YMMV / Dragalia Lost

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• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Some people go by the idea that the Prince is a hardcore party animal that would rather have fun than go against Dyrenell, due to the amount of Events that take place between Chapters. This interpretation was so prolific it became an Ascended Meme. Dragalia Life #243 actually plays with this idea for laughs.
  • Mixed with Crack Pairing and Incest Yay Shipping: some people say that the reason that Euden gets handed the Idiot Ball whenever Zethia is involved is because he actually really wants to get in her pants.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • The Omega Co-op Chronos in the "Fractured Futures" Event can take more of a beating than the Solo version, but not enough so to make up for the fact that there are now four squads attacking him all at once. Many players who struggled with the Solo version managed to clear the Co-op version with only a handful of tries, which is all the more noticeable because beating the Solo version is required to even challenge the Co-op version. When the event was rerun there was now a Level 2 Omega Co-op Raid, which, while it ups the difficulty significantly, is still prone to being slaughtered by the busted Shadow element, with the original Co-op Omegas becoming a Warm-Up Boss.
  • In a general sense, as the Agito each got released in Standard, there was a gap between the difficulty spike that was Volk and Tartarus. Kai Yan's mechanics were easy to work around and in turn very quick to mow down (especially as he got farmed for the Shadow Agito Weapons), Ciella especially was predictable and slow even in regards to her very punishing attacks, and Ayaha & Otoha could be a bit tricky but were prime victims for Pipple, Karina and Gaibhne & Creidhne, some taking advantage of there being essentially two hitboxes meaning potential for huge burst damage against them. This generally phased out come their Expert versions, especially so at their Master and Legend releases.
    • Assuming they raise their strength to match the increase in HP between the two difficulty levels, some players find Tartarus on Master difficulty to be easier than on Expert difficulty.^note Unless they use Game Breakers to trivialize the fight entirely. The main reason is that Tartarus inflicts an attack debuff during the first portion of his fight on Expert that he does not use at all in the Master difficulty battle.
• Best Boss Ever:
  • The Alfonse and Veronica fights, from the "Fire Emblem: Lost Heroes" Event, and the EX version of Chronos, from the "Fractured Futures" Event, are regarded to be the best boss fights in the game, subverting the large boss archetype that normally dominates the game and fighting players with quick and brutal attack patterns.
  • Three years in, and anniversary event Raid Bosses have proven to be able to consistently raise the bar of quality:
    • Chronos Nyx from the "Fractured Futures" Event is regarded as an intense battle that kept you on your toes, and remained sufficiently challenging even when you possessed powerful enough equipment and boosts to take him on. Then he came back for the "Rage of Chronos" Event with even more to his arsenal, to the delight of many.
    • Morsayati's Omega battle in the "Forgotten Truths" Event is being praised as one of the best Raid Boss battles in the game. It starts out the same as the normal battle, but eventually he'll use an attack that requires you to knock out a Weak Point bar. When you do, he gets angry and completely changes the battlefield, then starts throwing a TON of super powerful attacks at you one after another, forcing you to dodge constantly unless you have a strong healer. When you eventually whittle down his health to 1%, he moves onto the final phase. All of his health is restored, and he is now invincible. To defeat him once and for all, you need to take out four obelisks while avoiding all of his ultra powerful attacks from before, complete with the soundtrack really rocking out.^{Fun fact!}Once you've reached this final phase, as long as you stay alive and avoid all the attacks, you've basically already won the fight, as the timer no longer actually comes in play despite it still ticking down! (In the final phase, there is a separate hidden timer that gives the players two minutes to defeat him.)Finally, once you destroy the four obelisks, you hit the Zethia's Mana button and a MASSIVE Mana Sword comes down from the sky to slay the boss once and for all. The best part? Newcomers can experience the fight too, as there is a Fixed Stat version that lets anyone of any level experience the fight. For bonus points, in Morsayati Reckoning, the hardest version of this quest and arguably the current endgame quest, the lyrical version of We Are The Lights plays for the third phase, practically completing the climactic feeling of this showdown twofold.
    • The fight with Satan in the "Faith Forsaken" Event is generally considered to be a worthy successor to the aforementioned Morsayati fight, featuring some of the game's best visuals, Light a Fire playing for all of it, and one hell of a climactic showdown, especially for those who were engaged in the Apostles & Archangels' stories.
  • Among the permanent bosses, Volk is considered to be one of the best. His Plague mechanic and Affliction bombs encourage mixing up teams in a way that doesn't feel overly restrictive, and at release his strength and health were just enough that most Flame Adventurers stood a chance against him. On top of that, as he was the first Agito boss released for each difficulty, it was a genuine shocking moment when he transformed into his awakened form on Expert, and transformed right at the start on Master. As a fun boss fight with interesting mechanics, challenging yet not overly punishing, Volk is well-regarded by the player base.
  • For those even capable of getting past his affliction checks much less are able to beat him, Iblis is generally the best of the Sinister Dominion, a race of a fight to dispel and afflict him with statuses in time while having a very unique flow in his attack patterns, with Musical Theme Naming and a wonderfully hammy performance to boot. This extends as well to his Legend difficulty version following the mixed reception from the prior three of Lilith, Jaldabaoth and Asura's Legend versions.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Poseidon appears throughout Chapter 16 of the main campaign in his Void form, terrorizing the countryside. When he reaches the Halidom, Elisanne and Zena combine their holy mana to purify Void Poseidon, transforming him into his Reborn form, kicking off the next series of Gala Dragons, Reborn versions of the Void Dragons. However, Reborn Zephyr, Jeanne D'Arc, Agni, and Nidhogg appear out of nowhere whenever their element-associated main character (Ranzal, Luca, Laxi, and Cleo, respectively) gains new resolve. They show off their new Reborn forms, and once the enemy is defeated, leave the group, with nobody remarking about the new Reborn Dragons afterwards. Keep in mind that the only one of the Void Dragons to ever actually interact with the main cast is Jeanne, via "The Miracle of Dragonyule" Event.
• Breather Boss:
  • Among the Void Battles, the Ghosts are the most approachable if you're new. Their main gimmick of Ranged Resistance is easily bypassed by bringing in melee characters. Additionally, only one of their attacks have any form of Interface Screw, and even that one goes in an easily dodgeable pattern. As long as you have a strong melee Adventurer, you can take on the Ghosts easy.
  • Void Poseidon is considered to be the easiest among the Void Dragons, as his Whirlpool ability doesn't deal any damage and can be escaped by spamming dodge rolls, his attacks are heavily telegraphed and easy to dodge, and even the attack that requires entering a bubble isn't a One-Hit Kill. As long as you have a good Weapon or unlock the Ability that pierces through his Skill Resistance, Void Poseidon is considerably easier to approach than the likes of Void Agni or Void Zephyr.
  • Compared to Expert Volk, Expert Kai Yan is less demanding, both in terms of mechanics and gear set-up. Part of this is because of the plethora of powerful Shadow units (including two units, one of them being Regular Cleo, who got a Mana Spiral upgrade that lets them negate his beefy shield), part of it is because Kai Yan only has a little more HP than Expert Volk, but has a passive field that doubles the damage he takes.
  • Despite also being That One Boss below, Grimnir in Trial of the Mighty is also this for many players. His attacks are pretty easy to dodge, he doesn't have many unblockable area-of-effect attacks, and after you break his barriers, he will stay still for several seconds, and most likely everyone there has enough to shapeshift right then and there. Considering many Trials can go down to the wire, it's not unheard of to slaughter Grimnir with just under three minutes left on the clock, even on Master. Even fighting him Solo isn't that difficult if you've built up your fighters enough.
  • Poseidon's Trial of the Mighty fight is only slightly harder than his regular Void Battle fight. Given that his Void Battle fight is a cakewalk for even mid-tier units, even those with just Chimeratech Weapons should have an easy time with Poseidon, even on Master Solo. If you had Midgardsormr Zero or Gala Notte, you can basically steamroll him.
  • "Breather" is relative in this case, but Asura is by far the easiest of the Sinister Dominion fights. Unlike all the other demons, Asura stands still in the center of the arena and doesn't move, meaning you don't have to waste time chasing the boss, and because Asura is so huge, long-range Adventurers can hit it even from the edges of the arena! That being said, you DO need the right units. Summer Verica is an absolute must, and with her Mana Spiral, she should be able to keep your team healed constantly, especially if you play as her and give her a secondary healing Shared Skill as backup. Shadow, thankfully, has a large number of strong units, so even if you don't have, say, Gala Chelle, Alberius, or Gala Zethia, you should still be able to go to town, especially with Verica providing Amp after Amp. Master can be a bit tricky if you don't have Gala Leonidas, but it's still easier than the other Sinister Dominion bosses. This extends too to Legend, having little changed beyond some added mechanics and the most enemy health in the game. This stands in particular as she was released between both Jaldabaoth and Iblis.
  • The Kaleidoscape has a bunch:
    • The Sunrise Snapper literally does nothing but flop around. No special attacks, no unique mechnaics, no hard hitting moves, nothing. That being said, it DOES have high defense, so taking it down will take a while regardless.
    • Ranzal was a boss back in Chapter 1, so most players probably forgot all about it by the time this dropped. All of his attacks are very simple and melee focused, and he is one of thebfee bosses who can be outright knocked out of his purple attack.
    • Valyx is a bit more of a traditional boss than Ranzal, but he shares a lot of the same weaknesses, particularly the lack of range in his attacks.
    • Chthonius is probably the weakest Dragon boss in this mode. His defense is paper thin and he lacks some of the more devestating attacks his other battles bring. Even at the higher levels, you'll tear through him in under 30 seconds easy.
    • Of the four Beast Agito, Beast Ciella is the easiest to deal with. She starts out the fight summoning her icebergs and using Floor of Despair, letting you wail on her in the meantime. It isn't uncommon for her to be around 50-60% health by the time the attack ends. And from there, it won't take much to get her to trigger Mist Veil, which will lead into another round of Floor of Despair right after. You still need to be wary of her Vulnerability attacks and getting Bogged, but otherwise she is easy to slaughter.
    • Fallen Gabriel is the weakest of the four fallen angels in this mode. She'll start out the battle summonng a bunch of random fiends, which are easily taken care of, then spends the rest of the battle firing off easily-dodged red attacks that push her back a bit. She will inflict Creeping Corrosion at one point, but by then if you Fafnir doesn't activate his heal, you likely have plenty of heals on your own. She does summon Catoblepas if you don't finish her off quick enough, but it lacks the Petrify affliction and either way, Gabriel will be around 10% health by then. And that's it. There may be more, but you will have defeated her long before then.
• Breather Level: The Kaleidoscape has a few.
  • The biggest one if the Treasure floor. It's simply 1-2 Gold Slimes, 6 treasure chests, and a bunch of HP Barrels. This allows you to get up to two free levels and you can usually pick up some good weapons and Wyrmprints from the chests.
  • There is one floor, set in the swamp theme, that's simply a single zig-zag with a handful of relatively easy enemies, none of which have ranged attacks. You can be done with this floor pretty quick and escape with minimal damage.
  • One floor set in the volcano setting has a long, winding path zig-zagging upwards, with a series of enemies that take only 1 hit of damage. Said enemies are all spread out, so you can easily lure them down one at a time and take your time killing them with normal attacks. There are no Healers to support, ranged enemies to distract you, nor any Menaces to worry about.
