The brutal truth of this game

[Snapko]

You have to pay in game currency to add someone as friend... and if you dont have currency, aka candles, it offers you to buy them for $$$. I cant imagine other mobile game being lower than that on moral compass in milking its player base. Absolutely atrocious.

Thankfully skycodes exist, but it can only be shared by one friend to another, because you are pay-gated for chat function. You can use inconvinent places to unlock it temporary, like benches and fireplaces or someone can drop a table, but for that you also need that someone.

So unless that friendly spirit who guided you, little moff, to the light pays 6? candles to unlock chat function ur ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Yes, I spent all my candles on friends, because community is great and every person I've met helped me.

WTF DEVS worse than gachas

PS, I'm exaggerating and hyperbolizing to make a point.

[Tim Drake's Depression]

You can get 20 candles a day if you do a candle run. You just have to be smart with them, it's not that bad. Gachas are worse in every aspect and can end up with you spending tens of dollars a day and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up your bank balance. You can find shared spaces that have objects which allow you to chat freely pretty easily if you fly around for a bit that remove those temporary places from the equation. You can do that and let your friend know you're low on candles and can't buy the chat option right away.

Most players don't buy the candle packs, anyway. They're not needed at all.

There is merit in your words and I don't think unlocking chat should be as much as it is, but you are having a reaction that's a bit too strong.

[Snapko]

Originally posted by CryptidMom:

You can get 20 candles a day if you do a candle run. You just have to be smart with them, it's not that bad. Gachas are worse in every aspect and can end up with you spending tens of dollars a day and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up your bank balance. You can find shared spaces that have objects which allow you to chat freely pretty easily if you fly around for a bit that remove those temporary places from the equation. You can do that and let your friend know you're low on candles and can't buy the chat option right away.

Most players don't buy the candle packs, anyway. They're not needed at all.

There is merit in your words and I don't think unlocking chat should be as much as it is, but you are having a reaction that's a bit too strong.

You may be correct, but not entirely right.
How a new player, like me, supposed to know what candle run is? Or that two red candles near teleport mean anything. The moment I had no candles and game offered me to buy them for FRIENDSHIP is where I can say that any gacha game is not as sinister.

I do believe that it is not developers intention. People who made Journey cant be that bad.

[Tim Drake's Depression]

Originally posted by Snapko:

Originally posted by CryptidMom:

You can get 20 candles a day if you do a candle run. You just have to be smart with them, it's not that bad. Gachas are worse in every aspect and can end up with you spending tens of dollars a day and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up your bank balance. You can find shared spaces that have objects which allow you to chat freely pretty easily if you fly around for a bit that remove those temporary places from the equation. You can do that and let your friend know you're low on candles and can't buy the chat option right away.

Most players don't buy the candle packs, anyway. They're not needed at all.

There is merit in your words and I don't think unlocking chat should be as much as it is, but you are having a reaction that's a bit too strong.

You may be correct, but not entirely right.
How a new player, like me, supposed to know what candle run is? Or that two red candles near teleport mean anything. The moment I had no candles and game offered me to buy them for FRIENDSHIP is where I can say that any gacha game is not as sinister.

I do believe that it is not developers intention. People who made Journey cant be that bad.

That's a good point, actually. I've been playing for so long, but I've always been under the assumption that new players will quite easily figure out that buying candles is entirely unneeded by lighting the ones they find and burning away Darkness. That's how I did it in the start without an research or knowledge about Sky whatsoever and it's the conclusion I came to.

It's definitely not intended to come off that way, likely as a form of convenience for people who don't have enough candles for certain things like Travelling Spirits or events that don't require seasonal candles, or for those who don't have problems buying currency if they don't feel like earning it.

[Snapko]

Originally posted by CryptidMom:

It's definitely not intended to come off that way, likely as a form of convenience for people who don't have enough candles for certain things like Travelling Spirits or events that don't require seasonal candles, or for those who don't have problems buying currency if they don't feel like earning it.

It gets even worse. I've played for 20 hours at the moment, and added 10 friends. Thats 10 candles. 7 of them have chat function unlocked by me, which is extra 35. 45 candles so far. Your average newbie softcap of candles is 10 per day.

Honestly if store wasnt disabled in demo I would have paid for candles just so I dont have to ask people to share my skycode to others so they can add me as friend.
SKYCODE is one time use by the way.
Whenever you come back to home, your new friend have bunch of their friends there,

imagine being too poor to make friends?
This game envokes that feeling very well.

[Moo]

I actually didn't want to write this because despite how I feel, I really enjoyed the base game and exploring with people I met in game has been a joy even afterwards but I feel like this game could be so much more.

The thing that hangs over my head is, if you don't have to worry about spending real money then what is the point to most of the activities in this game, outside of going to Eden for ascended candles?

[__future__]

You all, I've been playing this game for years and never I spent a cent on it for the reasons you mentioned. Bought two season passes to support the devs, and that's it.

Candles can be made for free, but like almost every single mechanic in this game, you'll have to discover it yourself. Turn red candles on around the world and you'll collect wax that turns into candles. You can make up to 20 candles a day.

