NEWS
GAME
Director’s Letter – ♯004
Preface
Hello everyone, Director Soejima here.
Following our recent Director’s Letter published the other day, today’s letter’s theme is “Content” where I’ll be introducing the various types of content that will be available in TRIBE NINE.
We’ll cover game features that are called “Dailies,” character progression, and the differences since the Deadly Playtest and Deadly Demo.
There are also many new elements to look forward to, so this will be our most comprehensive update yet!
Content Introduction
Challenge
Main Challenge
This is the game’s main content. In each chapter’s “City”, you’ll meet various characters and work alongside your allies to solve the diverse challenges within each city.
Prepare for an adventure filled with discoveries and dangers as you explore the vast pixel-art city. Strengthen your party to conquer the diverse obstacles you’ll encounter.
City Challenge
Along the way, you’ll encounter small tasks known as “City Challenges”.
These offer a variety of rewards, so be sure to help out whenever you find one.
City Challenges are quick and easy to complete, making them perfect for short bursts of gameplay.
Verity Orb Challenge
These challenges hint at how to defeat the “Numbers”, the enemies Yo and his friends face in each city.
Though they may seem unimportant initially, completing them all is essential for reaching each chapter’s climax.
Complete them whenever you see them.
Encounters Around The City
Enemy
Battles begin when you come into contact with enemies patrolling the area.
Enemies follow set routes, and some travel in groups.
If multiple enemies detect you simultaneously, you’ll trigger a “Chain Encounter”, facing them all at once.
In a Chain Encounter, a relentless wave of enemies will reinforce the battle, even as you fight.
Enemy Tension surges, and hesitation can quickly lead to being overwhelmed. A moment’s carelessness can spell instant annihilation.
Enemies are sensitive to sound, so approaching stealthily and launching a surprise attack can help you avoid Chain Encounters and gain a Tension advantage at the start of battle.
If you’re struggling to clear an area, try this tactic!
Previously, battles often involved overwhelming numbers of enemies, creating chaotic situations. To give players more control, we’ve implemented an option to guarantee battles with three or fewer enemies.
However, we’ve also introduced a new enemy reaction pattern: they now detect player footsteps. This means your movement through an area can trigger encounters with large enemy groups.
While the overall number of battles per area is significantly lower than in the Deadly Playtest and Deadly Demo, encounters now require more strategic planning.
Mini Games
Exploration areas feature doors and treasure chests that require completing mini-games to unlock.
Mini-game content and difficulty vary by city and the object they’re guarding, with some offering a real challenge.
Clearing these mini-games can open up area shortcuts and reward you with valuable items, so be sure to give them a try when you see them!
Respite Unit
Scattered throughout the city are these mysterious devices. Interacting with them fully restores your party and resets the status of nearby enemies.
Plus, once activated, Respite Units become warp points you can use anytime.
Respite Units are highlighted on your radar, so be sure to activate them when you spot them for convenient travel!
Full Marks Gate
At certain points in the game, you’ll encounter a significant difficulty spike.
These moments are marked by the appearance of a “Full Marks Gate”, temporarily blocking your progress.
To pass through the gate, you’ll need to strengthen your characters to the required level. So, if you encounter a Full Marks Gate, it’s time to focus on leveling up your party!
However, this also meant players with significantly lower stats than intended would face tough enemies while dealing minimal damage, resulting in a frustrating battle experience.
This change aims to give players a clearer understanding of the recommended character level for each stage of the game.
Zero Sensei
This is a special training program devised by Zero to help the main characters survive in Neo Tokyo. By completing the various tasks, they’ll earn valuable “rewards”.
These tasks reward you with “Full Marks Stickers”.
Collecting “Full Marks Stickers” not only raises the level cap for your characters but also upgrades the rewards you receive from other activities.
Remember those “Full Marks Gates” we mentioned? They require a certain number of Full Marks Stickers to unlock.
With fantastic rewards and serving as a progress tracker, completing these tasks is a key part of your journey. We encourage you to actively participate!
Battle Content
Boss Battle
Powerful boss battles await at the end of your journey.
These bosses each possess unique and challenging mechanics, presenting significant hurdles to your progress. Careful preparation is essential!
These formidable foes require strategic thinking and persistent effort. With each attempt, you’ll decipher their patterns and refine your tactics.
Upon defeating a boss and continuing the story, you’ll gain the option to rematch them.
Defeating bosses grants crucial training materials, so plan your rematches to acquire the items you need.
Defeating enemies, including bosses, has a small chance to yield rare Tension Cards.
Some of these enemy-exclusive cards can’t be obtained through Synchro (more on that later!), and many have unique effects that drastically alter how you play. Be sure to experiment with them when you find them!
Ferocious Enemies
During exploration, you’ll frequently encounter areas guarded by powerful enemies.
