Analysis: Fullmetal Alchemist Collab

Introduction
After some screwiness with the NA stream a couple weeks ago, it turns out that we're getting the fairly anticipated FMA collab after all. What a nice surprise! At first this might appear to be a pretty decent machine; with four diamond rolls among just ten cards total, the odds of pulling something decent must be at least passable, right?

Well, I wouldn't fault anyone for assuming that, but sadly it's not quite how GungHo's rates work. As more and more official rates become revealed, we're getting a better look at how they're actually assigned. It appears that higher rarity rolls are assigned whatever low rate GungHo deems appropriate (typically around 2% for the highest rarity in a collab) and then the rest is simply filled in with the lowest rarity cards.

This isn't inherently bad; it's actually kind of nice if a machine has a diversity of reasonably good low rarity cards, for instance. Unfortunately, FMA only has four diamond rolls, meaning that the non-diamond rate is a massive 90%. To make things worse, the low-tier rolls all push the lower end of mediocrity and are even more useless in dupes. If you specifically want one of the six five-star cards (Scar in particular is pretty nice for farming) this can be sort of nice, but the average value of this machine is, to put it bluntly, poor. It's slightly cruel to make a machine this top-heavy without even a diversity of low-star cards.

It's not all bad, though; if you do manage to brave the awful rates, Edward is quite the prize. Our short Elric brother stands out as one of today's best leaders. None of the other diamonds are quite in his league, though they do all have their uses. I'll personally be tossing in a few rolls regardless since I'm a fan of the franchise. This should really be the only reason for most players to roll this machine anyways.

Analysis: New Year's Gacha

Introduction
I'm hesitant to label this one as an "in-depth" analysis, since a lot of these cards don't really have anything interesting to go in-depth about.

Traditionally one of the most trashy seasonal gachas in the game, NY comes back this year with a smattering of new content. Unfortunately, this fails to fix the REM's main problem: almost all the reasonably good pulls are locked behind higher rarities and poor rates. There are only five rolls below the 6* rarity (none of which are especially phenomenal), but together they add up to a staggering 73% pull rate. There's not too much else to say from a gameplay perspective; the NY REM is suuuuuper dated and simply isn't remarkable or worthwhile for most players.

It's disappointing that the rates remain so awful even after three silvers were stripped and tossed into the event dungeon as invades. In case you've missed the message thus far, probably don't roll this thing.

In-Depth Analysis: Monster Hunter Returns

Introduction
Monster Hunter is finally back in NA (after, for some reason, skipping a cycle) and there's some interesting stuff this time around. While we don't want to rain on your parade too much, the machine's hefty 10-stone cost combined with our recurring theme that interesting doesn't always mean good sadly puts this machine's value a bit lower than we'd like. It's still not bad at all, and nearly all the cards have some kind of usage case, but for non-whales it's not reliably good enough to be worth rolling to any considerable extent. (Most collabs, including this one, pale in comparison to something like DBDC.)

This isn't to say the best cards aren't good, of course. Diablos, though beginning to be overshadowed by new leaders and new mechanics, is still an absolute powerhouse. Amatsu can probably be argued to be the best sub in the game. The new Nergigante is stellar in pretty much all departments. In a time where the "best" cards are susceptible to change more rapidly than ever, the glitter isn't worth the risk and stone input for most players. On the other hand you should be very pleased if you do happen to roll one of the excellent prize cards.

Every single card in this machine has received an equip evolution, and we'll be discussing those in the cards' respective sections below. Remember that equip evolutions are not reversible. We will talk about which equips are and aren't worth making, but as a rule of thumb, since they are irreversible, you should generally not proceed with an equip evolution until you know you'll have some use for it.

Finally, and honestly more exciting than the REM cards, are the Male and Female Hunters. Each player gets both a Male Hunter and a Female Hunter for free, with additional Hunters being buyable for 200k MP. Though they are technically farmable, we'll include a review of each Hunter as well, since 200k MP can be a steep investment for many players and there is thus a corresponding opportunity cost.

In-Depth Analysis: King of Fighters

Introduction
Apologies for the delay. Both of us got caught up by the holidays and by KoF's unexpectedly early NA release.

