Game Review: Wizardry Variants Daphne
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The steam version of the 3D dungeon crawler game, Wizardry Variants Daphne, has finally been released and what better time it is to try it out. Variants Daphne is a mobile, gacha spin-off from the Wizardry RPG series (since 1981 till now), that has inspired the command-driven combat system in many beloved franchise such as Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest.
After completing the tutorial dungeon in Variants Daphne, my rating for this game is: Try it if you love a challenging RPG. The gameplay loop features a typical grind to progress – returning into the dungeons for better equipment to beat stronger enemies as you go deeper into the abyss.
For first-timers to the series, expect to die a few times and try again. For those who had heard that your gacha characters can be permanently lost, that is true, but there are multiple failsaves before that happens.
Overall, Variants Daphne gets a 4/5 from me, mainly due to the completeness of its combat system and gameplay loop, creating a F2P-friendly progression for all.
Introduction
In Variants Daphne, you wake up as an amnesiac human with the power to seemingly restore broken objects back to its original state. You find yourself in the Abyss, a labyrinth of despair, created by an ancient Warlock who coveted Death. While the heroes in this world have managed to seal the Abyss, the seal has now weakened, and the Abyss have began swallowing the surface and living creatures alike.
Many brave adventurers have entered the Abyss in hopes of sealing the labyrinth permanently, but resistance against Death is futile, and all shall perish. Defying death once, will you be able to change that fate again?
Combat
Variants Daphne feature a turn-based combat system where you, the player, give commands to your 6-party member roster. Each adventurer belongs to a class which influences the growth of your stat points (e.g., Fighters will have more strength, Knights will have more vitality). Faster classes, such as Thief and Ninja, will have more speed which let them take initiative first, in the turn order. That said, battle strategies and the right equipment matters much more in Variant Daphne.
I rate the combat as fair, as access to useful equipment is not gated by a stamina system, allowing you to grind as long as you have real-life sanity.
Physical attackers tend to use SP to unleash damaging skills or debuffs, while Magic users use MP to heal, cast offensive and defensive spells. Items that can restore SP and MP are rare and very limited, so players are encouraged to pick their battles while exploring new locations. As such, the command to flee is actually useful and needed to conserve your SP and MP. You must leave the dungeon to restore your SP and MP in the Inn.
You can favourite your 4 most-used skills for easy access
Like in many traditional RPGs, buffs and debuffs are crucial to defeating difficult enemies. Elemental (e.g., fire) and trait (e.g., undead) weaknesses also exist in this game, but access is limited to your mages in early progression.
The command to "Defend" offers another combat strategy, as a successful defense will create "Openings" on the attacking enemy, allowing your team to strike their weak points using non-spell attacks, increasing your damage multiplier. As such, players are encouraged to put their tankier adventurers in the first row. You can also build a dodge-tank that relies on evasion to successfully "defend". Do check out the community guide, Fasterthoughts, for detailed information on combat strategies.
As the MC, getting knocked out in combat (HP reduced to 0) results in a defeat screen. You can choose to return to the point before you fought the monster (regaining all SP, MP and items prior to the battle) or accept death and return to an earlier save point (You retain everything you gained and explored, but return to an earlier story progression point). The option to return to the point before battle is gated by real-life time, but you have 3 tries before being required to wait or to accept your defeat.
Unlike your MC, companion's deaths can result in permanent death in terms of gameplay. Defeated companions can be revived during combat by successfully timing your taps into an orange circle, or revived after returning to town in the Temple. Each adventurer has a fortitude level (indicated by numbers beside the heart), and adventurers with lower fortitudes are harder to revive. Failure to revive your companions in the Temple result in them turning into ash, and failing to revive them after they turn to ash will cause permadeath. You can prevent this by waiting real-time and allowing fortitude levels to recover to >50 before reviving in the Temple. Ddead bodies and ashes still recover fortitude.
The only way to recover fortitude is to wait real-time (1 fortitude every 6 minutes)
Exploration
Exploration in the dungeon consist of rotating your camera using a D-pad (if on phone), or WASD (if on PC). Each floor has its own map with different types of enemies and treasure chests. Treasure chests are your main source of gold and equipment in this game. However, they may contain traps that reduces your current HP and it may be beneficial for players to bring a Thief class to minimise the potential damage done.
As you explore, the mini-map on the top right corner of your screen is revealed location, and you can auto-walk to any area that you have visited by clicking on the mini-map. Overall, backtracking to grind for chests or experience points is made easy, on either devices. Exploration relatively straightforward and intuitive, with few and minor puzzles for players to solve.
