Grand Chase: Grand Chase Classic

The 33% of the longer reviews (644) that raise monetization keep returning to Seal Breaker gacha sets that grant stats and pets, low pull rates, paid revives and inventory, cash-shop items that used to be bought with in-game gold, and endgame upgrades that rely on paid scrolls and random rerolls. "Every system is a gacha, nothing is deterministic." Several players describe opening 100 or more scrolls without completing a set, and reinforcement attempts that destroy upgrade stones. One reviewer puts it this way: "KoG is number 1 when it comes to creating problems and selling the solution." Some positive reviews recommend the game while warning readers not to spend, and one sums it up as "The Nostalgia is Real, the Gacha is Realer."

Crash and bug reports appear in 19% of the longer reviews (374), and most were written in 2021. Launch-day reviewers describe full servers, Korean-language login errors, the cursor vanishing after dungeons ("I can't even see my cursor at some points"), equipment unequipping itself, broken job quests and crashes when changing resolution. Later reviews still mention launcher crash loops, missing DLL errors, and breakage on Steam Deck or ROG Ally after patches, though far fewer of them.

Character nerfs, dodge rolls removed or put on cooldown, weak third-tier skills, pets that no longer restore MP, and one life per dungeon instead of three draw complaints in 11% of the longer reviews (203). "Grand Chase Classic = Dark Souls without the ability to dodge." Most of this comes from 2021 reviews. Updated reviews report that dodges returned in some form and that characters were rebalanced, though a few veterans still miss specific moves.

Disconnects, lag or bad ping come up in 10% of the longer reviews (186), including the peer-hosted rooms where the host's connection decides everyone's experience. This complaint lasts beyond launch: some recent short reviews just say "always disconnect". Losing the run when the connection drops is part of it. A positive 2023 review asks for a fix: "Would be nice if the game would switch to solo mode instead of kicking me out from the room and losing all rewards and wasting a run." Others say limited weekly runs are used up when they drop.

Complaints about the client fill 9% of the longer reviews (167): a cluttered or laggy UI, menus that stack, what some call a 55 fps cap, poor optimisation, and no true widescreen support. "If you set the game to widescreen it will look stretched." Later reviews credit a UI overhaul and a DirectX upgrade, but widescreen and dated visuals still come up.

Hackers or bots come up in 9% of the longer reviews (163), mostly in 2021, when megaphone chat was full of cheat advertisements. Players asked for real anti-cheat and moderation ("There is zero moderation."). Later reviews say the spam faded, though some endgame players still feel cheaters progress unpunished: "Hackers is getting away with it."

Per-character inventories, GP, titles, the GC Club buff and especially pets draw objections in 7% of the longer reviews (139), because a gacha pet or crest serves only one character. "Pets being character assigned instead of account wide like it used to be is specially hurtful to old time players." Later reviews note that the shared warehouse and account-wide card storage helped, but they still ask for account-wide pets.

According to 6% of the longer reviews (114), the store promised 20 characters while launch offered four, with the rest released roughly one at a time afterwards. "20 unique characters but when you boot up the game there is only 4 available." The complaint disappears from reviews written after 2021, once the roster filled out.

VP is unaffordable outside the US, say 5% of the longer reviews (99), above all in Brazil, which reviewers describe as the largest player base, and also in the Philippines and Indonesia. "R$100 for only 5,000 VP is absurd."

Most regional servers are empty, according to 3% of the longer reviews (62), so players outside Asia either solo or accept lag. "you can only play on Asia server to play with people"

Bans for "abnormal gameplay", for being in a room with a cheater, or after a stolen account was misused come up in 3% of the longer reviews (49), often with appeals rejected. "I never cheated. Not once."

2% of the longer reviews (46) describe hosts kicking players below a total-attack threshold from endgame rooms, unhelpful veterans, and racist or homophobic chat at launch. "gatekeeping is real high in here"

Rooms and guides are dominated by Portuguese and Korean speakers, say 1% of the longer reviews (26). "If you need a guide, you had better learn to speak Korean or Brazilian Portuguese, because there aren't any in English."

Under 1% of the longer reviews (16) say controller support has to be enabled in a separate menu, maps movement to the D-pad, and does not allow remapping: "why is the default using the D-pad on a controller to move instead of the sticks"