  • For the Arena rooms, it's any configuration that only includes melee enemies, with no ranged or Healers around to muck things up. This allows you to simply circle the room endlessly, staying just out of range of the enemies' attacks, then launching your Skills when they're charged up. Even better, one of these rooms is filled with 1 Damage enemies, who are often much slower than their comrades.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • The "Dawn of Dragalia" Event gave players the chance to lay the beatdown on Elysium, after essentially causing the main problems of the game in the "Forgotten Truths" Event. While his Universal Creation move can be frustrating in the higher difficulties, it's barely an issue in the lower ranks, and several Adventurers can outright bypass it. In particular, both of Alberius' Skills can pierce through the barrier with ease, allowing the player to brutalize the Holy Greatwyrm.
  • Those wanting to take on Harle for all he has done throughout the years finally get a chance in "Knights of Alberia". While he does get away after and his attacks could not be dodged in the fight, it's still cathartic to finally take him on. While "Faith Forsaken" reveals that this is not the real Harle, but his imposter Loki, the feeling has not changed, and some want to bring the real Harle next time to add insult to injury. Loki finally being put down for good in Bondforged Euden's Adventurer Story was a very satisfying end for him and won the Prince quite some cheers.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Now on its own page.
• Complete Monster:
  • Main Campaign: Xenos, aka The Progenitor, is a vengeful God who views humans as mere tools for him to use. Xenos was once a kind God who saw good things in humanity, but when they proved to be evil, Xenos grew angry. Xenos committed omnicide many times, and after being fed up with the way humanity was, he decided to take into his own hands and create a world where humanity doesn't have free will and are mindless slaves for Xenos to use as he wishes. Xenos even discarded his own heart, viewing it as useless, leaving him incapable of feeling positive emotions. In the present day, Phares, who was desperate for a cure for his deadly Wyrmscale disease, struck a deal with Xenos, only for Xenos to backstab him and take control of his body. Knowing that Xenos would re-awaken soon, the Northern Church of Grastaea tried summoning Satan to stop him, though Xenos helped them, knowing that it would backfire. Eventually, Xenos re-awakens, destroying the entire multiverse just to create an individual world in which he gets all the say. Prince Euden, who is part of Xenos' long-lost heart, tries to convince Xenos that there really is good in humanity and that he never gave them a proper chance, only for Xenos to deny he is in the wrong. Even after losing the final battle, Xenos still tries to mess with the heroes' attempts to fix some of the damage that Xenos caused, showing just how much of a Sore Loser Xenos really is. Cold and ruthless, Xenos will stop at nothing to fulfill his own twisted ambitions.
  • "Scars of the Syndicate": The Doctor is the main figure of The Syndicate, a group involved in shadowy fusion experiments. Raiding numerous villages to collect test subjects, the Doctor conducts disgusting experiments, merging people with real monsters. While attempting to merge Aldred with the dragon Barbatos, the Doctor calls him trash and brushes him off after failing. When Prince Euden refuses his offer of fusion and attempts to destroy it, the Doctor throws one of his manticores to slaughter, fully aware that the manticore in question is Alfred's sister. Having lured Euden and his group into a trap in a nearby village and fused with the demon, the Doctor attempts to viciously kill them all, and even when defeated, the Doctor gloats that his death will only further the Syndicate's goals.
  • "Forgotten Truths": Augus is a cold, calculating general in a war between humans and dragons. Wishing for humans to dominate the land, he will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if he must use threats. One gambit he pulls off to take out as many dragons as possible involves deliberately destroying their habitats, goading them to attack the capital city that he lined with Mana Bombs. The capital's residents were not informed of his gambit; as a result, millions of lives were lost, both human and dragon, once the Mana Bombs were set off. In the end, he had no respect for life, as seen with his gleeful reactions to the demon Morsayati's havoc.
  • "Celestial Showdown": Tsukuyomi is a harsh dragon who fought with her sister, Amaterasu, over her ideals of having total control over humanity. Even after being sealed away, she cursed Yoshitsune with immortality and formed a group called the Mukuroshu to help power her up by performing atrocities around the world while also committing suicide so she could gain full control of the underworld, making her stronger. Tsukuyomi also gets Amaterasu's emissary on her side through his evil half, having him serve as The Mole for her. Once she is ready for release, Tsukuyomi has the Mukuroshu open up multiple Yomi rifts to release Yomi chi and zombies everywhere while she prepares to take action in her plan to wipe out all of humanity, including the Mukuroshu who were loyal to her, also intending to turn their corpses into her undead slaves.
• Difficulty Spike:
  • The game gets progressively harder with each Quest cleared. However, the last boss of Chapter 5 recommends an staggering 5200 Might, 500 more than the previous Quest and 150 more than the last boss of the next Chapter. This trend repeats in Chapter 10, where quests requiring 8000-ish Might end with a boss requiring over 10,000. The subsequent Chapters get even higher spikes for boss encounters. Chapters 12 onward start bringing in the various bosses you fight elsewhere, such as the Void Dragons and Agito.
  • The Advanced Dragon Trials are significantly harder than the Imperial Onslaught and Dragon Trials on Master difficulty as the Dragon bosses have much more HP and stronger attacks, some of which can kill your Adventurer even if they have full health. Cygames introduced Void Battles to help fill the difficulty gap between Advanced Dragon Trials and Imperial Onslaught/Dragon Trials, with some weapons craftable that help newer players to easily transition into High Dragon Trials (such as 5-Star Weapons that deals bonus damage to High Dragons and a Flame Dracolith Facility to help players start off in High Midgardsormr).
  • The "Dream Big Under the Big Top" Facility Event introduced a new difficulty level for Challenge Battles, Master difficulty. This is almost the same as other Facility Events' Challenge Battles where the player needs to face five waves of enemies, except the difficulty is jacked up, as normal Mooks are capable of dealing 200-300 damage per attack while all of the bosses' attacks can instantly kill your Adventurer.
  • In the "Fire Emblem: Lost Heroes" Event, the normal and hard versions of The Alberian Front are manageable, even if some errors occur. The Lunatic version, on the other hand, requires your team to be agile and coordinate well, as the enemies are far more hardy and strong. One wrong move and you'll find yourself failing the level in short order.
  • In the "Resplendent Refrain" re-run, Sabnock fell easily on all returning fights, even the EX one. The Nightmare version, however, has loads more HP and is very hard to take out within the time limit.
  • Thanks to Power Creep, Power Seep, even the Nightmare difficulty is easy for veteran players. Thus, Cygames introduced the Omega difficulty, which now comes in THREE different levels. And you can't challenge the relatively easier Co-op versions until you defeat the much harder Solo version first.
  • There are two points when the Mercurial Gauntlet becomes much harder all at once. Starting from Level 41, the time limit is doubled, and Fafnir Roy III gains a massive boost in HP to match. Then, starting from Level 51, his attacks can no longer be blocked by using Skills, so a healer must be brought along. This massively reduces DPS, all while Roy III continues to gain HP each level, even faster than he did between Levels 41 and 50.
  • The Agito Uprising boss fights are harder than Advanced Dragon Trials at Master difficulty, as the bosses can inflict two Status Effects, meaning a well balanced team able to resist both statuses or Gala Adventurers are required for this fight.
  • As if the regular Master Agito fights weren't hard enough, Cygames introduced the Legend Difficulty, which requires a top tier team to even challenge.
  • A special version of the Morsayati raid battle from the "Forgotten Truths" Event was added as its own battle... with the same Legend difficulty as the above Agito fights.
  • The Sinister Dominion bosses are extremely difficult due to being able to negate any buffs your Adventurers have, buffing their own strength often, and inflicting a Damage Over Time effect far worse than regular Poison or Burn. And then they got a Legend difficulty, making them even harder.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Now on its own page.
• Escapist Character: Euden is a young man who attracts a notable amount of suitors of all kinds to fall for him (Elisanne, Cleo, Philia, Estelle and Malora) as well as participating in some ship teasy situations with others. Even some men fall for him (such as Orion and Naveed), with those not attracted to him still praising him endlessly.
• Evil Is Cool: It'd be harder to single out a true villain in Dragalia Lost who isn't cool in at least some fashion. The Other, the Agito, the Sinister Dominion and Chronos in particular run with this excellently, with a helping of generally being some of the game's finest boss fights.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • If it's not Friendly Fandoms as mentioned below, Dragalia Lost has this kind of relationship with Fire Emblem Heroes, both being tied as Nintendo's most popular gacha game. Best exemplified during Christmas 2018, where the playerbase contrasted Cygames giving DL players a truckload of free Wyrmite and summoning coupons to Intelligent Systems giving FEH players practically nothing.
    • More fuel was added to the fire when Nintendo requested the microtransactions of its mobile games to be tuned down so that players don't have to spend much, while a statement from the developer's parent company CyberAgent mentions that they could have earned much more from the players, but had to comply with Nintendo's statement. Many Dragalia players implied that Cygames would comply with this in the future, or have already shown signs of complying prior to this announcement, by releasing numerous freebies in the past months. Cue some Dragalia players who branched out from FEH mocking that the developer of Heroes (Intelligent Systems) "didn't get the memo," with the detractors claiming that Intelligent Systems generally didn't show any signs of being consumer-friendly in past months compared to the developers of Dragalia.
    • The rivalry seemed to have subsided when a crossover event between the two games was announced, but it came back with a vengeance when the event actually started, adding in character-related reasons on top of it. Many players of FEH praised how Alfonse, Fjorm, and Veronica's characters were written and handled during the event, while simultaneously mocking how poorly their characterization was handled in their own game (often citing Book II for their reasoning).
    • Unfortunately, the rivalry sprouts back up whenever revenue charts for Nintendo's mobile games appears, as Heroes tends to pull in more money than all other Nintendo mobile games combined. To make matters worse, Dragalia is actually one of the worst performers, only doing better than Dr. Mario World, which brings up a lot of jealous reactions from the Dragalia fanbase. Not helping matters is that Heroes constantly gets attention from Nintendo of America, is available in more countries, and has representation in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, while Dragalia gets nothing.
  • Surprisingly, there's also a similar case with the Granblue Fantasy fanbase weeks after Dragalia was released. On October 2018, an interview with the game's director states that the executives want "DL to be the new face of Cygames". Mentioning this phrase would not be well-received in GBF communities, seeing as GBF is basically the Cash-Cow Franchise of Cygames and that replacing it as the most popular Cygames IP would be possibly risky for the company (since this game is co-developed with Nintendo in the first place). This is also the same reason why there existed a rivalry between GBF and Rage of Bahamut fans - having a new title represent the company while another existing and established title is making the money. Thankfully, this rivalry died down late 2018 at the announcement of Granblue Fantasy Versus and Granblue Fantasy: Relink, seeing as the "new face" statement wasn't as negative as some pointed it out to be, and that Granblue is still getting recognition. Afterwards, some Dragalia fans claimed that the interview article, or the quote itself, was unsourced information, or simply a hoax, and that Granblue fans have nothing to worry about it the first place. Ever since, it wasn't brought up again, subverting this trope and placing the relationship between the Granblue and Dragalia player bases into Friendly Fandoms once more.
  • Dragalia Lost also has a nasty rivalry with Fate/Grand Order fandom as well, as both Fate/Grand Order and Dragalia Lost are relatively popular gacha games from the top competitive rivals from Sony^note Fate Grand Order was developed by DelightWorks and Type-Moon, but the top distributor of the game is Aniplex, which is owned by Sony and Nintendo respectfully. The nature of the gacha from both games can be a very touchy subject. Dragalia Lost fans would argue that the "pity" rate Dragalia has makes their gacha more forgiving when compared to Fate/Grand Order and Cygames generally hands out a lot of freebie goods where they save up enough Wyrmites and Tenfold Summon Tickets that the player can easily save up for 3-4 months to have a good chance of getting their favorite 5-Star Adventurer/Dragon (as opposed to Fate/Grand Order where most players would need to save Saint Quartz for several months to even have a good chance of getting their favorite 5-Star Servant). Fate/Grand Order fans, however, would argue that their gacha is more forgiving when it comes to duplicates because getting extra copies of a 4-Star or 5-Star Servants yields more benefit of boosting the Servant's Limit Break whereas Dragalia Lost will only reward the player extra Eldwater for extra copies of 4-Star or 5-Star Adventurers the player already has.
