I finally checked out
Dx2 for a minute. I think it seems like a Megaten game but without the writing that drew me into the Persona games.
Having the MegaTen battle system definitely helps it stand out from typical gatcha stuff but I'm not sure I'm interested in the main story. It also has the problem of some Megaten games where the tutorial is really fucking slow. JRPGs with long, wordy tutorials like this are the only video games that literally put me to sleep. I got over it in Persona 3 and 4 because each one had settings and characters that immediately felt interesting during those tutorial phases. Persona 5 kinda got over it with its action prologue (JRPGs are actually pretty damn good at action prologues when they try) before getting into its painfully slow and long intro segment. Dx2 so far just seems like some standard otaku anime weirdness.
I also tried the first part of
Dragalia Lost and it seems like this might actually be "the good one". For some reason I haven't been able to do the full game download though -- it stalls on like the last 8MB or something.
To be sure, the story and visual style seem way too "anime" for me (but the English dub is surprisingly good). That's probably gonna put me off it in the long run, but the actual game seems like a Diablo/Mana where they actually did the thing with the controls I wanted other mobile devs to do -- trash the fucking virtual joystick and just let me move and attack with taps and swipes. It feels like mechanically this is actually a pretty damn good mobile action RPG.
Visual fidelity on mobile has proven there is a level of visual fidelity that once to a certain threshold is deemed "acceptable" yet those titles that push beyond that threshold don't necessarily equate to massive sales like console and PC. The net cast out for mobile audiences is so wide and "casual" that the "man on the street" opinion of cell phone graphics is that they are "good enough".
Titles that have pushed graphics on mobile have varied in terms of success. One end you have something successful visually and commercially like Monument Valley, and then something like Vain Glory that matched AAA efforts for mobile yet failed to find an audience or justify its price tag for development.
Not to mention graphically intensive games tend to be a quick drain on smart phone batteries and makes it feel like your holding a severely hot coffee cup.
This is exactly where I'm at in regards to mobile games actually. Before I wasn't really criticizing the graphics for being low-end, I was making observations about where some smaller Japanese devs seem to be production-wise. If I'm criticizing anything visually about these games it's the art direction.
Another game I just tried is a non-Gatcha action RPG called Triglav. The graphics basically look like Diablo II or something -- low-res 2D sprites, and the game looks perfectly fine without running like crap or draining your phone battery.
A big problem hanging over all these gatcha games I've been trying is that I'm still on an iPhone 6 Plus, so they all run like crap and cause my phone to practically burn a hole into my hand. With phones you've got people using various different models with different hardware specs, so devs are sort of in the same situation as mainstream PC gaming -- they should be working from the lowest-common denominator on-up, and you're right that the mobile gaming audience doesn't care as much about technical fidelity. They don't need to be reaching for AAA console graphics.
Personally, I think around PS1-level graphics are good enough for me on small screens. I wouldn't mind if all these gatcha games looked like Diablo II, Persona 2, or Breath of Fire IV. I have mobile ports of RPGs from that era on my backlog anyway.
Generally all I'm saying is, if Square Enix can straight-up port Final Fantasy Tactics to a phone and charge $20 for it, why can't anyone make a new game like FFTactics for mobile phones and charge $20 for it? It wouldn't get the Clash of Clans audience but it wouldn't need to. The traditional SRPG audience would likely pay that $20.
