Just over a year ago, I booted up Predecessor for the first time. It was just under a year ago that Predecessor was formally reviewed. At the time, I was entirely brand new to the game, and was joined by my friend Jeremy Stinson, who was far more acclimated to it than me. At the time of writing, I have actually managed to overtake Jeremy, and my other friends, in games played and playtime. As such, this will be another review of Predecessor, only it comes from a much more refined perspective. It will attempt to touch base with some of the talking points last year’s review did in the process.

Let’s begin, talking about the positive aspects of this Multiplayer Online Battle Arena video game.

Hero Roster

The roster is just as robust and diverse as it was a year ago. Since then, numerous excellent, well balanced and incredibly fun additions have been made that suit a variety of playstyles. The witch mage Renna, the assassin Yurei, the robotic carry Eden, right down to familiar faces from Overprime in the likes of Maco and Adele. For the most part, new heroes have touched down to glowing feedback from the playerbase. Every character has a place in this game, and they’re still now deviant enough to where there’s a hero for everyone. So many different aesthetic and structural playstyles exist, and I can personally guarantee there’s at least one hero in this game that will fit you nicely. Oftentimes, more than just the one.

The roster is so incredibly deep, that I have over 1400 games played over the span of a year, and I still haven’t played everyone yet!

Tactically speaking, there is no “wrong” way to play this game

Do you prefer throwing caution to the wind and jumping into action at the first sign of danger? Do you prefer holding down the fort, diligently weathering any storm the enemy can possibly throw at you, and seeking instead to progressively wear them out in the long haul? Either playstyle, or something serving as a middle ground, can serve you very well if you are good enough to execute on whatever plan you have made. This game does a pristine job balancing playstyles out and ultimately seeking to simply reward whichever side performs better.

Video games in general have a tendency to feed into modernized brainrot; making everything faster and faster and pushing offensive gameplay first and foremost. This is not necessarily an objective shortcoming, but it’s worth noting that Predecessor simply prioritizes being smarter and more skilled. Hard to ask for more from a game in terms of balance.

Omeda Studios is clearly quite disciplined

Omeda Studios, Predecessor’s development company, clearly and definitively wants to make a good, well structured video game. They are not chasing any sort of trend, they are not simply bending the knee to the will of the fans, they make decisions to balance the game as effectively as can be. This does result in some not so popular decisions, as the team often has to “nerf” heroes that they newly release due to being slightly overtuned. It’s for the betterment of the game at large. Balance is absolutely king.

Microtransactions

This was actually something Jeremy and I had both expressed some concern over a year ago. Thankfully, the way the game handles microtransactions actually works really well, and is not demanding on tight-walleted players whatsoever. There are very light elements of an unfortunate “lootbox” system pushed via the game’s Ion and Quantum Core mechanics. But, almost anything the player could possibly want that can be had from this system can just be directly purchased from the store. As such, players are not locked away from their favorite cosmetics because they aren’t very lucky. The only cosmetics that could maybe prove frustrating to obtain are season-specific cosmetics. For example, one of my personal favorites the “Old Saint Riktor” skin which is Riktor in a very heavily Christmas themed skin, cannot be purchased outside of the Christmas season. This would be Omeda attempting to appeal to one’s sense of what’s called “FOMO” or, Fear Of Missing Out, prompting players to purchase skins before they leave the store.

It’s pretty difficult to argue that the use of FOMO is exactly unethical here, though. Frankly, Omeda does need to actually earn some money from this game at some point, and it’s fair to say that they’ve gone about doing it in the most reasonable ways possible.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of talking points to discuss today working against Predecessor.

The Onboarding Process

Microtransactions were a concern last year, moved to a “pro” this year. A similar exchange was made here, where I praised this game last year for its onboarding process, but I must now take a step back and critique it this year.

The same features that existed then, exist now. You can still let the game auto-buy your items for you, level up your skills for you, and you can still hold a button down at any moment so the game can tell you exactly what your character can do, at any point in time. This is great for letting the player learn what certain buttons do. It’s helpful for letting the player, at the extremely basic level, learn to play the game.

Since last year, the game’s capacity to let the player fight AI controlled opponents has strengthened as well. AI enemies can make up an entire team, as well as the four teammates for the player, if so desired. So, with the same features and a little bit tacked on to a system which was noted as already being good, why does this appear in the ‘cons’ section of today’s review?

Because that’s just it: onboarding works to give an extremely surface level idea of how to play the game. Onboarding tells you what happens when you press the R1 button. Onboarding tells you what your abilities do. Onboarding simplifies item building, to the point where it could theoretically just remove the mechanic entirely…

However, past the extremely surface level point, onboarding becomes basically non-existent. Sure, it tells you what stuff does, but it fails completely to even suggest at how to use the stuff. As well, the auto-buy system today is extremely dated, and does not factor in any important nuance that players simply need to figure. For example, the Tainted family of items is extremely, inequivocably important to learn about and often build, but auto-buy will virtually never even pay it a passing glance. This absolutely can and will, by itself, doom players to taking losses they otherwise shouldn’t have.

That ties into the next point, somewhat…

This game is not cozy, casual friendly, or for those who aren’t willing to try or care.

Don’t play this game if you aren’t willing to try, at least somewhat. Nobody will rationally ask you to devote your life to it or anything, but you basically need to shed the onboarding mechanics of the game fairly quickly, or you’re gonna have a poor time. If you’re still relying on auto-buy 20-30 games into your time as a player, you are gonna have a rough time. If you still need a pop up menu to tell you what your character does after more than a couple matches, you are going to have a rough time. If you aren’t willing to do minorly complex things in this game because “it’s just a game”, go play a ‘cozy’ game, one maybe like an Animal Crossing, Story of Seasons or some simulator game. Not this one. This game will prove to be a bit niche for you.

“Some” of the game’s skins

For what will soon be obvious reasons, I did not attach a picture of any of the soon to be mentioned ‘skins’ that this talking point refers to.

Predecessor, ultimately, is a free to play game. If there is any money to be made from it, it generally comes from players purchasing the Platinum currency and using it to buy something out of the game’s store. Actual characters themselves can potentially be had entirely for free, but certain cosmetics may be locked behind a paywall.

Some of the skins in this game are pretty cool. However, over the last several months specifically, Omeda Studios has released a growing quantity of “gooner” skins or, skins which are deliberately designed to increase a character’s sex appeal by removing or obscuring their clothing and, well, “enhancing” various parts of their body, usually feminine parts, with the idea of making people “goon” over them.

Look, I get it, the game is free and Omeda has to make their money somehow. But does it have to be so draconic? Is it really that difficult to just make genuinely cool, awesome skins? I don’t think it is, because Omeda has released a non-sexual banger every now and again. Unfortunately, Omeda instead opts to release disgraces such as the Sunforged Sparrow skin, Stewardess Muriel, or basically throw a dart at a board full of Shinbi skins. Why make something visually complex and cool, when you can take a woman, inflate her butt and boobs, rip her clothes off, and have that be that? It’s an insult to both gamers and the medium of gaming itself as a means of art, and it’s unfortunate that this is how Omeda seems compelled to make a troublingly high degree of revenue from.

That’s about it, really.

Despite some of my long winded cons for the game, Predecessor has emerged as a force to be reckoned with on Playstation. While its playerbase is relatively small, it is consistent and not dwindling, indicative of a loyal playerbase. As such, I am going to give the game an A for a grade. I recommend this game to anyone who doesn’t mind using their brain and enjoys being able to do so in a litany of different, exciting, oftentimes fast paced ways.