    • Much like the situation above with the Fire Emblem Heroes and Dragalia Lost rivalry. Fate/Grand Order fans used the situation with Nintendo asking microtransactions in mobile games to be toned down to justify their game being more successful than Dragalia Lost while Dragalia Lost fans would argue that the Fate fanbase is already established with other means of revenue (i.e. manga, anime, figmas, posters, and even book covers to promote the works where the Servants were based on) while Cygames's business model is built around gacha games (since Cygames's gacha games tend to be more attractive to free-to-play players as opposed to Fate/Grand Order).
    • And with Wyrmprints removed from the summoning pool and made available with Eldwater, the fandom rivalry between the two games is much more heated.
  • With the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fandom, mostly due to Euden constantly popping up in Fighters' Pass speculation and a large chunk of fans sick of "anime swordsmen" getting into the game. Things really got heated when a very popular Twitter fan poll had Euden not only win against the likes of Crash, Shantae, and The Knight, but getting almost 50% of the vote. Granted, it was a fan poll and obviously has no effect on the actual game's development, but it gained such blowback that it got "JRPGs" to trend negatively on Twitter.
    • While there are legitimately people who want Euden in the game (or, for variety's sake, one of the other main characters like Mym, Elisanne, or Ranzal), much of the fandom would be perfectly happy with Spirits and maybe a Mii Costume, but Smash Ultimate not even acknowledging the game at all, combined with what feels like being shunned by Nintendo themselves, fuels the fans to push harder than normal, which ends up causing backlash.
  • One has sparked up against Genshin Impact, since they are both fantasy gacha games with a lot of attractive character designs. With Genshin exploding in popularity, fans of Dragalia became jealous and started spamming Genshin social media accounts in support of their game. The rivalry heated up in September 2021, as both games were celebrating anniversaries (Genshin their first, Dragalia their third) and Dragalia players brought up how Genshin is making all this money but is handing out paltry rewards for the big celebration, while the lesser-known Dragalia is handing out close to 500 free summons, among many, many other rewards.
• Fanfic Fuel: What Sventila, Hinamoto, Taiwu, the Faerie Kingdom, North Grastaea, Euden's siblings (including Beren), as well as Nedrick and the Agito are up to in the various Bad Future Alternate Timeline futures Zena/Audric either come from or have visited before. It is eventually revealed that Nedrick, and by extension the Agito, do not exist in Zena or Audric's timelines, and Beren is dead in Audric's.
• Fan Nickname: Has its own page.
• Friendly Fandoms: With the game being co-developed by Nintendo and Cygames, it is fairly common to see Dragalia players making references to the popular gacha games of both (Fire Emblem Heroes and Granblue Fantasy respectively). As such, there are those who have branched into Dragalia seeing as one of their favored developers collaborated with the other in creating this game, mainly resulting into a mixed player base from both titles. Regarding Cygames, the expected inclusion of popular characters from their older titles like Rage of Bahamut also encouraged several Cygames fans to try out this game.
• Game-Breaking Bug: Attempting to bring a Phantom Thief into a Dragon Battle will have them try to summon their Persona on loop until they die or the event times out.
• Gateway Series: Upon the game's launch on 2018, it was common to hear claims from players stating that this game is their first experience of Cygames's products.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Raptors shoot out elemental tornadoes that inflict knockback, knockdown, and even Stun as a regular attack, and their charge attack fire these in three directions at once.
  • Eyeflies sometimes perform a small charged area-of-effect attack that can inflict a status aliment, usually well outside the reach of your spell casters or worse, your screen.
  • Rats constantly dash all over the place and their attacks can knock you down, wasting your time.
  • Wolves are just as bad as they come in packs and always do their spin attacks to knock you down.
  • Shield Soldiers not only put up barriers that you have to Force Strike to break, they can also knock you back a considerable distance.
  • During Defense Battles at higher difficulties, the Final Wave will have a group consisting of a Knight and three Wolves that will run towards your castle. Only very strong hits will get their attention, and thanks to the way running works, if the group gets past you, you likely won't be able to catch up before they reach the castle and start doing damage.
  • The Legion Battles in the Trials of the Mighty have the Archers, which can snipe at you from across the map without having any attack guide letting you know it's coming. It's not uncommon for at least one Adventurer to lose 60% or more of their health almost right after the battle begins. And thanks to the way the mechanics work in those battles, getting rid of them takes a lot of effort.
  • The Kaleidoscape makes many lower tier enemies into this thanks to how the mechanics work.
    • The most prevalent are Healers and Gobhealers. Often, there will be multiples of them and they can be in a group by themselves or with other foes. If there are foes that will take 1 damage per hit, any attempts to outdamage the heals will be for naught, forcing you to deal with the matter at hand first.
    • Not to be outdone, the other ranged enemies (mostly Mages, Treants, and Archers) can be extremely annoying, as they will run away if you get close and try to snipe you from far away. Their big attacks are easily dodgeable, but their regular attacks don't have an attack area indicator and can quickly whittle away your health while you're dealing with the melee range enemies. It's especially problematic in Arena levels, since you can't stand still and slaughter them first, and your Skills may target a different enemy instead.
    • For melee enemies, there are the Rat, Cutthroat, and Ghoul enemies. Rats, most notably the Wererats, are quick, jump around a lot, and lunge towards you. It's especially annoying in Arena rooms because they'll be the likely reason you can't deal with a Healer or Mage irritating you. Cutthroat enemies are pretty sturdy, but the reason they are annoying is because they can leap from far away and still slash you, meaning you can't keep them at bay with a ranged Adventurer. Ghoul enemies can also lunge, but they can also put up a shield, and, most importantly, they can inflict Curse upon you. If you don't pick a Curse-resistant Adventurer or get Hikage, you could be in real trouble.
    • More of a Goddamn Item, but also in Arena rooms are the Barrels. If you don't immediately destroy them all before the enemies spawn, they can pose problems later since the game likes targeting them, thus diverting your Skill attacks and wasting it.
• Goddamned Boss: The Lance Templar is easily one of the most annoying and tedious mini-bosses to fight in the Kaleidoscape. While their standard attacks are easy to evade due to their narrow range and their special attacks have a long windup, that windup also makes fighting them time consuming because their special attacks make them invincible, meaning they can evade your skills right as you use them. Even worse, sometimes they'll spam their special attacks multiple times in a row, wasting your time even more as you wait for them to do something else.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • Force Strikes can be chained together much faster than usual if they're used after an attack that makes the user airborne, like the final attack in the Sword or Dagger's combos. This is quite useful, since Force Strikes reduce Overdrive Gauges more quickly than regular attacks. This exploit has since been removed from the game, though.
  • While purple Area of Effect attacks will normally hit you even if you're using a Skill, for some reason the purple AoE attacks in the Light Imperial Onslaught can be avoided through Skills. This has also been removed.
  • For some reason, when the 2-Star Wyrmprints are max level and fully unbound, they have stats on par with max level and fully unbound 5-Star Wyrmprints. This was eventually removed.
  • On the first day High Zodiark was released, he could be cheesed out by spinning him around, allowing people to get easy victories until Cygames patched it up.
  • When the "Timeworn Torment" Event was first released, there were errors in the text coding that caused all of the new characters' names to be shown as (MSNAME_name) and eventually replaced all of the dialogue with (MSTEXT_etc.). The sheer scale of these mistakes was such an Epic Fail that a lot of people found them hilarious in a So Bad, It's Good way.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In Johanna's Adventurer Story Chapter 2, Ranzal doubts that she's the daughter of a famous knight, considering they're much cleaner and she spends her days fighting fiends. Then, Chapter 7 of the main story comes around and you learn Ranzal is nobility himself, being the exiled Prince of St. Lotier.
  • In Odetta's Adventurer Story Chapter 2, Odetta tells a story about a walking vegetable. Notte also asks if she could eat the vegetable while Luca says that there is no way eating a walking vegetable would come out right. Almost one year later, we are introduced to Pipple who is a walking vegetable trying to get people to eat him (and succeeds in his own adventurer story).
  • Players often like to joke that Euden is a hardcore party animal who would rather party than deal with the Empire. Then the story preview for Chapter 9: The Princess's Party appears, and players jokingly declared that all that partying the Prince and friends did was to prepare for Chelle's party invitation.
  • Euden's English VA, Vincent Tong, voiced Aki Light, the Mega Man of the Mega Man: Fully Charged TV series. In November 2019, Dragalia Lost is having a crossover with the Mega Man game series.
  • This isn't the first time that Marth and Mega Man appear in the same game. Nor is it the first time those two meet Joker.
  • There are two bosses in the game called the Volcanic and Ebon Chimeras. With the introduction of Bellina and Aldred, two experiments by the Syndicate to fuse a dragon to a human, we have both normal Chimeras and Itoian Chimeras!
  • There has been a fair amount of fans comparing Aldred to Ragna the Bloodedge. Aldred's seiyuu, Nobunaga Shimazaki, voices Naoto Kurogane (from one of the spin-offs), who's also similar to Ragna. Unlike Aldred's case however, Naoto being similar to Ragna is actually an important part of the story.
  • Adventurer's Guide #4 was written back when the update which enabled equipping two Wyrmprints went live, the comic having Euden taping half a dozen Wyrmprints onto himself. Version 2.0 comes along and shows this was quite prophetic as now Adventurers can equip up to five Wyrmprints with three 5-Star Wyrmprints and two 4-Star or less Wyrmprints, and when Rise of the Sinister Dominion dropped, it became possible to equip 7 prints at once (3x5*, 2x4* and 2 dominion prints).
  • The "Doomsday Getaway" event came out the same year that Among Us started getting viral attention, drawing some comparisons of declaring certain characters in that event to be "sus(picious)."
  • Dragalia Life #178 has Jiang Ziya use a Qilin relic to turn Ranzal into a baby. One year later, "Elementary Escapades" has him voluntarily turn into a child along with Louise while joining Humanoid Mercury to infiltrate a school though this time the transformation was scientific by Sinoa.
  • In Halloween Althemia's Adventurer Story, it is discussed in one of her lectures on vampires that she mentions how vampires have manners and will only enter if invited. She runs a simulation for the Prince, who was tasked to turn down a vampire (played by Althemia herself) who is pretending to be down on her luck. He fails. Then three years later he invites an actual vampire who becomes an ally, Vania.
  • During "Fire Emblem: Lost Heroes," quite a few people shipped Harle and Loki together. "Faith Forsaken" reveals that he's the Dragalia version of Loki. Good lord! We've had Variants before it was a concept!! Even better, the Dragalia Loki is revealed to have been manipulating Origa and Basileus into helping him wreak untold havoc with Satan, which they're definitely NOT okay with. In other words, their role is identical to the name of a game mode in Fire Emblem Heroes: Pawns of Loki.
• Ho Yay: Now has its own page.
• I Knew It!:
  • Ever since Lily was released, fans of other Cygames titles were expecting more playable characters to be imported from Rage of Bahamut and/or Granblue Fantasy. When a Dragon version of Cerberus came in Dragalia, many have thought that the Wyrmprints having Rage of Bahamut characters serve as the clue (Cerberus appeared in Fireside Gathering), with Forte and Albert being the next possible choices due to having cameos in the Lord of the Skies and Levin's Champion Wyrmprints respectively. Indeed, Albert finally became playable in 2019; and Forte herself became playable in 2020 (alongside Yurius, who is an Unexpected Character to be playable since Yurius is often portrayed as a former friend of Albert that has become evil).
