How is Reverse 1999? I keep hearing about it being in the small list of gacha that doesn't suck.
Sorry for the necro and (presumably futile) reply but it's chugging along just fine on track to its third anniversary - quite an important milestone for any gacha.
It's best thought of as a big visual novel with card battler gameplay. Gameplay is not the main draw of the game, it's basically solved with endgame concentrated around getting highly specific team setups with increasingly ridiculous enemy comp mechanics and big boss raids.
Story is interesting, kind of like what if you asked the most openminded CN devs ever to make a travelogue game and they knock it out of the fucking park. Big brownie points for having a non-selfinsert MC that actually has agency and makes her own decisions, even if she is a bit bland.
Same goes for their visuals. My fucking god, I would kill for this game's style, it is like a breath of fresh air compared to other CN games' compulsion to make everyone one of six skintight messy templates. Kids are kids, beautiful women are beautiful women, and even the men are just plain manly men, UI would probably win some pretentious art award if it was allowed to compete with current-day 'art'. The lore leans a little towards doomed GL sometimes a little too much so be wary there.
Music, it's a CN gacha, do i even need to explain how good its going to be? Bonus points for actually hiring singers and musicians to do the EPs from the various places the plot winds up into.
Monetization is centred on limited units, direct shop skins, and official merch, pivoting hard into the latter two because the devs know how devoted their fanbase is. I tracked a few doujin events for R1999 on X specifically in JP so it does have considerable traction there.
Verdict? Call me biased for being a day 1 player but its an extremely worthwhile gacha to dip into to see if you like it, but not everyone's cup of tea because of just how deep the references and allusions are and also how hyperspecific the endgame becomes. As a long-term pick I would regard it is a side game, just check back every month or so for a new story, dailies can be done in like 2 mins. If you like to spend, the game is ok but not really worth it because every patch already has good rewards for just playing.