With the launch of The First Descendant, its microtransaction system has garnered mixed reactions from players. The game has also been experiencing some issues and developer Nexon is providing some in-game compensation.
The First Descendant has been compared to other multiplayer games, such as Warframe, which is also free-to-play game. One user on Reddit compared the microtransaction system in both games and claimed that The First Descendant was “20 times more expensive than Warframe.”
Reddit user goompas used the example of character mods, which help improve character stats, such as increasing the amount of damage they do or reduce the amount of damage taken from enemies. In Warframe, players can buy Orokin Reactor’s to increase character mod capacity for 20 premium currency, which comes out to about $1.50. In The First Descendant, however, a similar item costs 1500 premium currency, which comes out to about $30. However, mods can still be earned through gameplay.
Other Descendants take time and resources to unlock, but they can be purchased immediately with premium currency. However, the issue here and with many of the microtransactions is that the bundles of premium currency don’t line up with the cost of these new characters. Players are forced to purchase multiple currency bundles as they individually don’t match up to the cost of characters, so players have leftover premium currency. There are also Ultimate Descendants, which are more powerful versions, and they require rarer materials to unlock. They cost even more premium currency to unlock right away, which has faced backlash by players.
Nexon is also offering in-game compensation for launch day issues in the form of a three-day 30% gold gain, Kyper Shard gain, EXP gain, and weapon mastery EXP gain boosts, as well as two matte red paints.
The First Descendant is currently available for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. It features cross-play and cross-progression, letting players play with other players on different platforms, as well as carry over their progress no matter with platform they play on. Despite its issues, The First Descendant had a strong debut of over 200,000 concurrent Steam players during its launch day.