  • People also figured one of these days there was going to be a crossover between this game and Fire Emblem Heroes. Now they finally get that chance in the "Fire Emblem: Lost Heroes" event.
  • Fans of Granblue Fantasy expected that Cygames would implement the "Suprise Ticket" system into Dragalia Lost - a paid item that gives one Tenfold Summon plus the ability to freely obtain one unit of the player's choice. As of March 26, 2019 it is indeed announced that this game will have a counterpart of it, named "Dream Summon Special".
  • Fans knew that one of these days, Mym would be made a playable unit. They were right, as she's the May 2019 Gala unit.
  • People had also guessed that, whether a Gala Adventurer or not, Ramona would be made playable. She and her sisters are the featured stars of the Flames of Reflection Event.
  • It was always figured one of these days, either on an anniversary event or Gala, Zethia would become playable. By Chapter 14, a version of her was made playable with her future version, now named Zena. She would get a Gala version a few months later. Then the actual Zethia made her playable debut in the Septemeber 2021 Gala Dragalia, alongside Bahamut.
  • People have thought that Laxi would get a Gala form at one time or another. This was confirmed with the announcement of the July 2020 Gala Dragalia, which introduced Gala Laxi.
  • People guessed that a variant of Sparking would be available at some point in time. This was eventually added in the 2.0.0 update, in the form of the Wyrmsigil/Wyrmsigil Remnant system.
  • Fans knew that one day, any one of Euden's siblings will be playable, whether through the main campaign or as Gala units. They were proven correct when Chelle became playable after clearing Chapter 16. A Gala version of Leonidas would later be playable in the November 2020 Gala Dragalia.
  • Regarding "The Phantom's Ransom" facility event, many people guessed that Lapis and Bella were the same person before the end of said event's story was released. On release of the ending, their guess is confirmed to be the case.
  • Ever since "Forgotten Truths" showed Meene being an adult fairy, players were expecting that Notte was going to have a human-sized form in Chapter 18. She not only had one, but TWO!
  • Speaking of Notte. Many fans guessed correctly that she will be the March 2021 Gala Dragalia.
  • When Notte was shown wielding her dagger in the artwork for the Persona 5 Strikers crossover event, people have guessed that she would wield that same dagger when she becomes playable. Her Gala version has that same dagger, albeit with a golden-colored blade.
  • Many fans knew that Mascula will be playable one day. They were proven correct when he's the May 2021 Gala Dragalia.
  • Many fans knew Gatov would be playable one day. They were correct when he's the November 2021 Gala Adventurer.
  • Fans also guessed that Emile would be the January 2022 Gala Adventurer because of his prominence in the second half of Chapter 23. They were proven correct.
  • Some fans feared the worst when the last few crossovers were with other Cygames properties, thinking that the game wasn't making enough to license another property like Mega Man or Persona 5 Strikers. That feeling really started to amp up in early 2022 when all the previous Facility, Onslaught, and Defense Battle quests were hastily shoved into the Compendium, as well as Valyx and Phares, who would normally be Gala units with revamped designs, were put in the general summoning pool in their standard gear. More fears rose when February went with the only new content being Chapter 24 Part 1 and Shiela being dropped in the main summoning pool. Sure enough, in March 2022 the game was announced to be winding down and wouldn't last the end of the year.
• Incest Yay Shipping: Considering that the game is about the relationship between the Alberian Royal Family, this was inevitable. The most obvious paring would have to be Euden and Zethia, mainly because Zethia is a Damsel in Distress and Euden is a Knight (actually, prince) in Shining Armor. They have an incredibly close bond together, and, despite being separated for most of the game, it strengthens even further as the game progresses. Many see their relationship as paralleling that of Anne and Marcy, whom are very commonly shipped together for similar reasons. With that said, Euden is implied to be Asexual, so some have tried shipping Zethia with Nedrick instead. There’s also Zena, whom is also shipped with both Nedrick and Zethia. Safe to say, between the four of them, they’ve been paired up together every which way. While not as popular as the more central characters, some also like to ship Leonidas with Chelle.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • Valfarre has this, due to being the only Water Raid Boss, the game having repeated "Skyborne Spectacle" twice, and being a common selection for the weekend Astral Raids, including just days after the March 2020 run of "Skyborne Spectacle" ended. It wasn't until "Doomsday Getaway" introduced Scylla that the game finally got a second Water Raid Boss.
    • All of the Astral Raid bosses have become this, since there haven't been any added in over a year.
  • Yoshitsune being a Cool Old Lady was seen as a welcome change when the teaser for the "Cursed Connection" Event went live, but when it was then revealed that her summonable form was her younger self that she channels when fighting (which, of course, has a Ms. Fanservice design), many people were decidedly NOT happy.
  • Human-esque Dragons, with some exceptions, have become this as of late, as they tend to just be normal-looking humans with horns and a tail and a design that tended towards Fanservice. What makes this worse is that the human-esque Dragons tend to be a Spotlight-Stealing Squad in the marketing and get the really good Abilities, leaving the more animalistic and draconic-looking Dragons in the dust, outside of Galas.
  • Raid Events in general. Facility Events get taken out of the rotation once they get placed in the Event Compendium, Story Events are few and far between, and the other Event types only last a week compared to the two weeks Raid Events go for. As a result, most of the Events nowadays are Raid Events, all of which share the same basic template. Even when a Raid Event goes in the Compendium, it is stripped down to the essentials so that the main Event can be rerun whenever Cygames wants. A side effect of this means that the Astral Raids can be closed for weeks at a time, which means no chance at all to grind for Astral Shards, which can be used in the Treasure Trade for several valuable items like Champion's Testaments or Augments.
• Junk Rare:
  • Early on, Five-Star Wyrmprints were not nearly useful or powerful enough to justify their rarity, with many Four-Star Wyrmprints actually being far more useful and better to use, since it's not as hard to unbind and increase their level. This is not helped by the below mentioned Scrappy Mechanic of how they can be picked instead of Dragons or Adventurers with that same rarity level. Wyrmprints as a whole would later be removed from the summoning pool starting in April 2019; instead, they would be purchased via Eldwater, gained via random drops, or gotten through Events. Version 2.0 only fixed them further, as the highest-tier Weapons can equip up to three Five-Star Wyrmprints at a time, which opens up more possibilities.
  • Moonlight Stones allow you to unbind a 4-Star Dragon once. This sounds fine on paper, but there haven't been any 4-Star Dragons added since Halloween Silke during Year 1, and you'll be getting all of the 4-Star Dragons often during mass summoning, so you'll max them all out pretty quick. At least you can use them to unbind extra copies in order to get more Eldwater when you Part Ways with them. A July 2021 update allowed players to trade them in for Sunlight Stones.
  • Steel Bricks became this after the Version 2.0 update. The game got rid of the Tier system completely, so now the only 4-Star Weapons are the Non-Elemental Core Weapons, of which there is only one kind per type of Weapon. Most veteran players already had all the varieties of Weapons fully upgraded and with extra copies, and even for new players they're relatively cheap to fully upgrade, so Steel Bricks have become useless. And unlike Moonlight Stones, you can't use them to cheese extra Eldwater nor can you use them to make extra copies. The same update as above also allows players to trade these in for a Damascus Ingot, though it takes a whopping 15 of them to do so.
  • Squishums are an extremely rare drop in Void Battles that don't have any known use. But their squishiness is indeed undeniable.
  • After Halloween Silke was released a month after the game launched, Cygames stopped making 4-Star Dragons as a whole, instead making all Dragons 5-Star regardless of abilities. As such, many Dragons end up as this due to being so rare to pull. While there are many examples, the king of these is Styx, as detailed in the High-Tier Scrappy page.
  • The High Greatwyrms require a lot of grinding of their Greatspheres in order to fully unbind them, but even at their strongest, they are significantly weaker than most Dragons, especially the Galas. However they do sometimes see use on certain adventurers, such as High Brunhilda for a Flame healer because of the lack of a 5-Star Dragon that boosts HP^*Which is incredibly valuable for Autoing Expert Volk because a healer like Lowen needs as much HP as possible and Phoenix is often not enough, High Jupiter for Gala Zena^*High Jupiter’s mods are more then quadruple Ligers and thanks to the Light Agito weapon dragons get a lot of mileage in Light, and Zodiark on Grace^*Because the defense drop is more useful instead of the Blindness effect Nidhogg has though Azazel is often a better choice because of the skill haste. However, the Greatwryms became more useful once they were given a fifth unbinding, which provides a substantial additional strength and shapeshifting time buff on top of the existing buffs for 3 minutes from the start of a quest, making them a viable substitute for summoned high-tier dragons.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • The game's draw of the main hero turning into various dragons as part of combat attracted many players in its early days.
  • There are many people who got into the game because Mega Man was added as a playable character.
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • Much like Granblue, plenty of male characters have lots of gay fans, though The Big Guy Ranzal is the favorite, with Curran and Zhu Bajie easily rivaling him in fan count. Xander, Hawk, Berserker, and Kleimann also have plenty of gay fans. Joe is also very well received for have being canonically in love with a man in his backstory.
  • Characters like Julietta (whose admiration of Elisanne resembles a person crushing on their superior) and Vanessa (a very obvious Amazon Chaser who becomes obsessed with Elisanne) have been embraced by lesbians and bi women in the community. Nadine also shot up through the ranks, as she's not only a super cheerful teenage girl, but gets very close to two stoic women during her Event spotlights, those being Linnea and Nefaria respectively.
  • Chitose and Hanabusa are men who dress like women. While there is some shock from the cast at first, they quickly accept the characters for who they are, and the fact that they are not gender-conforming is not seen as a negative at all. Hanabusa being very socially awkward and easily disturbed resonated with a lot of trans people, while Chitose not even bothering with what other people think and trying to be the cutest in the world has pleased many in the group.
• Like You Would Really Do It: If an event seemingly kills a playable character or dragon, don't expect anyone to believe they were Killed Off for Real, especially if they're major characters in the main story.
• Love to Hate:
  • Elysium was first teased as the Big Good of the story and many players thought he would be the one who ultimately save the day for Euden and company. Then "Forgotten Truths" came out and revealed that Elysium wishes to enslave humanity to serve the Dragons, forced Ilia into making a pact with him, caused Morsayati to be created, and was the reason Ilia and Mordecai were trapped for a thousand years in the Otherworld, causing Meene endless grief. Players came to resent Elysium and considered him a huge jackass. Thus, when "Dawn of Dragalia" dropped, players were all too happy to dive in with the express purpose of kicking Elysium's ass again and again and eagerly await him appearing in the main story so they can whallop him once again.
  • Harle is seen as such due to his persistance and Smug Snake attitude, along with how he betrays practically everybody he works with. When Harle served as a boss for "Knights of Alberia", people were excited to finally get to give him a well deserved beatdown. Even the real Harle is someone people love to hate despite actually being a good guy, due to having the same personality as his impersonator.
• Magnificent Bastard: Has its own page here.
• Misblamed: Some of the common causes of backlash among the playerbase is mentioning that the game is underperforming. It also doesn't help that CyberAgent (the parent company of Cygames) once called it as such. And with the statement that Nintendo required the affiliated mobile game developers to adjust the rates following player complaints and that a CyberAgent mentions "Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game", many Dragalia fans now thought that Cygames alone is the one who mentioned that statement just because it's a child company. But there are still articles correctly explicitly tracing the statement's source from CyberAgent and not Cygames.
