Mecha Break’s player creation market is lacking in one huge way

Even supposing you don’t see a lot of your character in Mecha Break, the PvP mech shooter has a god-tier character creator, which lets you tweak all the things out of your pilot’s top and hair colour to the size of their fingers. This character creator is supplemented by the Matrix Market: an in-game retailer the place gamers can promote or public sale off their painstakingly personalized pilot designs in alternate for Corite, the sport’s premium in-game foreign money.

On the floor, this looks like a very neat concept, particularly as a result of the sport’s customary seasonal beauty retailer has a really small number of objects that rotate out each three days. For those who spot a pilot with cute pigtails, for instance, you’ll be able to’t simply go into the beauty retailer and purchase that precise hairdo, because it’s not possible {that a} particular coiffure will likely be obtainable so that you can buy at any given time. You may discover one other cool coiffure on the market, however it most likely received’t be the one you’re searching for. Thus, you’ve gotten two choices:

You may suppose Choice #2 is the only option, however sadly, it comes with a catch. You see, when you’ve bought one other participant’s customized pilot look, you’ll get to apply it to your pilot. You’ll not, nevertheless, be capable of edit it in any method, form, or kind. The hair colour can’t be modified, and the coiffure itself can solely be used along with the remainder of the bought pilot’s options (collectively known as a “type” in-game). You may’t put on the coiffure by itself — you’ll be able to solely put on the full type, primarily changing into a clone of one other participant’s pilot, proper all the way down to their face and physique form.

That is nice if you happen to simply need a type of cosplay pores and skin in your pilot, because the Matrix Market is stuffed with fascinating customizations that may make your pilot appear like a particular character from an anime, film, or online game, and can prevent the work of spending infinite hours making an attempt to construct them from the bottom up by your self. However if you happen to’re simply searching for a particular coiffure, make-up kind, or accent, you’re just about screwed. You may solely edit the player-created customized pilot designs you buy within the Matrix Market if you happen to already personal the beauty objects getting used within the design, which might require you to buy these objects from Mecha Break’s customary in-game beauty retailer, which defeats the aim of shopping for a player-made type to realize entry to a beauty merchandise that isn’t at the moment obtainable within the seasonal beauty retailer.

Except you someway get fortunate sufficient to unlock all of the beauty objects you want through direct buy from the rotating kinds listed beneath the Seasonal Cosmetics tab, you’ve obtained no selection however to attend round for the best cosmetics to pop up, or take the L and alter your character’s whole look, simply to make use of the coiffure, iris/pupil design, or make-up type you need. I’ve been hoping to get my palms on a beauty that will give my pilot heart-shaped pupils, however it’s not obtainable for direct buy in my seasonal cosmetics retailer, and the one model of it that’s at the moment on the market within the Matrix Market is locked to a pilot design that features brief brown hair and facial scarring. It’s a very cool look, however it’s not what I’m going for. I simply need the eyes!

The flexibility to promote your creations to different gamers for in-game cash is a very enjoyable idea, and is an effective way for Mecha Break to focus on its unbelievable character customization choices — a function that may be simply missed in a sport that devotes most of its display time to massive robots. I’ve listed a number of designs on the market (no bites but, sadly), and I’m all for giving gamers the instruments they should create the character of their desires.

The issue is that gamers additionally want the liberty to make use of these instruments, and freedom isn’t one thing Mecha Break permits for in the case of attaining cosmetics. The sport enables you to customise the heck out of your pilot, but when there’s a particular premium beauty you’re seeking, you’ll want both the endurance of a saint or an excessive amount of luck to really get your palms on all of the objects you might want to create your best pilot.

As enjoyable because the Matrix Market is, the truth that the cosmetics are locked to at least one particular colour and pilot design is unbelievably irritating, and I’m struggling to know the reasoning behind it. I’m sitting right here virtually begging the sport to take my cash, however I’m not going to spend it on a player-made creation when what I get in return is a very un-customizable pilot who has the best hairdo within the improper colour. It seems like shopping for a Barbie who has all of her garments fused to her physique, unable to be worn by different Barbie dolls except I get fortunate and discover extra variations of the identical equipment on the market.

Essentially the most irritating a part of all of that is that the entire objects I’m at the moment trying to find had been fully available to players during Mecha Break’s multiple beta tests, and may very well be bought utilizing Mission Tokens, a free in-game foreign money earned simply by enjoying the sport. Superb Seasun Video games made it clear that objects like outfits would should be purchased with Corite, however till the sport’s launch, gamers had been beneath the impression that they’d have entry to a a lot wider array of customization choices. I got used to customizing my pilot’s coiffure, iris/pupil form, eye colour, and make-up precisely how I wished it utilizing solely Mission Tokens. Now I can’t even get what I need with real-life money, and the choices to customise sure cosmetics — like eyeshadow and lipstick colour — has disappeared totally.

Mecha Break’s Matrix Market has different points, too — you’ll be able to promote absolutely anything, together with weapons and objects that make life simpler within the sport’s signature Mashmak mode, resulting in accusations of pay-to-win mechanics, and the auction house is a bit of a mess. However that’s a dialogue for an additional day. For now, I simply need a technique to get my palms on particular cosmetics with out having to cross my fingers and wait indefinitely, or utterly change my pilot’s whole look.

Then once more, issues may at all times be worse. At the very least Mecha Break’s hairstyles aren’t distributed through randomized loot containers.