Dislyte Review: Worth Your Time?

Dislyte has become one of my favorite mobile games as of late, but why? With its inspiration coming from mythology and urban music culture, Dislyte really is a unique game in the gacha universe. In this Dislyte Review, I am going to delve into all the details and show you why it has quickly become one of my favorite gacha games this year.

As someone who really enjoys idle/incremental games, particularly those with gacha elements, I actually find it really difficult to get invested in them. I don’t know whether it’s because I turn off when it starts to feel like a chore or I simply need more of a certain mechanic that many games don’t focus on, but it’s quite hard for me to stick with a game like that.

Mobile games are no exception, and while many are an immediate strike-off for me because of terrible translation or clunky UIs, I’ve still given many a shot. Over however many years I’ve been playing mobile games, I could probably count the number of games like this I’ve stuck with on one hand, but Dislyte would definitely be one of them.

With its original topic, there wasn’t really much about Dislyte to draw me in from the get-go and I actually found out about it through the Genshin Impact community. One reason I didn’t stick with Genshin was the lack of diversity in the character designs, particularly recently, but Dislyte’s character designs were being posted everywhere as an example that Genshin could do better if they truly wanted to.

And those character designs were gorgeous.

Dislyte Design Review

As soon as you start with Dislyte, the game draws you in – the art and animation are incredibly stylish, and in terms of presentation, it’s one of the most polished games of its type I’ve ever played. While I’ve already sung its praises in regards to character design, in that they’re all recognizable, diverse, and unique, that’s certainly not the only way in which it shines visually.

All of the art, from the UI design to the splash images and animation, are gorgeous and high-budget in a way I didn’t really expect.

As I’ve mentioned, a bad UI is a huge issue for me but I actually found Dislyte’s incredibly intuitive – the menus are all split well so that no one menu overwhelms you with details. In addition, the game’s built-in tutorials explain each feature to you as they’re unlocked so you’re rarely left in the dark.

This combined with the wonderful 3D models, vibrant environments, and satisfying animation, both delving into live 2D and 3D, makes a very impactful first impression and one that I think is definitely in part responsible for me giving it a chance.

Dislyte Gameplay Review

Of course, first impressions can only do so much. With games like this, if you’re not hooked on the gameplay, it’s very unlikely that you’ll stay. Though the gameplay here isn’t too unique, with the battles not being too different from AFK Arena or other games of its kind, the battles are still satisfying, and expect you to employ more strategy than one would expect at first glance.

The use of elemental advantages and the different abilities each Esper has available encourages you to choose your team composition carefully and think hard about what to do each turn. However, the main way to succeed in battles in Dislyte is by focusing heavily on turn order, as with most other idle turn-based games.

Particularly in competitive fights, the main way to win will be by going first, and so many Espers and Equipment have abilities that allow you to get ahead in the turn order and be faster than your opponent. This is vital for success and adds an extra layer of strategy beyond just stat optimization that a lot of other games lack.

There is a huge variety of Equipment you can equip your Espers with. These grant them new powers and increase certain stats allowing you to keep things fresh with many different options for building your Espers.

Each Esper has its own unique draws which makes playing any of them a delight. The use of tutorials for each Esper helps show you how they’re best used and encourages players to treat battles as more than just things to idle through. Once you get into the competitive side of things through the Point War mode, it can get even more fun.

Although there is a rhythm minigame known as DJ Contest to spice things up, every game mode does mostly consist of the same thing. Namely, putting together a team geared towards that specific battle and either pressing autoplay or employing the same strategies as you would always do with this team composition.

As such, I do think it would be interesting to see further types of gameplay moving forward. This isn’t really needed and what is there is fun, but it would be nice to see.

Dislyte Community Review

Another way that Dislyte effectively spices up the game for players is the community features, namely Clubs but also Ripple Dimensions. The latter refers to randomly opened battles that allow you to farm Ripples for certain Espers, a material that can be exchanged for said Esper.

