Available on: iOS, Android
Played on: Android
Gacha games are all about collecting cool characters, and no single company has as deep or as recognizable a roster as Disney. Disney Pixel RPG is a formulaic gacha game that’s shockingly light on characters and content, though the seeds of a solid, free-to-play, mobile RPG are there.
Read on for our review of Disney Pixel RPG!
Into the Disneyverse
After creating a custom character, I’m drawn into a pixelated hub world to save Disney worlds from goopy creatures called mimics. The mimics are wrecking havoc across worlds, causing rifts to appear and mixing characters together, such as different variants of Mickey Mouse from different game worlds. It’s not exactly Kingdom Hearts or Into the Spiderverse, but it gets the job done.
The worlds are presented like board game maps from Mario Party, with each space a turn-based battle.
Combat is a bit more involved than the typical auto-battler (though there is an auto-mode). Five characters square off against waves of mimics. Each character can choose to attack, defend, or use their special skill. Some characters have party-wide buffs, such as Genie, Dumbo, and Tinkerbell, while Donald Duck and Nick (from Zootopia) deal direct damage.
The pixelated art style and animations are charming, and the fast-paced battles and vertical gameplay make it an easy game to pull out for a few quick matches.
Unfortunately, I quickly ran out of content.
At launch, Pixel RPG only features three worlds with about 20 missions each. It’s easy to acquire enough upgrade materials to quickly out-level most of the story content, making levels go even faster. Most gachas have other modes to explore, but Pixel RPG only has a relatively recent Battle Challenge limited event.
The other problem is the shockingly limited amount of characters. This is Disney! They have all the characters, even when not including Star Wars and Marvel. Yet after collecting around 25 characters, I’m getting almost all repeats and duplicates from pulls, dampening my excitement for collecting ’em all.
Gacha Catch ‘Em All
As a gacha game, players spend 300 crystal for one pull on limited and standard banners. By completing daily missions, players can earn 100 crystals per day. Other crystal rewards come from earning other achievements and missions, and completing the index by unlocking and leveling up characters.
Players can purchase crystals at a rate of about $6.99 for 1,100 crystals. The Pass is the more common way of paying (and way more cost efficient). For $4, players can earn 2,400 crystals spread out over 30 days — as long as they login each day (plus 650 instant crystals). Limited banners only last about 20 days, however.
Two limited banners are available at a time, featuring popular 3-star main characters from Disney franchises, such as Belle and Maleficent. These characters have an increased chance of dropping from pulls, and are guaranteed to drop after 50 pulls (the guarantee does not carry over to future banners, however).
Each banner has a 4% chance of a 3-star character, 30% for 2-star, and 66% for a 1-star. Higher rarity characters are a bit more powerful, and have an increased level cap. However, any character’s rarity can be unlocked to the next rank by spending the right materials.
Gaining and leveling up characters is also important for the Index, which is sort of like an account level. Rewards include precious crystals and stat bonuses for your teams.
The Rating
Disney Pixel RPG is rated E for Everyone. Turn-based combat is highly animated, but enemies are mostly cute little blobs.
The Takeaway
Disney Pixel RPG isn’t going to become your new go-to mobile RPG any time soon, if ever. It almost squanders the IP potential with something that feels half-baked. Yet the art style, combat, and music keep me checking in daily, and eagerly seeing if any new content and game modes will be added.
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