Emblem Heroes is a grid-based strategy game, albeit with a Chibi-spec style for its characters during missions. Characters are obtained through Gacha mechanics, and variations of them are also obtained through certain events. They also have such absurd scenarios where abilities trigger that would put any of the mainline to shame.
2 Nier Reincarnation
While Yoko Taro has developed a few games for mobile, Nier Reincarnation was easily the most well-known of them after Nier Automata's massive cultural impact. Taking a completely new approach from either Replicant or Automata, Reincarnation lets you play as different characters in the story chapters.
During the missions, you assemble a party. While many of these characters will be given to you by the story, their variations as well as improved weapons can be acquired through the gacha mechanic. They weren't the toughest, although the story behind these items was one of the biggest draws.
Unfortunately, Nier Reincarnation was also shut down in April 2024, just a month after its last update.
1 Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Honestly, this is the game that inspired this entire article's existence. Almost every other game on this list is either a mobile game or a more typical Gacha game that still wants you to spend money. That's the logic of Gacha – do you want instant gratification, or the grind that can get you the character you want?
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 gives you new Blades almost exclusively as part of the Gacha system, with only a few guaranteed as part of side quests. It could be argued that the random nature of this means that each player has a unique playthrough and must build their teams differently. That's absolutely true, but try to keep believing that opinion as you burn through the Core Crystals to unlock Kos-Mos.
