Heartopia Support Responds to Gacha Criticisms

Heartopia‘s support team has responded to some player criticisms regarding its gacha system, but a lot of fans seem disenchanted with what the team at XD Inc. has to say. Getting rare pulls in Heartopia can be an exciting moment for players, but many feel those moments are too few and far between. Many think major changes are needed to get its gacha system on par with other games of its kind.

Hitting its worldwide release on mobile on January 7 and making the transition to Steam a little over a week later, the cozy, multiplayer, slow-life simulator was originally launched in China in July 2024. With more than five million downloads under its belt and a peak of more than 66,000 concurrent players on Steam, Heartopia‘s D.G. Guild’s aims of improving the digital town’s development have had little trouble attracting players to its charming environment, though not everyone has been satisfied with the game’s features, particularly those related to gacha pulls.

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Heartopia’s Gacha Criticisms Draw Disappointing Response from XD

Following multiple instances of Heartopia fans criticizing the gacha system, XD has responded with at least one personal message to a player, and it doesn’t seem to have placated many fans. As posted on Reddit by user mingmingcat, the response from XD states that the rules for gacha item drop rate probabilities “are accessible and transparent to all players via the gacha page.” It also states that player feedback is being recorded, and suggestions gathered from players may be utilized in the game’s ongoing development. To this one player, and several other fans of the game who have responded to the post, this response feels like a brush-off, especially considering that the initial complaint was related to the “laughably small amount of tickets” received when pulling duplicate items.

Heartopia is technically free-to-play, and it can be enjoyed without the benefits provided by the Moonlight Treasure Box gacha system. However, customizing homes and avatars is also one of the game’s most attractive features, and fans have expressed frustration that there are surprisingly few ways to earn gacha pulls without spending real-world money. While gacha pulls in Heartopia are influenced by an in-game pity system that guarantees additional rewards after a minimum of 12 unlucky attempts at any particular banner, many players have lamented that the odds of getting something they wanted still don’t seem that great, even with pity, and the system seems designed to saddle players with numerous duplicates.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

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Complaints about the gacha system aren’t the only issue XD has been facing when it comes to Heartopia. The cozy game holds just a 67 percent approval rating among its more than 3,600 English-language reviews on Steam. While much of that criticism is tied to optimization, with many players feeling the game runs much better on mobile devices than it does on PC, there are also a number of players concerned about Heartopia‘s use of AI. The development team has admitted via the game’s official Discord to using AI for the interpretation and drawing of snapshot images in jigsaw-style puzzles and for help to let players who speak different languages communicate while using the game’s chat functions. None of the monetized content released so far has utilized AI, and XD has promised to inform fans ahead of time if AI-generated images or sounds are added in the future, but that hasn’t halted criticism from the portion of the gaming community that holds a staunchly anti-AI stance.

All those concerns and their effect on the game’s popularity will be put to the test later in February when Heartopia launches its big collaboration with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. A pre-event update was put into place on February 7, and the main portion of the event will kick off on February 14, tasking players with wielding the Elements of Harmony to help restore the newly arrived Tree of Harmony to its rightful place in Equestria. The crossover event is also set to feature a lot of different gacha rewards, including cosmetic items and fancy cars themed after the animated show’s Mane Six pony characters, and many fans in online forums have indicated that they downloaded the game specifically in anticipation of getting the rewards centered around My Little Pony.