I actually really like Riichi City’s UI, sound design etc. and it’s a lot of fun to play in a flashier, more polished mahjong client with more fast-paced custom modes, but having only FIVE boy PNGs to pull for, two of which are mid and one of which is a comic relief panda bear mascot guy, is like playing Russian roulette. I didn’t realize how spoiled we were in Mahjong Soul. The outfits I’ve seen for the female characters in this game are just lmao, someone’s win screen will come up and it’s literally a woman just shoving her nude ass into the camera. The absolute state of gacha games. Fortunately the character I got is very normal-looking aside from her weird pose that looks like she fell into a tumble dryer so I am fine playing as her indefinitely

Despite the 😬 I’ve been having a great time with this so far, the actual mahjong client is just such a pleasure to use and really feels snappy and satisfying, I get so much dopamine when I play. I particularly enjoy all the little flavor elements they include in the statistics, I love checking my opponents’ profiles to see their playstyles. I especially like the weirder titles they make for people with very unorthodox playstyles, like “Eclectic” or “The Blessed”.

Climbing the ranks towards my actual skill level has been a nice opportunity to rework my playstyle in a relaxed environment, I’ve been trying to develop better defensive discipline and rely less on luck. Playing with less skilled players makes me appreciate how much of a difference stuff like basic suji defense really makes, you don’t always feel the impact in MahjongSoul Gold Room where everyone is doing it but when you’re playing against people who don’t understand suji you can really see just how many deal-ins you actually dodge. It’s very motivating to become a stronger defensive player.

My character is growing on me as well, her voice acting is legitimately great and I think her style is cool. I’m never going to upgrade her to Awakened because they change her outfit to this idiotic tube top sweater thing but I’m definitely gonna max her friendship up to that point. She has some top tier in-game voicelines also, my favorites are “Mahjong is indeed a tough one to figure out” which I like to do when someone ragequits and “I’m an absolute menzenchin enthusiast” which I do when I’m about to win a hand in damaten or if it’s almost the end of the round and I’m trying to make the other players THINK I’m in a damaten wait to scare them out of tenpai, which often works especially if I’ve already won a hand that way. You don’t get to play that kind of mindgame in mahjongsoul!!

I think it’s a bit of a shame they’ve carved out their niche as “the horny (well, hornier) riichi mahjong phone game” because this game has very good bones! But I imagine they crunched the numbers and this is just what makes financial sense for them, which too bad but I get it.