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.
That’s unfortunate for Persona 5: The Phantom X, which has found itself in quite a bit of hot water as fans flood its Steam and Google Play pages with negative reviews to cry favouritism towards the original Chinese version of the game.
P playing both P5X and Umamusume has shown just how gacha launches can vary. The horse gambling sim is also suffering from an incredibly accelerated schedule thanks to playing four-year catch up, but has been chucking enough launch rewards at me that I’ve not noticed it nearly as much as I have in Persona. I’ve certainly felt left wanting with my new band of Phantom Thieves: The game itself is pretty good, but all of the financial gacha gubbins attached to it have been grating on me a little more than usual.
My feelings of being hustled aren’t totally misplaced, it seems. Scouring the negative Steam reviews unveils all manner of comparisons between the Chinese and global servers, and it certainly isn’t looking good. Here are some of the key differences people are highlighting:
|
WW server |
CN server |
|---|---|
|
100 gems for maintenance downtime |
300 gems for maintenance downtime |
|
No redemption codes (yet) |
Some redemption codes |
|
Login event for seven weapon banner pulls |
Login event for 10 character banner pulls |
|
Soft pity of 80 pulls on character banner |
Hard pity of 110 pulls on character banner |
|
New characters not being added to standard banner after their initial release |
New characters immediately being added to the standard banner after initial release |
Hell, there’s a whole document detailing some of the key differences between versions if you’re interested in reading.
Ultimately, it all boils down to this: An accelerated schedule leaving less downtime for players to grind currency (or save their IRL money) combined with fewer rewards that makes everything feel like even more of a manic rush than it already is.
The Google Play store is suffering signific
antly more than Steam right now—it’s dropped down to 2.2 stars as of writing—but the PC version isn’t doing much better. It’s currently sat at Mixed reviews, with only 50% being positive.
“Western players are getting treated like trash compared to the original version,” one review wrote before adding that they “won’t be spending another penny on this unless [the developers] address these issues and start treating us equally and fairly.” Another claimed that global players were being treated “like second-hand citizens,” while a third review said: “Absolutely love the game but the rewards being nerfed for Global and Japan players is ridiculous and should not be a thing. Until Sega fixes this and treats its players better, I can’t recommend it.”
It’s a real shame to see the game getting off on the wrong foot, especially when Umamusume (which released the day before) has been the surprise gacha hit of the year so far. Unfortunately, as many veteran gacha gamers will know, global releases being inherently worse for players than their older, original siblings is not new. The fact it’s still continuing to happen in 2025 sucks though, and I sincerely hope Atlus and Black Wings Studio send some apologems everyone’s way soon enough.
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