Debra opening a treasure chest with traps while an enemy waits to ambush us
Outside of the dungeon, locations that the player is required to visit is straight-forward (left to right):
Inn: Rest and recover your HP, SP and MP using gold
Adventurer's Guild: Accept daily, weekly and story requests
Temple: Revive dead characters or remove status aliments, for gold
Jeweler: The cash shop of Variants Daphne
Blacksmith: Enhance and limit break your equipment
Item Shop: Sell items or equipment for gold. You can also buy recovery items and basic equipment here
Ruins: Summoning page for Variants Daphne (include paid and free summons)
Edge of Town: Dungeon exploration page
User interface when the player returns to Town
Progression and Gameplay Loop
Both story and equipment progression is gated by how far the player has explored the Abyss. None of these mechanics are gated by real-time, though low fortitude levels amongst your party members may force the player to stop playing for a few hours.
Usually, most players are required to stop exploration, return to the Inn to rest and visit the blacksmith to enhance their equipment. Both the player and adventurer have 7 slots for equipment (or 6 if you are using a two-handed weapon). There are advantages and disadvantages to wearing different kinds of gears: Heavy armour will significantly boost your physical defense, but lower your evasion level.
Progression can be grindy, but it is highly dependent on the player's comfort pace. Ongoing events will scale its dungeon to the player's level, allowing new players to participate. However, clearing the tutorial dungeon will open up more progression options, such as increase in level cap, better equipment and changing of classes.
Equipment Page
The Gacha
In Variants Daphne, players typically summon only for adventurers. Gacha rates for legendary adventurers (the equivalent of SSR) is above-average, at a rate of 5%. Legendary adventurers differentiate itself from other rarities by possessing unique skills (passive or active). Summoning gives you a token in its respective banners, and a 100 tokens can be exchanged for the banner's legendary character. Alternatively, you can use the tokens for legendary equipment. These tokens do not carry over.
There is a paid version of all limited banners. These paid banners have a special pool, allowing players summon legendary equipment. However, you require paid currency from the shop. Drop rates for legendary adventurers remain the same.
Gacha and Obtaining More Copies
While the Abyss can be completed using the MC and lower rarity characters, players are encouraged to summon more adventurers due to its inheritance and discipline mechanic:
Inherit Skill: Inherit a pre-determined skill from any adventurer into another. If the adventurer possesses the same skill, doing so will level the skill, increasing its potency. Players will lose the character used in the process.
Discipline: Copies of the same character can level its own traits. These traits can increase their MP/SP or improve other benefits such as Increased Critical Resistance.
These two mechanics make lower rarity characters more useful, as your favourites can obtain stronger skills and higher discipline (as you will likely obtain multiple copies of lower rarities).
For the F2P, gacha rates are friendly, but the number of monthly pulls is abyssal. Excluding premium currency given in the mail, new players are given a standard pool SSR selector, a random SSR adventurer and 30 standard pulls.
F2P, Premium Currency and Monetisation
The number of F2P monthly pulls in Variants Daphne is, frankly, so atrocious that it makes FGO looks generous in comparison. This is the worst part of the game, even if you justify that players can clear dungeons without premium adventurers.
To do a 10 pull in the game, you will need 2000 gems. The total average number of monthly premium currency a F2P can get is:
Daily: 20 gems from completing daily missions, 10 gems from using 100 gold to buy from the Jeweler
Weekly: 200 gems from completing weekly missions
Consecutive logins: 200 gems every 14 days
Guild Points (obtained by clearing daily requests): 250 gems per 500 points (limited to 2 times a month)
Total: (30*30) + (200*4) + (200+200) + (250+250) = ~2600 gems
Of course, these numbers exclude premium currency from events (usually ~400 gems) and special mails. However, this equates to less than two 10 pulls a month.
Monetisation decisions is almost unfriendly to small spenders who only buy monthly passes. It costs $40 USD to buy 2000 gems (for one 10 pull).
Pack prices (USD)
There is no equivalent of a monthly pass. Instead, you have 4 main types of battle passes:
Mission pass ($12 USD): Gives 600 gems upon purchase, and premium rewards when completing daily and weekly missions
Adventurer pass ($12 USD): Increase in EXP gained, inventory slots, dispatch slots, daily guaranteed revivals at the temple
Elite adventurer pass ($24 USD): The elite pass doubles the benefit of the adventurer pass
Event pass ($9 USD): Gives 300 gems upon purchase, and premium rewards when completing ongoing event missions
There are more value-for-price packs in the limited section of the shop, though it is apparent that many of which are intended for bigger spenders who support the game. If you are able to look past the shop prices, Variants Daphne still offers F2P players a good time and I hope it does not deter you from trying this game.
Prices of adventurer's passport (USD)
Final Thoughts
Wizardry Variants Daphne offer hours of fun if you enjoy the grinding for progression. Progression is not gated by stamina, time or P2W features, though the cash shop does offer paying players QoLs, particularly free guaranteed revives. The tutorial dungeon alone has taken me ~25 hours to complete, while trying to learn the mechanics.
Overall, Variants Daphne is worth you trying the game out without needing to spend. The steam release currently gives new players 6,000 gems on top of the tutorial rewards (SSR selector, random SSR and 30 standard pulls). Variants Daphne gets a 4/5 rating from me, and is a breath of fresh air from having limited daily attempts when it comes to game progression in most gacha games.
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