Just spend sometime in Invasion S2... have to say it is MUCH improved.
- I like that it is not dropping 500 billion talismans. It makes them feel cooler and more important. Also all the ones I have gotten have been pretty bare, so the forge has a point now.
- Being able to speed up the walking speed is a big plus... I think it could go even faster though.
- Removing the armor, for the most part, allows a single player experience where we can actually learn out combos and stuff. It is a lot more fun. Having some still use armour allows the variation of gameplay that I think was originally the point. It is good to see it now and then, like on a end boss or something.
- Also, I think the entire thing is harder. Spamming points into the attack stat wasn't working for me this time... I had to dump a few into health to keep my health pool high enough to absorb combos and survival obstacles, which they seem to be doing a lot of.
- oh and I noticed that the events have a "komplete" text on the image now if it is done, so there is no need to look at the seals anymore on the ground.
- Also the random encounters and secret encounters are a lot less. This is good for a few reasons, one is because this is the main source of resistance items. It used to be you would just spam the resistance into your main and by the end of the invasion you are like 100% resistant to almost everything. Now as you get less it makes more sense to swap and use on characters already resistant. For example +15% resistance to Ice makes Ashara -85% but makes Rain +65%. This speeds up the invasion by having less, makes the "force secret battle" token have a point and encourages using different roster slots.
While i agree with your positive list of things (except for forges being useful... i only received legendary talismans which you cant upgrade in a forge) i still think its not really a fun mode. Its better than S1 and still far better than ToT but its boring as heck nonetheless. I understand you seem to enjoy it which is totally fine and i am glad that at least someone gets some enjoyment out of it. As said though for me its an unrewarding slog.
One thing before i start... are you sure you got restiance syringes this season? Completed everything and farmed about 300k invasion coins and havent gotten one. Only stat upgrade items. Also you mentioned secret fights... do they give rewards? Havent had a single secret fight in like 500 fights... Neither did anyone i know.
Now my thoughts:
- First of all S2 is easier than s1, not harder. I played Li Mei and pumped everything into attack and it was a breeze. Furthermore War Horn Talisman kills every encounter in Invasion flawless. With Mileena you can destroy everything except a couple of opponents in seconds (everything into special) just by spamming roll~roll or raw exroll. Fart, Meteor, Scorpion and Jason Squirrel Talisman destroy a lot of the content as well. Resistances dont matter much for fights either and if someone has trouble with a survive element you can always pick a character of that same element.
- mesas dont feel special anymore since they are the same except for the 1 new mesa. Blocking of different section the make it seem different is lazy. They also are more pointless dead ends than in S1. No new events/pathways for old metas is also a bummer.
- Final boss key is as garbage as it was in S1. Either they need to make these areas special or remove that gimmick altogether.
- shops are horrendous. Reset timer needs to go, same for item quantity! Their only purpose is to slow the player for no reason at all. Also all shops should have the same inventory. Make all items available everywhere. Currently you have a ton of money that you cant spend cuz you have to wait 120hours until you can buy the items that you want. Its ridiculous.
- forges are almost pointless, mainly due to how shops work but also cuz you cant upgrade legendary talismans. The forge items are desigjed like utter garbage as well. For example something like "Increase duration by 1%" or "increase damage by 10%"... is beyond bad game design. You need several hundreds of those to even try to compete with the talisman you get from chests. And where is the Dragon blood? Maybe its bugged for me but i cant seem to be able to buy it like in S1.
- invasion currency is almost useless the way shops and forges are designed now. Besides keys there is nothing worth buying.
- survive games are better but the clunky movement makes them still not really enjoyble. At least you are able to flawless them all so someone put some effort into it at least.
- exp and coins are nerfed which is really bad as they were already horrible.
- for how long invasions takes it feels unrewarding to me. Several blood palette skins for every skin/character that look the same and different colored weapons... yay... Except for Nitara its mostly disappointing in this regard. But hey, we can still buy the Sub and Li Mei skin for 12 bucks each, right?
- relics on paper look better, but most are still useless or bugged
- bugs... bugged relics, bugged career screen, bugged mesa completition values, bugged lines i mesas
- shrine is a joke, you need 65k to buy it out and almost nothing is really worth it compared to what you already have. Not to mention the time you have to sit there to buy it out
- seasonal items, look too samey, very low effort...
So overall the game mode is a bit better than it was before but as seasonal content its still between bad and slightly better than bad.
