‘Western players are getting treated like trash’: Persona 5: The Phantom X global release is being flooded with negative reviews over alleged worse rewards than its Chinese counterpart

I’ve become so accustomed to Hoyoverse’s global gacha releases, I’d almost forgotten that many others are still rocking pretty significant gaps between their Asia and global releases—Umamusume: Pretty Derby just got an English client a whole four years after its Japan debut, and Persona 5: The Phantom X is finally in the hands of the western world (and Japan) after a year in China and Korea.

I’ve been playing all manner of gacha games since 2015 and have seen the good and bad of these gaps. Being a year or two behind gives some pretty handy insight into future powercreep, character banners, and team meta that can help with currency management, especially if you’re a free-to-play gamer.

But the wait can also come with downsides like an accelerated schedule, the developers stacking banners on top of each other at an alarming rate to close the gap between the two versions of the game. And in the age of the internet—where folks can easily compare free-to-play currency income and general handouts being given to global versus non-global clients—any discrepancies that leave western players short-changed will not go unnoticed.