Though these are incredibly rare and take half an hour to get posted in the chat, meaning that any useful ones will likely already have the maximum number of players already, you’ll get access to those of your friends and clubmates immediately.

This isn’t the only incentive to get more friends and join a Club. Indeed, you are awarded ‘friendship points’ for having friends. In addition, Clubs are an incredibly well-developed guild system that will get you tons of rewards. This ranges from Stamina to Gold Records, simply by contributing with your clubmates and helping them to challenge other Clubs in Holobattles.

When you join a Club, it’s also pretty likely that they’ll have an affiliated Discord server, and this is a great way to get to know other players and learn from them. I’d definitely recommend seeking out Clubs with this sort of community aspect if that’s important to you, rather than just settling for the first one you find.

Dislyte Gacha System Review

The game is also surprisingly well-balanced for a gacha game in terms of microtransactions. Though some Espers are far better than others, there are ways to build any Esper to competence without having to pay to win in order to compose a competitive team. Indeed, there are plenty of ways of farming any resource you might need.

As someone who can’t stand the current predatory standard for microtransactions in mobile games, this was incredibly refreshing. There are also plenty of surveys with rewards in order for Lilith Games to further improve user experience, which is great to see.

The only aspect I would consider harsh on F2P players is the gacha during events, though it’s still better than some other games of its type. While it can be really difficult to get new Espers, Lilith Games are taking steps to make duplicate Espers more useful for improving those you currently have. You’ll usually be able to get at least a 10 pull per day, which is more than I can say for other games of its type.

Despite this, gacha will always be fairly predatory by virtue of being gambling, and Dislyte’s rates are, frankly, exhausting. It doesn’t help that the microtransactions it does have are pretty expensive too.

Dislyte Story Review

The main Dislyte story is pretty underwhelming in that the content is incredibly short and you can blast through it in a day if you try. It’s all pretty generic plotwise and it includes very few of the game’s Espers. There is little depth to the main conflict, the Esper Union vs the Shadow Decree, with it simply plunging you into one side with a handful of characters.

While I won’t criticize the English too much, as many games of its type do suffer pretty poor and sometimes far worse localization, the main plot of Dislyte as a whole isn’t too interesting.

There are more bits of story that you can find throughout the game which are typically focused on individual Espers and therefore unrelated to the central plot. Overall it is disappointing because the character designs and fantastic voice acting do make me want to immerse myself in their world, but it simply isn’t worth it.

Dislyte Music Review

Dislyte has created some very unique IP in its game by fusing together ancient mythology with the urban music scene. This would probably fall flat if the music was generic or there wasn’t much of it.

All of the music, from that in the trailers and opening to the music that comes with each event, has been pulled off incredibly successfully. It is clear that the developers have made a lot of effort to make sure the music fits perfectly with the game.

Also, a nice touch is the ability to view all the music in the game. There’s a hidden menu titled Music Setup in the game found by tapping on Boomboom, the small white thing floating above the Bounties menu. This allows you to view the music that plays while in the game’s menus. I’d definitely recommend giving this a look to get a taste of the incredible music the game has to offer.

Conclusion

The game mostly shines in the initial design elements. Once more, I can’t express how fantastic the art is, and the main motif of the game’s design being music is definitely pulled off well. Indeed, the urban fantasy setting blends with this very well.

The music, combined with the fantastic animation, engaging character designs, and fun strategic elements makes for a wonderful gaming experience, but not necessarily one all that favorable for F2P players.

I do think the gacha system definitely needs improvement, but I’m happy to wait for that to happen. Lilith Games do seem open to feedback, and I love the parts of the game I’m able to experience. I’d say the game is absolutely worth your time as long as you’re willing to bear with it and don’t mind the grindy aspects. Overall, I would give it 4/5 stars.

If you do decide to get into Dislyte but find yourself stuck or in need of some guidance, we have a series of guides on the game written by myself to hopefully help you push through the grind and enjoy the more fun aspects of the game!

Dislyte Guides from OCG

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