Since its release, Marvel Future Revolution has struggled to balance its content-rich, free-to-play, open-world RPG with frustrating Gacha mechanics and unfortunately, the new Companion system falls firmly in the latter camp. This likely comes as a disappointment to many Marvel Future Revolution fans looking forward to expanding their roster outside the relatively small cast of eight playable characters. While the Companion system does help empower the player's roster and strengthen their character builds to help them take on Marvel Future Revolution's deep combat system as heroes, it also heavily relies on low-chance, randomized rewards and pay-to-win systems that emphasize spending and Gacha mechanics.
Marvel Future Revolution is a completely free-to-play game, so it isn't a surprise that the game has to use forms of in-game monetization to fund its development. Currently, many of these systems in-game incorporate Gacha mechanics such as random draws. This system is used for Costumes, stat-boosting Omega Cards, and Cores, which can be used to augment a player's Battle Badges to add new stats. When the new Companion system was added, it utilized the same system of draws that the Costume, Omega Cards, and Cores used, but with one major difference. While it is possible to reliably farm Costumes, Cores, and Omega Cards through gameplay, in a move that is unfriendly for Marvel Future Revolution's free-to-play players, Companion Shards can only be obtained outside of draws through limited events, leaderboard rewards, and the Convergence Box, none of which are easy for players to regularly farm.
Because of the infrequency in which these rewards can be obtained in Marvel Future Revolution, it leaves the only reliable way of farming Companions to be the Gacha inside the game's store. This system is built to keep drawing, again and again, so that players can try to obtain the best (and rarest) rewards. And while some games are moving away from allowing players to spend real-world currency on random draws, such as Marvel's Avengers' shipments system, draws in Marvel Future Revolution can only be bought with Crystals, the currency purchasable with real money. In the current build of Marvel Future Revolution, the draw chance for a particular Special Companion is as low as .3750% for a one-star version, and even lower at .0312% for a three-star version.
Marvel Future Revolution's Companions Encourage Pay-To-Win
With only eight playable characters in Marvel Future Revolution, players were initially excited at the idea of adding companions to their roster and increasing the number of characters that appear in the game. It was a chance for Netmarble Monster to utilize characters that didn't make the roster's cut, but still captured players' interest, including Nick Fury, Vision, and members of the Eternals, who recently joined Marvel Strike Force. But unlike pets in other MMOs, Companions in Marvel Future Revolution can only be summoned for a brief moment, whereupon they perform an action and retreat from the battlefield. For instance, Ultron appears and places a barrier over the player before leaving and entering a cooldown. In this way, Companions function as more of an extra skill than an actual summon. Even this becomes more problematic with the fact that Companions can only be summoned once they reach three stars. The chances of drawing a Companion at three or more stars are very rare, meaning many draws are required to rank them up, encouraging players to spend more money.
The three-star requirement to actively use a Companions skill, in addition to the stat boosts that Companions provide the player, makes Marvel Future Revolutions' newest system feel like just another way players can pay to increase their competitive advantage. Taking into account that players can use Companions to help win Dimension Duels, the system feels all the more like a slap in the face to the free-to-play players that make up much of the game's player base.