  • A few weeks before this, CyberAgent was also reportedly trying to scapegoat (passing the blame on) the failure of their AbemaTV service to Dragalia's recent launch. But despite of this, there are those still trying to pin the blame on Cygames's side when they are not even involved on the scapegoating. All of these misblaming stems from the idea that many unknowingly interchange the two companies' names (Cygames and CyberAgent) thinking that they are one and the same, but in reality, that is not the case. It goes even as far as players from other Cygames-related fandoms calling out on the misinformed and correcting the confusion, stating that the parent company (CyberAgent) prioritizes earnings which is a clear contrast to how its child company (Cygames) operates - being a consumer-friendly company known in the gacha community for its generosity from providing in-game freebies.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The crashing sound effect that plays when you manage to break a boss out of overdrive mode. You know you're ready to open up a world of hurt when you hear it.
  • The decisive sound that plays when you defeat a boss. Combined with the zoom in and slow-mo on the final blow, it becomes really satisfying, and feels even better if you eked out a close win.
• Popular with Furries:
  • The idea of being able to turn into dragons was what got many scalies to play this game.
  • The boss of the "Skyborne Spectacle" Raid Event, Valfarre. He's a big, burly anthropomorphic tiger that shows up flexing his muscles.
  • The recruitable Dragons are also a source of attention for many, with the most popular seeming to be Brunhilda, Midgardsormr, and Pazuzu.
  • Even outside of Furries, Chronos had quite a lot of eyes since his inception, especially as Chronos Nyx, which only became even more widespread once he was Promoted to Playable.
• Replacement Scrappy: Laxi got a lot of ire. Many people got attached to Mascula in Chapter 11, leading to many disappointed players when Mascula dies to repair Laxi, who becomes that Chapter's recruitable unit. Not helping her case is the fact that she's a Flame Blade Adventurer, a niche filled by higher-tier units like Mikoto and Rena. Her only saving grace was Mascula still existed as a part of her consciousness and could occasionally speak through her, so he was not completely gone. Opinions of Laxi improved significantly after Chapter 14, and Gala Mascula's debut after Chapter 19, where Mascula finally gains a body of his own again, made it so Laxi is technically no longer a "replacement" of Mascula anymore, now that Mascula and Laxi have their own separate bodies.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Xania's Mana Spiral turned her from one of the game's Com Mons to one of the premier choices for High Midgardsormr in an instant. Previously, she was part of the swamp of 3-Star Adventurers that had two Skills that dealt vanilla elemental damage. Her Mana Spiral gave those otherwise lackluster Skills the ability to inflict Burning, as well as just hitting like a truck. So you have the rarity and fast Skill charge of a 3-Star, with the utility, stats, and raw power of a 5-Star.
  • Euden, the game's Starter Mon, fell into a similar situation as Xania. Previously, there was almost nothing distinguishing him from the crowd of Flame/Sword Adventurers; his only real distinguishing trait was that Exalted Glory slightly lowers Defense if it connects. His Mana Spiral then powered up Blazing Circlet to both inflict Burning and charge the Shapeshift Gauge, allowing him to make full use of his Dragon Claws passive and maul foes with equipment that grants Burning Punisher, such as Elegant Escort or Apollo.
  • Nefaria was generally seen as belonging to the lower-end 5-Star units. Her ability to inflict Blind paired with a natural Punisher for Blindness would be useful if not for the fact that Blindness couldn't be inflicted as easily and didn't add to her DPS. Her Mana Spiral allowed her to inflict Poison, gave her extra damage against both of her status effects, and allowed her to pummel bosses with a combination of her Force Strike and Skills, which can sometimes be fired off twice in a row.
  • Hawk is practically the king of this trope. Prior to his Mana Spiral, Hawk was considered to be the worst 5-Star Adventurer in the game due to his entire kit revolving around inflicting Stun, which quickly became very unreliable at higher end content. Then his Mana Spiral was released, which added Poison punishing abilities on top of his Stun punishing abilities, as well as massively buffing his terrible first passive Skill (from a 60% increased chance to Stun at full HP to a flat 50% increased chance to inflict both Poison and Stun), and also gaining Nefaria's ability to quickly fire off his main damaging Skill twice in a row, taking him from being the butt of almost every Wind/Bow joke into one of the best, if not THE best DPS Wind Adventurer in the game, to the point where he even sees use in off-element content similar to Gala Cleo!
  • Laxi was regarded as a Replacement Scrappy by some due to being playable instead of Mascula, being a Flame Blade when that combination already has strong Adventurers, and her standoffish attitude rubbing people the wrong way. In Chapter 14, Laxi is more amicable with the other characters, and when Mascula has an It's All My Fault moment after the androids under their control sacrificed themselves, Laxi manages to talk him out of it in a way that shows she can be compassionate in her own right. She also gains a new form, Eden Mode, that became the base of her Gala alt released a few months later. This caused people's opinions on Laxi to become much more positive than before. The release of her rightfully powerful Gala version further endeared players to her, and with the release of Version 2.0, even her original version is now considered pretty decent thanks to massive buffs on her damage skills.
  • The release of Version 2.0 introduced a wide plethora of rebalances to over 150 Adventurers, generally consisting of massive buffs to their damage Skills, allowing lots of Adventurers who were considered weak to become genuinely viable in all content. It's actually easier to mention who didn't get rebalanced!^{They are...}Gala Alex, Gala Cleo, Gala Laxi, and Marth, as well as a considerable number of newer Shadow Adventurers.
    • In addition, these buffs managed to save the Water and Light elements from their status as being the weakest elements, now letting them stand alongside the others.
  • Leonidas was not very well-received when he was introduced in Chapter 8, having a rather generic and one-note characterization as The Social Darwinist, causing players to label him as a lame rip-off of Gilgamesh (Amusingly, they both have the same voice actor in Japanese). However, Chapter 12 significantly fleshed out his character, revealing his tragic backstory and his true motives, as well as making him start to truly respect Euden as his brother, endearing a lot more players to him, even going so far as to pull a Heel–Face Turn in Chapter 15 to protect Euden. Then he showed up in a new outfit in Chapter 16, instantly resolved the main conflict of the chapter, and showed off a tommy gun-esque Manacaster to boot, completing the rescue.
  • While not unpopular, Midgardsormr was considered one of the most overlooked of the Greatwyrms, due to his lack of focus and presence despite being the Dragon mascot for the game. Following the "Forgotten Truths" and "Dawn of Dragalia" Events, his popularity greatly improved, thanks to expanding on his character, backstory, and relationships with characters like Elysium and Alberius. It also helped that he gained two new forms in Midgardsormr Zero and Humanoid Midgardsormr, who, along with having very well received designs, were also very strong additions to the roster. Zero is among the game's strongest Wind Dragons, while Humanoid is considered not only one of the best free raid units, but a great Wind Adventurer in general, to the point that he is even seen as viable in endgame content like Legend Ciella.
  • Emile, against all odds. Back when the game started, he was one of the most frequent antagonists, and players hated how big his ego was despite being weak and pathetic. However, as the game has expanded and the list of bad guys has grown to encompass very serious and dangerous individuals, Emile has been left behind. Him being the constant Butt-Monkey, the Hidden Depths given in the "Caged Desire" Event and Gala Audric's Adventurer Story, and his overall non-importance in the main storyline has turned things around, and now Emile has a significant fan following. They wish for something to go right for Emile, culminating in him being made playable. It's to the point that, when Leonidas, Chelle, and Euden all got Summer variants in the "Stranded Scions" Event but Emile didn't, a lot of people were disappointed, especially when a piece of promotional art DID show Emile in summer attire. He's continued to grow in popularity with the release of his Gala alt, where he's genuinely trying to improve himself despite his old flaws lingering (albeit toned down), and even gets to save the day from the Progenitor in Chapter 23.
  • Valyx used to be hated for being a case of My Country, Right or Wrong to the point of coming off as Lawful Stupid. His popularity began to rise with the release of Gala Thor, whose Dragon Story showed how desperate Valyx was to stand out from his siblings, proving that he was more than just an ordinary person. Then, Chapter 15 had him resist Nedrick's Agito mask through Heroic Willpower. His redemption culminated in the event The Blood That Binds, where he's learned to start thinking for himself instead of doing what's expected of the Alberian Royal Family. Suffice to say, fans were excited to learn that he became playable during that same event.
  • Starting with the 3rd Anniversary, older Dragons^note As of now, the five High Greatwyrms, the five Void Dragons, Cerberus, Leviathan, Garuda, Cupid, and Chthonius were given an extra unbind, raising their max level to 120 and giving them the "Surge of Strength" Ability, which gives the Adventurer a big Strength boost for the first three minutes of the fight. While they still don't compare to the Gala Dragons, this has allowed players without those Dragons to still keep up with their peers, as well as boost up their backline Adventurers.
• The Scrappy: Philia is probably the least liked of the launch Adventurers, as her personality is essentially "madly in love with Euden," with little to her outside of that. Not only does Euden already have many of the women in the game interested in him, Philia's specific niche in the harem setting is filled much better by Mym, who has a much more expanded personality.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • For some, the controls. Using Force Strikes in particular is an exercise in frustration, as the game sometimes misinterprets your hold inputs as wanting to move your character instead. Thankfully this was patched about a month after release, making Force Strikes far more reliable.
  • Getherwings, the resource used to join Co-op Quests. They replenish at a rate of one-per-hour if you're below six, and even then, you can only have 50 at most. It generally costs one Getherwing to join a Quest, with an additional Getherwing needed based on the Stamina needed to host the Quest divided by 10, e.g. a Quest that costs 10 Stamina to host will require two Getherwings to join. However, 10 Stamina is restored in an hour, meaning a quest that requires just one hour to host can require two hours to join. Because it's easier to host a Quest than to join one, this results in a surplus of hosts and a scarcity of people joining them, resulting in long wait times for the hosts. For a game that encourages co-op play, it feels really restrictive. This was later alleviated when the normal cap was increased to 12 and the reserve cap to 99, and then Getherwings were changed so the host uses the same amount of Getherwings, reducing the surplus of hosts.
  • Summoning employs a pity rate system, in which the odds that you'll pull a 5-Star item increases as you pull lower-star items. The problem is that the items include Adventurers, Dragons, and Wyrmprints, and getting a 5-Star version of any of them resets the pity rate. It's quite disheartening to have a high 5-Star rate, only to have it blown on a Wyrmprint.^note Compounding this whole problem and perception is the fact that a number of the 5-Star Wyrmprints are extraordinarily disappointing for their rarity, and currently don't have nearly the same kind of power to change how a character plays compared to, say, a 5-Star Craft Essence in Fate/Grand Order, and the effect of fully uncapping one isn't as dramatic as it is in F/GO, either. The difference between the rate for 5-Star Wyrmprints and Dragons/Adventurers is notable, in that out of the 5.5% chance of 5-Star being summoned, 2.74% is the chance of getting a Wyrmprint, while both Adventurers and Dragons have a chance of 1.36% each. Starting late April 2019, Wyrmprints would be removed from the summoning pool and become obtainable via purchasing with Eldwater. This change elated the fanbase.
  • Getting duplicates of 4-Star and 5-Star Adventurers also count. While there is certain benefit of getting duplicate 4-Star and 5-Star Dragons and even Wyrmprints, the said cannot be said the same for Adventurers, as getting duplicate Adventurers merely gives the player Eldwater. Worse yet, promoting an Adventurer from a 4-Star to a 5-Star wasn't worth it, as it costs 25,000 Eldwater to to promote the Adventurer in addition to the extra Mana Circle nodes that usually cost around a total of 75,000 Eldwater. An update in late April 2019 increased the Eldwater rewards for getting duplicate 4-Star and 5-Star and offered compensation to players who obtained multiple copies of 4-Star and 5-Star Adventurers.
  • Resetting Augments is ridiculously expensive, with each Augment costing 20,000 Rupies to reset. If you invest too many Augments in an Adventurer or Wyrmprint you don't need, resetting will either be crippling to your finances or downright impossible.