Entering their territory will trigger an ambush by a “Ferocious Enemy”, a powerful foe that will relentlessly pursue you. These enemies are significantly stronger than you at first, so it’s best to avoid confrontation and quickly move on to the next area until you’re more powerful.
Ferocious Enemies patrol between areas on a set schedule. If you want to explore a specific area, wait for them to move on and then return.
Rifts
As you explore, you might discover malfunctioning activity maintenance units known as “Rifts”.
Activating a Rift will transport you to a small, rewarding area brimming with more training materials than you can find on the surface.
Each time a Rift is activated, its layout changes, and the available rewards refresh.
“Boosters”, found in treasure chests along your journey, can temporarily activate Rifts. When you have an abundance of Boosters, Rifts offer a great way to accelerate your training!
A major change is the elimination of the “Energy” system, our previous stamina mechanic. Rifts are now activated and reset using specific items.
We’ve also removed stamina requirements for boss rematches and other content.
To ensure that all items, including those previously exclusive to Rifts, remain accessible, they can now be found as drops during your journey.
Plus, collected treasure chests will now respawn periodically.
These changes make Rifts efficient “farming spots,” allowing you to gather various resources quickly without extensive exploration or item gathering.
Character Progression
Character Level
Experience points are earned through battles, leading to character level-ups.
We’ve designed the game to emphasize the rewarding feeling of organic character growth through gameplay. As such, leveling up through battles as you advance is generally more efficient than focusing on farming experience-boosting items.
Level-boosting items are still available and can be a useful supplement to your training.
For those looking to level up new characters, powerful items that drastically boost leveling efficiency up to a certain point become available mid-game. Be sure to utilize these items to streamline your training!
Tension Card Level
Use materials to level up your Tension Cards and boost their effects.
As we showcased in our Battle Introduction, Tension Cards can significantly transform your battle experience.
With a wide range of build options available, we encourage you to experiment with different cards and discover your own unique battle style!
Patimon (Compatible Monster)
Defeating enemies and opening treasure chests may reward you with Compatible Monsters, or “Patimon” for short.
Patimon are like customizable equipment for each character. With three interchangeable parts per Patimon, you can create unique combinations to suit your needs.
Patimon can significantly boost your characters’ stats, and they may also come with random special effects.
Some of these special effects are rare and can greatly enhance a character’s action capabilities. So, be sure to check out each new Patimon you acquire!
Patimon are categorized into various types, and equipping matching types activates “Set Effects”.
These Set Effects can enhance your characters’ strengths, allowing them to excel in their designated roles.
Remember that Patimon cannot be leveled up, so it’s best to swap them out for stronger ones as you progress. New locations may offer even more powerful Patimon, so be sure to upgrade your equipment as you explore new areas!
First, we’ve completely eliminated the upgrade system, encouraging you to freely swap Patimon for stronger ones as you discover them.
Second, instead of restricting Patimon to Rifts, they can now be found in treasure chests and dropped by enemies throughout your journey.
In the Deadly Playtest and Deadly Demo, the Patimon training system discouraged players from switching Patimon and experimenting with different builds.
Consequently, players found little motivation to engage with the training system until high-rarity Patimon became available, falling short of our intended gameplay experience.
This was particularly problematic in the early game, where limited character development options hindered player attachment to their characters. These changes are designed to address these issues.
In the official release version, you’ll acquire increasingly powerful Patimon as you progress, providing clear boosts to your core stats. Prioritizing these core stats over additional effect Options will generally yield better battle results.
However, we recognize the appeal of strategically selecting from randomly assigned Options.
To this end, we’ve included features that make it easier to craft Patimon with your desired Options in the late game. So, feel free to experiment with swapping Patimon and strengthening your characters as you see fit!
Rank and Potential
Available after completing Chapter 1, you’ll unlock the full training system.
The Rank feature allows you to deeply customize your characters’ Potentials, dramatically expanding their roles and playstyles. You could even transform a healer into a powerful attacker!
As you increase your Rank, you’ll earn “Potential Gems”—character-specific training points. These Gems can be freely allocated to any ability, providing a significant boost.
Each character also possesses two hidden abilities that you can strengthen selectively, further enhancing their unique capabilities.
Here’s what you can customize:
| Fighting Instincts | Boosts the power of character actions. |
| Survival Instincts | Increases HP, defense, and stamina limits. |
| Coordination | Enhances support capabilities (influences Chain Skill power and other related parameters). |
| Passive Skill 1 | Modifies or strengthens a character’s unique ability. |
| Passive Skill 2 | Modifies or strengthens a character’s unique ability. |
In-game Purchases
Synchro (Gacha Feature)
Characters and Tension Cards (used as equipment) are primarily obtained through Synchro, our Gacha system.
