One of 2024's worst gacha games relaunches without microtransactions, and it's already looking so much better

While I love the look and feel of gacha games like Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai Star Rail, I simply can't get over the 'gacha.' As someone who (thankfully) remains relatively stalwart in her attempts to ignore microtransactions, they simply aren't for me, even if their sprawling open worlds and impressive graphics consistently pique my interest. Solo Leveling: Arise was yet another title that initially intrigued me, but was quickly binned off due to the sheer volume of microtransactions. As someone who loved the Solo Leveling manhwa, I really wanted to play it, and now I finally can.

I never got over the gacha hurdle when it came to Solo Leveling: Arise, but I did watch a deep dive from 'Pseychie' on it just a few days ago. While it generally follows traditional gacha rules, some systems are a little hazy, and its monetization is aggressive to say the least. Calling Netmarble's approach "atrocious," Pseychie notes that the game consistently spams you with flash sales (even overriding story cutscenes), and there are three different subscription pathways which include various features that really should be included as standard.

His full video goes into all of the different issues with the game, and those are largely echoed in our own Solo Leveling: Arise review. Described as "too grindy, frustrating, and repetitive," Andrew also notes that the drop rates are "terrible," which doesn't help if the gameplay is already testing your patience.

But Arise's gacha days are over - at least on PC. In a somewhat bizarre move, Netmarble has released Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive, a completely new version of the game that removes all of the gacha mechanics.

Described as "an entirely different game," Netmarble notes that players will no longer have to "rely on randomness when recruiting Hunters or crafting weapons," as it has "designed the game to reward effort and strategy, allowing you to feel a true sense of achievement. All the Hunters, Sung Jinwoo and their weapons, and the joy of progression can be earned and enjoyed entirely through in-game play."

So its stripped out the gacha entirely, which will certainly solve the intense monetization issues, but is the gameplay strong enough by itself? The answer is maybe. Currently sitting at 75% on Steam, landing it in the 'mostly positive' category, players generally seem to like it, with most complaints lamenting the always-online requirement and concerns over anti-cheat. Netmarble has confirmed that it's "actively working on a solution to support a fully offline play mode," however, so hopefully that arrives soon.

As someone who really did want to play Arise, Overdrive really is music to my ears. We've seen a few gacha games ditch their microtransactions systems of late - Tower of Fantasy's 5.5 update does just that - and I'd love to see more developers follow in those footsteps. Do I think HoYoverse will ever release a gacha-free Genshin? No, but I can certainly dream.

Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive is out now on Steam, priced at $39.99 / £34.99. It's also got a free demo, and with over 10k players stepping into the shoes of Sung Jinwoo, now feels like the perfect time to do so. So get ready to solo level, friends - the title of 'Ultimate Monarch of Shadows' awaits, and your bank account won't get rinsed this time.