  • Chapter 12 introduced a mechanic wherein you have to clear certain Endeavors to unlock the boss stage. The problem? The last of these Endeavors requires crafting a 5-Star Water Core Weapon. The Endeavors surrounding it gave you enough Materials to craft one, but thanks to a bug, the initial run of the Chapter didn't detect if the player already crafted the specific Weapon, meaning you had to craft a second copy, though this was later fixed and players were refunded the materials used. One can see where Cygames/Nintendo was coming from with this, attempting to show veterans, or those powering through the story, the power of Core Weapons^note Which many players likely have realized already, using 5-Stars as filler Weapons for their high-Might teams until they can craft something better, but the general consensus is that it's a terrible idea.
  • Chapter 13 doubled down on this. You fight all five Void Dragons in this Chapter, but before you can challenge them, you're required to craft Void Weapons strong against that Void Dragon. Like the previous Chapter, the surrounding Endeavors give you the necessary Materials so you don't need to farm, but it still irritated a lot of players. And much like last time, there was a bug that didn't detect if you already crafted the Weapons, once again forcing Cygames to refund players a few days later. After this, Cygames seems to have gotten the message, as the mechanic has been dropped.
  • The Mentor Bonus was intended as a way to get veteran players to help out weaker ones trying the High Dragon Trials for the first time. The problem is that Cygames gave incentives to Mentor a number of players, but once that new player gets all the Endeavors and Completes the fight, they are no longer eligible. If anything, it's made the problem worse, as a sizable number of veterans are trying to farm the Mentor Bonus, and will bail out of any group that doesn't provide it, making things that much harder for players who are still too weak to tackle the Trials on their own. As of the 2.0 update, the Mentor Bonus has been removed completely.
  • For some, needing Eldwater to unbind Wyrmprints after the 2.0 update. Whereas before you could just combine extra copies to unbind them, now getting extra copies does nothing to unbind. Some of the higher end Wyrmprints are extremely expensive to fully unbind, and unlike Rupees or Mana, there is no way to truly grind Eldwater. To add to this, in order to get extra copies, you MUST use Eldwater via the Wyrmprint Upgrade menu. Any additional copies you get as random loot is not added to your Copies section.
  • The Legend Agito battles only allow Adventurers with an elemental advantage against the boss to participate. While this is accepted and even welcomed by many people, the caveat is even backline Adventurers have to be the correct element. The problem is some Co-Abilities are only available on Adventurers from specific elements, such as Buff Time + only being on the Wind Adventurer Tobias or Force Strike + only being on the Shadow Adventurer Grace. This means that some Adventurers are unable to use their full potential in Legend battles because they can't use their preferred Co-Abilities.
  • Curse of Nihility removes buffs from the adventuring party, and at higher difficulties prevents buffs from being applied while it lasts. That description, by itself, sounds reasonable enough. Unfortunately, it removes nearly all buffs, including one-time effects, which renders them worthless. At higher difficulties, the Curse lasts so long that it is effectively permanent, crippling any adventurers whose main abilities are buffs. However, the Curse's effects are applied inconsistently, as it only affects some abilities with no apparent pattern as to which will be affected and how. Despite fan protest, the Curse's continued presence in subsequent updates suggest that it is here to stay.
  • Trials of the Mighty have three. First, it only allows specific element and weapons classes in. For example, Thor's Trial only allows Shadow-element Sword, Wand, and Staff Adventurers to battle. If a class you haven't built up is featured, you're in trouble. Second is that the Daily Bonus, unlike the other high difficulty bonuses, automatically opens upon your first completion, without letting you deny it (though luckily, that was addressed and now you can choose to deny the Daily Bonus like all the others). As a result, many players end up missing out on the Devotion bonus necessary to unlock Mana Spiral levels. Finally, the Trials are on a limited basis, typically a week, and the items needed for the Mana Spirals are only in the Daily Bonuses, meaning it will take a very long time to fully unlock any of the Gala Mana Spirals.
  • If even one player disconnects or leaves a Co-Op Time Attack Challenge, the results will not be recorded. While irritating by itself, the problem became exacerbated during the April 2021 iteration when the Co-Op boss was none other than Expert Tartarus, thus even one player rage quitting can spoil the experience for everyone else in the room.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The "Fractured Futures" Event gives us a glimpse of alternate timelines and realities of the world of Dragalia Lost, up to and including hints of the true nature of Masked Zethia, Chronos, and a past version of Aurelius to recruit! Not only that, but the EX boss fight against Chronos turns a Dragon, who is the biggest Raid Boss by far, into an absolute nightmare of a Marathon Boss. Why do you have to break Chronos or demolish his tail so fast? If you don't defeat him in time, he drops an insta-kill black hole on your raid party!
  • The "Forgotten Truths" Event gives us the true origin of Ilia, Elysium, and The Other. Ilia was an alchemist and a regular human, not an actual Goddess. Elysium isn't the pure-hearted king Dragon legends tell, but instead wants to enact a war between Dragons and humans, then turn all humans into slaves to the Dragons. The Other was an otherworldly spirit that possessed an artificial human body Ilia made, and the resulting being, Mordecai, was a gentle soul, until Elysium forced Ilia to make a pact and seemingly killed her, which resulted in Mordecai's hatred literally taking on a life of its own. This also explains why Morsayati despises Dragons so much. Then, the epilogue reveals that the timelines are all diverged from Morsayati's awakening, and revealed that Ilia and Mordecai are, in fact, not dead, and have appeared in the present timeline.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: It's pretty easy to get hooked on playing the Kaleidoscape, as it offers a completely different experience from the rest of the game due to being a one person, dungeon crawling Roguelike. It also has some impressive rewards, like Portrait Wyrmprints that can have two abilities to fill gaps in a character's kit and the Treasure Trade, which offers incredibly rare and useful items that all refresh monthly.
• That One Achievement:
  • The endeavors for completing Master level endgame content (Agito, Sinister Dominion, Primal Dragon Trials, and Legend difficulty) can be this, since you not only need to be really strong to take on Master bosses, but often times you'll need to rely on your AI helpers simply surviving, which can come down to pure luck at times.
  • Getting the rewards for the higher levels of the Mecurial Gauntlet can be this, as Roy's attacks are pretty strong, especially above Level 60, and you'll need to squeeze out as much damage as you can get.
  • Completing all 50 floors of the Kaleidoscape with 30 Adventurers can be really tough, especially if you don't have many Game-Breaker units or ones with maxed out stats, since you'll likely be forced to use Adventurers you don't normally control. It can also be this simply by not being able to get a good enough weapon to use during the final few floors, or not getting a Dragon that gives you resistance to whatever Agito you're facing at the end.
  • For the ultra-completionists, there's getting every Medal for every Adventurer in the game. Keep in mind that includes Legend difficulty bosses, and many Adventurers still don't handle them very well.
• That One Attack: Now moved to its own section.
• That One Boss: Placed on its own article now.
• That One Level: Any level that cannot be played through Co-Op is likely to be this due to the game's absolutely miserable AI, especially if there are rewards for keeping the whole party alive. The various Facility Events' Challenge Battle is infamously one of them, as the player has to fight five waves of mobs before facing the Boss of that Event.
  • The "Dream Big Under the Big Top" Facility Event takes this to another extreme with the introduction of Master difficulty for the Challenge Battle, which is exactly like any Facility Event's Challenge Battle, except the enemy monsters can deal a whooping 200-300 damage per attack, plus it's also a massive Difficulty Spike which requires your team to have at least 12,000 Might (as opposed to the typical 8,500), meaning it requires some of the best Adventurers and equipment to fully clear.
  • The Master difficulty for "Flames of Reflection's" Challenge Battle doesn't mess around. Wave 4 has three Lizardmen who will shield themselves and a large array of Raptors who will inflict sleep. Once you get to the final wave, the boss will constantly boost its own Strength and Defense, and those buffs will not expire, making it hit harder and stall longer as the fight goes on.
  • The solo version of Expert Tartarus is notoriously difficult due to the fight's mechanics being heavily reliant on proper positioning, which with Artificial Stupidity in play, becomes a major factor in ensuring that you won't get to see Phase 2 with all 4 party members intact...
  • The Omega-2 variants introduced in recent Events are so difficult that one shouldn't even think about challenging them unless they have maxed out Agito weapons, and then Cygames introduced Omega-3 on top of that.
  • The "Twinkling Twilight" Onslaught Event introduced the Astral Dragon challenge, where you have to face off against High Midgardsormr. Except you can't do this in Co-op, only Solo. And you can only challenge him with a single Adventurer, rather than as a team. You need to be pixel-perfect and have top tier equipment in order to win. The same applies to "Postmortem Panic" with Astral High Mercury, "The Great Dragonyule Offensive" with Astral High Jupiter, and "Romance Under Siege" with Astral High Brunhilda. Astral High Zodiark from "Elementary Escapades" is more manageable, paradoxically enough; the devs realized that Astral Dragons aren't a real threat at this point and decided to give us Astral Ciella instead in "Blessed Bloodline".
  • The standalone version of Morsayati's Reckoning can be this. You need 40,000 Might to even unlock the battle, but you'll ideally need at least 42,000 to do any significant damage. And thanks to the endless spam of super moves and the extremely elaborate background stage, players with older phones will find themselves struggling to even finish the fight, let alone reap its rewards.
  • Chapter 20-7. It's a Boss Rush against all five of the Agito's second forms. You have to fight all of them in a row, hope that you survive all of the area of effect attacks and other nonsense they throw at you, all with the same standard number of revives. Good luck. You'll need it. That being said, if you manage to perfectly clear this quest on Very Hard difficulty, you get a surprisingly decent and skip ticketable way to farm Agito materials.
  • One of the most dreaded levels in the Kaleidoscape is the Multi-Mook Melee where all of the enemies are healers. If this is encountered late in your run, then all of the enemies will be insanely durable, which gives the army of healers plenty of time to heal any damage you deal. The sheer number of them also means they can just plain kill you with their hail of projectiles. If you aren't using a character who's good at fighting crowds or lucky enough to get Midgardsormr Zero, your run is as good as over if this room appears.
    • Not to say that other Arena rooms are much better. There's another configuration with up to five Healers and everyone else with heavy armor so you do only 1 damage. You can try and target the Healers, but the other enemies will be on you in a second, and because they only take 1 damage, it's pitifully easy for even a single Healer to bring the enemies back up to full health.
  • Another Kaleidoscape floor puts you in a grassy area with nine segmented areas. In every version, there are small groups of common enemies in the middle three segments and a Gold Slime between the upper left and middle left sections. On higher floors, however, the other six segments are filled with Menaces, while most other floors only have one. Even at Level 80, it can be difficult and time consuming to destroy them all, and if you accidentally alert more than one at once, you can get overwhelmed. Luckily, it's not an Arena floor, so you could just ignore them and escape, but that also means you'll be passing up a LOT of Dusk Amber.
  • There's another room the Kaleidoscape that's an Exploration floor consisting of just one sharp, 90-degree turn. The problem? There's 20-30 enemies bunched up in there, and less room to fight than an Arena room. To add to the fun, higher floors will also have a Menace off to the side, and it's very easy to wake them up accidentally. With everything combined, it can get overwhelming. Luckily, since it's an Exploration floor, you can just zip on by and skip it entirely, though certain situations (like needing specific Shared Skills) could force your hand.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The new, revamped Weapon and Wyrmprint systems added in the 2.0 Update are contentious for many. While many love the changes, others lament that all the hard work they put into their Weapons and Wrymprints are gone. While the Materials and Eldwater used in any now-discarded Weapons and Wyrmprints were refunded, including Augments, the prices for upgrading under the new system are now much higher. Fully unbinding a Void Weapon now costs several million Rupies, and that's not taking into account unlocking the various Skills. Unbinding Wrymprints also now uses Eldwater instead of simply merging excess copies together, which can take as much as 37,000 Eldwater per node. A number of people also lament how certain weapons (most notably the Fire Emblem, Monster Hunter, and joke weapons) are now only skins rather than proper Weapons themselves.