Enigma Entities, used for Synchro, can be acquired through purchases, story progression, and completing various missions.
TRIBE NINE emphasizes skill-based gameplay. Purchases will not dramatically lower the difficulty; your combat prowess determines your success.
Therefore, you can absolutely complete the game without using the Synchro system at all.
For example, the protagonist, “Yo Kuronaka”, boasts the highest Break performance of all launch characters—a significant advantage in a game where Break mechanics are so vital.
However, we recognize that not all players enjoy aggressive, close-quarters combat. Many prefer ranged attacks or support roles like healing, delegating the Break role to other characters.
TRIBE NINE’s paid features aren’t designed to trivialize the challenge. Instead, they expand your strategic toolkit, enabling you to create a playstyle that perfectly fits your preferences.
This is also why we opted not to include traditional elemental attributes.
Since character control skill directly impacts difficulty, we believe elemental attributes could implicitly force character choices, contradicting our design philosophy of player freedom and diverse playstyles.
Support Contract and Character Skins
The “Support Contract” functions as a “Battle Pass”, offering a wealth of rewards as you progress through daily, weekly, and seasonal missions.
Completing these missions allows you to advance through the pass, unlocking a variety of rewards.
This Support Contract system consolidates the core daily gameplay elements, providing a clear path for regular progression.
One of the most exciting features is “Character Skins”!
These allow you to express yourself by dramatically changing your characters’ appearances.
Skins are purely cosmetic, so they won’t impact gameplay.
Three special Skins are obtainable through the paid Support Contract, but over 100 more, including color variations, await you.
Most Skins are earned through regular gameplay, rewarding your continued adventures in Neo Tokyo.
Designed to enhance your long-term engagement, Skin collection opportunities will gradually become available as you play.
We encourage you to enjoy collecting them at your leisure as you explore the world of Neo Tokyo!
Other Components
To further assist you as you prepare to play, we’ve compiled a list of frequently asked questions and their corresponding answers, covering various aspects of the game.
Will there be a stamina component?
As mentioned briefly in the Rift explanation, TRIBE NINE does not have a stamina system.
This was a decision that involved many internal discussions. Ultimately, we concluded that in today’s busy world, a game cycle that forces players to prioritize “stamina consumption” above all else wouldn’t be a good fit for TRIBE NINE.
More than just avoiding stamina-based resource limits, we wanted to prevent players from feeling obligated to play at specific times due to automatic stamina regeneration.
What are the “dailies”?
For consistent engagement, the Support Contract provides daily tasks—the only “daily” content that is needed to be completed.
These tasks are designed for quick completion and offer escalating rewards, including “Boosters” for Rifts, as you increase your Support Contract level.
Boss runs and Rifts, integral to training, are entirely optional and can be accessed at your leisure.
Our goal is to create a game that fits seamlessly into diverse schedules, ensuring you don’t feel penalized for shorter or less frequent play sessions.
Will there be endgame content?
TRIBE NINE features two exciting endgame areas that unlock upon completing the story.
These areas will initially be locked when the game launches, but we plan to unlock them soon, once players have had a chance to progress through the story.
Both areas offer unique experiences you won’t find anywhere else, and we’re eager to share more details soon!
Stay tuned for more information about these exciting endgame areas!
Final Comments
During the Deadly Playtest and Deadly Demo, we received feedback from many players who were surprised to find that TRIBE NINE is a gacha game, with some feeling it was too complex for that genre.
We acknowledge that the lines between traditional premium games and casual mobile titles are becoming increasingly blurred. In developing TRIBE NINE, we aimed to create a unique live-service experience that defies categorization and embraces modern gaming trends.
However, we realize that this approach may have detracted from the strengths of both traditional and gacha games. Many players struggled to find their preferred playstyle, resulting in an unsatisfying experience.
Throughout the testing phases, we carefully monitored your streams, videos, and social media feedback, analyzing your preferred playstyles and engaging in extensive internal discussions.
One critical issue we identified was the lack of clarity regarding when players could freely explore and progress at their own pace due to the game’s strong emphasis on story.
This lack of guidance on when and how to engage with different gameplay elements made the experience feel like a prolonged, unbalanced tutorial.
Based on your feedback, we’ve streamlined game progression and mechanics to empower players with more agency. We’ve also improved the transparency of the character training system, allowing for smoother and more enjoyable progression.
The official release version offers a revitalized Neo Tokyo adventure with refined battles, where you can experience the thrill of both your own improvement and your characters’ growth.
We sincerely hope you enjoy your journey with Yo and his companions!
Our next letter will be the final installment in this series, focusing on “Story and XB.”
We also plan to introduce new characters, so be sure to stay tuned!
Until next time, in Director’s Letter #005!