It's a bit grindy, but this makes it so you can focus (and spend your worked-hard candles) on the people that you really care about. I've made so much online friends on this game!

To answer Myth's question: for me this game is a way to spend time with my friends and relax my mind thanks to its chill locations and music after a long day of work. Sometimes you'll meet new friends too, which is really cool. Some people I know love to play this game to farm candles, which is not true for me, but they love to complete daily missions and go around collecting wax.

[Meat Vegetable]

I'm only 28 hours in... Candles are easy to get. All you need to do is play through the game figure out a farming method for wax which should be really obvious by now. And it's a free game, were you expecting there to not be a grind?

[[They/Them] ChesseTheWasp]

candles are so easy to get and you don't need to spend that many if you play with friends you know from outside of the game. Op Has a Skill Issue

[Skip0s]

You can literaly add friends by giving out links wth

[Komaru]

This is basically the curse of having a free game.
But it's not the worst, and it's miles better than most other free to play alternatives.

Surely it can be boring to farm candles, but at least it's not gambling like with lootboxes & gacha.

Your right about the fact of the game being misleading when it's asking for you to buy candles for the first time, since first time players may not know that you can actually get them for free.

[Oh Shit a Rat!]

If you guys didnt know the ddos incident they ask their playerbase for money to fix it. I love the game but their entire marketing department is as worse as konami mobile games. They casual bother things arent broken. After they mess up the musical instruments i just total lost all interest from the game. I dont really recommend this game unless you have a lot of cash to get things you want instantly.

[J[Y]anin]

Some things like candles and sending light to friends are badly explained...or rather...not explained at all. I have many regularly playing moths on my constellations and infrequently they send me light. I half wonder if they think light sending actually costs them candles/light from their own source.
The help screens are nice, and welcome as I played pre-seasons, then came back just before Revival with the PC "demo", and to play with my young children. But things just sometimes aren't obvious, even if they should be. All IMO at least.

[ShinChuck]

I mean, I kind of get it. I don't think OP is wrong in that, when you're just starting, it's confusing and a little lonely. I didn't know how to chat or how candles worked, and it definitely felt like a connection was just out of reach.

...but once someone took my hand and showed me the ropes, all that left. It's really quite lovely to make new friends using only gestures, and now I carry enough candles on me just to be sure I can unlock chat with a new friend (especially moths).

Maybe there's a middle ground, like your first three friends you can chat with automatically, or moths get a few chat prop spells, or something. I honestly don't know. My first try at the game didn't go well because I just felt detached, but my second try--when I gave it more than a few minutes--led to my 100+ hours played, and bumped the game up to being one of my favorites.

Maybe the entire point is that you start off alone and confused, but you quickly learn there's a wide world of wonderful people out there... if only you'd give them a wave.

[LukaNyan]

the problem aren't the candles in the game but the outrageous cost of any IAP. Like 20$ for an umbrella skin, 17$ for a mask + antlers, 20$ for a cape

[wizard master結城晶子リ]

Originally posted by Snapko:

Originally posted by CryptidMom:

You can get 20 candles a day if you do a candle run. You just have to be smart with them, it's not that bad. Gachas are worse in every aspect and can end up with you spending tens of dollars a day and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up your bank balance. You can find shared spaces that have objects which allow you to chat freely pretty easily if you fly around for a bit that remove those temporary places from the equation. You can do that and let your friend know you're low on candles and can't buy the chat option right away.

Most players don't buy the candle packs, anyway. They're not needed at all.

There is merit in your words and I don't think unlocking chat should be as much as it is, but you are having a reaction that's a bit too strong.

You may be correct, but not entirely right.
How a new player, like me, supposed to know what candle run is? Or that two red candles near teleport mean anything. The moment I had no candles and game offered me to buy them for FRIENDSHIP is where I can say that any gacha game is not as sinister.

I do believe that it is not developers intention. People who made Journey cant be that bad.

new players go thru the game each part and candles are at each stop to open doors you learn very fast that candles give you wax to use on things you making excuses just to agree yes you can by if u want but you can earn plenty of candles with out buying candle run or not you get alot the more you play new areas open up the more you play meaning more candles i don't do candle runs and i get a lot just from meeting new ppl and following them and helping them thru the game just cause you refuse to learn the game and u run into a shop letting u know you can do this does not mean you are required to do said thing you can get candles free you also could look up videos on how to get lots of candles you have so much to do and look up online yet you choice not to and just make up excuses like its forcing u do buy you can get plenty of free candles candle run or not just continue playing and exploring instead of making excuses why you cant do it for free making it seem like u have to buy and the game isnt a gacha game as there is no system in place were you have a chance at something ur just out right givin said item you dont need to gamble or anything as the word gacha means a type of computer game, especially one played on a cell phone, in which users can pay to get a new character, ability, object, etc. at random (= by chance, without intentionally choosing which) witch doesn't to apply to sky so don't use words yo udont know what they mean nothing is givin at random