  • Regular Elisanne received an upgraded form of her Brave Bastion buff from her Mana Spiral. While the buff was increased from a 20% boost in Strength to 25%, it was also turned into an actual attack (using the same animation as Botan's Petal Piercer). While it didn't receive anywhere near the backlash that Halloween Elisanne's Mana Spiral did, some players lament that the change means a longer animation, and thus, less chances to activate the boost.
  • Ever since the Version 2.0 update, the amount of Wyrmite and Summon Tickets given away has dropped like a rock. In particular, Events beforehand usually gave Summon Tickets as part of the Daily Endeavors, but those were removed. The Wyrmite rewards were replaced with only 50,000 Rupies^note Which is a drop of water in the ocean compared to the 30 million needed for a maxed Agito Weapon, causing older players to find the reward worthless or Fafnir Medals. Meanwhile Event Compendium rewards eventually cut the amount of Summon Tickets recieved by half. While this was obviously done to push people into paying real money for Diamantum (as revenue for the game had dropped in 2020), many people were pissed that the free rewards are a fraction of what they once were.
  • Onslaught and Defense Battle Events have gotten ire for replacing the Limited Void Battle Endeavors as the go-to "filler" Events between the bigger Raid/Facility Events. While most enjoy the new alts provided by the Events, the rewards being Tomes, Honey Jars, and generic loot drops rather than Wyrmite or Summon Tickets irritates many people. During the old Void Battle "Events," players could get at least enough Wyrmite to do a Tenfold Summon, but the Onslaught/Defense Battle Events typically only feature a few hundred Wyrmite and little to no Summon Tickets, and all of those are from the Endeavors rather than the Event itself.
  • Trials of the Mighty. So, so much.
    • When it was first revealed, the first three Mana Spirals that would be unlocked were Gala Euden, Gala Elisanne, and Gala Ranzal. Fans were irritated, but accepted that Gala units could be justified as needing the extra hurdle. Then, that went out the window, as regular 5-Star units and even some 4-Star units had their Mana Circles locked behind the Trials, making it perfectly clear that all of them were going to be like this from now on.
    • Weapon restrictions. The Trials only allow players to use two attacking Weapon classes and a Healer of a specific Element. Sometimes players will get lucky and get a class they have plenty of beefed up Adventurers in, like Swords or Lances, but it seems like Cygames prefers going for Weapon Classes that aren't used as often, like Daggers and Manacasters, for these Trials. Many players have been faced with the situation of not being able to last in Master because the restrictions are blatantly trying to force players to use specific Adventurers, typically those on whatever the most recent spotlight banner was, but they haven't managed to pull yet.
    • Instead of using Mana and regular items to unlock the Mana Circles, players must use new items gained from the Trials called Convictions and Devotions, though level increase nodes still require high-end items like Champion's Testaments and Tier 4 Elemental Orbs. However, these aren't loot drops, but instead part of the Daily Bonus for the Trials. Standard allows you to get one Conviction, Expert gets you one Conviction and one Devotion, and Master gets you two Convictions and one Devotion. You also get the bonus immediately upon completing your first Trial quest that day, so if you chose Standard first instead of Master, oh well. Though at least you can stack up to three Daily Bonuses in case you forget to fight one day. A later update made it so that Expert and Master gave the same amount of Convictions, the only difference now being the Dragon Augments and Nature's Blessing, as well as allowing the Daily Bonus to be denied, allowing the player to pick and choose which one to get.
    • The battles are on a rotation basis. Each Trial only lasts a week before it's cycled out for another Trial. Since you can only get a maximum of 14 Convictions and 7 Devotions per cycle, it's impossible to fully unlock a Mana Spiral from the getgo. Depending on how often the Trial is cycled back in, it could take months before they're fully unlocked! And if you got a Standard or Expert Daily Bonus instead of Master, it could take even longer! Cygames did start putting out multiple Trials at a time, but even that has seen issue because there's only one Daily Bonus overall, rather than one Daily Bonus per Trial, meaning you're forced to pick and choose who to unlock first. It's even more aggrivating for F 2 P players, as unless you active the Daily Bonus refresh (which requires real money), you'll have to go through four rotations of that particular Trial in order to get enough Convictions to fully unlock the Mana Spiral.
    • With the fights themselves, people were pleased to see Cygames recycling boss fights from the campaign rather than inventing new fights or reusing Void/High Dragons/Agito like the Time Attacks. However, most of them use Curse of Nihilty from the Sinister Dominion fights. Sometimes the fights are still manageable, like Poseidon or Zephyr, but other times it makes an already tough boss a slog to get through, like Thor or Mars.
  • The September 2021 repeat of "Divine Deception" ran into this when it was shown that instead of running for 14 days like they usually do, it would run for 41 days! Considering it was announced Cygames would be cutting back on original events, it's got players worried, especially on the cusp on the 3-year anniversary. The affair becomes understandable in hindsight, however, thanks to the sister facility event "Agents of the Goddess" going into the Compendium on September 27th, 2021 and the raid event "Faith Forsaken" going live two days later; this gives an opportunity for new players to understand what all the hubbub with the Angels and Apostles is about.
  • An update to the Kaleidoscape on March 3rd 2021 made changes that people praised such as making Harle easier. However, they also feel too much was changed as the mode now feels too easy with no challenge anymore. Because of this fans of the old difficulty started requesting for there to be a difficulty setting for the mode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The "Caged Desire" Event involves a Crossover with Persona 5 and it's not fitting in all the other Phantom Thieves like Ryuji/Skull, Yusuke/Fox, Makoto/Queen, Futaba/Oracle or Haru/Noir people are upset about. It's more people are upset that Dragalia has its own Phantom Thief in Lapis... and there's not ONE interaction with them in either the event's story or their individual Adventurer Stories.
  • While many adore Gala Zethia and how badass she is, there are some who lament that her Gala outfit looks so completely different from regular Zethia (with others saying it looks closer to Ilia than Zethia) and wish that either Gala Zethia looked a bit closer to her regular self or that regular Zethia had been made playable in some form instead. What makes it even stranger is that regular Zethia does clearly have a finished model and other elements that would imply you'd get to play as her eventually.
  • With the confirmation of Bondforged Euden & Zethia as the final released Adventurers, numerous fans lamented the sizable list of characters that never got a chance to be released as Adventurers or Dragons before the game's end of service, the most prominent examples including the rest of the Agito (Kai Yan & Tartarus especially, unavailable entirely while Volk & Ciella at least got their beast forms playable as Gala Dragons), the rest of the leaders of the Twelve Wyrmclans, Atlas, the abyssians, the Archdemons, the Archangels' Heavenly Wings forms, Morsayati, Zethia's regular appearance, and Summer Elisanne.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • A lot of fans were feeling rather let down that, for all the love and effort Cygames put into the "Mega Man: Chaos Protocol" Event, the complete lack of story or even dialogue felt like a missed opportunity, with only hints of what could've been being in Wrymprint descriptions. Mega Man himself has no dialogue, voice lines, or Adventurer Stories either, which is galling for folks who are perfectly aware that he does have actual character traits and has had proper dialogue even as far back as the NES games. The genre clash doesn't even make sense as an excuse either when the very next Chapter in the main story, Chapter 11, explicitly introduces humanoid androids much like Mega Man himself. To some, it felt like Cygames was perhaps a bit too faithful to Mega Man 2 for the Event's own good.
  • Audric's Adventure Story ended with him escaping from his world and returing to the player's universe. However, despite Audric being the younger form of King Aurelius, he is not involved in the main story from Chapter 11 on, when the fights between Euden and his siblings reaches a crescendo, alongside the reveals of Beren and Nedrick. Shortly before the 2nd Anniversary, the Fractured Futures rerun gives a Castle Story explaining why Audric wasn't around to answer any questions about these events. He was away liberating remote villages for months, and when he returns, he finds that due to time shenanigans, nobody will remember him if he doesn't keep in regular contact. Cassandra is the only one who remembers him, and is working on fixing this. Chapter 16 also didn't see him assist in calming the crowd at the Halidom, which he likely would have some knowledge about, and the discussion about Euden's parentage would have been the perfect time for him to enter the main story, but he's still MIA on that front. It seems Cygames has listened to these complaints, as they made "Fractured Futures" one of the first Raid Battle Events available in the Event Compendium, and made it extremely easy for even new players to recruit him, indicating that they do plan on using him in the main story at some point. Which came to light at the end of Chapter 20.
  • Gala Elisanne and Gala Alex's Adventure Stories delve into the growing conflict between the Perditionist and Conservative branches of the Church, as well as Elisanne becoming the Grand Paladyn, but nothing from that plot is reflected in the main Story chapters until Elisanne (and Alex shortly after) leave the Church completely to become devote all their time to Euden. Likewise, Gala Ranzal's Adventure Story has him made the General of the New Alberian army, complete with new, shiny armor, but during the main story he is wearing his regular old duds like always.
  • Gala Luca's Adventure Story has him use Mascula's sword as his main weapon, a new desire to unite all the different species of Grastaea together, and ends with him, Sarisse, and a few others of his kind exiled from Sylvan society. How this affects his relationship with those still connected with Sylvans, such as Laranoa, isn't explored.
  • Most of the Gala Adventurers after Sarisse and Mym focus on that cast member obtaining a new form and displaying great new powers and/or abilities. Aside from Euden and Laxi, nothing from them are referenced in the main story and the other cast members never appear in their shiny new Gala outfits.
  • Akasha is the main antagonist of the "Stirring Shadows" Event and is obsessed with bringing back the Ancient One, which is implied to be a very, very bad thing. Her Adventure Story reveals that She has manipulated the memories of everyone at the Halidom into believing they've all been good friends with her for years, allowing her a safe haven to work her magic without interruption. Heinwald is the only one able to see through the illusions, but it's unclear if he can do anything to change it, and it's not made clear if Curran and/or Lathna are immune as well. Nothing about this has been touched upon since late 2019. Yukata Curran's story does involve a group of Ancient One cultists using the festival as a means to smuggle a copy of the Liber Grimortis which turns out to have been part of Heinwald's plan. Despite having a repeat of "Accursed Archives" and "Stirring Shadows" in October 2020, the story wasn't followed up on that year, instead having Akasha star in the Event listed right below.
  • "Postmortem Panic" sees the Halidom besieged by zombies, the re-animated corpses of Imperial soldiers from the Second Binding War 300 years ago. A big point is made that they are hard to take down and are targeting the Halidom specifically. Sounds like a great variant for a Defense Battle, right? Nope. Instead, for some reason, it's an Onslaught Battle, which focuses on fighting as your Dragons, despite none of them appearing in the story (barring the Astral Challenge, which is its own separate thing). At no point do you even fight any zombies, instead fighting the same regular Imperial troopers and monster bosses fought everywhere else in the game. Even the one who brought the zombies back to life isn't notable, as he's just a nameless mage with a standard "hooded stranger" portrait, and who is slaughtered by two mercenaries befriended by Melsa and Akasha during the story, ending his tale.
  • In Chapter 16, despite Zena being present, Leonidas and Chelle say absolutely nothing about the Identical Stranger of their sister.