While all the cards in KoF have flashy, striking art, most of them are not that worthwhile. You can tell that GungHo is trying to make cards a bit more interesting and flavorful, giving every card in this machine some kind of side evo (for the five-stars) or pixel evo (for the six-stars). Unfortunately, interesting doesn't always correlate well to usable, and KoF is on the whole a pretty skippable machine. Almost all of the five-star rolls make for pretty useless subs and fairly niche inherits at best. They all have shorter reviews because there's simply not that much to say about them. The six-stars, on the other hand, are actually fairly great overall and have correspondingly deeper analysis, but of course are also fairly excruciating to roll. These factors add up to a highly top-heavy machine, and top-heavy special machines are typically not worth the bait for most players no matter how shiny said bait might be. This is especially true now, when the "best" cards in the game shift more rapidly than ever.

Additionally, do not get fooled by KoF's "no silvers". The gold rolls are not meaningfully better than typical silvers and have comparable rates, while the diamond rates are still 2% or lower each. All of the five-star rolls have extremely poor weighted stat totals; every card has a weighted of around 705, which, for comparison, is poorer than Christmas Hatsume's. This is especially bad in context of today's typical power level; at least Hatsume has the excuse of being a year old. "No silvers" here is effectively just a marketing tool.

All the five-star rolls have a "Second Player Color" or "Third Player Color" ult evo with different awakenings (but keeping the same stat lineup, active skill, etc.). In the reviews below, we'll give some insight into which form might generally be preferred. The six-star rolls all have Pixel forms that are different enough to merit separate analyses entirely.

In-Depth Analysis: Christmas Gacha

Introduction
The Christmas seasonal gacha returns with some interesting new additions and changes. Most notably, all the silver rolls have been removed from the machine and added as rare invades to the dungeon instead. This turns the Christmas REM from literal excrement into something actually passable. Some of the old higher-end rolls have been given access to the upcoming Super Awakening mechanic (which grants the card an extra awakening, chosen from a small pool) in an attempt to revitalize them a bit; however, Super Awakening is a solidly late-game mechanic and most players will realistically not stand to gain much from these updates. There are several new cards as well, of varying power. The end result is that this machine isn't quite as much of a trashfest as it used to be.

Historically speaking, seasonal REMs have always been at least pretty bad. Beach REM was probably the best reversal of this trend, as the best rolls there were absolutely spectacular; the changes to this machine are a step in the same direction. Sadly, this isn't well reflected in the 5-stars, which have approximately 75% rates and are still that perfect GungHo combination of cute and forgettable. They have, though, attempted to make the higher-end rolls somewhat worthwhile in the circumstance that you somehow do get one in the midst of all your Freyjas. In our opinion, though, even the best rolls are luxuries and the rates are simply not good enough for this machine to be worthwhile for most players.

We've included some JP roll data from Skyozora in the table below, with about 3500 rolls at the time of writing. For your convenience, we'll also start including this information in the future for REMs that already have meaningful roll data.

In-Depth Analysis: Dragonbound/Dragon Caller Machine

Introduction
The long-awaited DBDC is finally here. It's amusing that this is the blog's first post and first REM review, as pretty much every special REM we receive in the future will be worse than this one -- all downhill from here, apparently! This machine is littered with great cards that excel in their niches, with very few mediocre rolls and just one "bad" card. In particular, Li and Kiri are the treasures of an already stacked machine. Li is our first inheritable leader swap, a completely gamechanging mechanic that is discussed more below. Kiri has incredible and unique potential as a sub, lead, or assist, something that is not true of almost any other card in the game.

(No, we didn't forget about Ideal. For most players, Ideal is a luxury -- a gorgeous powerhouse of a luxury, but still a luxury. She is not the true prize of this machine.)

DBDC also features some of the most interestingly designed cards that I've ever seen GungHo attempt, and huge props to them for this. Tardis and Kiri in particular really caught our eye as having creative and well-designed combinations of leader skill, active skill, and awakenings. The machine offers novelty, but it's good novelty, and quite honestly, that almost makes us as happy as the quality of the machine itself.

Even though it is a 10-stone REM, players of all skill and progression levels should be aiming to do several pulls in DBDC, as it is just that good. Farmers will also appreciate what it has to offer, and both of us will be dumping quite a few rolls into the machine.

Note that none of the Neys are in this review as they are already available from the standard REM. It's honestly kind of annoying that any Ney can be rolled at all, both because she is normally available and because she is straight-up worse than almost every other roll. The ultimate troll diamond.