Yep, you read that right. I’m a firm believer that this specific genre of gaming includes games that are practically copies of each other. So, why are all gacha games the same? Is it a trend, or has it always been like this? I’ll go into a deep dive about what I think, and what the future of gacha games is.
If you’re in need of a gacha game that isn’t the same as the other, read my post about Why Titan Regiment Is The Best Mobile Game. Also, I want to note that this article, alongside everything else on iFanzine, is 100% AI free! This is all my own work, and I pride myself on bringing readers creative and handwritten work : )
Why Are All Gacha Games The Same?
You may have noticed that gacha games all feel the same. Characters are similar, wearing the same sort of outfits, and dare I say… Specifically the female characters. They all look on the younger side, wearing clothes that hardly cover anything with large chests that seem to be the main focus of designs. I would say that gacha games are known for this, but there are many games that don’t follow this, such as Trickal Chibi Go.
Another big exception is anime-inspired gacha games. For example, Titan Regiment, Bleach: Brave Souls, ONE PIECE Bounty Rush, and Fairy Tail Wizard Chronicle. The main reason, in my opinion, that these don’t have the generic characters is that they feature characters that already exist. Titan Regiment has Attack on Titan characters, who aren’t sexualised at all. The same goes for Bleach: Brave Souls, which features Bleach characters.
No one is making ‘new’ designs for these anime gacha games, which leaves the question: why do new gacha games choose to feature the exact same storyline and designs?
Developers Know What Players Want
If you dive into gacha gaming subreddits or communities online, everyone is flaunting their waifus within the current gacha they are playing. Everyone knows that gacha games feature specific types of character designs. The most obvious reason is that developers continue to design characters like that because they know that’s why many people like gacha games.
Sure, the ‘gambling’ aspect plays a part, but a vast majority of people also like how the characters (women specifically) are designed. Developers see that this generic design is what people like from gacha games, so they continue to make it.
Is it wrong to purposely design characters like this? That depends on who you ask. I’m not going to get into a whole debate over the sexualisation of female characters within gacha games, or even gaming as a whole. But based on what I’ve said, I’m sure you can guess my point of view.
Storylines are also very similar for most gacha games. Again, a lot of that comes down to the genre. But when was the last time we had a storyline that stood out? I enjoyed Black Beacon, as it had a unique story I had never seen before, and characters weren’t overly sexualised. But that recently shut down and is now unable to play.
The Future of Gacha Games
Will things change, or will the cycle of copy-and-pasted gachas continue? Personally, I don’t see this genre changing. There are thousands of people who like gacha games, and clearly, the formula works… or does it?
It’s become a recent trend that gacha games are shutting down servers and cannot be played anymore. Which is what happened to Black Beacon. This can also come down to developers not making profits or the game being buggy, but it’s happening a lot recently.
I believe things are going to stay the same, for now anyway. A new gacha comes out featuring new waifus for a certain kind of player to become obsessed with. Gameplay continues until it eventually shuts down, and the cycle continues. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this, but it does become boring after a while.
2025 included tons of unique gacha games, so all we can hope for is that every so often, a new gacha will come along that has a different storyline and a new artstyle and design for characters.