  • Yet another Event, this time "A Voracious Visitor," the crossover with Princess Connect! Re:Dive, makes this list. The story itself is fairly standard fare, but the Raid Boss for this Event is a re-colored Chronos from "Fractured Futures." It's given a justification in-story, as the main enemy of the Event, Aether, accessed the group's memories and found Chronos was the strongest enemy they faced and assumed his form. However, players are disappointed that this big crossover is, much like the Mega Man one, focused more on battling recycled enemies rather than a new foe. To make matters worse, the story has Aether create evil duplicates of most of the cast, but they are all defeated in cutscenes rather than in gameplay.
  • A lot of story points will likely ever see a total completion following the early confirmation of an end of service, something that people had noticed was likely the reason for several oddities such as the early release of Phares, Valyx and Gala Emile (the former two not even as Gala Adventurers for that matter) or the rushing along of certain events. Most stingingly for a majority of the fans is the fate of the Agito, with only Ayaha & Otoha being playable as themselves proper, and leaving the question of whether or not the others are even alive unresolved, while shooting down the Enemy Mine situation they would have against each member of the Sinister Dominion before it ever really went anywhere.
• Trans Audience Interpretation:
  • Euden is meant to be an avatar character that’s meant to be akin to a modern Fire Emblem protagonist, who can be either male or female. He is In Touch with His Feminine Side and is never shown to be sexually attracted to anyone. Many fans found it weird that the game didn’t come with the option to make the protagonist male or female, since you get to name him, other Gacha games like it such as Genshin Impact have that option, “Euden” sounds like a fairly gender-neutral name, and Zethia exists, so we already have a general idea of what a female Euden would look like. That is why some like to headcanon Euden as being non-binary or gender-fluid, in order to compensate for this. Not helping is Euden’s similarities to both Mordred and Anne Boonchuy, both of whom have also been viewed as being trans.
  • Zethia (and by extension, Zena) can be seen as being a trans girl. Being Half-Identical Twins with Euden (who we know was born male) is already good evidence, but flashbacks show that she used to have a fairly androgynous appearance as a kid. She’s even about the same height as her brother. One of her main character arcs is that she wants to take on every issue on her own, and not have to burden others with her problems. After seeing just how much Euden is willing to go for her, and that he loves her no matter what, she happily lets Euden help with with anything that he can, and vice versa. A lot of trans people face similar problems, as they may believe that their gender identity is their own problem and can be fearful to ask others for help, but the people who love you the most will help you and stick by you no matter what.
  • Leonidas could be viewed as a trans man. The first clue is with his hair, which is incredibly long for a man. The Alberian royal family is very male-dominant (6 males, 2 females), which makes it possible that at least one of them is trans. He is incredibly masculine to the point of reaching almost Testosterone Poisoning levels, and always tries to prove his strength to others. His sudden Heel–Face Turn is also a factor, since both Euden and Chelle are baffled by it. Ilia once asked him about it, to which he responded that he never changed; he’s just living his life a bit differently. This is part of what it means to be trans in the first place; their body and/or appearance may have changed, but that doesn’t mean that they have as a person.
• Unconventional Learning Experience: The stellar English localization provides a diverse and verbose vocabulary that many players have claimed to learned new words from. Special mention should be given to its accurate usage of archaic English and surprising amount of GRE test vocab words.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • When Augments were introduced, the game also provided free HP Augments for Adventurers, Wyrmprints, Weapons, and Dragons. While ways to obtain more HP and Strength Augments for Adventurers and Wyrmprints were quickly made available, it wasn't until January 2021, about a year and a half later, that more Dragon Augments were obtainable. The Weapon Augments, on the other hand, were removed after Version 2.0 overhauled the entire system, before their Strength Augments were even released.
  • You can break certain barriers such as fallen trees if you attack them while shapeshifted. Apart from a few story stages, this mechanic doesn't see much relevance.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Lily, or specifically, her implementation in this game. No, she was indeed data-mined ahead of time and her look is similar to how it's always been... but in previous appearances she's always been a buffer or healer. Lily being a pure caster and hard-core AoE damage monster was very surprising to Rage and Granblue veterans.
  • During the 1st Year Anniversary Dragalia Digest, NOBODY was expecting a Mega Man crossover with this game!
  • Since the "Fire Emblem: Lost Heroes" Event featured Fjorm from Book 2 of Fire Emblem Heroes, people thought the next one would feature characters from Book 3, like Eir. Instead, "Kindred Ties" added Peony from Book 4, whose story was not yet completed at the time.
  • While some expected Ilia to eventually be playable, very few thought it would be from BEFORE she was made into a goddess, and that she uses a Manacaster rather than one of the older weapons
  • Mordecai seems like a standard-fare free Adventurer you usually get during Raid Events, but the "Forgotten Truths" Event reveals that he is the original form of Morsayati/The Other. You get to have the first Big Bad on your team! This means you can team him up with his future sworn enemies Euden and Zena.
  • While it was stated that a new Adventurer would join the party in Chapter 16, nobody expected that it would be Chelle, especially since she was well known for working from the shadows. Particularly since most of the Chapter focused on Leonidas, with Chelle only appearing at the very end. Now, people DID think we'd eventually get Chelle, but it was expected to be a random Gala or given in a future Chapter.
  • The announcement of another collaboration sometime after the celebration of the second anniversary was expected. However, the collaboration is not Rage of Bahamut after Albert and Lily's inclusion nor Shadowverse or even Granblue Fantasy but rather Princess Connect! Re:Dive with Princess Pecorine. A game that is the second largest of Cygames after the aforementioned Granblue Fantasy.
  • The 2.5 Anniversary Dragalia Digest not only revealed that Midgardsormr has a human form (though followers of the Japanese Twitter account did see a preview of the design), but that a few months later the game will crossover with its sister series Rage of Bahamut!
  • Chapter 21 (Part 2) and the 3rd Anniversary brought three:
    • Many were expecting that, with Ilia being brought into the main story, she'd show up with a new outfit for that month's Gala Adventurer. Then, everyone was floored when it was Zethia who got her new form, and with a super badass Bahamut-enhanced form as well!
    • Gala Bahamut for two reasons. First is that the story is setting him up to become the next Big Bad with the Agito and Elysium done for now. Second is that he is debuting in the same banner as Gala Zethia, and the game has never had two brand new Gala summons in the same banner.
    • While many people have been hoping for Agito to become playable (with Volk's beast form getting that before the anniversary), with how much of an obstacle Harle had been, him being revealed as the welfare adventurer for the first part of Faith Forsaken is not something anybody expected. Even Notte was held aback by the reveal when presenting it in Dragalia Digest.
  • In the midst of "The Clockwork Heart" Event for Halloween of 2021, Chronos being added as a Gala Dragon caught many off guard, even those who had wished for him to become playable, especially given all his prior actions and last known fate, yet still seems to possibly be his usual self, and in his Nyx form no less.
  • As unprompted as the prior example, the Gala Remix of December 2021 has Ayaha & Otoha, together as the first playable Agito in Adventurer form, and as Staff Adventurers despite the likelihood they would've been Axe Adventuers. More shockingly even, is that they're available in the permanent pool despite their incredibly wordy and strong kit from initial impressions ala Sandalphon.
  • Tsukuyomi was one of the first units datamined back when the game was brand new, with players excited to see what she was all about. Cue her disappearing for over three years, until "Celestial Showdown" dropped with none other than Tsukuyomi as one of the major players!
• The Un-Twist: Lapis from "The Phantom's Ransom" looks so much like Belladonna that most people thought there would be a more elaborate twist, such as an Identical Stranger or an identical twin. The end of the event confirms they are indeed the same person.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Euden's most dominant trait is that he has an unearthly amount of compassion and kindness towards others, as well as being utter clueless about the affection he receives from many women... and Orion. Outside of that, he doesn't have much depth, though this is being rectified starting with Chapter 10.
• Values Dissonance: The plot of the "New Year's Tidings: Fortune From Afar" Event actually runs into this, for some English players. In the narrative, Botan is upset that Ieyasu cut off their friendship after ascending to the head of his Wyrmclan. He did this because the Soulpact with the Dragon of the clan will shorten his lifespan, and he did not want to put Botan through the pain of knowing he would die well before she did. In English, this can seem rather eye-rolling and a bit of an overly-melodramatic Idiot Ball, but in the deeply Japanese context of the characters in question (Hinomoto being patterned heavily off of Tokugawa Japan) this actually makes sense. Ieyasu is essentially engaging in a particularly heavy form of gaman, the concept that one's suffering and struggle should be endured silently and with grace, and that to burden others with your troubles - even things like illness - is a grave moral deficiency. And for an average person, that would be bad enough, but for someone in Ieyasu's position, it is especially important for him to maintain decorum and face as a clan leader, and so it naturally follows that he would put distance between himself and Botan. Botan's non-acceptance of this and willingness to stand by him regardless of what he suffers is meant to be emblematic of her rebellious, free-spirited character - she doesn't care about gaman, she doesn't care about "burdens", she cares about helping Ieyasu live the best life he can, social expectations be damned (with the plot overall being a bit of An Aesop about the harms of taking gaman too far). A lot of this context simply doesn't translate into English, though, and it can be confusing as to why Ieyasu is initially so insistent on not renewing his friendship with Botan.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • If they aren't human-form in some way (like Mym, Prometheus, Jeanne, or Phoenix), most of the Dragons just look and sound like androgynous fantasy creatures. It's near impossible to guess what gender they are without reading their Dragon Story or description.
  • The "Flames of Reflection" Event had this with Lazry as well. The character has a female voice actor but referred to as male in text dialogue until Nintendo clarified that it was a translation error and that Lazry is female.
• The Woobie:
  • Euden, aka the Prince, is a sweet kid who hates confrontation and fighting. He doesn't want to be a ruler nor does he want a Dragonpact, because he believes it would cause friction with his other siblings. So, what happens? His dearly beloved father kidnaps his sister Zethia, but it turns out Aurelius was being possessed by a demon, who then goes on to possess Zethia and become a tyrannical Empress, causing destruction and oppression wherever she went. Euden then gets branded a traitor to the kingdom and banished, his own siblings turn against him, and every chance he has to free Zethia ends up failing. Just when things seem to be going his way, with his siblings becoming his allies and Zethia being rescued, he finds out that he's not the real seventh scion and was, in fact, created using a piece of Morsayati's body. Oh, and Zethia gets kidnapped again by Nedrick, the REAL seventh scion, who commands a group of monsters bent on slaughtering his friends and destroying everything he holds dear. THEN he finds out he's also part-Faerie, that Zethia is now helping Nedrick, and then she gets kidnapped again. Poor kid never catches a break.
  • Zena, an alternate universe version of Zethia, has it almost as bad as Euden. Not only did she get possessed like her main counterpart, but she had to live with the aftermath. In her universe, Morsayati went on to possess Euden, who destroyed all of South Grastaea. Zena had to live with being shunned by her former countrymen, who only see her as the cruel Empress that oppressed them. With her homeland ruined, her family either possessed or dead, and isolated from any potential allies, she attempted to travel to alternate universes to try and find a way to save her people, but every timeline she went, the same thing happened and she had to witness Morsayati's horror again and again. Eventually, she does manage to stay in the main universe, but then has to deal with all of the Nedrick business described above, and has to watch her brother break down again and again, helpless to do much of anything to assist.
  • Emile grew up with a talent for the arts, including playing piano and being a gifted painter. However, he had no aptitude for miliarism, negotiation, or being a ruler, which left him with little to show compared to his much more talented siblings. Eventually, he develops an Inferiority Superiority Complex that completely consumes him, leading to him being bratty and childish. He is constantly mocked and discarded from almost everyone who encounters him, including his siblings. To make matters worse, one of the few people to constantly vouch for him is his younger brother Euden, which only serves to make him even crazier. Deep down, all Emile wants is love and respect, but is seemingly incapable of allowing himself to accept it when it's offered.

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